Just switched from shared server to a dedicated server yesterday. I have some experience configuring apache and php.ini on windows test server. Now I have to do the same on Red Hat either via WHM cPanel or some other means?

Should I just find and edit the text files vis ssh? My thinking is that if WHM or cPanel is configuring it then manual editing is a very bad idea?

Is there a way to do things like enable mod_rewrite via either WHM or cPanel?

I did some searching, but there are so many thinks I have to learn all at once that I feeling a bit overwhelmed.

Any advice pointing me in the right direction would be appreciated.

I would suggest you login to WHM
Then under Software click "Apache Update"
This will bring you to the WHM Easy Apache script to build apache.

Thanks, I guess I asked the question poorly. I knew that part, what I didn't know is how to edit the httpd.conf other than through manual means.

I discovered how to add includes to the httpd.conf via WHM. I think its setup apache or apache setup.

Then you can setup add things to the httpd.conf that won't get overwritten every time WHM rewrites the httpd.conf file.