From bare VPS to live panel

Activating Your License

Activate a Vanta Panel license key in vWHM to lift the free-tier caps. License statuses, the 12-hour re-check, the 7-day offline grace period, and exactly what happens if a license lapses.

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Updating Vanta Panel

How Vanta Panel updates itself: signed manifests, Ed25519 signature and SHA-256 verification, an automatic backup before every update, and how to turn automatic updates off.

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Troubleshooting

Fixes for common issues: locked out by 2FA or the IP allow-list, the panel not loading, failed updates, mail delivery, SSL issuance, Cloudflare errors and missing pages.

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Contact Information

How the vPanel Contact Information page works: the Name, Contact email and Second email fields, where they are stored, and how they differ from vWHM's.

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Java Apps — Run a Spring Boot JAR as a Service

Run an executable JAR or a Spring Boot app as a managed service on a hosting account. Covers enabling Java, deploying a JAR, the systemd unit created, how the reverse proxy detects whether your app serves at the root or under a context path, and logs.

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Apache Kafka

How Vanta Panel installs a shared Apache Kafka broker, enables it per account with SCRAM logins and prefixed topics, and when a small VPS should skip it.

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Redis Caching

Redis in Vanta Panel: one shared server-wide instance on 127.0.0.1:6379, how admins enable it per account, and how PHP, WordPress and Java apps connect.

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PHP Versions and Account Isolation

Install PHP versions, set the default for new accounts, and move accounts into their own PHP-FPM pool running as their own Linux user with open_basedir confinement.

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MySQL Databases

Create MySQL/MariaDB databases and users in vPanel, grant per-database privileges, adopt databases made outside the panel, download a live dump, and recover a deleted database from the 30-day Trash.

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Database Manager

Browse tables, inspect structure, page through rows 30 at a time and run SQL inside vPanel. Connects as your scoped panel user, so it only ever reaches your own databases. Results are capped at 1000 rows.

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phpMyAdmin Single Sign-On

Get your scoped phpMyAdmin credentials and sign in with one click from vPanel. Covers what the login can see, why a database might be missing from the list, and what to do if phpMyAdmin is not installed.

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Remote MySQL

Authorise hosts outside the server to connect to your databases: which host patterns are accepted, the connection details to use, the two server-side changes an admin must also make, and what removing a host does not do.

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DNS Zone Editor

Add, edit and delete live DNS records for your domains from vPanel. Supported record types, Cloudflare proxying, zone import and export, and one-click email DNS setup.

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DNS Tools — Look Up Live DNS Records

Look up live A, AAAA, MX, TXT, NS, CNAME, SOA and PTR records for any domain from vPanel, and see why results can differ from the Zone Editor.

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SSL / TLS Certificates

Free Let's Encrypt certificates in Vanta Panel: server-wide HTTP or Cloudflare DNS validation in vWHM, one-click issuance per domain in vPanel, force HTTPS, automatic renewal and trusted mail SSL.

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Private Nameservers & Authoritative DNS

Run your own authoritative nameservers (ns1/ns2) on your VPS with Vanta Panel — register glue records and serve DNS without Cloudflare.

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DNS Automation (Cloudflare)

Create a new account's Cloudflare DNS records automatically: web and mail records, SPF, DKIM and DMARC, the API token it needs, and how to re-provision an existing domain safely.

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Email Hosting and Mailboxes

Create and manage mailboxes on your own domains with Postfix and Dovecot: address rules, passwords, quotas, the mailbox limits that really apply, mail DNS and the Brevo sending key. The hub for every email page in Vanta Panel.

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Mail Client Setup (IMAP, POP3, SMTP)

Connect any mail app to a Vanta Panel mailbox: the exact hostname, IMAP 993, POP3 995 and SMTP 587 settings, why the unencrypted ports refuse your password, and how the trusted mail certificate is issued.

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Email Deliverability: SPF, DKIM and DMARC

Fix mail that never arrives: live SPF, DKIM and DMARC checks with the exact records to publish, reverse DNS, blocked outbound port 25, an authenticated outbound relay, and the one-click repair for mail held with 451 Service unavailable.

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Webmail (Roundcube)

Read and send mail in the browser with Roundcube. Open a mailbox from vPanel with automatic sign-in, or go straight to https://your-domain/webmail with the full email address and mailbox password.

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Email Forwarders

Forward mail from an address on your domain to anywhere, including catch-alls. Why a forwarder overrides a mailbox with the same address, what a catch-all costs you, and what forwarding does to SPF at the destination.

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Autoresponders and Out-of-Office Replies

Set an automatic reply on a mailbox: subject, message, and how often one sender may be answered. Includes the two cases that silently prevent a reply — a matching filter rule, and a forwarder on the same address.

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Email Filters

Sort incoming mail per mailbox: match From, To, Subject or the message body, then move to a folder, forward or delete. First match wins, filters run before your autoresponder, and they only affect newly delivered mail.

