Hi, this is Amanda, a technical writer at cPanel, the hosting platform of choice.
Did you know that you can create a cPanel & WHM server instance in the cloud?
Today, I'll demonstrate how to launch a cPanel & WHM instance on Amazon Lightsail.
In this video, we'll log into Amazon Lightsail,
configure an instance and launch it,
set up a root password,
assign a static IP address to the instance,
and finally, log in to WHM.
First, open your web browser and navigate to the Amazon Lightsail website.
You can use the link on your screen.
If you aren't already logged in,
go ahead and log in.
Or, if you don't have an Amazon Web Services account,
you can create one by clicking
"Create a new AWS Account".
I already have an account,
so I'll enter my email address
and click "Next".
Then, I'll enter my password
and click "Sign In."
Once you've logged in,
you'll see the Instances page.
This is where you can view all the cPanel & WHM instances
that currently exist on your account.
I don't have any instances yet.
Let's create a new one by clicking "Create Instance."
First, I'll select a location for the instance.
Amazon automatically suggests an AWS region
in the Instance Location section.
Here, Amazon suggests the Virginia, Zone A region.
We recommend that you select a region that's either
near you or near your customers.
Click "Change AWS Region and Availability Zone" to view
a list of available regions.
Let's move on to the Pick Your Instance Image section.
This is where you can select an image and blueprint for the instance.
Under Select a Platform, select "Linux/Unix"
And under Select a Blueprint, select "cPanel & WHM for Linux."
You will need a valid license to use cPanel & WHM.
I'll put a link to our documentation about licenses
in the video description.
There are a few optional tasks here in the Optional section.
I won't use all of these options,
but I'll briefly discuss them.
You can add a script to further customize your instance
by clicking "Add launch script."
I'll put a link to Amazon's documentation about launch scripts
in the video description.
You can also change the SSH key that you'll use
to connect to your instance via SSH.
Amazon Lightsail automatically creates a default key pair
for each instance.
If you'd like to create a new key pair
or upload your own,
click "Change SSH key pair."
I'll put a link to Amazon's documentation about SSH key pairs
in the video description
One last thing in this section -
You can choose to automatically create a backup image
of your instance each day.
To do this, select the "Enable Automatic Snapshots" checkbox.
Then select the time of day you'd like the system
to create a backup image.
I'll select 2 a.m. in Central Standard Time.
Let's move on to the Choose Your Instance Plan section,
where you can select a plan for your instance.
You can sort Amazon Lightsail's plans using these filters.
Keep in mind that to install cPanel & WHM,
you'll need a plan with at least 1GB of RAM.
I'll select the Storage filter to sort these plans by storage
and select this plan that includes 2 GB of RAM.
Now, let's continue to the Identify Your Instance section.
This is where you can name your instance.
You can't change the name of your instance after you create it,
so be sure to enter a name you are happy with.
You can also add tags to your instance in this section by selecting
"Add key-only tags"
or "Add key-value tag".
Tags are labels that you can use to control access to your instance.
I'll put a link to Amazon's documentation about tags
in the video description.
Now it's finally time to create the instance.
Let's click "Create instance".
This automatically takes us back to the Instances page.
This time, we can see the new instance.
Notice that it's currently marked "Pending"
while Amazon Lightsail creates the instance.
Once the instance is created,
the system will automatically install
cPanel & WHM in the background.
If you'd like, you can watch the installation's progress to see when it's complete.
To do so, click the instance name.
If you can't click it yet, wait until your instance says "Running"
instead of "Pending."
When you click the instance name, you'll see the Connect tab.
Now, select Connect using SSH.
This opens the Lightsail terminal interface, where you can watch the installation progress.
If you see an error message indicating that the SSH connection failed,
you might need to wait 1 or 2 minutes while system finishes starting up.
The installation process can take 10-15 minutes,
and you can't log into WHM until it's complete.
This would be a good opportunity to get a snack or check your email.
This will take a little while, so I'll skip ahead to the end of the installation process.
You'll know that cPanel & WHM is installed
when the output stops.
Your terminal will look something like this.
Now, before you can log into WHM,
you'll need to assign a static IP address to your instance.
Why do we do this? Well, Amazon automatically assigns a dynamic IP address to each instance.
This means that if you stop and restart your instance, the IP address will change.
You can avoid that by assigning a static IP address to your instance.
I'll close the Terminal window and select the Networking tab.
Under Public IP, select "Attach static IP."
This might also say "Create static IP."
And this will open a window where you can name
your static IP address and attach it to your instance.
I'll enter a name for the static IP address,
then click "Create and attach."
If you used an existing static IP address,
this button might just say "Attach."
Next, you'll need to make sure your cPanel server
recognizes the static IP address.
To do that, we'll need to head back
to Lightsail's Terminal interface.
I'll navigate back to the Connect tab
and select "Connect using SSH."
This takes me back to the Terminal interface.
You'll need to enter 2 commands in the terminal.
I'll display these commands on your screen.
After you run these commands,
you should see a message indicating that
your hostname was successfully updated
Alright, there's just one final task before you can log in to WHM.
You'll need to change the root password.
Enter the command on your screen in the Terminal interface.
Enter a password,
and then enter that same password a second time.
You will use this root password to log in to WHM,
so make sure to save it somewhere.
Alright! Now that you've created and configured your instance,
you are ready to log in to WHM.
Copy your IP address, and then open a new browser window.
In the new browser window,
navigate to the address on your screen
using the IP adress that you just copied.
You'll see the WHM login page for your instance.
Log in using your root username
and the root password you just created.
And that's it!
From here you just need to accept the terms
and then activate your trial license.
For more information about cPanel,
the hosting platform of choice,
visit our website at cpanel.net.
Or follow us on twitter @cpanel.
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Thank you for watching, and have a great day.