You can familiarize yourself with the hosting Control Panel by logging into the demo available here: Demo Control Panel.

You can access your online Control Panel at http://your_domain.com/cp/

In case your domain name registration has expired or you have not pointed the domain to our hosting service, you can access the online Control Panel by server name. Please check your Welcome email for the relevant URL or contact our support team.

If you have lost or forgotten the password for your Control Panel, you can have it reset.

In order to have your password reset, you need to go to the Control Panel login page which is normally accessible at http://example.com/cp (where example.com should be your domain name), and click on the “Forgot your password?” link.

On the next page, you will be asked to enter your domain name. Once you submit it, instructions on how to complete the process will be sent to the contact email addresses for your hosting account.

The username for the Control Panel of your hosting account serves as the unique identifier of the hosting account to the system, and it cannot be modified after the hosting account is created.

Note that this username is not displayed anywhere; it is used only for internal reference to your account, and for logging into the Control Panel.

The only possible way to change the username would be to delete the existing account, and then create a new one with the new username from scratch. This can be done upon request. However, the new account would be empty and you would have to upload your content again, losing all settings and data you might have already uploaded. Your mailboxes cannot be preserved either.

You can manage your contact information and change your password through the Account Profile section of your Control Panel. The contact information initially listed there is the one you have supplied at the order form when you purchased your hosting account.

To change your contact information, please input the new data in the desired fields, and click on the Update button below.

Please note that changing the contact information at the Account Profile section does not update the WHOIS information for your domain name.

To change your Control Panel password, please follow these steps:

1. Input your existing password at the Current Password field. 
2. Input your new password at the New Password field.

You will notice that there is a password strength indicator below the New Password field. It will update in real time as you are entering your new password. There are five distinct levels of password strength: Very Weak, Weak, Fair, Strong, and Very Strong. Along with the password strength indicator, you will also get information and hints in a tooltip beside the indicator. 

Note that the Change it button will remain inactive (grayed out) if the password level is Very Weak or Weak. You will only be able to set a password that is deemed Fair, Strong, or Very Strong.

You can also utilize the random password generator.

3. Re-type the new password at the New Password again field. 
4. Click on the Change it button.

The WordPress section of the hosting Control Panel allows you to find general information about your installations and easily perform actions like:

• Install WordPress
• Add existing WordPress installations for management
• Force HTTPS
• Change the Site URL
• Optimize WordPress
• Create, download, and restore from WordPress backups
• Create and use WordPress staging sites
• Move WordPress between directories or subdomains on the hosting account
• Move WordPress between hosting accounts on our servers
• Enable access to XML-RPC
• Enable server-side caching for WordPress
• Protect the WordPress Dashboard
• Manage WordPress administrators
• Disable all WordPress plugins

Most actions within the section are performed with WP-CLI commands, and a log file of the commands is available in the ~/.wp-cli/history.log file in your account. This file can be accessed only via FTP or SSH. If an action takes more than 30 seconds to complete, it will continue to run in the background, and a notification will be displayed with a link on checking its status.

If you would like to find more information related to WordPress, please check the WordPress section of our online documentation.

The Resources section of the hosting Control Panel provides detailed information about your web hosting account resources usage. You can check detailed statistics on your disk space and traffic usage, CPU/MySQL usage, as well as monitor the currently running processes on the account.

E-mail notification on disk space usage

If your account reaches its quota limit, some functions may stop operating properly. For example, you will not be able to receive new email messages. Also, some server side applications such as PHP/Perl/Python scripts require free disk space to write temporary files. If the account has no free space, such scripts may stop working properly. That is why it is strongly recommended that there is always some free space on the account.

When the account reaches 99% of its allowed quota, we will send a notification to the contact email address listed under the Account Profile section of the Control Panel. Also, the option “Send email notification at XX % disk space usage” allows you to set one more notification to the same email address at a custom level desired by you. This option is enabled by default for new accounts at 90% disk space usage. It is generally recommended that you leave it enabled as to know earlier that the account is near its disk space quota and take the appropriate measures to free space on the account.

Inodes count

There is a limit on the number of inodes you can have under your hosting account. You can see the number of inodes you currently have at this section. Your files, directories, mail messages, and symlinks are all inodes. If you have reached or are close to reaching your disk space quota, you can check our Disk space/inode quota reached article for general information on how to investigate and resolve the problem.

Notice on mailboxes disk space usage:

In some cases, the mailboxes disk space usage displayed in this section may differ from the data displayed at the Mail Manager section of the hosting Control Panel. This is because the Resources section displays the disk space usage as it is on the server hard disk and is reported by the file system, while the Mail Manager section displays the information provided by the mail server software. The difference may come from:

• Messages in Trash which are counted as a hard disk space in the Resources section, but are not counted towards your Mail Manager quota.
• File compression for copied messages. Only the first message copy uses server hard disk space, but all copies are counted towards your Mail Manager quota.
• The block size of the file system and file metadata. If you have a large amount of very small email messages, the size on the hard disk may be larger than what is reported by the mail server software in the Mail Manager section.

It is important to know that a mailbox will be considered full and will bounce email when it reaches 100% of its allowed usage calculated by the Mail Manager, or when the hard disk quota of the whole hosting account is reached.

Note: The files in the ~/awstats, ~/logs, and ~/stats directories are not counted toward the account’s disk space usage.

CPU and MySQL time tab

This tab displays the CPU and MySQL usage of the account for the last several weeks, as well as the hourly CPU usage for the last couple of days. If the account is close or over the allowed limit, the usage will also be displayed on the left pane of the hosting Control Panel.

• CPU time, daily usage – This histogram shows how much CPU time was used each day for processing instructions for your account. The data you see here shows the total daily CPU usage of all scripts running under your hosting account.
• CPU time, hourly usage – This histogram shows the hourly CPU usage of the account for the last 50 hours.
• MySQL time, daily usage – The MySQL time histogram shows details about the MySQL load generated by queries executed by your account. The figure displayed here is a sum of the CPU minutes needed by the MySQL server to run your queries and the I/O generated by the same queries.

