Lost SSH & Network Access After Installing WHM on Hetzner Auction Server (AlmaLinux 8)

Hatrix Hoster

• August 03, 2025 16:02

Hello everyone,

I’m reaching out for help after facing a frustrating issue with a Hetzner auction server and WHM installation. Here’s a step-by-step outline of what I did:

1. I purchased an auction server from Hetzner.

2. As recommended, I disabled the firewall from the Hetzner Robot panel.

3. I booted into rescue mode.

4. Using the rescue system, I formatted the available disks.

5. I ran installimage and installed AlmaLinux 8 with simple settings (no RAID).

6. The OS installed successfully, and I rebooted the server.

7. I was able to log back in via SSH with no issues.

8. Then, I proceeded to install WHM/cPanel, which completed without any errors.

9. After installation, I rebooted the server as expected.

The problem:
After the reboot, I completely lost access to the server:

• I cannot ping the server.

• SSH is not accessible.

• I even tried accessing it via KVM (Hetzner’s console), but did some network restarts it got fixed but again when I restart the server it arises.

I’ve double-checked that Hetzner’s firewall is still disabled. The network was working perfectly until the WHM install and reboot. Now it’s just unreachable.

Has anyone experienced this before? Is there a standard or recommended procedure for installing WHM on Hetzner auction servers (with AlmaLinux) that avoids this issue?

Any help, guidance, or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

• 

  cPRex Jurassic Moderator

  • August 05, 2025 14:39

  Hey there!  I personally don't have any details about this on my end, as an SSH or network problem should be at a lower level than cPanel, as we don't specifically control either of those services.  Was Hetzner not able to check the reason why the access dropped?

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• 

  Hatrix Hoster

  • August 06, 2025 15:40
  • Edited

  They just said to check by myself (they don't provide support for such)

  They provided KVM for check from my end.

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  cPRex Jurassic Moderator

  • August 06, 2025 16:23

  I'm not going to have much advice I can offer on this one.  I'd recommend checking the main server logs such as /var/log/secure to see if that gives you an error about the SSH service that may provide you with a clue about the issue.  /var/log/messages may provide more generic information about the entire system.

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  quietFinn

  • August 06, 2025 17:31

  We have had same kind of problems with OVH dedicated servers.

  It's over a year since I have installed a cPanel server last time, so I don't remember things I did very well... 

  If you reboot the server, then go to the KVM, login as root and do:
  service network start
  does anything (good) happen?

   

   

   

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• 

  Hatrix Hoster

  • August 07, 2025 10:22

  I have found another article stating the similar issue: https://support.cpanel.net/hc/en-us/community/posts/19163095056535-Error-installing-cpanel-whm-OVH-hetzner

  cPRex Can you please specify in more detail what we need to do?does cpanel doesn't support NetworkManager?

   

  Can you guide me in specific about the things to do for installing whm and cloudlinux line by line?
  since I am losing accessing mostly due to some network issue. This is not problem only with me. Its the problem facing by all users who are using dedicated server(worked well on vps though)

   

  I think cpanel team should provide in detail article about the cause of this and proper resolution step for this.

   

  quietFinn can you remember exactly what steps did you perform?

  I am hell frustrated

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• 

  quietFinn

  • August 07, 2025 10:46

  I was reading my notes and it went like this:

  After installed cPanel/WHM I did:
  yum remove NetworkManager

  then:
  systemctl is-enabled network

  if it says "enabled" all is well, but if it says "disabled" I do:
  systemctl enable network

  after that if you do again:
  systemctl is-enabled network

  it should say "enabled".

   

  This was in an OVH dedicated server, I've never had a server from Hetzner so it might not work there.

   

   

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  cPAdminsMichael

  • August 07, 2025 12:41

  This is a known issue with the Hetzner images not supporting network.service on Almalinux 8, so you have to do some adjustments before installing cPanel.

  But can I ask why not install Almalinux 9? AL9 is using NetworkManager and is fully supported and working release whereas AL8 is on the last release cycle. AND you'll get a few extra years where you dont have to think about upgrading OS ;-)

   

  - Michael

  cPAdmins
  Your European cPanel Expert Company, www.cpadmins.com

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  Hatrix Hoster

  • August 08, 2025 06:16

  Thanks quietFinn,

  It worked.

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