Recent Posts

21

PHP Selector / Re: Temporary downgrade of CWP pro to free version (emergency!)

« Last post by Martins-phpbb on January 30, 2026, 12:19:01 AM »

Cant you just login here https://support.centos-webpanel.com/index.php?rp=/login and put a bs ip in the box and when cwp does it's sweep your pro will be disabled then you can just use the free features only.

Or am i reading what you want wrong ?

22

PHP Selector / Re: Temporary downgrade of CWP pro to free version (emergency!)

« Last post by WISTFUL on January 29, 2026, 10:27:27 PM »

This is the solution provided by AI based on my operating system specifications and CWP configuration:
Do you think there's anything in it that needs optimization or could cause problems later?

Step 1: Full Backup

1. Backup websites:
   

Code: [Select]

cp -r /home/* /backup/cwp_sites/
2. Backup databases:
   

Code: [Select]

mysqldump -u root -p --all-databases > /backup/all_databases.sql
3. Backup configurations:
   

Code: [Select]

cp -r /usr/local/cwpsrv/ /backup/cwpsrv/
   cp -r /etc/php-fpm.d/ /backup/php-fpm/
   cp -r /etc/httpd/conf/ /backup/httpd_conf/
   cp -r /etc/nginx/conf.d/ /backup/nginx_conf/
Note: The [/backup] path can be located on a separate disk or another server.


Step 2: Check and install PHP 7.4

1. Check installed versions:
   

Code: [Select]

rpm -qa | grep alt-php
2. If PHP 7.4 is not installed, install it:
   

Code: [Select]

yum install alt-php74 alt-php74-php-fpm alt-php74-php-cli -y

Step 3: Enable and start PHP-FPM 7.4

Code: [Select]

systemctl enable --now php-fpm74
systemctl status php-fpm74
Note: If the service is not active or shows errors, investigate and fix it before continuing.


Step 4: Create socket directory

• Default socket path:

Code: [Select]

/opt/alt/php-fpm74/usr/var/sockets/<sitename>.sock
• If it does not exist:

Code: [Select]

mkdir -p /opt/alt/php-fpm74/usr/var/sockets
chown -R cwpsrv:cwpsrv /opt/alt/php-fpm74/usr/var/sockets
systemctl restart php-fpm74

Step 5: Rebuild CWP configuration for PHP-FPM

Code: [Select]

/usr/local/cwp/php-fpm-rebuild
systemctl restart httpd
systemctl restart nginx
systemctl restart varnish

Step 6: Check and fix Nginx → Varnish → Apache configuration

1. In the Nginx config file for each site, point [fastcgi_pass] to the fixed PHP-FPM socket:
   

Code: [Select]

fastcgi_pass unix:/opt/alt/php-fpm74/usr/var/sockets/<sitename>.sock;
2. Restart Varnish to clear cache:
   

Code: [Select]

systemctl restart varnish

Step 7: Test websites

1. Create an [info.php] file:
   

Code: [Select]

<?php phpinfo(); ?>
2. Check in the browser and make sure it loads without a 503 error.


Step 8: Preparation for returning to Pro

1. Keep the full backup.
2. After activating Pro:
   

Code: [Select]

/usr/local/cwp/upgrade_to_pro
Or via CWP panel → License Activation

3. Check Selector / Version Switcher and enable it
4. If newer PHP versions are needed, use Selector in CWP Pro
5. Restart services:
   

Code: [Select]

systemctl restart php-fpm74
   systemctl restart httpd
   systemctl restart nginx
   systemctl restart varnish

Step 9: Final notes

• Recommended PHP version in Free: 7.4
• All sites are set to one fixed version so Selector in Pro will work smoothly later
• Keep backups until Pro is reactivated and all sites are stable

23

PHP Selector / Re: Temporary downgrade of CWP pro to free version (emergency!)

« Last post by overseer on January 29, 2026, 03:25:01 PM »

Not saying it can't be done, just that I personally haven't done it. So it would need to be worked through. I know some forum members get by on the free version of CWP, so maybe they could chime in here.

24

PHP Selector / Re: Temporary downgrade of CWP pro to free version (emergency!)

« Last post by WISTFUL on January 29, 2026, 12:39:22 AM »

It's strange that no one has ever found such a need, and the cwp programmers didn't provide a guide or solution for it! 

25

PHP Selector / Re: Temporary downgrade of CWP pro to free version (emergency!)