The resources indicators on the CPU and MySQL usage do not represent hard limits on our end. Reaching the displayed limit does not mean that you will have a service suspended, but means that you need to take measures to optimize your software/scripts. We will not impose hard limits on your account as long as there are enough resources on the shared server. However, the stability of the servers is always our priority, and we cannot allow a single account to endanger the server performance.

The optimization of your software may include (but is not limited to):

• Updating all software to the latest stable versions. This is valid especially for popular software packages, including their themes and plugins.
• Checking if you have any plug-ins/add-ons installed to the software, and disabling any you do not really need. A badly written plug-in can seriously slow down your site’s performance.
• Checking for any caching options/add-ons for the software you are using. They should significantly improve the performance of the application.
• Revising your MySQL queries, and making them more efficient. Having proper indexes for your tables will improve the efficiency of your MySQL usage.
• If you are using your own scripts, revising your code, and optimizing it.
• Converting your software to use static content (not dynamically generated by server-side scripts) whenever possible.
• Seeking professional help on service/software optimization.

Processes tab

The Processes tab shows the currently running processes on the server for your account. This section also allows you to kill stalled processes. There are several types of processes displayed:

• User processes – processes started by the scripts on your hosting account. Static pages (HTML) do not generate user processes.
• System processes – these processes are vital for the operation of your account and cannot be killed through this section.
• FPM processes – processes used by the system to serve requests for PHP scripts using the FPM with OPcache handler. They can be killed by reloading the FPM master process.
• FTP processes – these are started by FTP transfers to and from your hosting account.
• SSH processes – processes started by SSH sessions to the server.
• Web apps processes – these are processes used by the WebApps section of the Control Panel.

As a stability precaution, the number of simultaneous processes each hosting account can run is limited. This is valid for all types of processes.

If your site starts displaying an error “Unable to start another process”, this means that its simultaneous processes limit is reached. This could be due to a problem with the site software itself, a connectivity issue from some visitors to the server, an attack against the site, or simply due to too heavy usage. In this case, you can use the current section to see if there are stalled processes and kill them.

The FTP processes limit could be reached if a single user/IP is creating too many connections to the server. Again, this could be due to a connectivity issue from the user to the server, or due to a problem with the FTP program used. Most FTP programs allow you to limit the number of simultaneous connections to the server, and it is advisable to set this limit to 2-3 connections.

The Site Statistics section of the Control Panel supplies information about how to access statistics gathered for your website. You will find all of your subdomains listed in a table format. The table contains four columns:

• Website – This column lists all available subdomains.
• Webalizer – Contains links to the Webalizer statistics for each subdomain. Click on the Stats button to get a list of available statistics by month. A summary is also available. Clicking on the listed URLs opens a new page containing the stats data.
• AWStats – Allows you to enable or disable AWStats statistics generation per subdomain. Once you enable AWStats for a certain subdomain, a Stats link button will appear in the same column. The list of available statistics includes current stats as well as stats by month. Clicking on the listed URLs opens a new page containing the stats data.
• Action – This column contains a Users button for each subdomain. Clicking on the Protect button lets you access password protection options for the statistics pages on each subdomain. Detailed explanation about this protection is available in our Password protection article.

You can use the Force HTTPS connection to the statistics folders subsection to force secure connection to your website statistics. This may be required to pass a PCI compliance scan.

The File Manager section of the Control Panel allows you to browse the files on your hosting account and perform various actions with them. It has almost all the features you might need from an FTP program. Here are some of the actions you can perform there:

• Creating new files/directories
• Uploading files/directories
• Editing a file
• Previewing a file
• Renaming a file/directory
• Changing file/directory permissions
• Moving/copying files/directories
• Adding files to an archive
• Extracting an archive
• Downloading files/directories
• Deleting files/directories
• Searching for files/directories

To open a directory in the File Manager, simply click on the name or the folder icon next to the directory. To go up a level, click on the “..” button.

Creating new files/directories

You can create new files using the File Manager by:

1. Navigating to the directory where you want to create the new file.
2. Entering the name of the new file in the Create file field.
3. Clicking on the Create File button.

If you create a file with an extension that contains text/code (e.g. .html, .pl, .php, .txt, .htaccess, and .htpasswd), you will be able to edit the file.

Directories are very useful to keep your website structure and files organized. They make the maintenance of the website much easier. For example, you can use a directory named images to store all of your image files and keep them separate from the HTML files in the root directory of your website.

To create a directory:

1. Navigate to the parent directory where you want to create the new directory.
2. Under Tools, enter the name of the new directory in the Create directory input field.
3. Click on the Create directory button.

Uploading files/directories

You can use the File Manager to upload files and directories to your website and account. There is no limit on the number or size of the files/directories you upload to the account as long as there is sufficient disk space available on the account.

To upload files/directories to your account:

1. Navigate to the directory you want to upload your files.
2. Drag the files/directories you wish to upload from your device, and drop them anywhere on the browser window where the File Manager is open.
   Alternatively, you can click on the Upload File field or the  (Browse) button next to it, select the files from your device you wish to upload, and press the Upload button once ready.

Once you initiate the upload process, a page showing the files queued for upload and the upload progress will be displayed. On this page, you can cancel the upload entirely or remove specific files from the queue by clicking on the X button next to them. If a file cannot be uploaded, a notification will be displayed indicating the problem. When a file upload gets interrupted for some reason mid-transfer, the partially uploaded (incomplete) file will remain on the account.

Editing a file

The File Manager allows you to make changes to your files anywhere without having to use a dedicated text editor on your local device, and then upload the new version of the file to the server. Only files that contain text/code with a size under 1 MB can be edited.

To edit a file via the File Manager:

1. Navigate to the directory where the file is located.
2. Click on the name of the file or the  (Edit) button next to the file. You will be redirected to the Edit file page where you will be able to edit the contents of the file. Files will be loaded with UTF-8 character encoding by default; however, you can reload the file using a different character encoding option.
3. Edit the contents of the file as needed. Syntax highlighting for the most popular scripting languages can also be enabled via the Syntax highlighting drop-down menu.
4. Once ready, click on the Save button to save your changes to the file and remain in the editor. If you are satisfied with the changes and wish to save them, and exit the editor, use the Save and Exit button. To exit the editor without saving any changes made to the file, click on the Exit button.

