cPanel ELevate guide

cPanel ELevate allows you to upgrade your operating system in-place. While typically used to upgrade Enterprise Linux versions (CentOS, AlmaLinux, CloudLinux), it also supports Ubuntu upgrades.

Supported upgrade paths

• CentOS 7 to AlmaLinux 8
• CloudLinux 7 to CloudLinux 8
• Ubuntu 20 to Ubuntu 22
• AlmaLinux 8 to AlmaLinux 9

cPanel wraps the following upstream projects and adds cPanel-specific logic:

• RHEL-based systems: The Leapp Project
• Ubuntu-based systems: The do-release-upgrade script

Extended lifecycle support

cPanel has provided extended lifecycle support (including security updates) for:

• CentOS 7 + cPanel/WHM through January 1, 2026
• CloudLinux 7 + cPanel/WHM through January 1, 2026

You may see a notice like the following in WHM indicating an upgrade is needed:

Caution

Back up all accounts before proceeding with ELevate. If issues occur, your server may become inoperable. Hawk Host does not provide backups for cloud vps — it is critical that you maintain your own offsite backups.

Hawk Host assistance

If you’d like our team to assist with ELevate, we’re happy to help. While we cannot guarantee a specific timeline or successful completion, our team has significant experience with the process. Open a support ticket to request assistance.

OS-specific guides

• cPanel ELevate Ubuntu 20 guide

Common ELevate issues

• ELevate fails on stage four: libbrotlidec.so.1 not found
• Ubuntu 20 ELevate blocker: ea-php80
• Ubuntu 20 ELevate blocker: /boot/vmlinuz missing

Alternative: WHM Transfer Tool

If ELevate is not suitable for your situation, you can migrate to a new compute using the WHM Transfer Tool.