If you use the cPanel template on a VPS, the VPS backup process may experience freezing because the fs-freeze command cannot freeze the processes running inside the VPS. This issue arises when cPanel secures the /tmp folder, which interferes with the functionality of fs-freeze. Consequently, the VPS halts while waiting for a response from the fs-freeze command.
Manual fix for cPanel installation
To resolve this issue in a manually installed cPanel environment, follow these steps:
-
Run the following command to uninstall the
securetmpfeature of cPanel:/usr/local/cpanel/scripts/securetmp --uninstall -
The `–uninstall` command removes securetmp from the startup scripts, but the `/usr/tmpDSK` entry can remain in `/etc/fstab`. If it does, systemd’s fstab generator recreates a `tmp.mount` unit from that entry, even when it’s set to `noauto`, and services such as `php-fpm`, `pdns`, and `logind` can still pull it in as a dependency, which brings back the freeze.
- Check `/etc/fstab` for a line referencing `/usr/tmpDSK`. If it’s still there, comment it out.
- Run the following command to reload systemd:
systemctl daemon-reload
- Reboot your VPS.
- After these steps, the VPS backup process will no longer freeze the processes inside the VPS.
Alternative solution
If you prefer not to modify your existing cPanel setup, you can use a pre-built template that is optimized for this scenario. We recommend using our pre-built AlmaLinux + cPanel template, which is configured to avoid this issue.
Additional information
For more details about the securetmp script and its functionality, refer to the official cPanel documentation: The securetmp Script – cPanel Documentation