Previewing a file

You can use the  (Preview) button next to a file within your publicly accessible directories (e.g. ~/www/www/page.html) to open the URL of the respective page on your website directly in your browser (e.g. http://your_domain.com/page.html).

Renaming a file or directory

The File Manager allows you to change the name of a file or directory. To rename a file or directory:

1. Navigate to parent directory where the file or directory you wish to rename is located.
2. Click on the  (Rename) button next to the file or directory.
3. Enter the desired file/directory name.
4. To save the file/directory with the new name, click on the  (Save) button.

Changing file/directory permissions

All files on UNIX (including Linux and other UNIX variations) machines have file system access permissions. They tell the operating system how to deal with requests to access these files. To get a better understanding of file and directory permissions, please refer to the File and folder permissions category from our online documentation.

To change the permissions of a single file or directory using the File Manager:

1. Navigate to the parent directory of the file or directory whose permissions you wish to change.
2. Click on the permissions value under the Permission column.
3. Select a new value from the drop-down menu, and it will be applied immediately. If you are changing the permissions of a directory, they will be applied recursively for all files and subdirectory.

If you wish to change the permissions of multiple files/directories, you need to:

1. Navigate to directory where the file or directory whose permissions you wish to change resides.
2. Select the items whose permissions you wish to change via the checkbox in front of each item. You can click on the topmost checkbox to select/deselect all items in the directory.
3. Click on the Change permissions button.
4. A new window will appear allowing you to choose the new permissions for the selected files/directories and other options (e.g. if the permissions should be added recursively).

Moving/copying files/directories

To move or copy files and/or directories, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the directory where the files or directories you wish to move or copy are located.
2. Choose the items you wish to move or copy by selecting the checkboxes in front of their names. You can click on the topmost checkbox to select/deselect all items in the directory.
3. Click on the Move selected or Copy selected button depending on the desired action.
4. A new window will open where you can navigate to the destination where the selected items will be moved or copied. You can also enter the path to the directory directly in the Target directory field.
5. Click on the Select button to initialize the moving or copying process. A notification message will be displayed once the process finishes.

Adding files to an archive

You can combine multiple files in an archive with the File Manager in a few easy steps:

1. Navigate to the directory where the files or directories you wish to add to an archive are located.
2. Select the files and directories you wish to include in the archive via the checkboxes in front of their respective names. To select all files in the current directory, use the topmost checkbox.
3. Click on the Add to archive button.
4. Select your location where the archive will be stored. You can choose from the current directory or the account’s Private directory.
5. Choose the archive name and type (.tar.gz or .zip), and select if you wish the new archive to overwrite existing archives with the same name.
6. Click on the Add to archive button. Once the archive is ready, a notification message will be displayed, and the archive will be listed in the specified location.

Extracting an archive

The File Manager allows you to extract archives very easily. All you need to do is:

1. Click on the name of the archive file or click on the  (Decompress) button next to it.
2. A new page will load where you can select the files you wish to extract from the archive, whether the archive contents should be extracted in a subdirectory with the archive’s name, and whether the files from the archive should overwrite existing files with the same names.
3. Click on the Next button, and a summary of the extraction process will be displayed.

Downloading files/directories

You can download a single file by clicking on the  (Download) button next to the file, and a new window will appear allowing you to specify the destination and name of the file on your device. If the file cannot be edited with the File Manager, clicking on it will open a download prompt.

To download multiple files, a directory or multiple files and directories, you should consider adding them to an archive, downloading the archive, and extracting it on your device.

Deleting files/directories

You can delete a file or a directory by clicking on the  (Delete) button next to it.

If you wish to delete multiple files and/or directories at once:

1. Navigate to the parent directory of the files or directories that you wish to delete.
2. Select the files and directories you wish to delete using the checkboxes in front of each file/directory name.
3. Click on the Delete selected button.

Searching for files/directories

To find a specific file or directory by its name, you need to do is enter the full or a part of the name of the file or directory you are looking for in the search box above the file/directory list. After that, click on the (Search) button. A list of the files and directories whose names match your search string will be displayed. The search is case-insensitive.

The System Information section of the Control Panel shows the name servers you need to use with your domain name, as well as details about the system software installed on the hosting server.

You would need the name servers in case your domain name is registered at another domain registrar. You need to update the name servers there, in order to point the domain to our hosting service.

The software information is supplied in a table format and the table contains three columns: Name, Version, and Path.

To get more information about the various modules and options, click on the (more info) link for PHP and PERL.
To get more information about the PHP extensions and how to enable them, click on the (extensions) link for PHP.
If you require any information which is not listed on this page, please contact our support team.

Note: It is possible that the software versions shown on the image are not current.

The Redirect URL section of the Control Panel allows you to redirect the web visitors of a given location under your account (e.g. your main domain name, a subdomain name, or a directory) to another URL. Please follow these steps: 

1. In the Subdomain field, you need to specify the subdomain you wish to redirect. To redirect your domain name to another website, choose the main www subdomain.
2. In the Path: field, you need to type in the path of the directory you wish to redirect. To redirect your domain name to another website, use “/“. Otherwise, you can click on the  icon on the right and choose a directory. 
3. In the Go To: field, you need to type in the URL you wish this directory to redirect to. 
4. Choose between a permanent redirect (HTTP status code 301) and a temporary redirect (HTTP status code 302) using the radio buttons. 
5. Click Create.

All redirects that you set up will be listed in table format.

To delete any of the redirects, click on the Remove link next to it.

The Backup section of the Control Panel is used to make backups of your account data. Backups can only be made once a day. The Backup function allows you to create a backup of your Web Files, MySQL databases and email.

• Types of backups
  
• Creating a backup
  
• Saving a temporary backup as permanent
• Downloading a backup
  
• Moving a backup
  
• Deleting a backup
• Failed backups
• Restoring data from a backup
• What if I do not have a personal backup, but I need to have a file restored?

Types of backups

By default when you backup your account data, the system creates a temporary backup. Temporary backup files will be available for 3 days, then deleted automatically.

