cPanel has decided to provide Enkompass free of charge. Enkompass is a Multi-server Windows Hosting Control Panel for Windows 2008 and Windows 2008 R2 with same functions, feel and looks as cPanel/WHM.

cPanel Vice President of Product Development Ben Thomas, “All options for moving this product mainstream were considered, but ultimately the decision was made to move Enkompass to a no-cost control panel”. He also told that the Enkompass is considered a stable, mature, and feature-packed product that is capable of enterprise- and production-level hosting but its sales and distribution didn’t met the expectations of the company.  Development on Enkompass will be slow now but the Enkompass team will keep working on hot fixes and patches of the control panel.

Enkompass was launched by cPanel in 2010 with basic features like third party integration, cPanel/WHM feel and look, DNS Management, overselling, quota’s, bandwidth management, and centralized management of a single hosting infrastructure and with feedbacks from users and partners cPanel fixed the bugs and added features. Enkompass become more stable and mature as compared to what it was at the time of launch.

Now it will be interesting to see how many hosting companies opt for Enkompass after cPanel removed the license cost.

cPanel is a leading Web Hosting Control Panel Software provider supplying hosting automation tools to numerous data centers and customers all around the world. cPanel offers web hosting software that automates the intricate workings of web hosting servers. cPanel products are used on tens of thousands of servers worldwide to equip server administrators with the tools they need to provide top notch hosting to their customers. Since our beginnings in 1997, cPanel has been setting the standard for web hosting automation.

In my previous Article “Configuration of Microsoft Windows Server 2008” I have explain the components which are requires by Enkompass. Once you done all the configuration you are ready to install Enkompass on your Server.

Installation and Configuration of Enkompass

1) Download the latest version i.e. Enkompass 1 from http://layer1.cpanel.net/

2) Run the installer, and follow the instructions to complete the installation. Enkompass will install its prerequisites.

3) Following is the very first screen of Enkompass installer which will tell you about the information components which need to be installed before Enkompass installation. Press next to continue

4) Enkompass will now start installing Third Party Components like Enkompass Prerequisite files and ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extension. Accept the EULA to install these Components.

5) Once the Third Party installation gets complete Main Enkompass Setup Wizard will start. Press Next to continue

6) Accept the EULA and Press Next.

7) Destination folder:- Select the Folder where you want to install Enkompass.

8) User Information:- Enkompass need a Domain Administrator Account and if the user you mentioned doesn’t exists Enkompass will create it. Make sure to note down the password.

9) Admin Contact Information:- Insert Admin Contact Email Address and Pager (optional) and press Next

10) Server IP:- Insert the Main IP of the Server and press Next to continue

11) DNS Server:- Enter the Primary DNS for Enkompass; Next to continue

12) Website Share Path:- Here you will have to mention the path where data of the website will be saved. Just like /home in Linux Cpanel

13) Folder for Website Data:- Website Data folder stores the data of all the website. I have kept it to default and press next.

14) Backup Location:- Mention the path where Enkompass will save the backups of all the accounts

15) IIS Share Configuration:- Enkompass setup IIS to use shared configuration. I have created and shared one folder (named iis) on the same server and mentioned \\[IP ADDRESS]\iis in the field.

16) IIS Encryption Password:- Enkompass creates a password to protect the IIS Shared Configuration file. Make sure to note down the password.

17) PHP on IIS:- If you want IIS to be configured to host PHP select the option “Configure IIS to host PHP” and Enkompass will configure it for you.

18) Ready to Install:- Press Next to install

19) Finish:- Enkompass has been installed successfully but make sure to open Server Administrator Interface so you can configure Enkompass.

20) Once you press finish Enkompass will open on local browser of the server and you will get following Screen

Here, you will have to mention details of server, Database, Mail Server etc. Once you finished, Enkompass is installed. You can access it using http://[IPaddress]:2086 and after login you will get following screen
final

Thats All…