We've had this discussion before, but it's apparently time to revisit it. For some background, see:
- Questions belonging to intersection of webmasters.stackexchange and ServerFault
- Are cpanel questions really 'professional sysadmin' related?
- Question about Migrated post that was closed
- What is a proper question that is on topic?
- Is it time to kill problematic tags like cpanel, plesk, whm and webmin?
- Is a question about configuring a server admin panel off topic?
- clarification on off-topic "management interfaces"
Unfortunately, while it's obvious there's a generally negative bias toward web hosting control panels, the advice given has been inconsistent over the years with respect to how the control panel is used and whether a question can be migrated.
In particular I'm referring to highly invasive software packages such as cPanel and Plesk, which are generally used only in the web hosting industry, and are notable for making large amounts of customization to installed systems, which can complicate management of those systems.
I am not referring here to self-contained web applications like phpMyAdmin, which do not reach their tendrils out into the whole server and make bizarre customizations. That discussion, if necessary, can happen elsewhere.
Nor am I referring to obviously sysadmin-focused web applications like Webmin, Cockpit, Zabbix, vSphere Web Client, etc. It shouldn't be necessary to discuss these at all.
In the past, I've said that these questions should remain open if they relate to administering the system on which they're installed, and closed or migrated if they relate to using them as a customer. More recently I've come to believe that most or all questions about web hosting control panels should be closed or migrated, ironically because I've since gained more experience using cPanel and been thoroughly disgusted by its design. Sysadmins who run web sites the "normal" way will find cPanel disappointing and frustrating, to say the least.
My opinions are my own, though; ultimately this is something we should have a clear community consensus on.
Should questions about web hosting control panels be closed or migrated when they:
- Deal with end-user usage of the system via the control panel, e.g. a customer of a web hosting company who wants to use the control panel to install a web site or create a database?
- Deal with administering the system via the control panel, e.g. a web hosting provider who wants to modify the system's Apache or PHP installation?
- Deal with administering parts of the system not affected by the web hosting control panel, e.g. a web hosting provider wants to set up NTP, and the presence of cPanel is incidental because cPanel does not manage NTP?
(Note that, at present, the only clear migration target we have for web hosting control panel questions is WebmastersWebmasters and they have expressed interest in receiving such migrated questions.)
