Hide new VPS details from client during admin area setup

[mustardman]

We manually create VPSs after they are ordered because there are some custom things we need to do first.

 

The process we use is to first create the VPS in the Products/Services area of the Admin panel. The problem we often run into is that customers immediately see the info in their client area and start trying to ssh into the IP address or log into the console provided by the Solus module control panel or try reboot from the panel while we are in the middle of setting the VPS up.

 

Is there any way to create VPSs from the Products/Services admin area and keeping the information/control hidden/disabled from clients until we are finished with our server setup?

Edited August 6, 2014 by mustardman

[WHMCS Ryan]

Hello mustardman,

 

If the idea is to prevent users from accessing WHMCS until the VPS is completely setup you can disable the original welcome email from being sent automatically. To do this go to Setup --> Email Templates --> General Messages and then click the edit button next to "Client Signup Email." You can either modify this so it does not have the login details or you can tick the disable box to prevent it from being sent automatically.

 

Once the VPS is setup you can use one of the email templates found here or a variation of one of these to send all the details out at once.

 

--Thanks

[mustardman]

Hello mustardman,

 

If the idea is to prevent users from accessing WHMCS until the VPS is completely setup you can disable the original welcome email from being sent automatically. To do this go to Setup --> Email Templates --> General Messages and then click the edit button next to "Client Signup Email." You can either modify this so it does not have the login details or you can tick the disable box to prevent it from being sent automatically.

 

Once the VPS is setup you can use one of the email templates found here or a variation of one of these to send all the details out at once.

 

--Thanks

 

The welcome email does not include any details. It just says to wait for the server details email which we manually send after we set up the VPS. Of course nobody reads that or even if they do, as soon as they go into their client area in WHMCS and see the server details they start trying to connect and reboot etc. Meanwhile we are doing yum updates and it messes all that up and we have to start over again from scratch

 

Out of desperation we sometimes go in and changed the IP address in the server details and changed the vserverID to a nonexistant one so that they go to the wrong IP address and because vserverID is wrong they cannot control anything either. That's really a last resort bandaid though. We have to remember to change all that info back afterwards and if we get it wrong then things like server suspension for lack of payment don't work. So we have to create more of a mess and potential for human error just to try get around this problem.

[WHMCS Ryan]

Hello mustardman,

 

Are these new customers or customers that already have access to WHMCS? From your first reply I thought they were new customers but if they are existing customers that already have access WHMCS then it would be a bit more challenging. My first thought is to disable customer access to their WHMCS account by changing the password until your are finished with your setup but that is probably not a reliable option. You could also duplicate the order on different client account (an internal use only account), setup the VPS, and then merge the two accounts when finished so the new service would be in the proper client account. But again, not really efficient.

 

You could also try locking the client out of the solusvm panel which should prevent some API access from WHMCS and you can also disable the API user while you complete the setup. This will prevent any client from doing anything with their VPS however.

 

--Thanks

[mustardman]

Hello mustardman,

 

Are these new customers or customers that already have access to WHMCS? From your first reply I thought they were new customers but if they are existing customers that already have access WHMCS then it would be a bit more challenging. My first thought is to disable customer access to their WHMCS account by changing the password until your are finished with your setup but that is probably not a reliable option. You could also duplicate the order on different client account (an internal use only account), setup the VPS, and then merge the two accounts when finished so the new service would be in the proper client account. But again, not really efficient.

 

You could also try locking the client out of the solusvm panel which should prevent some API access from WHMCS and you can also disable the API user while you complete the setup. This will prevent any client from doing anything with their VPS however.

 

--Thanks

 

New sign ups getting access to the client area of WHMCS is part of the sign up process. They cannot order without setting up a WHMCS client account. That is how WHMCS is designed.

 

As you said the alternatives you suggested are not ideal. It's just as easy to do what we do now which is put in a bogus IP address and vserverid. A bogus vserverid effectively disables the api.

 

Ideally we would want the IP address to remain hidden and vserverid disabled via the client area but visible and active via the admin area until we send the "Your server login details" email.

Edited August 7, 2014 by mustardman

[sentq]

which module you use to manage your VPS in WHMCS (solusvm, etc)?

[mustardman]

which module you use to manage your VPS in WHMCS (solusvm, etc)?

 

We use Solus. I discovered that if I set the status to "Pending" it disables the Solus WHMCS module client area and API. They still see the IP address so they can log in via SSH but most of the time they try reboot from client area so this would help avoid that. We would just need to remember to set it to Active afterwards.

 

A simple feature solution would be a check box setting in General or Automation settings area to leave the product as "Pending" when set up via the admin area.