Installing ImpulseCore — step-by-step

ImpulseCore is the shared addon every Impulse module depends on. Install it first; modules will not activate until Core is in place.

Before you start

Make sure your WHMCS server has:

• WHMCS 8.4 or later on PHP 8.1+ (8.3 recommended).
• ionCube Loader 13+ for your PHP version, in case any Impulse modules you install later ship encoded files.
• Shell access to the server — you'll add one crontab line.
• MySQL or MariaDB — whatever WHMCS is already using. Core creates its own mod_impulsecore_* tables; no manual SQL.

That's it. ImpulseCore has no provider credentials, no SSH keys, no DNS configuration. Those are module concerns. Core just lives next to WHMCS.

1. Upload the files

Extract the release archive into your WHMCS root:

cd /path/to/whmcs unzip /tmp/impulsecore-X.Y.Z.zip

You'll get modules/addons/impulsecore/ containing Core's PHP files, schema migrations, and admin templates.

Make sure the WHMCS web user can read everything (Plesk: the subscription owner; cPanel: the cPanel user; vanilla LAMP: typically www-data).

2. Activate the addon

In WHMCS Admin:

1. Open System Settings → Addon Modules.
2. Find ImpulseCore in the list and click Activate.
3. Set Access Control to Full Administrator (or whichever roles should see the addon).
4. Click Save Changes.

Activation creates every mod_impulsecore_* table (modules registry, projects, hook subscriptions, cron tasks, cron log, audit log, secrets, plus the Security & Maintenance tables). Self-registers via Core's own manifest. Seeds default settings. Idempotent — re-activating later is safe.

3. Install the Core cron

ImpulseCore runs its own cron runner that dispatches to every registered module's tasks. One crontab line covers everything:

# ImpulseCore — cron runner (every 5 minutes) */5 * * * * /usr/bin/php /path/to/whmcs/modules/addons/impulsecore/cron.php

Replace /usr/bin/php with your PHP CLI binary. On Plesk: /opt/plesk/php/8.3/bin/php. On cPanel: /opt/cpanel/ea-php83/root/usr/bin/php. On a vanilla LAMP install: /usr/bin/php or whatever which php returns. Replace /path/to/whmcs with your install dir.

Modules that need higher-frequency provisioning loops may ship their own cron scripts independent of Core. The Security & Maintenance pipeline always rides on Core's runner.

4. Verify Core is healthy

Open Addons → ImpulseCore. The Overview tab shows:

• Modules registered — one row per active module. Empty on a fresh install.
• Cron runner heartbeat — recent timestamp after the first 5-minute tick.
• Audit log — last 20 events, starting with the activation itself.
• CVE feed status — populated once you have at least one module registered with a security collector.

If the Overview tab loads cleanly, you're done.

5. Now activate your modules

With Core in place, every module you activate will register itself with Core automatically — appearing in the Modules registered table within seconds. Module-specific install steps (provider credentials, plans, products) happen on each module's own admin tab.

Common installation issues

• Blank page after activating Core — ionCube Loader missing. Install for your PHP version and restart PHP-FPM.
• "Class not found: ImpulseCore" when activating a module — Core isn't installed yet. Activate Core first.
• Overview tab empty after first cron tick — verify the crontab line actually fires. crontab -l | grep impulsecore and check system mail or journalctl for the cron output.

Full troubleshooting catalogue is in the Help Center under "ImpulseCore → Troubleshooting".