While hosting on a cPanel server, you will get a ready kernel with the control panel. However, you can replace the hardened cPanel-provided kernel with any standard third-party kernel.
Warning: cPanel now deprecates the hardened kernel from cPanel & WHM version 68. They no longer provide updates for this kernel. It is why we strongly recommend that you enable symlink protection options once you remove the hardened kernel.
If you have no idea how, please read this article: How to Enable Symlink Protection in WHM?
We also suggest you plan downtime for this process as it needs a server reboot.
To Replace the Hardened Kernel of cPanel with a Standard Kernel
We start by removing the cPanel-provided hardened kernel followed by the kernel installation.
1. Log in to your server with SSH.
2. Run this command:
rm /etc/yum.repos.d/cPkernel.repo
The system will remove the cPkernel or cPanel kernel from the server.
3. Enter and run this command immediately:
yum list --showduplicates kernel
A list of available kernels will appear that you can install on the system.
4. To install a kernel, please run the command:
yum install KERNELNAME
Do not forget to replace the KERNELNAME with the kernel version you want to install.
We recommend you run:
yum install kernel-2.6.32
This command will install the latest kernel version currently available.
5. Reboot your server once the installation is complete.
If you don’t know how to reboot your server, please give these articles a read:
How to Reboot a VPS/Dedicated Server via WHM?