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Mailing Lists

One address that fans out to a group of people. Create a list, add and remove members, and understand what it is not: no subscribe links, no moderation and no archive — anyone who knows the address can post to it.

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Spam Filters

Set the SpamAssassin score threshold and what happens to flagged mail. What the panel stores per account, what the server-wide scanner actually does, and the filter rule that gives you a Junk folder you control.

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Mail Queue (vWHM)

See what Postfix is holding and why, from vWHM: active, deferred and held messages with the last error for each, retry-all, single delete and purge — plus what every common queue error is telling you.

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What is Vanta Panel?

Vanta Panel is a self-hosted control panel for your own VPS — a modern hosting panels alternative you install in one command.

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Installing Vanta Panel

Install Vanta Panel on a fresh Ubuntu or Debian VPS with one command. Requirements, the signature-verified one-liner, install options, first login and how to upgrade.

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Your First Hosting Account

Create your first hosting account in vWHM: every Create Account field, what Vanta Panel provisions, the login URLs and fixes for the common errors.

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Migrate from cPanel — the complete guide

Move every site from cPanel to your own VPS running Vanta Panel: full backups over SSH, automatic restore, DNS cutover and post-migration checks.

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The vPanel Dashboard

A tour of the vPanel dashboard: the tool grid, the status cards that appear only for services your host has enabled, and why a tile might be missing.

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Traffic Metrics

Fourteen days of traffic for all your domains, read from the Apache access logs: requests, unique visitors, bandwidth, a daily request chart, top pages and a response-code breakdown — plus the limits behind the numbers.

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Visitors — Recent Traffic from Access Logs

Recent traffic in detail: top pages with static assets filtered out, external referrers, busiest IP addresses, user agents, and the last 25 requests with status codes — read straight from your access logs.

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Disk Usage — See What Fills Your Quota

See how much of your quota you are using and which top-level folders are responsible, with a practical order for reclaiming space — and why your databases are not counted on this page.

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Access and Error Logs

Read the tail of your Apache error and access logs in vPanel. What the common PHP and Apache error lines mean, how to read a combined access-log line, and a step-by-step loop for pinning down a 500.

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Security Tools

Every security tool in Vanta Panel and where it lives: two-factor authentication, delegated logins, IP blocking, directory privacy, hotlink protection, SSH keys and SSL.

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Two-Factor Authentication

Turn on TOTP two-factor authentication in vPanel or vWHM, save your eight single-use recovery codes, read the recent sign-ins log, and understand server-enforced 2FA policy.

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Directory Privacy

Password-protect a folder on your site with HTTP Basic authentication. Covers protecting a folder, managing several logins, how the .htpasswd and .htaccess are written, and the real limits of Basic auth - including why you should only use it over HTTPS.

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IP Blocker — Block Visitors by IP or Range

Block abusive visitors by IP address or CIDR range in vPanel. How the .htaccess rule is written, what validates, and what the block list does not cover.

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Hotlink Protection

Stop other sites embedding your images and spending your bandwidth. Requests for the protected file types are blocked unless the referrer is one of your domains - or there is no referrer at all. Covers the settings, the .htaccess rules written, and the cases that legitimately break.

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User Manager and Delegated Logins

Create extra vPanel logins for a developer or colleague, scoped to only the areas you tick. Permission groups, the account+username login format, and what is never delegated.

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Changing Your Password

Change your hosting account password in vPanel. It updates your panel login and your SSH/SFTP system password together, and signs out every other session.

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Admin Access Control (vWHM)

Protect the vWHM administrator login: password changes, two-factor authentication, an IP allow-list for the whole admin panel, sign-in history, and how to recover if you lock yourself out.

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Leech Protection

Record a credential-sharing policy for a password-protected folder: how many logins per username in two hours count as normal, and where to send visitors past that. Enforcement needs the server's login-tracker - the policy on its own does not block anyone.

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vWHM Admin Overview

A map of the vWHM administrator panel: what every screen does, from the dashboard and account tools to packages, services, monitoring, security, backups and the API.

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Creating a Hosting Account

How vWHM provisions a hosting account: the form fields and their real limits, every step that runs on submit, double-submit protection, and the one-time credentials receipt.

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Managing a Hosting Account

Every panel on the vWHM account screen: package and usage, password reset, PHP version, suspend and terminate, admin notes, SSH, DNS, HTTPS, and the Java, Kafka and Redis toggles.

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Packages and Plans

Define reusable packages of per-account limits in vWHM. What each limit actually enforces, what happens when an account hits one, and how packages interact with your license.

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Server Status

The live vitals page in vWHM: CPU load, memory, disk and swap gauges, uptime, process count, the worker bridge check and core service health, refreshed every three seconds.

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Resource Overview

Per-account disk, database and subdomain usage measured live in vWHM, plus the database registry tools that adopt unregistered databases and clear orphan MySQL grants.

