What’s New in WHM 58

Posted on by David Singer | Updated:
Category: Other | Tags: cPanel, WHM
Reading Time: 4 minutes

In WHM & cPanel 58 updates, several rather large changes have been made to improve upon user experience and to expand available features. As cPanel works to continually expand and improve their offerings, we like to do our best to keep everyone informed and updated. Here are some highlights and items to look out for as the 58 update moves to release tier.

What to prepare for?

When large WHM updates, similar to this one, are released, there are often certain items that may exclude a server from being eligible for the update. These are often referred to as ‘update blockers’ within the official documentation. The items here are changes related to these ‘update blockers’.

    • CentOS 5 & CloudLinux 5 are no longer supported by WHM on and after update 58
      • CentOS 5 itself, and therefore CloudLinux 5, are at end-of-life status on March 31 of 2017, due to this and software limitations that these OSes cause, cPanel is removing support preemptively.
    • Servers’ processors must now support 64-bit processing
      • Any older servers with 32-bit (x86) processes will no longer be supported by cPanel/WHM.
    • For a more detailed list of Upgrade Blockers please see the cPanel documentation.
These update blockers will require a migration to update to WHM 58: Feel free to contact our Heroic Support® if you are experiencing these blocks.

What is new?!

On this release, cPanel has included a lot of highly requested features and improvements. This provides for many new opportunities, but with so many changes, it’s easy to lose track of all the great new features that were added. Here are the highlights:

  • Addon Domain to account conversion tool
    • With this new feature, you can now easily convert an Addon domain into a full-fledged cPanel account.
  • Roundcube is now provided via RPM’s
    • This change shouldn’t affect too much, however, users who choose to customize their RoundCube will have a different process for that now.
    • Customization will now have to be done by modifying Source RPM’s
  • Support for Dovecot’s mdbox storage format
    • Previously email files were stored in a ‘flat-file’ manner, one file for each email. Now a user’s complete email storage can use the mdbox file format.
    • For users with large numbers of emails, this should help reduce issues and concerns about using up too many disk inodes.
  • Dovecot now supports email subaddresses
    • Email users can now append their addresses in a manner that will automatically deliver a message to a specific folder.
    • E.G.: username+Important@email.com will deliver a message directly to the ‘Important’ folder for the username@email.com address.
  • EasyApache 4 has been released
    • It is the default on new WHM installations
      • Existing servers will need to upgrade manually, once upgraded this cannot be reverted.
    • Now fully supports PEAR and PECL
    • EasyApache config tools have been completed as well
      • Provides useful tools to manage EasyApache 4 profiles
    • PHP-FPM support is now included, although it’s not fully refined yet and must be activated outside WHM.
      • Contact Heroic Support for assistance on setting up and deploying PHP-FPM.
  • Multi-PHP Manager released
    • With EasyApache 4 being released the new Multi-PHP manager has been completed as well.
    • Servers can now operate while providing multiple PHP versions with ease.
  • PHP 7 is now supported and provided via EasyApache 4
  • AutoSSL
    • Free domain-validated SSL certificates are provided by cPanel (powered by Comodo)
    • As of WHM version 58.0.17, and above, AutoSSL now supports Let’s Encrypt as an SSL provider; for more details, see our KB article here.
Free cPanel-provided hostname SSL’s have been provided since WHM release 56 as well.
  • WHM now provides Composer by default
    • Composer is a dependency management tool for PHP-based projects, used frequently in the development and deployment of PHP-based apps, sites, or projects.
    • The WHM provided version does support the Composer’s internal update mechanism to stay updated.

What has been changed?

Based on user feedback cPanel will make changes to preset, or default settings, as well as providing updates for 3rd-party tools included in WHM. This section encompasses these types of updates.

  • Munin has been updated to provide version 2.0
    • Munin is a free system, network, and infrastructure monitoring tool.
  • Reject SPF failures are now enabled by default.
    • This will ensure that servers are checking incoming mail for valid SPF records and will reject Emails which results in a failure.
    • Provides an easier setup for WHM and helps prevent spam.
  • Prevent ‘nobody’ from sending Email now enabled by default.
    • Apache traditionally runs as the ‘nobody’ user and this change to the settings will ensure that by default servers are secure from Apache sending mail.
    • Helps to prevent compromised or insecure sites for sending outgoing spam.
  • Dovecot now functioning as the local mail delivery agent
    • Exim will now receive inbound messages, connect to Dovecot via LMTP (Local Mail Transfer Protocol) and then deliver the messages.
  • WHM’s internal version of PHP has been updated

What has been removed?

cPanel will often remove redundant, legacy, or unneeded items or features; some of those to keep an eye out for are:

  • Removed ‘Mailserver Selection’ page from WHM
    • In previous releases, WHM removed support for Courier and as such, this screen is now unused.
  • Bandmin has been removed
    • Bandwidth usages can still be seen and monitored in:
      • Home >> Account Information >> View Bandwidth Usage, or
      • Home >> Metrics >> Bandwidth
  • Stunnel support has been removed
  • Security Advisor has been removed – check on new vs. existing

For more information and details on the various changes coming in the 58 release of WHM and cPanel, please see the official release notes.

If you have any questions or are not comfortable making these changes yourself, please feel free to contact Heroic Support®.

Avatar for David Singer

About the Author: David Singer

I am a g33k, Linux blogger, developer, student, and former Tech Writer for Liquidweb.com. My passion for all things tech drives my hunt for all the coolz. I often need a vacation after I get back from vacation....

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