On a customer level, at ScalaHosting, we rely on our own innovative products. SPanel is our streamlined platform for hosting management, one that allows clients to easily navigate around their accounts. The robust control panel is very lightweight but still packed with features that help with emails, domain names, DNS records, website files, databases, and many more.

Now, you have a great opportunity to combine the two – introducing the WHMCS SPanel Provisioning module. 

What is the WHMCS SPanel Provisioning Module?

With this add-on, you can avoid any manual work involved in creating/suspending/terminating SPanel accounts, changing passwords, upgrading/downgrading services, and others. 

This integration is ideal for providers and resellers that are looking to automate every stage of the hosting journey. Instead of wasting precious time in account management, they can safely leave those tasks to the provisioning module and focus on other aspects of their business.

How to Set Up the WHMCS SPanel Provisioning Module?

Configuring WHMCS and SPanel for automatic account provisioning is actually quite easy and doesn’t require any previous technical experience. 

First, you need to download the module. You can do so from this link.

Download and unzip the archive in your main WHMCS folder, where your /modules folder resides. Once complete, you should be able to see the SPanel folder inside your /modules/servers directory.

Once that’s up and running, we can split the rest of the process into three distinct stages:

Adding a New Server

From a provider’s standpoint, before we can add and modify any accounts, we need to first set up a server and integrate it with the SPanel API. Here are the steps:

1. Go to WHMCS and choose System Settings -> Servers. You will see the option Add New Server inside.
2. Select SPanel from the module dropdown.
3. Now, you need to enter your server’s IP address in the Hostname or IP Address field.
4. Enter your SPanel login URL inside the Username field. This should be either spanel or hostpanel, depending on if you have the branding URL enabled in your SPanel admin panel.
5. The next step is to input your SPanel API access token in the Access Hash field.

6. Click Test Connection and if everything is set up correctly – you will get the Add Server configuration page. This is where you add the Name and Hostname for your server.

Creating a New Group

Now that we have our server, it’s time to create a new product group. The operation is extremely simplified:

1. Go to System Settings and choose Servers. You will see the option Create New Group.
2. Enter a Name for your group.
3. Select the name of the server you just created and click Add.
4. Hit the Save Changes button.

Creating a New Product

We are now on the last step – it’s time to create our product. Here is how to do that:

1. Go to System Settings, choose Products/Services, and select the Create a New Product option.
2. Select Shared Hosting from the Product Type field.
3. Now, choose your previously created product group from the Product Group menu.
4. Input the Product Name you wish to use for this product.
5. Select SPanel from the Module selection field.

6. Once you click the Continue button, you will be directed to the Edit Product page.
7. Click on the Module Settings tab and select SPanel from the Module Name menu. 
8. Find the server group you created in the previous step in the Server Group drop-down.
9. Inside the Select Package field, you will see all existing packages in the default SPanel server and the selected server group. 

IMPORTANT: If you don’t have any existing packages, you can create some from your SPanel admin interface and get back to this step later.

10. Save the changes.

That’s all there is to it! You now have the WHMCS SPanel Provisioning Module and can easily automate all your server account operations. 

Check out more helpful SPanel Tutorials in the ScalaHosting Knowledge Base or contact our Support Team for more information on SPanel and WHMCS!

As a website owner, you will likely need to review your website’s server log files at one point or another, and the ones you will probably be most interested in are:

Access logs

The access log files are created by your web server and contain vital information regarding the traffic your site generates. Every HTTP request is recorded, along with its type, status, the user’s IP, and the user agent. The raw data is generated on the server and could be useful for identifying potential technical problems and analytics purposes.

Web server error logs

Web servers go through a large number of operations, and inevitably, things don’t always go according to plan. The errors and warnings aren’t necessarily visible to the end user, but they are nevertheless logged, so website administrators can review them and take the appropriate actions.

PHP error logs

Web applications consist of thousands of lines of (mostly PHP) code. A single typo is often enough to break the entire website. PHP’s default error reporting mechanisms display warnings in the browser, but applications can be configured to log them in a file. The information in that file could be invaluable if your site slows down or crashes.

