Installation and Configuration of Contabo Cloud Automation for WHMCS

Contabo Cloud Manager — Installation Guide

1. Requirements

Requirement	Notes
WHMCS	8.x or later
PHP	8.2 or later, matching your WHMCS installation's PHP version
PHP extension	curl (all Contabo API calls use it)
Outbound HTTPS	Your WHMCS server must be able to reach api.contabo.com and auth.contabo.com on port 443
SSL on your WHMCS install	Strongly recommended. Required for the embedded HTML5 console to use the same-origin path; without it, the console falls back to a direct (non-proxied) connection.
Cron	No separate cron job to configure — the module hooks into WHMCS's own existing cron run (AfterCronJob) to poll pending orders and run scheduled maintenance. Just make sure your regular WHMCS cron is running as usual.

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2. Upload the files

Copy the contents of this package into your WHMCS root, preserving the folder structure:

modules/servers/contabo_cloud/   →  <whmcs-root>/modules/servers/contabo_cloud/
modules/addons/contabo_cloud/    →  <whmcs-root>/modules/addons/contabo_cloud/

No build step, Composer install, or bootstrap file is required — everything needed ships in the package.

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3. Activate the addon module

1. In the WHMCS admin, go to Setup → Addon Modules.
2. Find Contabo Cloud Manager and click Activate.
3. Click Configure, and grant access to the appropriate admin role group(s) (Setup → Addon Modules → Contabo Cloud Manager → the role-group checkboxes shown on that same screen).
4. Open the addon from the top admin menu: Addons → Contabo Cloud Manager.

Activation automatically prepares everything the addon needs to store its own settings and activity/audit data — no manual database work is required.

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4. Enter your license key

1. In the addon, open the License page (this is the only page reachable without an active license).
2. Enter the license key you received at purchase and save.
3. The page will show Active once verified.

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5. Add your Contabo Project(s)

The suite supports multiple Contabo Projects (Contabo's term for a billing/API account) at once — useful if you resell under more than one Contabo account, or want to separate projects by region or customer tier.

1. In the addon, open Accounts.
2. Click Add Account and enter:
   • A friendly name for your own reference (e.g. "Contabo — EU Reseller").
   • Client ID and Client Secret — from your Contabo customer control panel, under API access management.
   • API User and API Password — also from the same API access page. This is a separate API password, not your regular Contabo Control Panel login password — using the login password here will fail authentication.
3. Click Test Connection before saving to confirm the credentials work.
4. Repeat for every additional Contabo Project you want this WHMCS install to manage.

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6. Create or import your WHMCS product(s)

You have two ways to get a sellable WHMCS product linked to a Contabo plan:

Option A — Import from the catalog (recommended for new products). In the addon, open Products, choose a Contabo Project, browse the live catalog, pick a plan, and use Import as new WHMCS product. This creates the product, sets its pricing (with your configured markup applied, for every currency you have configured in WHMCS), and wires up the correct module settings automatically.

Option B — Set up a product manually.

1. Create a product under Setup → Products/Services as usual, and set its Module Name to Contabo Cloud Manager.

2. On the product's Module Settings tab, fill in the module options, in order:

   #	Setting	Notes
   1	Contabo Project	Which account (from step 5) this product provisions through
   2	Product SKU	The exact Contabo plan/SKU identifier
   3	Region	Data center location
   4	Default Image	The OS image used unless the client picks another at order time
   5	Reverse DNS Domain	Optional default used when setting reverse DNS
   6	Excluded Images	Optional — hide specific OS images from the client-facing reinstall list
   7	Support Department	Optional — where region-change requests should be routed
   8	Client Auto-Snapshot	Optional — offer/require automatic snapshot scheduling to the client
   9	Console Access	Optional — per-product override of the addon's global noVNC console setting (Inherit / Full Console / External Only)

   Opening this tab for the first time on a product also auto-creates the custom fields the module needs to track the provisioned instance — you do not need to add these yourself.

3. Use the addon's Products page Apply pricing action if you want to sync catalog pricing onto a manually-created product afterward.

Either way, only whole billing cycles you actually want to sell need to be priced — the addon's Settings page has an "Import Billing Cycles" control that limits which cycles (Monthly, Quarterly, Semi-Annually, Annually, Biennially, Triennially) get written during import/apply, per currency.

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7. Migrating from the legacy ContaboVM module (optional)

If you are replacing the older, differently-architected ContaboVM module with this suite, use the addon's Migrate page rather than manually re-pointing products:

1. Open Addons → Contabo Cloud Manager → Migrate.
2. The page detects existing services still running on the legacy module and lets you migrate them, product group by product group, onto this suite.
3. Existing instance identifiers, secrets, and project linkage carry over automatically during migration — clients are not asked to re-enter anything, and no service interruption occurs.

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8. Verify everything works

1. Place a test order (or manually activate an existing pending order) for a product configured in step 6.
2. Confirm the service activates and the Instance ID custom field on the service populates.
3. Open the client-area service page (or the admin Services tab for that service) and confirm the management dashboard loads: Overview, Network, Reinstall, Firewall, Private Networks, Snapshots, Backups, and Logs tabs should all be present and populate live data.
4. Try a non-destructive action first (e.g. viewing network details) before trying a power action.

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9. Upgrading a later release

Overwrite the modules/servers/contabo_cloud/ and modules/addons/contabo_cloud/ folders with the new package contents. No database migration step is required — the addon module's own activation/ upgrade hook keeps its storage current automatically the next time it loads. Always check CHANGELOG for any release-specific notes before upgrading a production install.

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10. Uninstalling

1. Deactivate the addon module under Setup → Addon Modules.
2. Existing services on the provisioning module keep working independently of the addon — the addon is only required for license verification, the multi-project Accounts UI, and the catalog/ migration tooling. Deactivating the addon will cause the license gate to block the dashboard, so only do this if you are fully removing the suite.
3. Delete the modules/servers/contabo_cloud/ and modules/addons/contabo_cloud/ folders.
4. Existing product custom field values and configured module settings on your products are left in place unless you remove the products themselves — this is standard WHMCS behavior for any module.

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