You can also create Permanent backups which never get deleted by the system. To create a permanent backup, you need to create a temporary one and then, use the Save button to make it permanent. Please, note that while temporary backups do not count towards your account web space (e.g they do not increase your disk space usage) the permanent backups are counted towards your account quota. This means that a 200 MB permanent (saved) backup file will result in 200 MB less free space on your account.

You can download any of the backups you have created over FTP.

Creating a backup

To create a backup, enter your Control Panel > Backup section. Check the backup types you wish to create, and click on the Backup Now button. The backup process may take a while, especially on large sites.

Saving a temporary backup as permanent

Downloading a backup

Moving a backup

Deleting a backup

Failed backups

Restoring data from a backup

What if I do not have a personal backup, but I need to have a file restored?

We make full account backups (files, emails, and databases) twice per day and keep them for 7 days. You can restore content from the system backups through the Restore Manager section of the Control Panel.

You can use the Logs section of the hosting Control Panel to view the Apache logs in almost real time, download the raw Apache and FTP logs, or search through the mail server logs for messages.

The Logs section is split into three subsections:

• Live HTTP logs
• Download logs
• Mail logs

Live HTTP logs

The Live HTTP logs subsection gives you the ability to view the access and error logs of the Apache web server in near real time. The live logs will be enabled within one minute after you open the Live HTTP logs subsection, and they will be disabled six hours after you close the subsection. There are two options (Auto refresh and Auto scroll) in the Live HTTP logs subsection which are enabled by default. The Auto refresh option will refresh the subsection in your browser to display new entries automatically, and the Auto scroll option will scroll to the newest entry from the displayed live logs automatically.

Note: The live logs will appear in near real time, so a delay of several seconds is to be expected.

Download logs

The Download logs subsection allows you to download the raw Apache (web server) logs and the FTP logs for your account on the server. By accessing the subsection, you will be redirected to the logs directory for your account (/home/YOUR_USERNAME/logs) via the Control Panel -> File Manager interface where you can proceed with the download.

It is also possible to download the raw Apache logs and the FTP logs via FTP. Detailed instructions on how to connect to your account via FTP are available in the Uploading files section from our online documentation. After you connect to your account via FTP, you should navigate to the logs directory (/logs) in the FTP client. To access this directory, your FTP account must have access to it or to the home directory (/) for your account. More details on how to modify the directory that an FTP account can access are available in our FTP Manager article.

In the logs directory, you will find today’s Apache logs for each subdomain and the FTP logs for the account in a .log file format. Older log files are stored in the .log.gz file format and in subdirectories of the logs directory on a monthly basis (e.g. /logs/2020-11). The log files are updated once per hour.

Note: If there are no log files for a specific subdomain or date, this means there were no entries in the Apache/FTP log files of the server for that subdomain or date.

Mail logs

The Mail logs subsection gives you the ability to search for messages sent from or delivered/addressed to your mailboxes in the SMTP session, mail delivery, and Spamdyke logs of the mail server in real time. You need to enter a mailbox, subdomain, or a domain from your hosting account in the Sender or Recipient fields to search the server’s mail logs.

For step-by-step instructions on how to search for a specific message, please refer to our Searching for messages in the mail server logs article.

You will not see search results in the Mail logs subsection for messages:

• sent through mail scripts where the sender is not explicitly defined as a mailbox of your hosting account. Messages sent from such improperly configured mail scripts are sent from a system mailbox on the server (e.g. anonymous@sXXX.sureserver.com).
• addressed to mailboxes that do not exist. For such messages, the sender will receive a bounce-back error message explaining the problem.
• received from an external domain and forwarded by one of your mailboxes to other external domains. Such deliveries are recorded in the mail server logs, but your domain does not appear in these records. Because of that, these entries will not be shown.

The FTP Manager section of the Control Panel allows you to view and manage the FTP accounts for your hosting account. There you can:

• create an FTP account
• change the password of an FTP account
• change the directory an FTP account is able to access
• delete an FTP account
• download an FTP configuration file for FileZilla

Creating an FTP account

The main FTP account is created automatically, its username and password are the same as for the hosting Control Panel, and it has access to your account’s home directory (/home/USERNAME/). You can create new FTP subaccounts with custom usernames and access to a specific directory by following these steps:

1. Enter your desired username in the Username field.
2. Enter your desired password in the Password field.

   You will notice that there is a password strength indicator below the Password field. It will update in real time as you are entering your new password. There are five distinct levels of password strength: Very Weak, Weak, Fair, Strong, and Very Strong. Along with the password strength indicator, you will also get information and hints in a tooltip beside the indicator.

   Note: The Add button will remain inactive (grayed out) if the password level is Very Weak or Weak. You will only be able to set a password that is deemed Fair, Strong, or Very Strong. You can check our Choosing a password article for tips on choosing a secure password. If you wish to utilize the random password generator, you can learn more about it in the Random password generator article.

3. Enter the directory that the FTP subaccount should be able to access by typing it manually, or click on the folder icon to browse through your directories and select the directory that way.
4. Click on the Add button.

Changing the password of an FTP account

You can change the password of an FTP account by clicking on the Change Password link next to it.

Note: Since the main FTP account is created automatically, and its username and password are the same as for the hosting Control Panel, clicking on the Change Password button will take you to the Control Panel -> Account Profile section where you can change your hosting Control Panel password, and respectively your main FTP account password.

Changing the directory an FTP account is able to access

The main FTP account has access to your hosting account’s home directory (/home/USERNAME/), so it can access and manage all files and directories in your hosting account. On the other hand, an FTP subaccount can be configured to access all directories or a specific directory (and its subdirectories) in your hosting account. An FTP subaccount cannot access directories above the directory they have access to. Additionally, you can limit access to a specific or a group of FTP commands in a particular directory by using .ftpaccess files.

To change the directory an FTP subaccount is able to access, follow these steps:

1. Click on the  button (pencil icon) next to the specific FTP subaccount from the Directory column.
2. Enter the directory that the FTP subaccount should be able to access by typing it manually in the field that appears, or click on the  button (folder icon) to browse through your directories and select the directory that way.
3. To save the change, click on the  button (confirmation icon) next to the specific FTP subaccount from the Directory column.