Reviewing and Downloading Your Website’s Logs in SPanel

SPanel’s goal is to simplify website management. This means, among other things, helping you review logs and troubleshoot problems without the need to rummage through directories or spend hours trying to find the correct command.

Instead, you can view and download log files straight from your browser. Here are the steps:

1. Log in to SPanel’s User Interface

The default login URL is https://[yourdomain]/spanel. This is where you manage the websites hosted on your account.

2. Click Domains

Click Domains on SPanel’s homepage.

Scroll down to the bottom where you’ll see a list of all the domains you’ve added to your SPanel User Account.

3. Click Actions and select the type of logs you want to view and download

The Actions menu next to your website’s domain gives you quick and easy access to your log files.

If you click View Access Logs or View Error Logs, a popup appears with the last 200 lines from the respective file.

With the Download button, you can save the log to your computer.
If you choose View PHP Errors, SPanel scans your domain’s document root and its subfolders for PHP error logs. If it finds any log files, it displays them in separate tabs in the popup that appears.

If you get a 95 CPU seconds measurement but run a process for 100 seconds, then it means your CPU spent the other 5 seconds doing other things. You can convert CPU seconds to wall time by dividing by the CPU usage. 

For example, if the CPU usage is 50 percent and the CPU-second is 120, then the wall time you spent running the process will be 240 seconds—that’s, 120 divided by 0.5. In this article, you’ll be learning how to reduce your account CPU usage.

Enable Caching

Caching your website can improve server performance. Website caching is the temporary storage of web files in the local browser cache. It helps reduce bandwidth, server logs, and lags by loading the cached files any time the visitor visits. 

Website caching can also speed up the website, save server resource consumption and reduce CPU seconds usage.

You can enable caching on WordPress using plugins like W3 Cache or WP Super Cache.

Update to PHP Latest Version 

Over 78 percent of websites using server-side programming language utilize PHP, including WordPress CMS, making it one of today’s most popular scripting languages.  Sadly, about 64 percent of WordPress websites currently use a supported version of PHP.

PHP actively supports each major release for two years and an additional one year for critical security issues only, after which the version reaches its end of life, leaving it exposed to unpatched security vulnerabilities.

Updating to the latest PHP version helps you enjoy better performance, speed and security.

Remove Unused Plugins

WordPress plugins help you customize your website and extend its capabilities.  But running too many low-quality plugins can slow down your website, eat up your server resources and increase your CPU seconds usage.

So avoid overwhelming your server with unnecessary plugins, and always delete unused plugins. Unfortunately, most plugins lack a safe clean-up option when deleted, leaving some data residue like tables and rows in your database. 

So always check your database to ensure a deleted plugin is not leaving something behind.

How to check my CPU usage?

Follow all the tips outlined above, and you should see a marked improvement in your website’s performance. However, if you want accurate data on how they have affected your CPU usage, you can always use your web hosting control panel to see exactly what’s going on on your server.

For example, in SPanel’s Admin Interface, you’ll find the Resource Usage section that tells you how much CPU each of your accounts is using at any given time.

You have detailed stats on the individual processes and how they’re affecting the load on the server. You also get historic data, so you can accurately determine which changes may have slowed your website down.

Need Support?

If you need assistance enabling website cache, updating your website PHP version, or having questions relating to reducing your account CPU usage, contact our support. We will be willing to help.

If the error persists, it is likely that you have to use a different HTTPS address in your Git client. For this error, you will not even be prompted to enter a password, making it simpler to diagnose.

Rectifying the “403 Forbidden” Error Message

There are two methods to fix the HTTPS address to resolve the 403 error in question;

• Method 1. Use SSH to push the changes to GitHub. First, connect to your hosting server via SSH then follow the instructions Github provides to add a remote repository.
• Method 2. You can also directly modify the HTTPS address via SSH. Once logged in, use the ”git remote set-url origin “https://github-username@github.com/github-username/github-repository-name.git” instruction.

Replace “github-username” and “github-repository-name” with your own GitHub information.

Once this is done, you should be able to push changes to the repository with no further errors.

If you encounter errors such as “Fatal error: Allowed memory size of X bytes exhausted” then you may need to increase your PHP memory limits.

