Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about Watchdog.
What is Watchdog?
Watchdog is a WHM plugin that keeps a journal of configuration changes. It snapshots WHM settings, EasyApache and PHP config, /etc, crontabs, installed packages, cPanel accounts and firewall rules on a schedule, and shows what changed over time - so you can answer "what changed right before the outage?" in seconds.
How often does it take snapshots?
Every 15 minutes by default; you can pick 5, 10, 15, 30 or 60 minutes in the plugin's Settings. A snapshot is only kept when something changed (or when an admin leaves a note), and the file's own edit time is shown next to each change when it's known.
How much disk space does it use?
Very little. Snapshots are stored in a deduplicated history under /var/lib/server_watchdog, so only the differences between snapshots take space. A typical cPanel server's full configuration is a few megabytes, and months of history usually stay in the tens of megabytes. Binary and very large files are tracked by checksum only.
Does it store passwords or keys?
No. Private keys, /etc/shadow, SSH host keys and FTP password files are never stored. With secret redaction on (the default), the value of any password, secret or token setting is replaced by a short fingerprint, so you can see that a secret changed without seeing it. Snapshots never leave your server.
Can it tell me who made a change?
Every WHM user is root, so no tool can attribute a change with certainty - but Watchdog lists the WHM, cPanel and SSH logins between the previous snapshot and the one that caught the change, and admins can sign manual snapshots with their name and a note.
Does it work with Server Commander?
Yes. When both are installed, Server Commander's Downtime Investigator shows Watchdog's configuration changes from the last 24 hours next to the traffic, error and load data, with a link that opens the matching incident view in Watchdog.
Which WHM/cPanel versions are supported?
Any currently supported cPanel & WHM release on AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, CloudLinux, CentOS 7 or Ubuntu. Watchdog uses the git binary that ships with cPanel, so there is nothing else to install.
How does the subscription work?
Watchdog is billed at $9.99/month (or $107.89/year) with no contracts, and it is included in the Server+ Suite. Your license is bound to your server hostname, and you can cancel anytime via the customer portal.