Here are some examples on how to use the Directory field:

• Directory: / – the FTP subaccount will have the same access as your main FTP account and will be able to manage all files and folders in your hosting account.
• Directory: /www/ – The FTP subaccount will be able to access only the files of your main domain and its subdomains.
• Directory: /private/ – The FTP subaccount will be able to access only the private directory of your hosting account.
• Directory: /www/your_subdomain/ – The FTP subaccount will be able to access only the files and directories of the your_subdomain subdomain (/home/USERNAME/www/your_subdomain).

Deleting an FTP account

You can delete any of your FTP subaccounts by clicking on the Delete button next to it.

Downloading a configuration file for FileZilla

You can also use the Config file button next to an FTP account to generate a FileZilla configuration file to easily configure that FTP account in the program.

If you do not wish to use FileZilla, you can find detailed instructions on how to configure the most popular FTP software applications in the Uploading file category from our online documentation.

Park a new domain

The Domain Parking section of the Control Panel allows you to park additional domain names to your account. When you have a domain parked on your account, it will act the same way as your primary domain. It will show the same website, and any email sent to the parked domain will be delivered to the mailboxes you already have for the primary domain.

For example, if you have the domains example.com, example.net, and example.org, and you need all of them to open your website, domain parking may be the right solution for you.

To park a new domain name, simply type it in the Domain name field, and click the Create button.

Domain name parking takes several minutes, so you can return to the main page of Control Panel and check the updated status of the parking request in a few minutes.

Once parking is complete, the Status column will show the name as Active. You will also receive an email, containing the DNS settings you have to apply to the parked domain name at your registrar. The email will be sent to the contact address(es) listed in the Account Profile section of the Control Panel.

To delete a parked domain name from the list of parked names, use the Remove button.

To set a parked domain name to be the main domain for your account, use the Set as primary button. Once you set a parked domain name to be the main, the domain name that used to be main will become parked and will be included in your parked domains list.

“Apply all DNS records of the primary domain…” checkbox

If you have custom DNS records added for your main domain through the DNS Manager of the hosting Control Panel, checking this option will force the domain parking procedure to add the custom records to the newly-parked domain name as well. The Mail Delivery status settings you have in the DNS Manager will be applied as well. If you do not check this option, then the domain will be parked with the default DNS and mail settings. If you do not have custom DNS records for your main domain in the DNS Manager, then it does not matter whether you check this option or not. Note that for any of the settings in the DNS Manager to have effect, the domain must use our DNS service.

Domain Redirects

You can use thе Domain Redirects tab to redirect the visitors from all parked domains to the main domain for the account with a 301 redirect. This will change the URL in the browser for the visitors. This is a way to avoid duplicate content and help the search engines index your content better.

The Force redirection to www checkbox allows you to configure redirection from the apex domain (domain.com) to www.domain.com. It does not force www for the subdomains.

The Traceroute section of the Control Panel is used to run a traceroute command from the server your account is on to another IP address or host.

To use the feature, you need to:

1. Type desired IP address or domain name in the Trace to: field.
2. Click on the Go button.

A pop-up window showing traceroute results will open.

By default, the IP address listed in the Trace to: field is the IP address you have logged into the Control Panel from. If you use this IP address, you will see the connection between the server and your location.

The Document Root is the physical folder on the server, whose content is displayed when a visitor accesses your website (or a subdomain on your site).

You can change the Document Root of your website and/or any of your subdomains through the Subdomains section of your hosting Control Panel. There, you will see a list of your subdomains, including your main site.

To change the document root of any subdomain, press the button Edit next to it. Then, type the path to the new document root, or use the Browse button to choose a folder from the server.

Once ready, click on the Update button. The change will need a couple of minutes to take effect.

Notice:

1. Scripts located in your “cgi-bin” folder will always be accessible regardless of the current DocumentRoot.
2. The DocumentRoot cannot be changed to an upper level folder. It can only be changed to a subfolder of the default DocumentRoot.

You can use the MySQL Databases section of the hosting Control Panel to manage your MySQL databases, users, and their privileges via three tabs – Databases, MySQL users, and Privileges. Each of these tabs allows you to perform different actions:

• The Databases tab allows you to:
  • Create a new database.
  • Access phpMyAdmin.
  • View a list of your databases and the MySQL users associated with them.
  • Import a MySQL dump into a database.
  • Export a MySQL dump from a database.
  • Delete a database.
• The MySQL users tab gives you the ability to:
  • Add a MySQL user.
  • View a list of your MySQL users and the databases they are associated with.
  • Change the password for a MySQL user.
  • Enable remote connections for a MySQL user.
  • Delete a MySQL user.
• Via the Privileges tab, you can:
  • Associate a MySQL user with a database.
  • View a list of your databases and MySQL users with their privileges.
  • Change the privileges of a MySQL user over a database.

The App Installer section of the Control Panel is a web platform that automates the installation process of applications on your hosting account. The following software applications (pre-installed scripts) are currently supported:

• Drupal
• Joomla
• Moodle
• Nextcloud Hub
• OpenCart
• PrestaShop
• Matomo

Note: The software applications are installed as they come from the software vendors and with the latest PHP and MySQL versions supported by the applications and our servers. We just automate the installation process, and we do not take responsibility about the proper operation of the software itself.

To install any of these applications via the App Installer, you need to:

1. Access your Control Panel.
2. Open the App Installer section.
3. Click on the installation button for the desired application.
4. Enter the required information for the installation of the application (location for the installation, administrative credentials, etc.).
5. Click on the Install button.

Note: We recommend that you regularly update the core, themes, and extensions of all software applications installed on your account to ensure their proper operation, compatibility, and overall improved security.

The Control Panel Subusers section allows you to create additional users for the Control Panel, with limited access to the sections you specify.

Creating a Control Panel subuser

To create an additional Control Panel user, follow this procedure:

1. Enter an username in the Username text field. It will automatically be prefixed with the main username of the hosting Control Panel, and has to subsequently be used with the prefix.
2. Enter a password of your choice in the Password text field.

