1. cPanel & WHM Documentation
  2. cPanel Knowledge Base
  3. cPanel Product
  4. Overselling
resellers quotas accounts bandwidth

Overselling

Last modified: December 10, 2019

Overview

This document explains the concept of overselling. Overselling means that the system limits resellers via the resources that their cPanel accounts actually use instead of the resources that you allocate to them.

WHM’s Edit Reseller Nameservers and Privileges interface (WHM » Home » Resellers » Edit Reseller Nameservers and Privileges) allows you to set resource limits for a reseller. For example, you can specify a maximum bandwidth and allocate a maximum disk space, in megabytes (MB), that a reseller can allocate to a cPanel account. This interface also allows you to enable or disable overselling capability for a reseller.

Note:
Resource limits only affect a reseller’s ability to sell, upgrade and downgrade accounts. Resource limits do not affect reseller suspension or account suspension.

Overselling enabled

When you set resource limits for a reseller and enable overselling, a reseller can create accounts with resource limits that exceed the maximum amount that you allocate. After the total combined resources that all of the accounts use exceeds the reseller’s resource limit, the reseller cannot create new accounts. However, their accounts can continue to use resources, up to their own allocated resource level. The resource limit does not affect an account’s use of resources, only the reseller’s ability to create more accounts.

For example, you allocate 500 MB to the reseller Adam and enable overselling. Adam sets disk space quotas of 200 MB for four users. Combined, the users’ accounts can use up to 800 MB of disk space. However, after the accounts collectively use 500MB of disk space, they can still function, but Adam cannot create any new accounts.

Warning:

We strongly recommend that you use additional account limitations if you enable overselling for a reseller. For example, you can set limits for either of the following settings:

  • The types of per-approved packages for an account.

  • The number of accounts that a reseller can create.

Overselling disabled

If you disable overselling for a reseller, they can create accounts until they allocate the maximum amount of resources that you assign them. After the reseller allocates the maximum amount of resources that you assign them, they can no longer create accounts. The amount of disk space or bandwidth that the accounts use does not affect the reseller’s ability to create accounts if you disable overselling.

For example, you allocate 500MB of disk space to the reseller Bob and do not enable overselling. Bob creates five accounts and sets the maximum amount of disk space usage for each account to 100 MB. Combined, the accounts can use up to 500MB of disk space. Bob can no longer create new accounts.

Additional Documentation