cPanel/WHM Resellers Accounts

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When you have a Virtual Private Server (VPS) or dedicated server with HostDime which is running the WHM/cPanel system, you have the ability to take a normal cPanel account that you've created and convert it to a reseller account. This reseller account is given an amount of disk space and bandwidth, along with limited privileges, which the account owner to log into the WHM interface and create its own individual cPanel accounts which it owns and manages.

Index

Providing Reseller Privileges
Removing Reseller Privileges
Defining Reseller Privileges
Changing Account Ownership
View Usage/Stats and Manage
Manage IP Delegation
Manage Main Shared/Ipless IP

Providing Reseller Privileges

The first step towards creating a reseller account is to create a cPanel account with reseller privileges, or to add reseller privileges to an existing account.

Adding Reseller Privileges with Account Creation

When creating an account, you can select to give the reseller account privileges by placing a checkmark in the 'Reseller' checkbox. After you have created the account, you will need to make sure to edit the privileges for the reseller to complete the setup of the reseller account.

When you create a new reseller account, you can also select to make the new reseller own its primary account by placing a checkmark in the 'Owner (only if reseller)' field of the New Account Settings form. This will make it so the resellers primary account is owned by itself, and thus the reseller may control the package which their primary account is setup under.

If you do not check this box, the account will be owned by 'root' and the hosting resources and privileges given to this account will not be under the control of the reseller. Also this account will not use any of the resources provided to the reseller.

For example, when HostDime creates a reseller account for its clients, we do not place the primary reseller account under the ownership of the reseller account. We provide 5 GB of disk space and 10 GB of bandwidth to this primary account as a bonus. We expect that this should be enough for a typical reseller to host their primary business website for their company. See Reseller Resources Explained

Adding Reseller Privileges Post-Creation

If you are wishing to upgrade an existing account on your server to a reseller account, you can add reseller privileges to the account via the Reseller Center, which is available under the Resellers area of the WHM navigiational menu.

Simply select the cPanel account from the 'Add Reseller Privileges' drop-down menu, then click on the 'OK' button.

Again, at this stage you may also place a checkmark in the checkbox to make the reseller own their own account.

After you have pressed the 'OK' button, the following confirmation should be displayed.

Removing Reseller Privileges

If you wish to remove reseller privileges from an account at any time, simply use the 'Remove Reseller Privileges' drop-down menu from the Reseller Center. This does not erase the resellers privileges which have been defined, but it does remove their status as a reseller and removes their ability to log into the WHM interface.

Defining Reseller Privileges

After you have an account established with reseller privileges, you must define those privileges or else the reseller will not be able to use their reseller account after they log into the WHM interface. Do this by selecting the reseller from the 'Select a Reseller' drop-down menu and then click on the 'Edit Privileges/Nameservers' link.

Account Creation Limits

You are able to define account creation limits for a reseller account in many various ways. You can:

• Limit the number accounts the reseller may create
• Limit the reseller to pre-assigned hosting packages which you've created
• Limit the number of accounts which may be created from pre-assigned packages
• Limit accounts by Resource Usage

I've you've placed a checkmark in the 2nd or 3rd checkbox which specifies to limit the reseller to creating accounts from pre-defined packages, or limits the number of accounts created from the pre-defined packages, see Account Limits below.

If you wish to allow the reseller to create their own custom packages, and only limit the amount of disk space and bandwidth they may use, you can instead simply check only the 'Limit Accounts that _____ can create by Resource Usage' option.

Disk Space and Bandwidth Limits

From the Resource Usage Limits area you can define the amount of disk space and bandwidth which a reseller is provided. You can also enable overselling for the disk space or bandwidth amount respectively.

Typically hosts only select the 'Limit Accounts that _username_ can create by Resource Usage' option under the 'Account Creation Limits' area, and then define the disk space and bandwidth limits from this area.

Overselling Explained

Typically a reseller assigns an amount of disk space and bandwidth to a sub-reseller account, and that disk space and bandwidth amount is deducted from the amount they have to assign to other accounts. After a reseller runs out of disk space and bandwidth to assign to their sub-reseller accounts, they must contact the server owner to increase their reseller resource usage limits.

Overselling is an option which allows the reseller to assign disk space and bandwidth quotas to the accounts they host above and beyond the resource limits which have been specified in the 'Edit Privileges/Nameservers' area.

Resellers may request this option to ease the management of the packages assigned to their sub-reseller accounts. Others may request this option because realistically the sub-reseller accounts they host aren't going to use all the disk space and bandwidth 100%. Thus a reseller can create more accounts with disk space and bandwidth they truly do not have to assign to the sub-reseller accounts.

