Cpanel Gone 64 to Fast - Time to Retire Published: Dec 15, 2005

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64 bit servers are suppose to be supported by Cpanel. That's not the case, instead of support they should have retired, check our rant post in this article.

Since the release of servers with 64 bit architectures there has been software to support this. Many new servers you will find are 64 bit machines - be careful what you wish for. Just because you have the latest hardware doesn't mean that your software will support it, or does it? I'm bringing this to your attention because many datacenters are pushing 64 bit systems but don't have properly working software to support it, Cpanel in particular.

Cpanel claims to support the following OSes
"x86_64 Supported Distributions
  CentOS 3.4+, 4.x
  Fedora 3, 4
  cAos 2
  FreeBSD 5.3, 5.4
  RedHat Enterprise Linux "

I've found the opposite true, at least with RedHat Enterprise 4 (but others claim CentOS and more as listed in the Cpanel forums). After trying countless times to get Apache recompile and running into a boat-load of issues I couldn't believe this was "stable" and "supported". I tend to think of these words as safe, something I can rely on and know will work. After all, the testing versions such as "beta" are suppose to have bugs and the occasional issue with a stable version does come up - I mean software isn't perfect.

But when you get a new box that simply can't run /scripts/easyapache you can't run /scripts/mysqlup you can't run /scripts/installzendopt etc etc etc etc - your view of "stable" and "supported" seem to change. 64bit OSes simply do not function with Cpanel - not well enough for a production environment, not even a testing environment since you can't recompile the web server!

If you think I'm the only one having issues with x86_64 and Cpanel then you better check out their forums, as a flood of new posts are popping up, here are just a few.

http://forums.cpanel.net/showthread.php?t=42678&highlight=x86_64
http://forums.cpanel.net/showthread.php?t=46446&highlight=x86_64
http://forums.cpanel.net/showthread.php?t=43567&highlight=x86_64
http://forums.cpanel.net/showthread.php?t=38943&highlight=x86_64
http://forums.cpanel.net/showthread.php?t=42371&highlight=x86_64

Has corporate greed replaced the need for what's best for the consumer, I think it’s pretty obvious.
How can a datacenter provide this kind of setup that flat out doesn't work?
How can a software company as well known as Cpanel sell software that doesn't work?

If you go buy a new car, fridge, chair or anything else you expect it to work, drive off the lot, right out of the box, whatever - it’s new and it will, not should, work. Why is this so different for software from our friends at Cpanel? I don't think it’s too much to ask when on the frontpage of your corporate website you say that it is supported, without a doubt, or word of warning.

Do these guys not use the software? What happened to product development and testing? It seems they didn't think that was necessary I guess, or maybe not enough people using 64 bit would complain?

Is Cpanel turning into Micro$$$oft? I leave that statement up to you but judging by their actions I would take a look at some other control panel options out there that really do support 64bit and not just make claims.