Increasing PHP Memory Limits via SPanel

• Step 1. Log in to your SPanel dashboard.
• Step 2. Click on “PHP INI Editor” under the “Tools” section.
• Step 3. Select the domain you wish to adjust memory limits for.
• Step 4. Under “memory_limit” change the existing field to the new amount required. The figure should follow a Megabyte increment. For example, to set it to one gigabyte, use 1024M.

Understanding PHP Memory Limits

The PHP memory limit is not an overall usage figure. It refers to the amount of memory usable for each visitor session. To illustrate this, let’s take the example of a 128MB PHP memory limit. In this scenario, ten visitors concurrently on your site may result in memory usage of up to 1,280MB.

Setting excessive limits for PHP memory may result in overly high resource consumption, which will ultimately be limited by the amount of memory allocated to your hosting plan.

Thankfully, where PHP is concerned, the error is very specific – an inability to connect a request to the PHP script in question. For example, if a website visitor attempts to view a page and the connection times out, this error message will be displayed.

Resolving “500 Internal Server Error” While Running PHP

Although the root issue is known, what exactly is causing the connection to timeout can vary. Here are some of the more common methods to resolve this problem.

1. Reload or Refresh the Page

On occasion, the timeout may occur sporadically. Attempt to refresh the page a few times – if the web page can load at least once, an overloaded server likely causes the error.

Websites require resources to serve content to visitors. If your server lacks the resources to process the current volume of web traffic, you may see this error cropping up. To verify this, launch your SPanel dashboard and use the “Server Status” link to check resource usage trends.

If your server is consuming many resources, provisioning for more will likely resolve your 500 Internal Server Error.

2. Check File Permissions

Another possibility is that the incorrect permissions have been set on the PHP file, causing the error. Verifying this will require you to connect to your server terminal (See “Connect to my server with SSH”) and check log files.

Your log files will generally be located in “/usr/local/apache/logs/error_log”

If you note messages on “SoftException in Application,” the error message is likely caused by incorrect file permission settings. To resolve this, change the permissions for the related PHP file using the File Manager tool in SPanel.

3. Check .htaccess Code

In some cases, the “500 Internal Server Error” may be caused by specific instructions set in your .htaccess file. This file provides high-level web server configurations. Both you and some web applications may amend the file, potentially causing errors.

It is advisable to move all PHP-specific instructions out of the .htaccess file and into php.ini. The php.ini file is a custom configuration file that you can build for individual applications requiring PHP to run.

Method 1. Determine Account Server Name Using SPanel

The easiest is by logging in to your SPanel account, then clicking on the “Server Information” link on the left-hand navigation bar. By doing so, you will see a complete summary of your server information on the display area to the right of the navigation bar. 

Method 2. Determine Account Server Name Using cPanel

In the “General Information” display area on the right side of the screen, you will see a “Server Information” link. Click that link to open an information screen. Among the information displayed will be your server name.

Method 3. Determine Account Server Name Using SSH

One additional method will involve accessing your server via SSH. While this method may take a bit more time, it is generic to most web hosting services. Before you begin, ensure that you have SSH access to your web hosting server.

If you do not yet have SSH access, see our article “Connect to My Server with SSH.”

Once connected to your web server via SSH, it will behave like any Linux-based system. To identify your server name, simply type “hostname”. This command will display the complete name for your hosting server.

cd /usr/src/
git clone git://github.com/phalcon/cphalcon.git
cd cphalcon/build
./install


Copy the extension to the PHP’s extension directory.


cp -a php5/64bits/modules/phalcon.so /opt/cpanel/ea-php54/root/usr/lib64/php/modules/
cp -a php5/64bits/modules/phalcon.so /opt/cpanel/ea-php55/root/usr/lib64/php/modules/
cp -a php5/64bits/modules/phalcon.so /opt/cpanel/ea-php56/root/usr/lib64/php/modules/


Then log in to WHM and click on MultiPHP INI Editor. Switch to the Editor mode and select the needed PHP version. At the bottom of the file add the following.

extension=phalcon.so

That’s it!

Naturally, the ScalaHosting support team will be glad to install Phalcon for you completely free of charge if you do not feel you can do it yourself.