Are you one amongst many who get advantages from WebHost Manager Administration Guide, the cPanel User Guide and Tutorial book? Do you want to identify more about its development process and other things related to this book? For sure, you have to know that this book is written by Aric Pedersen, published by Packt Publishing.
Let us start with the reason that made Pedersen write a book on cPanel. When Pedersen decided that he wanted to have his own website, he did a lot of searching and found a web host that offered cPanel. From the laundry list features offered with the hosting plan, he knew that it would fit his needs. However, when he actually started to use cPanel to manage his site, he found that he had a lot of questions and also noticed that everyone he asked his questions to had slightly different answers. In addition, cPanel Inc.'s own documentation at the time was spotty and not updated very often and he found himself wishing there was a book he could turn to help clear up some of his questions. As time went on and Pedersen learned more about cPanel, and then WHM he realized just how sorely books on both items were needed. He is a teacher at heart, and he has always enjoyed showing people how to do things for themselves so they do not have to rely on others.
His first attempt at bringing order to chaos was via an electronic guide to cPanel that he released on webhostingtalk.com. That guide was downloaded thousands of times by people all over the world and he knew then that a real book had to be written. He is just thrilled now that there are books out there for people to refer to. He hopes that his books will save people some of the uncertainty and trouble that he went through while trying to learn all he could about these wonderful tools. He is 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.
Pedersen has received a lot of very positive feedback from readers of his cPanel book. People seemed to appreciate the clear and straightforward tone the book set. He has 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 he fully intend to revise both books as necessary to keep them relevant. He encourages readers to provide feedback so he can be sure that future editions continue to meet the needs of readers.
Next, let us find out about relation between cPanel and WHM. 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.
Pedersen followed his cPanel book up with one on WebHost Manager because 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.
Now, give yourself a sneak preview of the third party tools that Pedersen recommend to the readers of WebHost Manager Administration Guide. Due to page limits, the WHM book has 3 appendices available online for download as PDFs. One of these appendices mentions many of the third-party tools available for use with cPanel servers. Pedersen thought people will be surprised just how many tools there are out there specifically designed for use with cPanel and WHM. He did not want to specifically single out any tools for mention since many of these tools are commercial products and he would rather not show favoritism. Pedersen said 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.
It is hard for Pederson to pick a favorite chapter that he enjoys writing the most, since he always loves the whole process of writing and editing. If he had to pick one he guessed it would be the chapter on the initial setup of WHM after installation for 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. Petersen feels glad that he could help answer that question and make sure the administrator gets the most out of their investment.
The biggest mistake that Pedersen has 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. 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. Pedersen’s book is specifically designed to take the mystery out of WHM. It walks the reader through all the features in a logical fashion from the initial setup to working with the most advanced features. It does so through simple, non-technical language and clear examples and screen shots. This will increase the user's confidence and allow them to put WHM to best use.
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