« Last post by overseer on January 28, 2026, 01:15:57 PM »

Unfortunately I only ever used the free version 5 years ago to demo CWP and quickly paid for Pro once I verified it could act as a drop-in replacement for cPanel and in fact do a full account migration. I haven't looked back and rely on many of the Pro-level features (PHP-FPM, nginx...) This would take some time and care to get you stable under the free version. Have you considered doing a clean server install and running Webmin and/or Cockpit as your web GUI? That's workable if you have experience managing a server.

26

PHP Selector / Re: Temporary downgrade of CWP pro to free version (emergency!)

« Last post by WISTFUL on January 28, 2026, 02:45:08 AM »

Sounds like a can of worms. Probably some workarounds you could do (tunneling, WireGuard VPNs) etc. -- but ultimately I wonder if it's worth the effort. Is there any reason you can't get a VPS in another country? Then only your management ability would be interrupted with situations like this -- your server would remain online & resilient.

The server must be internal so that local citizens can access it. There is no question of filtering that can be bypassed with a VPN, the entire internal network is disconnected from the global network! (The so-called national internet)
Even Starlink must be connected to the internal internet network so that the server can connect to it because its data center is national.

It usually can't be very long because it costs the government billions of dollars.

There is no other way but to temporarily switch between the free and pro versions. If you can guide me in this area, you have helped me a lot.

27

PHP Selector / Re: Temporary downgrade of CWP pro to free version (emergency!)

« Last post by overseer on January 28, 2026, 12:51:47 AM »

Sounds like a can of worms. Probably some workarounds you could do (tunneling, WireGuard VPNs) etc. -- but ultimately I wonder if it's worth the effort. Is there any reason you can't get a VPS in another country? Then only your management ability would be interrupted with situations like this -- your server would remain online & resilient.

28

PHP Selector / Temporary downgrade of CWP pro to free version (emergency!)

« Last post by WISTFUL on January 27, 2026, 03:43:38 PM »

Due to internet restrictions imposed by the government of the country where my server is located, it was impossible to access the global internet for over 2 weeks.
This caused the control panel license to fail, modules such as PHP‑FPM Selector to be disabled, and 503 errors to be received on the hosted websites.

Error on the home page of php sites:

503 Service Unavailable

The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.

Error log:

Code: [Select]

[Fri Jan 23 18:35:35.229146 2026] [proxy:error] [pid 31248:tid 31296] (2)No such file or directory: AH02454: FCGI: attempt to connect to Unix domain socket /opt/alt/php-fpm72/usr/var/sockets/sabradid.sock (localhost:8000) failed
[Fri Jan 23 18:35:35.229618 2026] [proxy_fcgi:error] [pid 31248:tid 31296] [client x.x.x.x:58910] AH01079: failed to make connection to backend: localhost
Notes:

• Operating system: AlmaLinux 8 (64)
• CWP version: 0.9.8.1220
• Web server configuration Domains in pro version: nginx -> varnish -> apache -> php-fpm
• When the global internet is down, only local Linux distribution mirrors are available. (cwp-repo is not available)

Questions:

• What is the safest, least-consequences, and CWP-compatible way to install Alt-PHP and enable PHP-FPM on it? Or any other solution that will fix the problem. (step by step with full details)
• Given the operating system and CWP version, what is the lowest PHP version I can use in the free version? (Pre-installed versions: PHP-FPM 5.4.45, 7.2, 7.4, 8.0, 8.3)
• What is the best solution to renew SSL certificates given that there is no access to the global internet?
• What is the best solution to reactivate CWP pro after applying the above changes to CWP?

Please answer my questions before disconnecting access to the global internet again!
Many thanks...

29

Nginx / Re: Apache does not start after "dnf install httpd httpd-devel -y"

« Last post by jlout on January 27, 2026, 06:56:17 AM »

Unfortunately i didn't try Starburst's guide but after looking at it i checked bash's history and noticed that the latest command i run included removing apache2.
"yum remove httpd apache2"

So it make actually have done the trick since CWP refused to properly build cwp-httpd with Apache2 present and needed to see it removed in order to build it.

30

DNS / Re: Reverse DNS pointer record

« Last post by 6Sense on January 27, 2026, 01:14:58 AM »

Cool stuff! 

Be sure to check your mail DNS settings now that your host name is bob.thisdomain.org. There are different ways to set it up but I've listed what I prefer below for you.

mail - A - your IP
webmail - A - your IP
imap - CNAME - thisdomain.org
pop - CNAME - thisdomain.org
pop3 - CNAME - thisdomain.org
smtp - CNAME - thisdomain.org

Lastly ensure you have DMARC, DKIM & SPF set up correctly. These are necessary for many large email providers now. You can check to see everything is good here https://mxtoolbox.com/