cPanel, Can websites be maintained after an owner leaves the University? How do I change website ownership?

Websites must have a current member of the University of Illinois as an owner.
If the website owner has left Illinois and there are no other currently affiliated website maintainers, the site will be removed.
To prevent losing your website, follow each of the steps below to transfer ownership to someone else before you leave.
Ownership can be transferred from the departing person to a currently affiliated person or group of currently affiliated people. There are up to 4 steps to transferring ownership:

cPanel account ownership

Open a request at https://go.illinois.edu/cPanelHelp asking that the primary contact for the account be changed to your successor.
The person who is the next account owner:
  • Must be an individual with an @illinois.edu email address

  • Must be willing to accept responsibility for the site and able to be contacted if an issue arises

cPanel account access

Add or change email addresses that are linked to the cPanel account using "Manage cPanel Access" from the cPanel dashboard.
  • The next account owner's @illinois.edu email address should be one of the entries in this list.

  • Other people, with either @illinois.edu or @gmail.com addresses, can also be added.

  • Having more than one person with account access is good for backups, but you don't want every single person who edits your site to have this level of access. See cPanel, Getting access and setting permissions for more information.

Content management system administration

If you use a content management system like WordPress or Drupal on cPanel, someone else will also need administrator rights.

  • Drupal and WordPress each have their own user management systems. 

    • If you are individually adding people to the content management system, make sure to add your administrator in Drupal or WordPress's User section and assign them permissions.

    • If you are managing your site administrators  with an AD group, either directly or through Authman, add the administrator to the group who gets permissions.

    • Usually, it's either manually-adding users or AD group-based management, but not often both.
       
  • The person who receives administrator permission to WordPress or Drupal does not have to be the same person who is the account owner, but it can be helpful if it is the same person.

  • One person who receives administrator permission to WordPress or Drupal must have an @illinois.edu address.

  • Other people can also be added as administrators to WordPress and Drupal, whether they have @illinois.edu addresses or not.

Site contact in footer

Many themes, including the Illinois theme, have site contact information in the footer, including names, street addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses.

  • In the Illinois Theme in WordPress, go to the Dashboard -> Theme Settings area to update the contact information on your website so that the next person will be contacted instead of you.

  • In other themes and other content management systems, find where you edit your site footer to make these updates.


KeywordscPanel, web hosting, graduation, leaving, departure, ownership   Doc ID85011
OwnerWeb H.GroupUniversity of Illinois Technology Services
Created2018-08-17 16:10:25Updated2023-12-07 15:37:30
SitesUniversity of Illinois Technology Services
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