Zac Garrett

Earlier today I decided that I needed to upgrade the server to the latest version of Apache and PHP. To do this it requires you to compile both of the packages and then install them. Well, that is how it works if installing the software by command line. The issue was that the server I was working on uses cpanel/WHM. This puts a little kink in the system.

Cpanel is a neat control panel for people who are not sysadmins and just want a functioning server. This is the state I was in when I got the server; I wanted just a functioning server and could care less about managing all of the software myself. In the last two years my entire thought process has changed and prefer a server without a control panel today. The server is stable and fairly secure, so I have yet to change it over. That means I have to work with cpanel/WHM.

My first problem is that I am nuts and running the non-stable version of cpanel. This should pretty much null most of what I am about to say, but there are many others out there who are just as crazy as myself.

When compiling Apache in cpanel 11 it gives you a ton of options to choose from. As I know what I am doing I was able to choose exactly the options I needed for the server. I then choose build in the options and went off to do some other work. Ten minutes later I went back to check the status and the page had stopped. Having recompiled apache this same way in the past it surprised me, it should only stop once it says that it has been completed.

I soon SSHed into the server to see what’s up. I see nothing, no apache processes, no easyapache3 (the name of the cpanel apache tool), nothing. The sucker is just dead.

I tried to use the web interface again, this time choosing the settings that say something like, if all else fails use these options. Same thing, a big zero, nodda, zippo. I truly have no idea why the server was not allowing apache to compile, the logs did not give anything away either. All they stated was that it was compiling, no errors or anything.

It was at this point I started to get busy at work and could no longer work on the server. I shot an email over to my web host and told them just to restore the server. Two hours later once everything had calmed down at work I had time to look at the server, it was back up and running just like nothing had ever happened.

I am just lucky that I have a web host that has good backups and have no problem using them. As I have said before, backup backup backup! If your web hosting provider does not provide good backups I suggest finding one that does.