Troubleshooting

Solutions to the most common issues. Anything involving sudo is run over SSH on the server itself.

Locked out of the panel

I lost my authenticator and my recovery codes

Two-factor authentication can be cleared from the server's command line, for an administrator or for a hosting account:

# an admin (vWHM) login
sudo -u paneluser php /opt/vantapanel/bin/vantapanel-admin.php --disable-2fa admin

# a hosting account (vPanel) login
sudo -u paneluser php /opt/vantapanel/bin/vantapanel-admin.php --disable-2fa-account acme

Sign in with the password alone, then enrol again from the Security page. If the server's policy requires 2FA, the panel will send you straight back to enrolment — that is expected.

The admin panel returns "Access restricted"

The admin IP allow-list is on and your current address is not on it. It is checked before the login form, so there is no way to sign in and fix it from the browser. Clear it in the database:

UPDATE settings SET v='' WHERE k='whm_ip_allowlist';

The panel is reachable from any address again immediately.

"Too many attempts" after a wrong password

Sign-in is throttled per source IP after 8 failed attempts in 15 minutes. Wait for the window to clear, or connect from another address. The admin panel and the customer panel are throttled independently.

I forgot my admin password

sudo -u paneluser php /opt/vantapanel/bin/vantapanel-admin.php admin 'NewPassword'

A hosting account's password is reset from vWHM → Accounts → the account → Login & password.

Panel won't load

• Check Apache: sudo apache2ctl configtest && systemctl status apache2
• Check the panel services: systemctl status vantapanel-whm vantapanel-user
• Ensure ports 80/443 are open at your provider and not held by another web server.

If the panel stopped responding right after an update, restart the two services — an update restarts them a few seconds after the request finishes, and a reboot in between can interrupt that:

systemctl restart vantapanel-whm vantapanel-user

"PHP is too old" during install

Reinstall on Ubuntu 22.04+ or Debian 12+, or install PHP 8.1+ (for example via the ondrej/php PPA) and re-run the installer.

Privileged actions fail

If actions like file operations fail with a worker error, the root worker or its sudo rule may not be set up — re-run the installer to fix it.

vWHM shows "payment required" and won't open

The server's license has been rejected for 14 days or more, so server management is locked. Only the License page stays reachable. Hosted websites, email and DNS are unaffected and still online. Renew, then press Re-check now on the License page — everything unlocks at once, including backups. See Activating Your License for the full ladder.

Backups are not running

If the Backups page says backups are paused, the server's license has been inactive for 3 days or more. Restoring an existing backup still works. Renewing and re-checking resumes them.

An update failed

Nothing is lost. The updater backs the install up to /opt/vantapanel.bak.<timestamp> before touching anything and rolls back automatically if applying fails, so the previous version keeps running. Common causes:

• "update signature is invalid" — the manifest did not verify against the pinned key. Do not work around it; retry later and contact support if it persists.
• "cannot verify update signature (PHP sodium extension missing)" — install php-sodium on the server and retry.
• "could not reach the update server" — outbound HTTPS to get.vantapanel.com is blocked.

Mail won't send or bounces at Gmail

This is almost always deliverability: a missing PTR record, a blocked port 25, or missing SPF/DKIM records. The quickest fix is to relay through Brevo — see Email. Otherwise set up PTR, open port 25 outbound, and add SPF/DKIM.

For a domain whose mail simply never arrives, open the Zone Editor and click Set up email DNS — it adds the MX, mail A, SPF, DKIM and DMARC records in one pass and skips anything already present.

The Zone Editor says "Not connected to Cloudflare"

The Zone Editor reads and writes records through the Cloudflare API. That message means either the domain's zone is not on the Cloudflare account this server is configured with, or no Cloudflare API token with Zone › DNS › Edit has been saved. The administrator sets the token in vWHM → SSL / TLS or vWHM → DNS Automation.

It is also the normal message for a domain served by the server's own private nameservers rather than Cloudflare.

SSL won't issue

• HTTP validation needs the domain's A record pointing at this server and port 80 reachable. Behind Cloudflare, set the record to DNS only (grey cloud) until the certificate is issued.
• Behind a proxy, tunnel or NAT, switch to DNS validation in vWHM → SSL / TLS and save a Cloudflare API token.
• "no ACME client installed" — install certbot on the server.
• A failed issuance never breaks a working site: if Apache's configuration test fails, the change is rolled back automatically.

See SSL / TLS Certificates.

The SSH Access or Terminal page is missing

The administrator has disabled shell access for that account (vWHM → Accounts → the account → SSH / shell access). Both pages are hidden together, and the account's login shell is set to nologin. File Manager, cron and app hosting keep working.

If you are signed in as a delegated account+username login instead, the pages are missing because the Terminal & SSH keys permission was not granted — check My Access and ask the account owner.

A command in Terminal stops after 30 seconds

That is the limit, and it is enforced server-side. Terminal is for short commands; use a real SSH client for anything long-running, and run persistent services under the Node.js, Python or Java app pages instead.

Database connection errors

The database password lives in the panel's config file. Re-running the installer re-syncs it automatically.

Cloudflare 522 or redirect loop

• 522: port 443 is not reachable from Cloudflare — forward and allow it.
• Redirect loop: set Cloudflare SSL/TLS to Full (strict), not Flexible. A proxied (orange cloud) record in front of a site with no certificate yet is the usual cause.

Still stuck?

Check the service logs for detail:

journalctl -u vantapanel-whm -n 100
journalctl -u vantapanel-user -n 100

Or contact support and we will help.