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Managing Services

Check, restart and reload the core services from vWHM — Apache, MariaDB and both panel services — plus restart-all and a guarded server reboot.

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Panel Settings and Server Alerts

Configure vWHM branding and accent colours, the support contact, the two-factor policy, and the server alert engine with its thresholds, cooldown and resolved notices.

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Server Setup and Private Nameservers

Set the server hostname and your private nameservers in vWHM, register the glue records they need, and turn on the built-in authoritative DNS engine for new accounts.

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Firewall and Brute-Force Protection

Manage the ufw firewall from vWHM and review fail2ban bans. Covers adding scoped rules and the two anti-lockout guards that protect SSH, HTTP and HTTPS from being closed.

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The Audit Log

Every privileged action in Vanta Panel is recorded with actor, target, detail and IP. What gets logged, what does not, how to filter it, and how retention works.

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Unassigned Databases

Find MySQL databases that no Vanta account owns — usually left by a migration — and assign each to an account so it appears in their panel, phpMyAdmin and backups.

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Using the API

Issue scoped, revocable API tokens in vWHM and manage hosting accounts over a bearer-authenticated REST API. Covers scopes, the rate limit, endpoints and error codes.

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Server Backups and Schedules (vWHM)

Per-site full and database-only backup schedules in vWHM: frequency, retention, staggered runs, the pre-flight disk check and archive verification, reading the status badges, immediate restores, and customer self-service control.

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Off-Site Backup Destinations (vWHM)

Copy backups off-server to S3-compatible storage, SFTP, FTPS, FTP or WebDAV. Covers per-site folders, retry and retention behaviour, the 4 GiB S3 multipart threshold, and pulling an archive back to restore it.

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Cron Jobs — Schedule Commands in vPanel

Schedule cron jobs in vPanel: presets, schedule rules, PHP and curl examples, email output, Run now, and the fixes to try when a job never runs.

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SSH Access — Authorize Keys for SSH & SFTP

Authorize SSH public keys for your hosting account in vPanel. Accepted key types, SHA-256 fingerprints, how to connect, and what happens when your host disables shell access.

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Browser Terminal

Run shell commands as your account user from inside vPanel. The 30-second limit, the 24 KB output cap, what will not work, and who is allowed to use it.

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Git Deployments on Your VPS

Clone a Git repository into your Vanta Panel hosting account, pull updates with one click, and deploy it to a domain — with every limit and error fix.

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Backups — Create, Schedule & Restore

Create, schedule, download, upload and restore full account backups in vPanel. Exactly what an archive contains and what it leaves out, how retention interacts with your disk quota, and how to genuinely test a restore.

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Websites and Domains

Manage every hostname on your account: the primary domain, subdomains and addon domains, each with its own document root, Apache vhost and free SSL certificate. Covers creating and deleting them, the DNS each one needs, and per-package domain limits.

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File Manager

Browse, edit, upload and archive your files in the browser. Covers every operation and keyboard shortcut, the two upload limits that apply (500 MB in the panel, 64 MB in PHP by default), the 2 MB cap on downloads and the editor, and protected home entries.

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FTP Accounts

Create extra FTP logins for your account, each locked to one folder. Covers usernames and passwords, connecting with explicit FTP over TLS on port 21, why you must use the server's IP rather than a Cloudflare-proxied domain, and why FTP accounts cannot use SFTP.

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One-Click App Installers

Install WordPress, Joomla or Microweber in one click - the database is created and the setup wizard completed for you. Covers install locations, the admin credentials shown only once, updating and password-resetting WordPress, and what removing an application deletes.

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Redirects — Forward a Domain or Path

Forward a domain or a path to another URL with 301 or 302 redirects, including wildcard redirects that pass the rest of the URL through. Rules are written to a managed block at the top of the source domain's .htaccess, above your CMS's own rewrite rules.

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Custom Error Pages

Replace Apache's default 404, 403, 401 and 500 messages with pages of your own, chosen per domain. Covers how the pages are wired up with ErrorDocument, why an error page needs absolute paths, and how to check you are returning the right status code.

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Directory Indexes

Choose what visitors see when they open a folder with no index file: a 403 Forbidden, or a browsable listing of its contents. Covers why 403 is the safer default, which filenames count as an index file, and how to override the setting for a single folder.

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Node.js App Hosting

Run Node.js apps on your hosting account. vPanel writes a systemd service that runs as your own Linux user, injects PORT, restarts on failure and survives reboots, then wires an Apache reverse proxy to a URL path on your site or to a domain of its own.

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Python App Hosting: FastAPI, Flask and Django

Deploy FastAPI, Flask and Django apps from a folder in your home directory. Each app gets its own virtualenv, a uvicorn or gunicorn service that runs as your Linux user and restarts on failure, and an optional Apache reverse proxy on a path or its own domain.

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