Oh why does Cpanel suck so much?

First, I get bombarded with Spam mails on my first server, I upgrade Cpanel it screws everything so fine I get a new server.

FREAKING DEFAULT SETUP with exception to obvious security enhancements, Exim gets bombarded with more spam, I upgrade apache and SAME FREAKING thing the server goes down. Why the hell cant CPanel give out bug-free installs. It isnt coincenence if TWO default install Servers with minor modification expierence almost the exact same problems.

I will make my decision on wheter to still stay in the hosting business tonight.

Plesk is awesome. You should try that before quitting hosting.

It seems that Cpanel is more interested in coming out with new features rather than spend time troubleshooting. It is no wonder it is the most comprehensive control panel around but it probably not the most stable.

I guess also they try to support too many OS distro and thus makes it harder to satisfy all.

If you go with Plesk, Direct Admin (not offered here) or Ensim (not offered here), you probably have a more robust control panel but probably one not packed with features.

Sorry to hear about your bad experiences. If you do decided to exit the hosting business please allow us to help your customers continue a pleasant web hosting experience. Feel free to email me.

Found out what the problem was. MySQL was being problematic so my partner who deals with clients only (For a reason) Updated CPanel per WHM's instructions to build 9.4, which coupled with a Spam Backlog of 304,000+ messages really messed things up. My partner then proceeded to try to fix MySQL via Shell with some guys assistance further damaging the situation. THankfully I found a guy who really knows his stuff, who I paid to fix the server and its running well again. But man downtime sucks.

cPanel sucks because you mis-configured something? .... that makes sense. :

We have been running Cpanel with minimal issues for 2 years now. How smooth it runs all depends on how much effort you put into learning the product. Esim and Plesk straight out of the box still have a learning curve and just because there are point and click utilities does not mean there is no administration work. You still need to know how to manage a server and set it up properly to get these control panels to work smoothly.

If you think cpanel is tough, you have no idea what kind of learning curve hsphere has. cpanel is a piece of cake (well almost) compared to some control panels. But you have to realize that a control panel is just a partial solution to managing a server. I don't know of any control panel thats a complete comprehensive solution. You still need to dig into some manual processes to really configure and maintain a server.

Excellent point. I love cpanel. It can make life a lot easier. It works best though if you understand it and the OS and how they work together. Then when it does do something it shouldn't do, you have a better chance of quickly and painlessly pointing back in the proper direction, like an errant puppy. Without some level of understanding about what is happening, some appreciation for your OS and how it works, yes, you're going to have bad headaches from time to time.

A server control panel should be used as a tool to do what you could do anyway, just quicker and easier.

Edit: hahaha, and after all that, cpanel might still burn you anyway. I still like it.

One major flaw with Cpanel is the lack of documentation. There is a manual from back in the days when dinosaurs still roam the earth but beyond that nothing which documents the newer features and the current documentation as it is is pretty non-descriptive.

I'm not sure I like how often they update it. I keep mine on manual anyway, but all the updates still make me dizzy. Of course, diet coke makes me dizzy, so why worry.

I'd love to know what on earth spam has got to do with cPanel. Since you get support from cPanel if you have problems, why haven't you asked them what you did wrong?

Well, let me further explain the situation the problems I was expierencing before my partner touched the server were from almost "pure" install of Cpanel with a few security tweaks. The problems I was expierncing have been felt by others on the Cpanel forums without admin help. I think if I am going to pay $20/Month for a product like Cpanel it would be nice to get some support from them directly, but alas they dont offer it.

The situation has been resolved, and while obviously the blame lies in on me for having a non-config'd Cpanel install, CPanel does anger me since the support direct from CPanel is pretty lame, Then again as some have said, other programs are much harder to learn, so CPanel is just the lesser evil.

I'm confused by that - cPanel do offer support through their support ticket system (their forums are for fellow system administrators not for direct communication with cPanel). Are you saying that you rasied a support ticket with cPanel and they didn't help?

WHM > Support Center >Contact cPanel.net

Actually, I just used their forums which they suggested, since from the support ticket system, it was made to read like you had to be a DIRECT customer of Cpanel to get their support rather then a resellers customer.

Its all fixed up now, so no worries.

did you guys really take that long to catch onto cpanel? I thought it was a piece of cake from the get-go.

cpanel itself was pretty easy but there's an illusion that it's all you need until you dig a little farther and realize you need basic linux commands also and that cpanel doesn't do everything. In fact, cpanel is easy enough and gives enough of this total package illusion, that it is now everywhere and becoming tough to sort out who the good hosts are from the noob's who are just starting and may not be able to handle anything more than a basic issue that cpanel can handle.

Now if you want a challenge, move to something a little more difficult like hsphere. It makes cpanel, ensim, and plesk all look easy and gives one more of a perspective on what they actually know, or don't know. No more easyapache or pre-written scripts in a nifty scripts folder. Many management companies may support some of these simple control panels, but it's a little more difficult to find those who manage some of these other control panels that may be a little more difficult.

i noticed that cpanel sometimes hoses up config files. I had to pico some files it "updated". Mainly, the nameserver configs. It was concatenating stuff when it shouldnt have been doing so. But I do like cpanel, I dont want to do everything via commandline. But hey, im a newb, so doing commandline is a great experience. I think I might even prefer it. But for now, cpanel stays. Learn the commands, get an admin book, learn what cpanel is actually doing behind the scenes, and you'll be loving life.

I try to answer questions all of the time on the Cpanel forums and Chirpy is a great resource over there. He has helped me through several snaffus that I just needed to voice out. There is a LOT more to admin than just the joy of Cpanel. In its pure state it is very point and click though so that makes managing customers very easy. It isn't like the old days where customers had to call or email every time they needed a password reset or email account created.

Give it some time and it is usually best to get a server and start working on it instead of just jumping in and thinking you can toss customers on it. That goes for any system or control panel. I have been a *nix admin from Sun to Irix to Linux for the last 12 years. It still screws with me sometimes at 4 am though.

That's very kind of you.

There are some good people over on the cPanel forums (including Kris) and would recommend anyone with a cPanel server to go over there, subscribe, and check the threads daily:
http://forums.cpanel.net