Help4 Disk Usage: cPanel, WHM, and WHMCS Disk and Inode Reports

Help4 Disk Usage is a public cPanel, WHM, and WHMCS tool for hosting teams that need faster answers when an account is running out of disk space or inodes.

The short version: it turns disk-usage guesswork into a support-ready report. Instead of telling a customer “you are over quota” and then manually digging through account folders, the tool highlights likely offenders such as backups, logs, cache, mail, temp files, uploads, dependency folders, stale large files, disk-heavy directories, and inode-heavy trees.

It started from the Help4 Network find_large_files_and_inodes scanner and is now packaged as an installable product for cPanel/WHM servers and WHMCS-based hosting teams. The current package version reviewed for this article is 0.2.2.

Screenshot note: the screenshots below use generated dummy data from the tutorial pack. They use demonstration placeholders instead of real customer identifiers, domains, server names, file paths, or backup names.

Who this helps

Help4 Disk Usage is built for shared hosting providers, managed WordPress hosts, WHMCS-based hosting companies, agencies managing many cPanel accounts, and server operators who need support-friendly disk and inode visibility.

It is especially useful when the support question is not just “how much space is used?” but “what changed, where is the weight, and what can we safely tell the customer?”

What it includes

• WHM root and reseller dashboards for account-level triage.
• cPanel customer dashboard for self-service account visibility.
• WHMCS addon module for deployment, sync, admin reports, and customer summaries.
• Background scans with visible timestamps so support knows whether the data is fresh.
• Largest-file and inode-heavy directory detection for common quota tickets.
• Category hints for cache, logs, temp files, backups, mail, uploads, dependencies, stale large files, disk usage, and inode growth.
• Scan controls so refresh buttons do not stack expensive jobs on busy shared-hosting servers.

The safety boundary matters

This is a reporting tool, not an automatic cleanup tool. Help4 Disk Usage reports likely cleanup candidates and support hints. It does not delete customer files.

The scanner also has operational guardrails:

• Foreground scans use a shared lock so GUI-triggered scans do not stack.
• cPanel user refreshes are rate-limited by default.
• Root can tune WHM and cPanel scan limits from WHM.
• Root can set package-specific cPanel refresh overrides.
• Scanner runs are bounded by runtime and result-count limits.
• cPanel users see relative paths for their own account, not other accounts or server-wide paths.

Install path for cPanel and WHM

Start by reviewing the project repository and building or downloading a release package:

Help4 Disk Usage on GitHub

For a normal cPanel server install, upload the release tarball to the server, extract it, and run the installer as root:

tar -xzf help4-disk-usage-0.2.2.tar.gz
cd help4-disk-usage-0.2.2
sudo ./install.sh

The installer places the scanner under the cPanel third-party path, installs the WHM CGI, registers WHM AppConfig, adds the cPanel Jupiter plugin icon, creates a six-hour cron refresh, and writes the shared scan configuration and lock path.

How WHMCS fits in

The WHMCS addon lives under:

integrations/whmcs/modules/addons/help4_disk_usage

Copy that folder into the matching WHMCS path, activate Help4 Disk Usage under System Settings > Addon Modules, configure the release tarball URL and scan limits, then open Addons > Help4 Disk Usage.

In WHMCS, the addon can show synced servers, account scan state, top customer offenders, deployment/check/sync controls, and an event log for admin visibility. One-click deploy/check/sync requires PHP ssh2, a WHMCS server record with usable SSH credentials, and a trusted network path from WHMCS to the cPanel server.

If those requirements are not available, the addon still provides a manual deployment command and can report synced scan data from another trusted workflow.

Customer reports

When enabled, WHMCS customer reporting maps scan rows to hosting services by WHMCS server ID and cPanel username. Logged-in customers see only their own mapped services at:

index.php?m=help4_disk_usage

Support workflow

1. Deploy the WHM/cPanel plugin to a cPanel server.
2. Run or wait for a scan so the report has fresh timestamps.
3. Use WHM to identify bad or check accounts by disk and inode pressure.
4. Sync to WHMCS when customer-service mapping is needed.
5. Use the category hints to explain whether the likely issue is backups, logs, cache, mail, temp files, uploads, dependencies, stale large files, disk, or inodes.
6. Ask the customer to review or remove only files they understand, or handle cleanup through a managed support process.

How this differs from a raw shell script

The older Fix I.T. Phill guide, Find Large Files and Inodes on cPanel/WHM Servers, is still useful for direct admin investigation. Help4 Disk Usage turns that kind of scan into a repeatable workflow with WHM views, cPanel account visibility, WHMCS reporting, timestamps, limits, and customer-safe summaries.

Practical recommendation

Test it on a non-critical cPanel server or a small account group first. Confirm the AppConfig behavior, cPanel Jupiter page behavior, WHMCS SSH handling, scan runtime limits, and the customer report copy before exposing reports broadly.

For production release management, use an immutable GitHub Release tarball instead of pointing WHMCS at a moving branch archive. Keep the visible footer credit: Help4 Disk Usage by Help4 Network.

Project link: https://github.com/Help4Network/help4-disk-usage