You will notice that there is a password strength indicator below the Password field. It will update in real time as you are entering your new password. There are five distinct levels of password strength: Very Weak, Weak, Fair, Strong, and Very Strong. Along with the password strength indicator, you will also get information and hints in a tooltip beside the indicator.

Note that the Add button will remain inactive (grayed out) if the password level is Very Weak or Weak. You will only be able to set a password that is deemed Fair, Strong, or Very Strong. You can check the following article for tips on choosing a secure password:

Academy » Hosting » Security » Choosing a password

You can also utilize the random password generator:

Academy » Hosting » Control Panel » Random password generator

3. Once you get a confirmation that you have a strong password, re-type the new password at the Confirm Password field.
4. In the Name field, enter a name, which will be shown in the Control Panel of the subuser,
5. In the E-mail field, enter an e-mail address, for reference only.
6. Check the boxes in front of all Control Panel sections that you want this user to have access to.
7. Click the Add button. The new Control Panel subuser should appear a list below the form.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

• If you enable the Require 2FA Auth option, the subuser will be automatically asked to set up two-factor authentication for their user after logging in with it. You can read about the two-factor authentication on our servers in the Two-factor authentication (2FA) for the hosting Control Panel section from our online documentation.
• If you enable access to phpMyAdmin (Main user) for a Control Panel subuser, then that subuser will be able access phpMyAdmin as your master MySQL user. This means the user will have full MySQL privileges on all of your databases.
• If you enable access to SureWebBuilder (Main user) for a Control Panel subuser, then that subuser will be able to access SureWebBuilder as your main user and thus will also have full access to the file system on the account using the built-in File Manager of SureWebBuilder.
• Please be aware that when adding a user to one of the following sections: Cron Jobs, Migration, MySQL Databases, Redirect URL, App Installer, FTP Manager or Document Roots, this user will also be able to browse and create folders on the account.

Note that not all Control Panel subsections are available in the list. Some sections, such as Account Settings, can be edited only by the main Control Panel user.

Editing an existing Control Panel subuser

To edit an existing user, click on the button Edit next to the user. The fields will be populated with the user settings. After you make the needed changes, you need to click on the Edit button.

Deleting a Control Panel subuser

To delete a Control panel subuser, just click on the button Delete next to the button in the list.

Managing subdomains

The Subdomains section of the Control Panel allows you to create, rename, or delete subdomains for your account. To create a new subdomain, please follow these steps:

1. Type the desired subdomain name in the box under Creating a new subdomain.
2. Click Create.
3. Allow a few minutes for the subdomain to be created.

Clicking on any of the subdomain names listed will take you to the main page of the respective subdomain. A default “Got New Host” index page is created automatically for each new subdomain.

The path to the directory with the subdomain files is shown next to the subdomain name. Clicking on it will allow you to browse the directory of the subdomain via the File Manager.

To rename a subdomain, please click on the Rename button next to it. This will turn the field Creating a new subdomain into a Renaming a subdomain field. Type the new name of the subdomain there, and press Rename. When renaming a subdomain, it is important to know that:

• you must fix any system paths that you may have in the files of the renamed subdomain
• the AWStats statistics will be reset and will start anew.

To remove a subdomain name along with its content, click the Delete button for it.

All operations with subdomains (creating, renaming, or deleting) take about a minute to complete.

Wildcard subdomains

The wildcard subdomains feature allows you to point all non-existing subdomains of the domain name in the Domain column to its document root. This feature is useful if you plan to manage multiple subdomains with a single application located in this document root.

You can enable or disable this feature with the Enable/Disable button in the Wildcard subdomains tab of the Subdomains section in the hosting Control Panel.

The WebApps section of the hosting Control Panel allows you to run Node.js and other web apps on your account. Step-by-step instructions on how to set up and run multiple web apps are available in the WebApps / Node.js section of the online documentation.

If you do not have a Web Apps section in your hosting Control Panel, then you can ask your hosting provider for more information, or you can seek assistance through our ticketing system.

The Cron Jobs section of the Control Panel allows you to add scripts on your account as scheduled tasks. Sample scheduled tasks can be: create a backup of your account, send an email message, update certain areas of your site, etc. You can configure any PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby or other CGI script located on your account to run as a cron job.

Creating a New Cron Job (Basic Mode)

1. Select the script you wish to schedule for execution.
2. Choose a start time from the drop-down list and confirm with the Set cron button.

Setting up email notifications

Once you schedule a Cron Job, you can receive via e-mail the output it generates. You can specify the mailbox to which the results will be sent.

Testing the Cron Job

You can check if your cron job will execute properly by using the Run button. This will execute the cron job script and will provide you with its output. In this way you can verify if all the cron jobs settings are correct.

Deleting a Cron Job

To delete a cron job task you can use the Delete button.

Advanced Mode

You can use the Advanced Mode tab for more scheduling options. After choosing the script which should be executed, you can set the exact time for this action from the drop-down lists (Hour/Minute/Day/Month/Day of week). Once the time is specified, use the Set cron button to confirm your settings.

The PHP Settings section of the hosting Control Panel allows you to adjust the PHP interpreter settings (version, handler, directives, extensions) for each subdomain hosted on your account. The section is split in three subsections:

• Choose PHP version
• Manage global php.ini file
• Choose PHP CLI version
  

Choose PHP version

The Choose PHP version subsection allows you to change the PHP version and handler using the available drop-down menus. You can refer to our PHP version and handler article for more information on the supported PHP versions and handlers on our servers.

Clicking on the Manage button next to a subdomain will take you to its PHP settings management screen which contains information and management tools for your current PHP configuration. The most important details about your PHP configuration will be displayed in the Info subsection – PHP version, handler, and the default location of PHP configuration file for the specific subdomain.

Next to the PHP handler, you will see a button labeled Reload FPM master process for subdomains that use FPM with OPcache as PHP handler. You can use that button to manually reload the FPM master process and apply any changes made to the subdomains PHP configuration file outside of the PHP Settings section. You do not need to use the Reload FPM master process button if you make changes to PHP configuration files through the PHP Settings section as the FPM master process will be reloaded automatically.

Next to the php.ini configuration file for the subdomain, two buttons will be displayed – Edit (which allows you to edit the php.ini file as plain text) and Restore to default (which will restore the php.ini file to default).

