Installation & activation

Drop the server module into modules/servers/ and the addon into modules/addons/, activate, and add a license key. ImpulseVPS creates servers in your own provider accounts — nothing is ever installed on the servers you sell.

Time: ~10 min · Requires: WHMCS 9.0+ · Core: 1.61.19+

1. Prerequisites

ImpulseVPS sells raw cloud servers: your customer gets root, an IP address and a control panel, and the module manages each server only through its provider’s API. So the prerequisites are a healthy WHMCS + Core install and an API token for at least one provider account.

• WHMCS 9.0 or later with the system cron running.
• PHP 8.2 / 8.3 / 8.4 with ionCube Loader 13+ — the module’s PHP is encoded, so ionCube must be present before activation.
• PHP sodium extension — needed for DigitalOcean orders placed without an SSH key, for which ImpulseVPS generates the server’s key pair. Most PHP builds include it; check that sodium appears in WHMCS under Utilities → System → PHP Info. Without it, such an order stops at Create with a message naming the extension, and no server is created.
• ImpulseCore 1.61.19+ — the free shared Impulse addon. ImpulseVPS uses it for provider credentials and selling locations, licensing, the cron runner, the audit log, and one-time credential storage. Install and activate impulsecore before activating ImpulseVPS. ImpulseVPS doesn’t run on an older ImpulseCore or without one; step 3 says what activation tells you if ImpulseCore isn’t ready.
• A provider account — an API token for at least one Vultr, Hetzner Cloud, DigitalOcean, or Linode account. See Provider accounts & regions for the access each token needs.
• A license key — an IVPS- key. Your WHMCS install’s domain is recorded the first time the key is validated; you don’t enter it anywhere.

Verify ionCube first

Run php -m | grep -i ionCube with the PHP binary your WHMCS uses: /opt/plesk/php/8.3/bin/php on Plesk, /opt/cpanel/ea-php83/root/usr/bin/php on cPanel, or /usr/bin/php (whatever which php returns) on a plain Linux server. No output means the loader is missing — enable it under Tools & Settings → PHP Settings on Plesk or in WHM’s PHP extension settings on cPanel, or install the loader from ioncube.com and add its zend_extension line to php.ini. Restart PHP-FPM afterwards.

2. Upload the files

Extract the release archive into the WHMCS root. You should end up with the two module directories:

whmcs/
├── modules/
│   ├── servers/impulsevps/          ← Server module (provisioning + client area)
│   └── addons/impulsevps_addon/     ← Operator admin UI

The new directories need the same owner and group as the rest of your WHMCS files — on Plesk that’s the subscription user, on cPanel it’s the account’s cPanel user, and on a plain Linux server it’s typically www-data. If you uploaded the files as that user, they already match (ls -l modules/servers shows the owner). If you extracted them as root, run this from the WHMCS root to copy the ownership of the existing modules/ directories:

chown -R --reference=modules/servers modules/servers/impulsevps
chown -R --reference=modules/addons modules/addons/impulsevps_addon

3. Activate the addon

1. Log in to WHMCS Admin.
2. Go to System Settings → Addon Modules.
3. Find ImpulseVPS in the list and click Activate.
4. Set Access Control → Full Administrator (or whichever admin role(s) should see the addon).
5. Click Save Changes, then open Addons → ImpulseVPS.

What activation does

It checks the module manifest against your ImpulseCore version, installs the module’s database tables (mod_impulsevps_*), registers ImpulseVPS with ImpulseCore, and registers its scheduled tasks — provisioning, action polling, power-state sync, image sync, and alert detection among them — with Core’s cron runner.

If ImpulseCore isn’t ready

Activation checks ImpulseCore first and tells you what to do:

• ImpulseCore is older than 1.61.19 — activation stops with a message naming the version you have and the version ImpulseVPS needs, and nothing is set up. Update ImpulseCore, then activate ImpulseVPS.
• ImpulseCore is uploaded but not activated (never activated, or deactivated since) — activation stops and tells you to activate ImpulseCore first. Activate ImpulseCore, then activate ImpulseVPS.
• ImpulseCore 1.61.19 or later is uploaded over one older than 1.61.19, but WHMCS hasn’t finished updating it — activation stops and tells you to open Addons → ImpulseCore once, which finishes the update. Then activate ImpulseVPS.
• ImpulseCore isn’t installed at all — ImpulseVPS activates but reports that ImpulseCore isn’t loaded, and it doesn’t work until you install and activate ImpulseCore, then deactivate and activate ImpulseVPS again.

Confirm registration in the Core admin: ImpulseVPS should appear under ImpulseCore → Modules & Licensing → Modules, and its tasks under ImpulseCore → Operations → Cron. The addon’s own tabs are Dashboard, Customers, Instances, Plans & Products, Images, Applications, Settings, and Diagnostics.

4. Enter your license key

Licensing is centralized in ImpulseCore using the shared licensing client — you don’t enter the key in the module itself.

1. Obtain your IVPS- key.
2. Enter it in ImpulseCore → Modules & Licensing → Licenses for impulsevps. Core validates it with the licensing server and caches the status, tier, and enabled features.
3. Open ImpulseVPS → Diagnostics → License — the status and tier should render.

A lapsed license never touches running servers

Without an active license, new orders are refused before anything is created at a provider, and the refusal tells you to fix the license in ImpulseCore. Customers’ control-panel actions stop too. Servers that already exist keep running. Verification is cached with a grace window, so a short outage of the licensing server changes nothing.

5. Where to go next

With the module activated and licensed, the rest of the setup happens in the addon, one provider account at a time:

• Connect a provider account — add and test an API token, then map the locations you sell.
• Build a server plan & publish a WHMCS product — operating systems, sizes, client tools, and pricing.

Plans & Products → Setup Guide walks the same sequence and marks the next step that still needs doing. Before you open sales, place one test order and walk it through suspend → unsuspend → terminate on every provider you plan to sell. A test order creates a real, billable server at your provider.