How to suspend and terminate accounts in WHM

Hosting providers need to host the websites of their clients on their servers. However, in some cases, they may have to restrict the permissions of these users through account suspension or termination. Therefore, knowing how to do that through WHM is necessary. So, let’s show you how it’s done with our step-by-step process.

The need for account suspension

There can be many reasons why you, as a hosting service provider, might need to alter permissions, suspend, or terminate a cPanel account.

A common reason could be a delinquent payment from the client whose account you are hosting. Or else, the client might want to migrate to another server, so you might have to terminate the current account and migrate it.

However, whatever the reason, you need to know how to suspend and terminate a cPanel account using WHM. However, you should also know what these different terms mean and their consequences to decide the best solution for your problem.

There are three broad heads of solutions available:

• Bandwidth Limiting
• Account Suspension
• Account Termination

What is Bandwidth Limiting?

Sometimes the web hosting providers offer bandwidth tiers. In case of a qualifying event occurring, you can limit the bandwidth allocated to a particular cPanel account.

In such cases, the accounts can still remain active, i.e., they are not suspended or terminated. Such bandwidth limitations delay information passage. Bandwidths are allocated based on the account plan so, when the periodic bandwidth limit is reached, the information passage is deferred to the upcoming cycle.

Once the new billing cycle comes into force, these limits are dropped.

What is Account Suspension?

Account suspension is a temporary way to freeze cPanel functionality. In such a case, the user cannot log in to their cPanel account, and they are forcibly logged out of an active session.

While the account is suspended, the user can’t access their Web Disk and mailing lists. Also, if any person visits a website hosted on a suspended account, they are redirected to an account suspension page.

Email sent to the account can still be received, however, the user can’t access them till the account is not unsuspended.

How to suspend or un-suspend an account using WHM:

Step 1: Log in to WHM

Step 2: Go to Account Functions

Step 3: Click on “Manage Account Suspension”

Step 4: Choose the account that needs to be suspended or unsuspended

Step 5: Checkmark the box to prevent resellers from suspending the account

Step 6: Click Suspend or UnSuspend

Providing a reason for the suspension is optional. You will receive the below screen after an account has been suspended.

You can even verify if the account has been successfully suspended or not from the “List of suspended accounts.”

If you want to unsuspend an account, you can also unsuspend it from this list.

What is Account Termination?

While bandwidth limiting and account suspension are just temporary measures, Account Termination is an irreversible action or the last resort.

As part of account termination, MySQL users, DNS zones, and all associated files are deleted permanently. However, if the account is terminated because it needs to be migrated to another server, the user’s DNS zone can be maintained in the account backup.

How to terminate an account using WHM:

You can terminate an account from the list of suspended accounts itself. If there are several suspended accounts, you can sort the table to list all suspended accounts to find the account you want to terminate. You can even search for that particular account.

However, there might be a case when you need to terminate an active, i.e., non-suspended account. In that case, you need to follow the below steps:

Step 1: Log in to WHM

Step 2: Go to Account Functions

Step 3: Click on Terminate Account

Step 4: Select the account you want to terminate

Step 5: In case you want to migrate the account to a new server, you can keep the DNS Zone by checking the box

Step 6: Press remove to terminate the account permanently

Once you press remove, you won't be able to bring back the account, so make sure you want to terminate it.

Once the account is terminated, the backups need to be removed or manually moved to the new server. This is necessary to avoid account collision if you add a new user using the same user name as that of a previously terminated account.

Conclusion

WHM is a convenient tool to manage all the users from a single dashboard. You don't have to access each cPanel account individually, and you can suspend, unsuspend, or terminate all accounts from one interface. Therefore, knowing how to suspend or terminate an account from WHM can be very useful.