Parallels BUSINESS AUTOMATION Reseller's guide
Parallels
Parallels Business
Automation - Standard
Reseller's guide
Release 4.0
(c) 1999-2010
Printed: 12/23/2010
Copyright Notice
Parallels Holdings, Ltd.
c/o Parallels International GMbH.
Parallels International GmbH
Vordergasse 49
CH - 8200 Schaffhausen
Switzerland
Tel: + 49 (6151) 42996 - 0
Fax: + 49 (6151) 42996 - 255
Copyright © 1999-2010 by Parallels Holdings Ltd. and its affiliates. All rights reserved.
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All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Contents
Preface 8
Typographical Conventions ......................................................................................................................... 8
Feedback ...................................................................................................................................................... 9
About This Guide......................................................................................................................................... 9
Audience ........................................................................................................................................... 9
Meet the Parallels Business Automation - Standard 10
Browsers Compatible with Parallels Business Automation - Standard...................................................... 10
Connecting to Parallels Business Automation - Standard Browser-Based Tools ...................................... 11
Parallels Business Automation - Standard Interface Features.................................................................... 11
Navigation.................................................................................................................................................. 11
Main Screen ............................................................................................................................................... 12
Adding a Comment to the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Object............................................ 13
Parallels Business Automation - Standard Advantages.............................................................................. 13
Parallels Business Automation - Standard Deployment Scenario.............................................................. 15
Parallels Business Automation - Standard Hardware Requirements.......................................................... 16
Management Node requirements (if the Management Node is a separate computer)................................ 16
Virtuozzo Hardware Node Requirements .................................................................................................. 16
Plesk Hardware Node Requirements:......................................................................................................... 17
Sitebuilder Hardware Node requirements:................................................................................................. 17
Parallels Business Automation - Standard Users ....................................................................................... 18
General Configuration of Parallels Business Automation - Standard 19
Getting Started Checklist ........................................................................................................................... 20
Selecting Regional Settings........................................................................................................................ 21
Language......................................................................................................................................... 21
Default Time Zone.......................................................................................................................... 21
First Day of Week........................................................................................................................... 21
Currency ......................................................................................................................................... 21
Available Languages....................................................................................................................... 22
Setting Up Messenger and S/MIME Signing for E-mail............................................................................ 22
Securing the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Tools Using SSL................................................ 23
Getting the SSL Certificate............................................................................................................. 24
Enabling SSL for Parallels Business Automation - Standard Tools ............................................... 24
Setting the Statistics Storage Period........................................................................................................... 25
Customizing the Onscreen Help in Control Panel...................................................................................... 25
Managing Your Data Center 26
Supervising Service Level.......................................................................................................................... 27
Viewing Log Files...................................................................................................................................... 27
Managing Hosting Plans 28
Hosting Plan Types .................................................................................................................................... 29
Selling Licenses ......................................................................................................................................... 30
Selecting License Classes to Provide.............................................................................................. 31
Adding C
Promoting Hosting Plans............................................................................................................................ 34
Allowing or Disallowing Upgrades to a Hosting Plan............................................................................... 35
Calculations for the Hosting Plan Change ................................................................................................. 35
ustom Services to a Hosting Plan ............................................................................................... 33
Setting Up Billing System 36
Making System-Wide Billing Settings....................................................................................................... 37
Configuring Taxation................................................................................................................................. 38
Configuring Fraud Protection..................................................................................................................... 39
Adjusting Anti-Fraud Plug-ins General Settings ............................................................................ 39
Pricing and Discounts ................................................................................................................................ 39
Setting Prices .................................................................................................................................. 40
Setting Credit Terms....................................................................................................................... 41
Configuring Credit Card Payment Plug-ins ............................................................................................... 43
What Payment Plug-Ins are Available............................................................................................ 43
How to Configure a Payment Plug-In............................................................................................. 43
Activating Payment Plug-Ins and Making Them Available for Resellers ...................................... 43
Security With CVV and AVS ......................................................................................................... 44
Configuring Bank Transfer Payment Plug-ins ........................................................................................... 45
