An interview with Aric Pedersen, author of the cPanel User Guide and Tutorial book and the latest book titled, WebHost Manager Administration Guide, by Packt Publishing.

1. What made you write a book on cPanel?

When I decided I wanted to have my own website, I did a lot of searching and found a web host that offered cPanel. From the laundry list of features offered with the hosting plan I knew that it would fit my needs.

However, when I actually started to use cPanel to manage my site, I found that I had a lot of questions. I also noticed that everyone I asked my questions to had slightly different answers. Add to this the fact that cPanel Inc.'s own documentation at the time was spotty and not updated very often and I found myself wishing there was a book I could turn to help clear up some of my questions.

As time went on and I learned more about cPanel and then WHM I realized just how sorely books on both items were needed. I am a teacher at heart, and I've always enjoyed showing people how to do things for themselves so they don't have to rely on others.

My first attempt at bringing order to chaos was via an electronic guide to cPanel that I released on webhostingtalk.com. That guide was downloaded thousands of times by people all over the world and I knew then that a real book had to be written.

I'm just thrilled now that there are books out there for people to refer to. I hope that my books will save people some of the uncertainty and trouble that I went through while trying to learn all I could about these wonderful tools.

I'm sure there are a lot of NOCs and web hosts out there that are glad also, as these books should help reduce the number of basic support questions they have to deal with. :)

2. You must have received feedbacks from the readers of cPanel. Did you incorporate any of them in WHM?

I have received a lot of very positive feedback from readers of my cPanel book. People seemed to appreciate the clear and straightforward tone the book set. I have tried to maintain the same task-oriented concise language in the book about WHM that the cPanel book has.

cPanel Inc. is constantly working on both products and I fully intend to revise both books as necessary to keep them relevant. I encourage readers to provide feedback so I can be sure that future editions continue to meet the needs of readers.

3. How do cPanel and WHM relate to each other? Why did you follow your cPanel book up with one on WebHost Manager?

They are two sides of the same coin. cPanel is the end-user web hosting front-end that allows the webmaster to manage all aspects of their website in a simple web-based interface. cPanel allows the user to spend more time actually working on the content of their website and less worrying about how to implement or manage features. WHM is the web-based interface for systems administrators and web hosting reseller clients. It manages everything from new customer account creation to monitoring and configuring services.

Only doing a book on cPanel would leave a large portion of the story untold. WHM is more complex than cPanel and so needs a book written about it even more than cPanel did. Together, these books give the systems administrator a very clear picture of what can be accomplished with the software.

4. In your book on cPanel, you had quite a long list of third party add-ons and themes that you recommended the users to look out for. Can you give us a sneak preview of the third party tools that you recommend to the readers of WebHost Manager Administration Guide? Are they same as those mentioned in the cPanel book?

Due to page limits, the WHM book will have 3 appendices available online for download as PDFs. One of these appendices will mention many of the third-party tools available for use with cPanel servers. I think people will be surprised just how many tools there are out there specifically designed for use with cPanel and WHM. I don't want to specifically single out any tools for mention now since many of these tools are commercial products and I'd rather not show favoritism. I will say that there are a wide variety of high quality third-party tools and add-ons that are worth a look including several that are low cost or even free.

There is some overlap in the items mentioned in the cPanel and WHM books, but the focus is different in both. In the cPanel book, add-ons are mentioned because many web hosts seek to differentiate their service by offering added features or different themes. As such the end-user needs to know a bit more about them so they can find a web host that best meets their needs.

In the WHM book, the discussion of third-party add-ons is designed to allow the systems administrator to better understand what is available and to help them implement tools that will best enhance their services and keep their server(s) running smoothly.

5. What chapter of the book did you enjoy writing the most?

It is hard for me to pick a favorite because I love the whole process of writing and editing and I always have. If I had to pick one I guess it would be the chapter on the initial setup of WHM after installation. I choose this one because I think it really speaks to a deep need of many systems administrators who are new to Linux and WHM. They get the basic server information from their NOC and then this feeling of "OK, now what?" sets in. I'm glad I could help answer that question and make sure the administrator gets the most out of their investment.

6. What kind of things do you see people most often doing wrong while working with WHM? Have you made a mention of these in your book?

The biggest mistake I've seen people make is to ignore WHM completely except when they want to add a new account to their server. WHM is very powerful and can be intimidating for users who have never had a dedicated server or VPS before. I've seen lots of people never update their server or work with anything in WHM except the new account creation features. This could end up being dangerous as the user may not realize that there are security issues that need to be dealt with from time to time.

7. Thanks Aric. Congratulations on the release of WebHost Manager Administration Guide!!

Thank you!