From time to time you may need to reboot your cPanel server, for example after a large cPanel update, or server kernel update. Normally WHM will notify you that it requires a reboot via a yellow notice in the top right corner of the page once you log in, you can then decide when best to reboot your server.
Note: Rebooting your server will cause temporary downtime for the sites hosted on it, which should normally be no longer than a few minutes.
There are two methods for rebooting your cPanel server from within WHM, Graceful and Forceful. We will cover both in this guide, but if you would like to skip straight to one of the sections please use the links below:
Graceful server reboot via WHM:
If your cPanel server is requiring a reboot due to recent updates, or is experiencing some issues and you would like to reboot the server, the best option to use is the Graceful Reboot.
This method will cleanly shut down the server to avoid data loss, then restart.
Firstly, log into your server / WHM account. If you are unsure on how to do this, please view the following help article – ‘How to log into WHM‘
Once logged in, from your WHM home screen type in ‘Reboot‘ within the search box, located in the top left of your WHM area, then click on ‘Graceful Server Reboot‘
On the Graceful Server Reboot page, click on the ‘Proceed‘ button to initiate the reboot.
The page will then update to show that ‘A reboot is now in progress…‘
Please allow a few minutes for the server to fully restart, then try going back to your WHM home screen, or simply refresh the page.
If for any reason the page does not load, please allow another couple of minutes and try again.
Forceful server reboot via WHM:
If your server is experiencing an issue, or you just need to reboot and the Graceful Server Reboot option is not responding / working, then WHM allows you to issue a Forceful server reboot.
This will force the server to shut down immediately then restart, rather than trying to cleanly shut down processes first as it would with the Graceful reboot option. There is the potential that this could cause some data loss, however if the Graceful reboot option is not working then this is the next best option.
Firstly, log into your server / WHM account. If you are unsure on how to do this, please view the following help article – ‘How to log into WHM‘
Once logged in, from your WHM home screen type in ‘Reboot‘ within the search box, located in the top left of your WHM area, then click on ‘Forceful Server Reboot‘
The Forceful Server Reboot page, will then show a warning that by proceeding it will forcefully reboot the system, which could potentially result in data loss.
Once you are ready to reboot, click on the ‘Proceed‘ button
The page will then update to show that ‘A Forced reboot is now in progress…‘
Please allow a few minutes for the server to fully restart, then try going back to your WHM home screen, or simply refresh the page.
If for any reason the page does not load, please allow another couple of minutes and try again.
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