Managing Online Store and Website 46
Customizing Store Using File Manager..................................................................................................... 47
Configuring and Opening Store ................................................................................................................. 52
Managing Accounts 53
Users .......................................................................................................................................................... 54
User Roles.................................................................................................................................................. 54
Permissions ................................................................................................................................................ 54
Selecting Regional Settings........................................................................................................................ 55
Language......................................................................................................................................... 55
Default Time Zone.......................................................................................................................... 55
First Day of Week........................................................................................................................... 55
Currency ......................................................................................................................................... 55
Available Languages....................................................................................................................... 56
Creating Acc
Assigning a Tax Zone ................................................................................................................................ 59
Granting Discounts per Customer Account................................................................................................ 60
Adjusting Account Balance........................................................................................................................ 61
Viewing the Account Billing History......................................................................................................... 61
ounts...................................................................................................................................... 57
Managing Receivables 62
Understanding Parallels Business Automation - Standard Billing Workflow............................................ 63
Viewing and Immediately Operating Receivables..................................................................................... 64
Managing Statements................................................................................................................................. 66
Processing Offline Payments and Changing Payment Method.................................................................. 67
Processing Documents Paid by Credit Cards ............................................................................................. 68
Processing Documents Paid by Bank Transfers......................................................................................... 69
Refunding Documents Paid by Credit Cards ............................................................................................. 70
Recreating Orders With Updated Tax Rates .............................................................................................. 70
Issuing Invoices Manually ......................................................................................................................... 71
Reopening Cutoff Invoices ........................................................................................................................ 71
Managing Payables in Reseller Control Center 72
Viewing Balance of Reseller Account Payable.......................................................................................... 73
Increasing Reseller Account Balance......................................................................................................... 73
Managing Financial Documents Issued by HSP ........................................................................................ 74
Managing Orders ............................................................................................................................ 74
Paying HSP Invoices ...................................................................................................................... 75
Viewing Payments .......................................................................................................................... 75
Viewing Adjustments...................................................................................................................... 76
Viewing Statements Issued by HSP........................................................................................................... 76
Viewing Billing Reports 77
Accounting Reports.................................................................................................................................... 78
Managing Payment Methods 79
Configuring Encryption for Payment Methods.......................................................................................... 80
How a Payment Method Can be Added ..................................................................................................... 80
Managing Recurring Payments .................................................................................................................. 81
Managing Credit Cards .............................................................................................................................. 82
How to Start Accepting Credit Cards .............................................................................................82
Setting Transactions Approval and Processing Mode.................................................................... 83
Managing Bank Accounts .......................................................................................................................... 84
How to Start Accepting Bank Transfers ......................................................................................... 84
Adding Bank Account Manually ....................................................................................................85
Changing Bank Account Attributes in Parallels Business Automation - Standard Database ......... 85
Viewing Tra
Removing a Payment Method.................................................................................................................... 86
nsaction Log........................................................................................................................... 86
Managing Subscriptions 87
Understanding Subscription Types and Statuses........................................................................................ 88
Renewing Subscriptions............................................................................................................................. 90
Renewing Delegated Domains Registration............................................................................................... 91
Managing Subscription Grace Period ........................................................................................................ 92
Activating Dedicated Server Subscription ................................................................................................. 93
Sending Subscription Notification ............................................................................................................. 94
Changing a Customer Billing Day ............................................................................................................. 95
Managing Containers 97
Managing Both OS and Application Templates for Containers................................................................. 97
Basic Notions.................................................................................................................................. 98
