Who this is for. This guide covers setting up your own WHMCS installation on a Krystal reseller account. WHMCS is billing and automation software - it is what lets your clients order, pay for and manage their hosting without you doing it by hand.
A WHMCS licence is included free with our Trinity and Infinity reseller plans. On Unity you would need to buy your own.
The exact steps and wording in the wizard change between WHMCS versions, so if what you see doesn't match the screenshots below exactly, you are not lost - the settings being asked for are the same.
On your first visit to your WHMCS admin area you'll see the Getting Started Wizard - this walks you through setting up some of your business details, a payment gateway, adding a way for clients to purchase and manage domains through your WHMCS and connecting WHMCS to your WHM web hosting server.
On the first screen you can simply click Next
On the General tab you can enter details as appropriate - whatever you enter here will be reflected on your client facing WHMCS site - including your company name and any logo you upload. Click Next to continue.
The payments step offers a handful of common gateways to get you started - which ones appear depends on your WHMCS version. Many more can be added afterwards, so don't worry if the one you want isn't offered here. You can click Next to continue or Skip Step if you'll setup a Payment Gateway later.
On the Domains tab you can decide whether you'd like to sell domains. WHMCS provide a link to setup a free eNom account. Krystal also offer a WHMCS Provisioning/Reseller module which allows you to sell domains to your clients and have those domains purchased and managed within your Krystal Client area. Setup WHMCS domain provisioning using the Krystal Domain Reseller Module If you wish use the Krystal module, then simply click Skip Step - or continue to Enable Domains and setup an eNom account.
The Web Hosting tab is where you link your WHMCS install to WHM - so that it can provision/terminate/manage your clients hosting accounts.Here you'll need to enter your server hostname or IP address along with your WHM username and password - which you'll find in your welcome email. Click Verify Connection to ensure the details are correct.You can either enter Krystal's Nameservers in the Primary & Secondary nameserver boxes, or if you've setup custom name servers you can enter them. If you wish to setup custom name servers, but haven't done so yet - you can change them later under Configuration > System Settings > General Settings, on the Domains tab, in the Default Nameserver fields.
Click Next one last time to complete the WHMCS Setup Wizard
Two things to do straight away
WHMCS handles your clients' billing details, so these two steps matter more here than they would on an ordinary website. Do them as soon as the installer finishes.
Delete the install folder. WHMCS shows an "installation complete" page when it has finished, and from that point the installer directory serves no purpose. Leaving it in place on a live billing system is an unnecessary risk.
Lock down configuration.php. It holds your database credentials. Set it to chmod 400, which makes it readable by the system and by nobody else:
chmod 400 configuration.php
Some server setups need 440 or 444 instead - if WHMCS won't load after you change it, try those in turn. You will also need to set it to 755 temporarily if you ever update your licence key, then put it back afterwards.
Set up the cron job before you log in for the first time. Without it nothing automated happens - no invoices are generated, no reminders sent, no overdue accounts suspended - and the failure is silent. See setting up the WHMCS cron job.