The Extensions and Directives subsections will display the current status of extensions and the values for any modified directives, and at the same time, you can use these subsections to make changes to your PHP configuration through the user interface. You can click on the Show additional directives button to get a list of the unmodified directives in your subdomain’s php.ini file to change them.

Manage global php.ini file

The Manage global php.ini file subsection allows you to edit the global php.ini for your hosting account, and create it if it doesn’t exist. You can learn more about it in our PHP configuration files and priority article.

Choose PHP CLI version

The Choose PHP CLI version subsection allows you to change PHP version for the command line PHP binary. PHP CLI is used when you run PHP scripts through the command line (e.g. via SSH), or when you run them as cron jobs. You can learn more about the PHP version for the command line binary in our PHP configuration files and priority article.

General information

Your hosting account (your website and/or mailboxes) may stop working correctly if its disk space or inode quota limit is reached. For example, most website software applications need to create temporary files, and if your account has reached its disk space or inode quota limit, the web application would be unable to create these temporary files and is very likely to crash. If the disk space or inode quota limit is reached, you will also be unable to receive any new email messages, and the sender of the message will receive a bounce-back error that their message could not be delivered due to a full mailbox. That’s why we strongly recommend you make sure there is always some free space on the account (at least 10%).

Checking your disk space/inodes usage

The Control Panel’s Resources section is an invaluable tool for checking the disk space and inodes usage for your hosting account. There you will see a summary of the disk space and inodes usage for the main directories in your account (e.g. www, private, and backup), mailboxes, and databases. You can see detailed disk space/inode usage information in a tree view for a specific item by clicking on it.

“The tree view cannot be rendered due to too many items” error message

If there are too many items in a specific directory in your account, the tree view from the Control Panel’s Resources section may not be displayed due to browser restrictions, and the following message will be displayed – “The tree view cannot be rendered due to too many items.” In such cases, you can check the disk space/inode usage on your own via SSH using the commands listed below. Detailed instructions on how to connect to your hosting account via SSH are available in our SSH category. Alternatively, you can contact our support team for assistance.

Use the following command via SSH to check the current disk space usage for a specific directory in your account:

du -sm * | sort -rn | head -n 20

The command will list the 20 biggest directories or files in the current directory. Next to each file or directory, you will see the size in MB.

To check the inodes usage for a specific directory, you can use this command:

for dir in `ls -d */`; do icount=$(find $dir | wc -l); echo "$icount - $dir"; done | sort -rn | head -n 20

The command will list the 20 directories with the highest number of inodes in the current directory.

Reducing disk space/inodes usage

Once you have determined what directories/files consume the most disk space or inodes, you need to find a way to reduce that usage. Most often the disk space and inode limits are reached due to outdated or unnecessary files, scripts, backups, or software applications.

You can remove directories/files or download them to a local device from your account if they are not necessary for the operation of your website. This can be done via the Control Panel’s File Manager section or via FTP. Detailed instructions on how to connect to your account via FTP are available in the Uploading files category from our online documentation.

If an application or script is generating temporary files (e.g. session files) or backups without deleting them regularly, you should check the official documentation of that application or script for instructions on how to automatically delete the temporary files or backups after some time. For example, you can store session or temporary files in the /tmp folder on the server, and they will be deleted automatically. As for backups, we create full account (files, emails, and databases) backups twice per day, and we keep them for at least 7 days, so you may consider reducing the rate your scripts/applications are configured to back up your data.

In the event that your account reaches its disk space or inode limit due to messages in your mailboxes, you can find detailed instructions on how to reduce the disk space/inodes usage for your mailboxes in our Mail accounts over quota article.

It is possible to reach the disk space quota for your account if your databases take up too much disk space. You can inspect your database tables via the phpMyAdmin software. Instructions on how to access it are available in our Accessing phpMyAdmin article.

Upgrading

If you are unable to reduce your disk space/inodes usage, you should consider upgrading your account.

Notifications

By default, the system sends automatic notifications when a hosting account reaches 90% and 99% of its disk space quota, and 80% and 100% of its inode quota. These messages will be sent to the contact email address for your hosting account listed in the Control Panel’s Account Profile section. You can disable or change the default notification value of 90% for disk space quota according to your personal preference via the Control Panel’s Resources section. We would advise that you do not disable these notifications to ensure that your hosting account and its related services are always functioning properly.

The SSH access section of the hosting Control Panel allows you to enable SSH access for your main Control Panel user as well as manage the access to various network and compiler tools.

IMPORTANT: Allowing SSH access to the hosting account, or access to any of the network and compiler tools may lessen the security of your hosting account. Please enable SSH or access to tools only if you plan to use them.

SSH access

To enable SSH access for your main hosting Control Panel user, just click on the button Enable under the SSH access subsection. Then you will be able to connect to the server over SSH, using a Terminal program, with the main username and password for your hosting Control Panel.

If you wish, you can configure key-based authentication to the server, and then disable the authentication with a username and a password. Instructions for configuring key-based authentication are available in the article Key-based authentication.  

SSH access for Control Panel subusers cannot be enabled.

Additional tools

The network tools under this section include curl, wget, links, lynx, ncftp3, ncftpget, ncftpput, and netkit-ftp. By default, as a security precaution, access to these network tools and the compilers on the server is disabled, as they can be used by hackers, in case a software on the hosting account is compromised. To enable access to the listed network tools or the GCC/G++ compilers, you need to click on the Enable button on the respective row.

The Git section of the Control Panel allows you to create Git repositories on your hosting account. It also allows you to install the GitList software that can be used to browse Git repositories, view files under different revisions, commit history and diffs via a web browser. GitList is free and open-source software written in PHP.

Installing GitList

To install GitList, you need to select the subdomain and the path to the directory where you wish to install it. You also need to specify the path to the Git repositories you wish to browse. If you have created any Git repositories using the hosting Control Panel, they will be in the account’s /private/git.repostorage directory.

The installation directory will be automatically password protected with a username and a randomly generated password. You can later change the authorized users using the Protection > Web access protection section of the hosting Control Panel.