Application Template Properties .................................................................................................. 100
OS Templates................................................................................................................................ 102
Managing Container Applications Upgrades................................................................................ 103
Creating More Application Templates.......................................................................................... 103
Setting Up Both Trial Containers and Containers Backups Creation....................................................... 104
Backups Management................................................................................................................... 104
Creating Container ................................................................................................................................... 105
Operating Container................................................................................................................................. 108
Repairing Container ................................................................................................................................. 109
Managing Domains 111
Configuring Domain Registration Plug-Ins ............................................................................................. 112
Registering a Domain from Control Center ............................................................................................. 113
Managing a Domain Zone File................................................................................................................. 113
Managing SSL Certificates 114
Configuring SSL Certificates Plug-Ins..................................................................................................... 115
Managing SSL Certificates Provisioning................................................................................................. 116
Editing or Re-Issuing Certificate .................................................................................................. 117
Managing Certificate Contacts...................................................................................................... 119
Viewing SSL Certificates Transaction Log.............................................................................................. 119
Managing Plesk Clients and Domains 120
Marketing and Affiliate Programs 122
Configuring your Store to Collect Referrals Statistics ............................................................................. 122
Managing Marketing Campaigns............................................................................................................. 123
Support and Administration 125
Trouble Ticket System ............................................................................................................................. 125
Configuring Parallels Business Automation - Standard Trouble Ticket System .......................... 126
Managing Trouble Tickets............................................................................................................ 128
Using the Problem Viewer............................................................................................................ 128
Using the Screens Viewer............................................................................................................. 128
Managing Parallels Business Automation - Standard Objects Description Templates ............................ 129
Managing Events...................................................................................................................................... 130
Using the Mass Mailer ............................................................................................................................. 132
Using the Maintenance Mode for your Hardware Nodes......................................................................... 132
Managing the User Password Strength .................................................................................................... 132
Updating Parallels Business Automation - Standard................................................................................ 133
Parallels Business Automation - Standard Internal Licensing 136
Installing License Certificates.................................................................................................................. 136
Getting Technical Support 137
An Overview of Parallels Technical Support........................................................................................... 137
Questions for Technical Support.............................................................................................................. 137
How to Send Support Questions .............................................................................................................. 138
Index 139
8
C HAPTER 1
Preface
In This Chapter
Typographical Conventions .................................................................................................. 8
Feedback ............................................................................................................................... 9
About This Guide.................................................................................................................. 9
Typographical Conventions
Before you start using this guide, it is important to understand the documentation conventions
used in it.
The following kinds of formatting in the text identify special information.
Formatting convention Type of Information Example
Special Bold
Italics Used to emphasize the
Monospace
Items you must select, such
as menu options, command
buttons, or items in a list.
Titles of chapters, sections,
and subsections.
importance of a point, to
introduce a term or to
designate a command line
placeholder, which is to be
replaced with a real name or
value.
The names of commands,
files, directories, and
domain names.
Go to the System tab.
Read the Basic
Administration chapter.
The system supports the so
called wildcard character
search.
The license file is located in
the
http://docs/common/
licenses directory.
Preface 9
Preformatted
Preformatted Bold
CAPITALS Names of keys on the
KEY+KEY Key combinations for which
On-screen computer output
in your command-line
sessions; source code in
XML, C++, or other
programming languages.
What you type, contrasted
with on-screen computer
output.
keyboard.
the user must press and hold
down one key and then
press another.
# ls –al /files
total 14470
# cd /root/rpms/php
SHIFT, CTRL, ALT
CTRL+P, ALT+F4
Feedback
If you have found a mistake in this guide, or if you have suggestions or ideas on how to improve
this guide, please send your feedback using the online form at
http://www.parallels.com/en/support/usersdoc/. Please include in your report the guide's title,
chapter and section titles, and the fragment of text in which you have found an error.
About This Guide
This Guide describes the most important and frequently-used Parallels Business Automation Standard working scenarios including initial settings for the system.
Note: The PDF-version of this Guide is an overview of the Parallels Business Automation -
Standard overall functionality and is not to be used as a thorough howto. For details see context-
sensitive HTML help (the Help link at the upper right corner of every screen).
Audience
This guide is addressed to Hosting Service Providers and helps both to evaluate the product and
get acquainted with Parallels Business Automation - Standard.
10
C HAPTER 2
Meet the Parallels Business Automation Standard
Parallels Business Automation - Standard is an end-to-end solution for hosting service providers
(HSPs) and Internet Data Centers covering full life-cycle of HSP/IDC operations. Parallels
Business Automation - Standard allows HSPs to drastically decrease the cost of operating
hosting business while increasing revenues, developing new reseller channels, and improving
usage of hardware and personnel resources.
In This Chapter
Browsers Compatible with Parallels Business Automation - Standard................................. 10
Connecting to Parallels Business Automation - Standard Browser-Based Tools ................. 11
Parallels Business Automation - Standard Interface Features............................................... 11
Parallels Business Automation - Standard Advantages ........................................................ 13
Parallels Business Automation - Standard Deployment Scenario......................................... 15
Parallels Business Automation - Standard Hardware Requirements .................................... 16
Parallels Business Automation - Standard Users .................................................................. 18
Browsers Compatible with Parallels Business Automation - Standard
The following browsers are fully compatible with Parallels Business Automation - Standard
web-based tools:
For IBM PC compatible computers:
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5, 6.0 and above,
Netscape Navigator 7.0 and above,
Opera 7.5.3 and above,
Mozilla 1.5 and above,
Firefox 1.0 and above.
Google Chrome 8.
For Macintosh:
Safari 1.3 and above,
Microsoft Internet Explorer for Mac 5.2,
Opera 8.5
Mozilla/Firefox 1.07.
Meet the Parallels Business Automation - Standard 11
Connecting to Parallels Business
Automation - Standard BrowserBased Tools
To connect to the Parallels Business Automation - Standard tools, enter into your browser the
Management Node hostname and append the tool index (http://hostname/index). If no
tool index is specified, then nothing to be appended to open the tool:
Tool Tool index
Public Site
Online Store
Provider Control Center pcc
Reseller Control Center rcc
Control Panel cp
My Control Panel mycp
The SSL protocol can be enabled separately for each of Parallels Business Automation Standard web-based tools. The SSL configuration is available both in Provider and Reseller
Control Centers.
Note: To connect to the My Control Panel, it is necessary to create a Container subscription, log
in to the Control Panel, then create a user (if System Administrator Control Panel Application is
installed inside Container) or a mailbox in multiple domains (if Workgroup Administrator
Control Panel is installed inside Container). After this you can log in to the My Control Panel
with the e-mail address as a login and a user regular password.
Parallels Business Automation Standard Interface Features
Navigation
To use one or another Parallels Business Automation - Standard component or tool, please use
the namespace tree located in the left pane.
Control Centers specific:
You can hide/display the namespace tree by clicking on the slider at the vertical bar that
separates the left and the right parts of the screen.
Meet the Parallels Business Automation - Standard 12
When you start your Parallels Business Automation - Standard session, the path (chain of links)
appears at the top of the screen. These links provide the "breadcrumb navigation" and show you
the path to your actual location within the Parallels Business Automation - Standard. By clicking
on these links, you can be one or more (depending on your location) levels up.
Main Screen
The right pane of Parallels Business Automation - Standard screen serves for operating
components selected from the namespace tree. The main screen shows the Parallels Business
Automation - Standard Directors' or Managers' dashboards, lists of objects, single objects'
properties, or other related data.
Each Parallels Business Automation - Standard component (Director or Manager) has its own
dashboard. Moreover, the Parallels Business Automation - Standard has its dashboard that may
be considered as 30,000-foot view of tools and operations. So, a dashboard is the Parallels
Business Automation - Standard component 'front-page' that provides you with the most
important statistics and a place to start including:
Shortcuts to the lists of objects.
Information about the number of objects with separate counters for the objects in different
states like Active Accounts, Accounts on Hold, Running Containers, etc.
Shortcuts for the creation of new objects that fall into the functionality of Parallels Business
Automation - Standard component selected.
To facilitate operating the lists of objects you can use:
Search particular item within the list or filter the items by a particular property. The Search
and filter bar is located at the top of each list.
Hide/Show search and filter bars, action bars, tables and create/edit forms sections. Their
hide/show status is retained throughout the session.
Change Sorting Order. To this effect, click on the column-heading you want to sort by. In
this case, the special pointer (small triangle) appears at the top of each column. This triangle
indicates current sorting order: peak-up or peak-down for ascending and descending order
respectively. Repeating click on the same link in column-heading changes sorting order
from ascending to descending (and conversely) within single property.
Change List Size. It is possible to set the listing to 20, 40, or 80 items per page. Appropriate
links are above the list, to the right. Special links for viewing pages (page numbers,
next,last) are also provided and you can find them both at the beginning and the end of the
list.
Export lists to Excel. Parallels Business Automation - Standard allows you to export data
from any list in Parallels Business Automation - Standard to Excel, thus facilitating data
operations. The information is exported from the whole list, not only from the visible part.
For example, if you have set the listing to 40 items per page and the whole list includes 100
entries, you will get an excel format document covering 100 items. The
icon is located above and under the lists.
Set columns visibility. You can choose the columns to be displayed in the list tables by
clicking on the
entries in the drop-down menu. You are also allowed to set the columns order by drag-anddropping the column titles.
icon above and under the list and enabling/disabling the corresponding
Export to Excel
Meet the Parallels Business Automation - Standard 13
In order to immediately bring the screen content in correspondence with actual state of affairs,
you can Refresh the screen using the button located at the upper right corner of the screen.
The Help button located at the upper right corner of each screen shows the context-sensitive
HTML help.
Screen ID is located at the upper-right corner of each screen. Screen ID allows to refer to a
screen for customization purposes or in the problem report. In addition, each screen ID is a
clickable link that leads the the Screens Viewer and allows getting a screen alias immediately.
Adding a Comment to the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Object
You can add a free-form comment to almost any of Parallels Business Automation - Standard
object. To this effect click on the Add comment link at the upper-right corner of an object view
form.
Parallels Business Automation Standard Advantages
Parallels Business Automation - Standard includes everything a company needs to run a
successful and profitable hosting business from advanced technology and tools to manage your
servers and overall infrastructure to billing, sales channel management, and e-commerce
application:
The full range of services supported:
Domain registration
Plesk Domain hosting
Virtuozzo Container hosting
Parallels Plesk Control Panel
and Parallels Plesk Sitebuilder
licenses
Complete infrastructure management:
Powerful Container
management
IPs allocation and DNS
administration
Flexible self-provisioning
Parallels Plesk Sitebuilder
support
Dedicated servers for resellers
Dedicated or Co-location
Miscellaneous
Server-/client-side backups
Integrated trouble ticketing and
External Helpdesks support
Maintenance automation and
more
Meet the Parallels Business Automation - Standard 14
Integrated complete billing solution:
Customizable online store
Country-specific accounting
Automated recurring invoicing
Private label resellers
Discounts, promotions, coupon
codes
Taxation with tax exemption
Automated upgrades/downgrades
Customizable notifications and
more
Credit Cards processing through over 30 payment gateways (new added
monthly):
integrated with fraud screening
flexible manual approval rules
sensitive data is encrypted
delayed capture
refunds, reversals, credits
CVV/AVS verification and more
Bank transfer payments for German (DTAUS), Spanish (Norma 19), and Netherlands
(ClieOp3) standards: flexible batch management with approval queues.
Domain registrations through over 25 domain registrars (new added
monthly):
Wide range of Operating Systems and Applications for Container hosting:
Centralized management
Automated upgrades
Over 50 applications
Redhat, Fedora, Suse, Debian
Open-source and commercial
applications
Game servers and more
Meet the Parallels Business Automation - Standard 15
Easy customization and integration:
Customizable PHP based store
Notifications customization
Customizable menu items
Colors, logos, page content
Create your own plug-ins
Everything in one box
!
Application templates creation
guide
Powerful API
Advanced multi-language
support
XML data export/im
port tools
Parallels Business Automation Standard Deployment Scenario
Parallels Business Automation - Standard can be successfully installed both on the physical
server or (if you use the Parallels Virtuozzo Containers technology) in Virtuozzo Container.
The computer (or virtual server) that runs Parallels Business Automation - Standard is called
Management Node in terms of Parallels Business Automation - Standard. The servers that run
software that provides hosting services (run Virtuozzo Containers, Plesk Domains, or some
other third-party software) are called Hardware Nodes or just Nodes. Parallels Business
Automation - Standard administrator can connect to the Management Node via the Internet and
guide the hosting business using the web-based interface.
Meet the Parallels Business Automation - Standard 16
Parallels Business Automation Standard Hardware Requirements
Recommended hardware configuration is two or more computers for Hardware Nodes.
Note: Parallels Business Automation - Standard can work well with just one Hardware Node,
but existence of two nodes increases availability of the hosting service. With two or more nodes
one of them may be taken off-line for maintenance, replacement or upgrade with minimal
disruption for the hosting service.
