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This is usually a bug in the PhpMyAdmin configuration, whenever you receive the following error when accessing PhpMyAdmin either from WHM or cPanel,

Error :

Warning: session_start() [function.session-start]: SQLite: failed to open/create session database `/var/cpanel/userhomes/cpanelphpmyadmin/sessions/phpsess.sdb’ - unable to open database: /var/cpanel/userhomes/cpanelphpmyadmin/sessions/phpsess.sdb in /usr/local/cpanel/base/3rdparty/phpMyAdmin/libraries/session.inc.php on line 86

Fatal error: session_start() [<a href='function.session-start'>function.session-start</a>]: Failed to initialize storage module: sqlite (path: /var/cpanel/userhomes/cpanelphpmyadmin/sessions/phpsess.sdb) in /usr/local/cpanel/base/3rdparty/phpMyAdmin/libraries/session.inc.php on line 86

Manually edit /usr/local/cpanel/3rdparty/etc/phpmyadmin/php.ini file as follow:

1)Login to shell of the server using root login details and open the file “/usr/local/cpanel/3rdparty/etc/phpmyadmin/php.ini” using vi or any other editor.

2) Search for the [Session] variable & underneath it, change the following

Replace:
——————————-
session.save_handler = sqlite
session.save_path =/var/cpanel/userhomes/cpanelphpmyadmin/sessions/phpsess.sdb
——————————-
To:
——————————-

session.save_handler=files

session.save_path=/tmp
——————————-

By default, PhpMyAdmin uses sqlite as as the file handler, but it needs to be changed to files & the location of the session files to be stored needs to be changed to /tmp which is the standard/default place to store temporary files

Once done, save & exit the php.ini file & restart the webserver using “/scripts/restartsrv_httpd”.

You can also ‘chattr’ the file such that it doesn’t get reverted back to original whenever cPanel updates it in the future..