WHM or Web Host Manager provides the user with an administrative control over a dedicated server or VPS. It also enables the web hosting company to manage the customer’s account.
WHM is a reseller control panel as well. Every reseller hosting customer receives this control panel along with the reseller hosting plan. It is used for managing all the resold hosting accounts in their reseller packages. However, reseller has some limitations in terms of the rights in WHM as compared to the WHM of VPS and dedicated servers as it has the root access; therefore, some functions might not be available for them.
The tasks that you can execute in WHM are listed below:
- Create individual user accounts
- Create customized hosting plans
- Add domains to the server
- Manage features of the hosting plans
- Reset the password or contact email addresses for cPanel accounts
- Manage the resource limits for the cPanel accounts
- Modify the DNS zone records for every domain or subdomain
- Set up private name servers on the server
- Login to the resold accounts without the login credentials
- Conduct basic system and control panel maintenance
cPanel is created for managing separate and individual hosting accounts on the server. The tasks that can be executed by end users or clients through cPanel are mentioned below:
- Install any CMS through Softculous
- Upload and manage the files of their websites
- Add or remove the addon domains and subdomains
- Create email accounts, manage the email account settings and manage SPAM protection
- Edit the DNS records for their domains
- Analyze the website statistics
- Manage backups and databases etc.
It is important to note that when you try to access cPanel through WHM for a reseller or root user, you have the ability to manage almost all the options of the end user’s cPanel. However, other menus like GoogleApps can only be managed when you are logged in as the individual cPanel user.
Here is an insight on WHM/cPanel users on the basis of their permissions:
Server Administrator Panel
The top-most and the highest level user is the ‘root’ user. This user is the server administrator who has complete access to the server. The server administrator has complete control over all the WHM functions and can edit the global server settings and can also customize the settings for the users who have limited privileges. A root user has the access to all the levels of the WHM interface that includes reseller WHM and the end cPanel user. There is only one root user for every server.
Reseller Panel (WHM)
The reseller user is the next in command to the server administrator. A reseller user has access to a restricted set of features as compared to the root user. The server administrator only allows access to the features that affect the customer accounts of the reseller but not the complete server.
Reseller access is assigned along with Reseller Panel (WHM) where the reseller can manage all the resold accounts. A reseller also has the access to all the accounts created (resolds). The server administrator assigns the privileges of the reseller and there can be several resellers per server.
Main Reseller cPanel
The cPanel control panel is utilized for managing the hosting account under the main domain. When you sign up for a reseller hosting account, you have to select the main domain name that can be accessed through the main cPanel account. The login credentials of cPanel are similar to the WHM account credentials. If you wish to reset the WHM password, you have to reset the main cPanel account password and they both will synchronize.
cPanel Account (Resold)
All the resold accounts (client accounts created by the reseller) come under the Reseller Panel (WHM). It is possible to easily create, manage and maintain the resold accounts through the Reseller Panel (WHM).