GitList does not work properly with PHP 5.3 and 5.6, so you need PHP 7.4 or upper in order to use this piece of software.

Creating a Git repository

To create a Git repository on your account, you need to choose the subdomain and the web access path. They determine the HTTP address you will be using to access the Git repository remotely from another server or from your local computer.

All repositories will be stored in the /private/git.repostorage directory on your hosting account. You need to choose the name and description of the repository you are creating. A directory with the name of the repository will be created, for example /private/git.repostorage/name_of_repository.

The web address of the repository will be automatically password protected with а username and a randomly generated password. You can later change the authorized users using the Protection > Web access protection section of the hosting Control Panel.

All Control Panel sections that allow you to choose passwords for accessing the Control Panel, FTP service, MySQL databases, or email accounts, have an automatic password generator available. Its purpose is to help you set secure passwords that are hard to guess or brute-force. You can then store these passwords in a password manager software or in the programs that you use to access the services, or you can write them down, depending on your personal preference. The passwords generated by this tool are strong enough to be used with our service.

To start the tool, you need to click the Generate button next to the interface for setting a new password.

The password generator allows you to choose between three different types of passwords:

• Random: Totally random passwords that consist of small and capital latin letters, digits, and 32 special symbols.

• Pronounceable: The passwords consist of small latin letters only.

• Passphrase: The passwords consist of words in English separated by spaces.

You can choose the length of the passwords. Even the shortest passwords generated by the tool are considered secure. If you would be storing the passwords in software that runs on your device, you can choose longer passwords. If you would enter them periodically by hand, you may consider using shorter passwords for convenience.

Once you have selected a password, you need to copy it to your clipboard or write it down. Then click the Use button to populate the Password/Confirm Password fields with it. You need to click the Change, Add, or Submit button to assign the password to the service.

If you decide not to use the tool to generate a password, simply click away from it anywhere on the Control Panel window.

If you see an icon with a tooltip “System file, or folder containing system files.” next to a folder in the File Manager, this means that the folder, or any of its subfolders down the tree, contain a system file.

System files are usually created by tools of your hosting Control Panel, or by administrative tools on the server.

An example of such tool is the FTP Protection section. When altering the behaviour of any of your FTP subusers through the FTP Protection section, the system creates an .ftpaccess file in the home folder of the subuser. If for any reason this .ftpaccess file is removed, then the behaviour of the FTP subuser will return to the default settings.

You should remove system files carefully and considering the possible consequences.

Addon domains allow you to host multiple domain names with distinct websites and mailboxes on a single hosting account.

If the Addon Domains section is not available in your account’s Control Panel, please contact your hosting provider, or contact us through our ticketing system.

In this article, you can find information on:

• Creating addon domains
• Parking domain names to addon domains
• Managing the files of addon domains
• Managing the mailboxes of addon domains
• Managing the mailing lists of addon domains
• Managing the PHP settings of addon domains
• Setting up web access protection for addon domains
• Creating URL redirections for addon domains
• Enabling server-side caching for addon domains
• Viewing site statistics for addon domains
• Managing the subdomains of addon domains

Creating addon domains

You can create addon domains through the Addon Domains section of the Control Panel of your account. There, type the full name of the domain you would like to host as an addon domain:

Please note that the domain name you are setting up as an addon domain must be registered in advance.

Once the domain name has been added, it will be listed in the Addon domains list on the same page.

Parking domain names to addon domains

You can park and unpark domain names to addon domains through the Domain Parking section of the Control Panel of your account. There, you need to select the addon domain you are parking a domain name to or unparking a domain name from at the top of the page:

Detailed information about the Domain Parking section of the Control Panel is available in the Domain Parking article.

Managing the files of addon domains

You can manage the files of your addon domains through the File Manager in the Control Panel of your account. The files of your addon domains are located in the /home/username/addons/ (where username is the actual username of your hosting account):

Detailed information on how to use the File Manager of the Control Panel can be found in the File Manager article.

Managing the mailboxes of addon domains

You can create, delete, and manage mailboxes for your addon domains through the Mail Manager section in the Control Panel of your account. There, you need to select the domain whose mailboxes you are working with at the top of the page:

Detailed information on how to use the Mail Manager of the Control Panel section is available in the Mail Manager section.

Managing the mailing lists of addon domains

You can create, delete, and manage mailing lists for your addon domains through the Mailing List section in the Control Panel of your account. There, you need to select the domain whose mailing lists you are working with at the top of the page:

Detailed information about the Mailing List section of the Control Panel is available in the Mailing Lists section.

Managing the PHP settings of addon domains

You can manage the PHP settings of your addon domains through the PHP Settings the Control Panel of your account. There, you need to select the domain whose PHP settings you are editing at the top of the page:

Detailed information about the PHP Settings section of the Control Panel is available in the PHP Settings article.

Setting up web access protection for addon domains

You can set up web access protection for your addon domains through the Protection >> Web access protection section of the Control Panel of your account. You need to select the domain you are protecting at the top of the page:

Detailed information about the Web access protection section of the Control Panel is available in the Web access protection section.

Creating URL redirections for addon domains

You can create URL redirections for your addon domains through the Redirect URL section of the Control Panel of your account. You need to select the domain for which you are creating URL redirections at the top of the page:

Detailed information about the Redirect URL section of the Control Panel is available in the Redirect URL article.

Enabling server-side caching for addon domains

You can enable or disable server-side caching for your addon domains through the Server-side Caching section of the Control Panel of your account. You need to select the domain for which you are managing server-side caching at the top of the page:

Detailed information about the Server-side Caching section of the Control Panel is available in the Server-side Caching section.

Viewing site statistics for addon domains

You can view site statistics and manage the users for the site statistics pages for your addon domains through the Site Statistics section of the Control Panel of your account. You need to select the domain for which you are viewing statistics at the top of the page:

Detailed information about the Site Statistics section of the Control Panel is available in the Site Statistics article.

Managing the subdomains of addon domains

You can create and manage the subdomains of your addon domains through the Subdomains section of the Control Panel of your account. You need to select the domain for which you are managing subdomains at the top of the page:

Detailed information about the Subdomains section of the Control Panel is available in the Subdomains article.