Installing cPanel CSF on Servers Without cPanel
Hello friends,
On a secondary backup server where I only have AlmaLinux 9 and CSF installed, I would like to upgrade to the CSF version maintained by cPanel.
-Will the "cPanel CSF" version work properly on servers that do NOT have cPanel installed?
-Could this cause problems in the future if they decide to restrict it to cPanel-only servers?
Thank you very much.
Best regards!
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Hey there! I don't see why it wouldn't - it's a public package that doesn't rely on cPanel tools, just like the previous versions.
At this point with the way it is licensed I don't see how we'd decide to have this work on only cPanel machines, so I wouldn't worry about that.
Details can be found here: https://docs.cpanel.net/knowledge-base/third-party/how-to-install-csf/
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Thank you very much for the clarification; that was exactly what I needed to know.
Best regards!
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You're very welcome!
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cPRex installation following the guide you provided (https://docs.cpanel.net/knowledge-base/third-party/how-to-install-csf/) doesn't work, and you even declare on GitHub that:
The cpanel-csf RPM is intended for cPanel & WHM systems only and will fail installation when cPanel is not detected.
So, is the installation of your package available only via GitHub when using non-cPanel servers?
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I've reached out to the team for some additional clarification on this, since traditionally CSF was able to be installed even without cPanel. I'll post an update here as soon as I hear back from them.
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I did hear back from the team about this and they confirmed we are only supporting CSF on cPanel servers after we took over the project. We're going to update the documentation page to be more clear like the Github link to avoid this confusion in the future.
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Thanks to both of you. Good thing I haven't updated yet.
-Is there any safe option to replace the old CSF (v14.24) on backup servers (they do not have cPanel installed)?, I've seen several forks around the internet, but none of them really inspire confidence. I'm not sure what options you would recommend.
-On a server running WHM/cPanel, if I want to upgrade from the old CSF (v14.24) to the version maintained by cPanel, do I need to uninstall the old CSF (14.24) first? Or will this command automatically handle the upgrade without breaking anything?: sudo yum install cpanel-csf
Thanks again.
Best regards.
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With the details I found out yesterday, I don't have a way to replace older CSF versions on non-cPanel systems with our package.
If you have a cPanel server running older CSF it should have been automatically updated already if you have updates enabled on that machine. You don't need to uninstall or change any settings before you perform that work.
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I found this article with more information: https://support.cpanel.net/hc/en-us/articles/37654028162071-cPanel-will-provide-its-own-fork-of-CSF-starting-Feb-25th-2026
In servers with "WHM/cPanel" or "WHM/cPanel DNSOnly" the command "yum install cpanel-csf" will update to cPanel fork automatically and you don't need uninstall the old CSF version:
Downloading packages:
cpanel-csf-16.20-1.1.1.cpanel.noarch.rpm | 430 kB 00:00:00
Running transaction check
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded
Running transaction
Instalando : cpanel-csf-16.20-1.1.1.cpanel.noarch 1/1
warning: /etc/csf/csf.allow created as /etc/csf/csf.allow.rpmnew
warning: /etc/csf/csf.blocklists created as /etc/csf/csf.blocklists.rpmnew
warning: /etc/csf/csf.cloudflare created as /etc/csf/csf.cloudflare.rpmnew
warning: /etc/csf/csf.conf created as /etc/csf/csf.conf.rpmnew
warning: /etc/csf/csf.deny created as /etc/csf/csf.deny.rpmnew
warning: /etc/csf/csf.dirwatch created as /etc/csf/csf.dirwatch.rpmnew
warning: /etc/csf/csf.dyndns created as /etc/csf/csf.dyndns.rpmnew
warning: /etc/csf/csf.fignore created as /etc/csf/csf.fignore.rpmnew
warning: /etc/csf/csf.ignore created as /etc/csf/csf.ignore.rpmnew
warning: /etc/csf/csf.logfiles created as /etc/csf/csf.logfiles.rpmnew
warning: /etc/csf/csf.logignore created as /etc/csf/csf.logignore.rpmnew
warning: /etc/csf/csf.mignore created as /etc/csf/csf.mignore.rpmnew
warning: /etc/csf/csf.pignore created as /etc/csf/csf.pignore.rpmnew
warning: /etc/csf/csf.rblconf created as /etc/csf/csf.rblconf.rpmnew
warning: /etc/csf/csf.redirect created as /etc/csf/csf.redirect.rpmnew
warning: /etc/csf/csf.resellers created as /etc/csf/csf.resellers.rpmnew
warning: /etc/csf/csf.rignore created as /etc/csf/csf.rignore.rpmnew
warning: /etc/csf/csf.signore created as /etc/csf/csf.signore.rpmnew
warning: /etc/csf/csf.sips created as /etc/csf/csf.sips.rpmnew
warning: /etc/csf/csf.smtpauth created as /etc/csf/csf.smtpauth.rpmnew
warning: /etc/csf/csf.suignore created as /etc/csf/csf.suignore.rpmnew
warning: /etc/csf/csf.syslogs created as /etc/csf/csf.syslogs.rpmnew
warning: /etc/csf/csf.syslogusers created as /etc/csf/csf.syslogusers.rpmnew
warning: /etc/csf/csf.uidignore created as /etc/csf/csf.uidignore.rpmnew
warning: /usr/local/csf/bin/pt_deleted_action.pl created as /usr/local/csf/bin/pt_deleted_action.pl.rpmnew
warning: /usr/local/csf/bin/regex.custom.pm created as /usr/local/csf/bin/regex.custom.pm.rpmnew
warning: /usr/local/csf/tpl/x-arf.txt saved as /usr/local/csf/tpl/x-arf.txt.rpmorig
csf registered
«/etc/csf/csf.conf» -> «/var/lib/csf/backup/1781816131_pre_v16_20_upgrade»
Validating and reloading firewall rules to ensure clean state...
OK: Current firewall state backed up successfully
OK: Saved rules passed syntax validation
OK: Firewall rules reloaded successfully
CSF installation completed successfully
Comprobando : cpanel-csf-16.20-1.1.1.cpanel.noarch 1/1
Instalado:
cpanel-csf.noarch 0:16.20-1.1.1.cpanel
¡Listo!-Should I delete the “.rpmnew” files and "/var/lib/csf/backup/1671815132_pre_v16_20_upgrade", or should I keep them?
-The big question: do you have any recommendations or alternatives maintained by a well-known company for CSF on backup servers that do not run cPanel?, I have seen many forks on the internet, but I don’t trust them.
Thank you very much. Best regards.
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There's no reason you'd have to manually delete those unless you wanted to. You're certainly welcome to if you'd like, although I doubt they are taking up very much space.
I can't recommend any third party tools, but there's a LOT of discussion online about the recent CSF changes so I'd pick a version from a known entity if that's the way you want to move forward on the non-cPanel systems.
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