It is recommended however that resellers requesting this option be provided with a disclaimer. When disk space is exceeded on a cPanel account, the account can no longer store files or information, and incoming email also fails. When bandwidth is exceeded on a cPanel account, the entire account automatically becomes suspended by the server. Only in the scenario where the sub-reseller accounts collectively exceed the resource usage limits specified, do the sub-reseller accounts collectively being to experience the results of exceeding the reseller quota. This surely can occur to a sub-reseller account holder which has not exceeded their alloted bandwidth or disk space, and thus the account holder will be confused and possibly angry.

Account Limits

If you've enabled limitations on the reseller account which allow the reseller to only use certain pre-defined packages, and/or limit the number of those packages which the reseller may create, the Account Limits table provides a listing of all the packages on the server and allows you to specify these settings.

You do not need to specify any settings if you have not enabled these limitation options.

Feature Limits

Under the Feature Limits section you can specify the privileges which the reseller is given in the WHM interface. You will have to enable these for a test reseller account, and then log into the WHM interface for that account to see what functionality they provide.

After you have decided which privileges you are going to enable and disable for the resellers you host, you may use the 'Save as ACL List' option at the bottom to save these settings to an Access Control List (ACL) template for use in the future with new reseller accounts. You will have to use the 'Save' button at the bottom to save both the new ACL list and the settings for the currently selected reseller at the same time.

In the future when you need to use the ACL List, just select it from the drop-down menu at the top of the Feature Limits area. This will cause all the pre-defined options to be re-selected just as you had saved them.

Nameserver Addresses

At the very bottom there are options which allow you to specify the nameserver addresses which the reseller wishes to use with new sub-accounts they create. When these nameserver addresses are specified, they will be used in the DNS zone files for new accounts which are created instead of the default nameserver addresses which are specified in the 'Basic cPanel/WHM Setup' area of the WHM on your server.

Keep in mind that the reseller must register these nameserver addresses with the registrar their primary reseller domain is registered with.

For example, the johndoe.com reseller wishes to register and use ns1.johndoe.com and ns2.johndoe.com. First we would enter these nameserver addresses into the fields as shown.

Click on the 'Assign IP Address' button for each nameserver address specified after you have entered the nameserver addresses into the field. For each 'Assign Ip Address' button you click a popup window will appear and will display a message indicating that an IP address has been assigned to the nameserver address. Make sure the IP address assigned matches one of the IP addresses which are actually assigned to the server.

Next, click on the 'Add an A entry for this nameserver' button for each specified nameserver. This will also popup a window which shows the domain which the server has detected your nameservers as being hosted under, and the IP address which was previously auto-assigned to the nameserver addresses.

For each of these take note regarding which nameserver has been assigned to which IP address.

Click on the 'Add the entry' button for each popup window after you've noted which addresses coorespond to which IP address.

After you click on 'Add the entry' you should see output similar to this:

Save the resellers privileges when you are done. Let the reseller know that the server has been properly configured for use with their nameserver addresses, and provide them with the nameserver/IP address pairs. Instruct the reseller to make sure that the nameserver addresses are registered with the domain registrar to point to the IP addresses provided.

Changing Account Ownership

There may be situations where you need to change the ownership of an account on the server to the ownership of the reseller. You can do this by using the 'Change Ownership of an account' option in the Reseller center.

Once an account is changed to the ownership of a reseller, that reseller can then control the package and other settings of the account. If you need to remove ownership of an account from a reseller, simply move it to the ownership of 'root'.

View Usage/Stats and Manage

You can view a list of the accounts a reseller is hosting along with information on the sub-reseller account quotas and usage by using the 'View Usage/Stats and Manage' option from within the Reseller Center as well.

Links are also provided to provide you with statistics on how much bandwidth was used for past months.

In addition to the statistics, you can also suspend, unsuspend, and terminate the entire reseller account from this area. This includes all the sub-reseller accounts as well.

Manage IP Delegation

If you've provided the reseller with privileges to assign their websites to a dedicated IP address under the 'Edit Privileges/Nameservers' area, you can use the 'Manage IP Delegation' option to delegate certain IP addresses to the reseller.

As shown, you can choose to allow a reseller to use any IP address they wish, or you can simply restrict them to a set of IP addresses. If an IP address is already used by an account on the server, this page will display a message next to the IP indicating that its taken.

Manage Main Shared/Ipless IP

If you want a resellers accounts to be placed on an IP address other than the primary shared IP address of the server, simply use the 'Manage Main Shared/Ipless IP' option from the Reseller Center.

Simply pull down the drop down menu and select the IP address which new sub-accounts created by the reseller will be placed on.

Note: Unfortunately multiple accounts cannot be moved to the same IP address after they have been established on another IP address. You must use this option before new accounts are created under the reseller.

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