I have developed a web app which shows information in real time from certain actions carried out by different users. For this I use websockets, built in PHP, in a local environment (WAMP) and works fine, but I need this to also work on an external server (web hosting service), which I only have access to through the CPanel and FTP.
Locally I make the websocket work executing next code line through Windows’ CMD:
C:wamp64binphpphp7.2.10php.exe -q C:wamp64wwwmyappwebsocket_daemon.php
My question is, how can I achieve the same result in CPanel, or maybe there is another way?
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Answer
For that purpose you will need to have CLI (Command-Line Interface) access to the (Linux) server involved. Assuming that you have such access, running the WS service would look something like
./websocket_daemon.php
The small script assumes that you are in the appropriate folder. However, you need to resolve a few things before you get there:
Step 1: SSH support on your machine
You will need to ensure that your OS supports SSH. Your OS appears to be Windows, so you will need to either install Putty of Git Bash. Read about these technologies
Step 2 Generate an SSH key
In your CPanel, you will need to generate SSH keys:
- Click on Manage SSH Keys
- Click on Generate a New Key
- Use the settings you prefer in order to generate a key, don’t worry, you can remove the SSH keys at any time and recreate them if you realize that you prefer a different way to generate them
Read more here: https://docs.cpanel.net/cpanel/security/ssh-access/
SSH keys are composite keys, that is, it consists of a private and a public key. You can share your public key with anyone, but never ever send your private key to anyone. It should be on your computer and possibly saved to backups. Read more about SSH keys here: https://sectigo.com/resource-library/what-is-an-ssh-key
Step 3: Ensure that your computer uses the SSH keys you have generated for CPanel
You will need to tell your OS where the SSH key-pair is located, luckily this is not a new problem, see an exhausting discussion about this topic here: https://serverfault.com/questions/194567/how-do-i-tell-git-for-windows-where-to-find-my-private-rsa-key
Step 4: Test your SSH
Run the following command into your CLI that supports SSH:
ssh <username>@path
If there is no error, then you have successfully tested SSH and you are almost ready to proceed further
Step 5: Upload your Websocket script
You can do this via FTP, as you already know, but you can also do it via SCP. scp would not only use your newly created SSH connection and having fun with it, but it’s also secure. Syntax:
scp file.txt remote_username@10.10.0.2:/remote/directory
Step 6: SSH to the server
See Step #4.
Step 7: Navigate to your file’s location
Step 8: Ensure that you have the rights to run it
See more here: https://alligator.io/workflow/command-line-basics-file-permissions/
Step 9:: Execute the file
Run
./websocket_daemon.php
If this succeeded, then the job is basically done, you will need some script to run it upon startup and to manage it, but this is not strictly related to the question.
https://oracle-base.com/articles/linux/linux-scripts-running-in-the-background https://smallbusiness.chron.com/run-command-startup-linux-27796.html
However, if the issue is not resolved yet, read further
Step 10: Ensuring WS support on server
You will need to set up your own WS support. Since you have managed to do so locally on your Windows, hopefully your know-how will work on the remote Linux as well. If not, read more here: