I have a problem with my server which uses whm/cpanel. I submitted a ticket to cpanel.net's support and got the response that they could help me if I mailed them the servers IP and its root password. - Now I know that with the root password a person could do anything with the server. I don't know cpanel.net so well so would just like to ask what other server owners would have done? Would you advice me to send it to them? After all they are the people who made whm/cpanel.

Thanks
John

Have you tried asking your Provider for help? Maybe you can fix the problem yourself.

Yes, I did, but I just wanted to know if this is something other server owners does - if they can't figure out a problem, off course - my provider told me that if they (cpanel.net) were to compromise my system, he could always go ahead and reflash it and put a clean copy of the OS so in that respect it would be OK, but that it's really my decision at this point. I suppose there is nothing wrong with using the people at WHM/CPanel - just wanted to know if others did the same.

John

I've given them root on several machines. If you're worried about it, you could always just change the root pass and then change it back when you're done.

I've given them root on several machines. If you're worried about it

Thanks Neo3net - Yeah, I'm kind of a nervous person :D. I'm gonna do the same as I'll probably need their support from time to time in the future. - Thank you both for responding. :stickout:

John

I dont know, I have never given out my root password...

Compile something like watch in and see everything they do. I would also get a NDA signed by them before they go near the machine.

The guys at cpanel have a pretty good reputation. its not like they are unknown. i realize that that doesn't automatically make anyone trustworthy, but its not like they're going to get in and sabotage your server. Unless you have classified material on the server or have your own in-house experts, I'd just give them access, if you need to be back up soon. You should already have backups of everything anyway, and could just reload if something goes wrong.

If you have a problem and it requires CPanel to fix it, I wouldn't worry about giving them your root password. But for caution, you can always just change it afterwards as already suggested by another WHT member. They need to get in to the server to see what the problem is exactly so they can fix it on their own version of CPanel and update the thousands of other CPanel users such as ourselves.

I've personally given a root password to them in the past and there's been no problems.

Alan

I did give them my root passsworld and the problems were fiexed right. :)

However, their ticket system is what gets me nervous. After you submitted the ticket, they sent a confirmation mail back to you with a URL like (https://tickets.cpanel.net/review/?id=XXXX&secid=XXXXXXXXXX). What if someone gets this URL and browse the whole ticket with root password in it and I am not able to change the password to a new one in time?!

maybe a password-protected ticket system would be nice!