cPanel Change Account IP

Technical summary

Bash script to perform end-to-end dedicated IP changes on cPanel accounts, including DNS zone updates (/var/named), Apache virtual hosts (httpd.conf), account primary record (/var/cpanel/users/<user>), and per-domain userdata files (including SSL variants).

Executed scope

• Bash reimplementation of legacy chgacctip (Perl) with functional parity.
• Coordinated IP replacement across multiple server configuration layers.
• SOA serial increment in DNS zones after A-record changes.
• Lock control to avoid concurrent httpd.conf writes.
• Execution modes with and without rebuild/restart (y|n).
• Edge-case handling: same source/target IP and zones without old-IP occurrences.

Technical flow

1. Validate cPanel username and target IP.
2. Detect current account IP from /var/cpanel/users/<user>.
3. Process DNS zones under /var/named (and named chroot if present).
4. Replace IP in account-related VirtualHost blocks in httpd.conf.
5. Update IP= in cPanel user file.
6. Update ip: in per-domain userdata and _SSL files.
7. If y, run rebuild/reload sequence (named, userdata cache, userdomains, apache rebuild/restart).

Practical execution

# switch without service rebuild
./cp-chgacctip.sh dominio123 192.168.1.100

# switch with full rebuild/restart
./cp-chgacctip.sh dominio123 192.168.1.100 y

# same-ip edge case
./cp-chgacctip.sh dominio123 51.79.52.232

Affected files/components

• /var/named/*.db (and optionally /var/named/chroot/var/named/*.db)
• /usr/local/apache/conf/httpd.conf
• /var/cpanel/users/<username>
• /var/cpanel/userdata/<username>/* and *_SSL

Safe operation and rollback

# recommended pre-change backup
cp -a /var/named/*.db /backup/named/
cp /usr/local/apache/conf/httpd.conf /backup/httpd.conf.bak
cp -a /var/cpanel/users/username /backup/
cp -a /var/cpanel/userdata/username /backup/

Operational troubleshooting

# validate account exists
ls /var/cpanel/users/username

# stuck apache lock
rm -f /usr/local/apache/conf/httpd.conf.lock

# manual rebuilds
rndc reload
/scripts/rebuildhttpdconf
/etc/init.d/httpd graceful

Stack and tooling

• Shell Script / Bash
• cPanel/WHM
• BIND9 / named
• Apache / httpd
• sed
• grep

Operational tags

• cPanel
• Bash
• DNS
• Apache

Operational outcome

• Lower inconsistency risk between DNS, Apache and cPanel metadata during IP switching.
• Reproducible workflow for migration and network remediation operations.
• Reduced manual effort/time in infrastructure changes involving dedicated accounts.