If you use Parallels Virtuozzo Containers, we recommend installing the Management Node
software in a special service Container hosted on one of your Hardware Nodes. In this case that
single computer shall meet both Hardware Node and Management Node requirements and you
then need at least one workstation for system administrator to manage it.
However, you can have your Management Node as a separate computer.
Management Node requirements (if the Management Node is a separate computer)
IBM PC-compatible computer with 2 GHz (or higher) Intel Celeron, Pentium, or AMD
Athlon CPU;
At least 1 GB of RAM;
At least 40 GB of total disk space;
Network card;
Virtuozzo Hardware Node Requirements
IBM PC-compatible computer;
Intel Celeron, Pentium II, Pentium III, Pentium 4, or AMD Athlon CPU;
At least 128 MB of RAM;
Hard drive(s) with at least 4 GB of free disk space;
Network card (either Intel EtherExpress100 (i82557-, i82558- or i82559-based) or 3Com
(3c905 or 3c905B or 3c595) are recommended).
SCSI controllers:
Adaptec7xxx SCSI controller (including AHA 2940/3940/3944/29160);
Meet the Parallels Business Automation - Standard 17
RAID controller based on the AMI MegaRAID chips (including DELL PowerRAID
PERC2/PERC3).
Caution: For Athlon-based systems: It is not recommended to use computers with VIA chipsets.
Plesk Hardware Node Requirements:
The minimal hardware requirements for the Plesk installation are the same as those of the
operating system intended to be used with Plesk.
Number of domains Amount of RAM Processor
100 256 MB Pentium II
500 512 MB Pentium III
1500 2000 MB dual Pentium III
2000 4000 MB dual Pentium IV
Sitebuilder Hardware Node requirements:
RAM 256mb
30 Mb HDD space for Sitebuilder installation (+ 1 Mb per User's web site) - minimal
configuration.
CPU Celeron 1,7
Ethernet 10 Mb
For more details (OS versions, additional software) please refer to the Sitebuilder Installation
guide shipped together with the product.
Meet the Parallels Business Automation - Standard 18
Parallels Business Automation Standard Users
The following Account types exist within Parallels Business Automation - Standard:
Provider Account (only one Account of such type can exist). This Account is registered
during Parallels Business Automation - Standard installation and it always has the ID=1. All
registered persons that have role in Provider Account are considered as Provider staff
members with particular access permissions to Parallels Business Automation - Standard
Provider Control Center. The number of Provider staff members that can concurrently log in
to the Provider Control Center is defined by the Parallels Business Automation - Standard
license.
Reseller Account. Reseller Accounts are registered using the Account Director > Reseller
Manager. The number of Reseller Accounts is defined in the Parallels Business Automation -
Standard License. All registered persons that have role in Reseller Account are considered as
Reseller staff members with particular access permissions to Parallels Business Automation
- Standard Reseller Control Center.
Customer Account. Customer Accounts are being registered using the Account Director >
Customer Manager. Customer Accounts can be of two types: personal or business. All
persons associated with Customer Account have access to Parallels Business Automation Standard Control Panels.
19
C HAPTER 3
General Configuration of Parallels Business Automation - Standard
When you log in to the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Provider or Reseller Control
Center first time, the Setup Wizard helps you to make the most important initial settings.
Please check the initial configuration of the Parallels Business Automation - Standard
installation:
Submit/edit the company name and sender e-mail address (messenger) used in notifications.
Set data retention rules both for system events (on page 130) and logs (on page 27).
Make the regional settings including
(monday or sunday), the default time zone to bound system events and logs, select the
system-wide currency.
Set up secure communications (turn on SSL, generate CSR, install signed secure certificate).
the interface language, set the first day of week
In addition, to facilitate the operations (like domain registration) performed on behalf of the
default Provider account created in Parallels Business Automation - Standard (for Provider
Control Center users only), it is necessary to check and adjust if needed, the contact information
containing in the default Provider account.
Note: The special Getting Started checklist is provided for Resellers.
In This Chapter
Getting Started Checklist ...................................................................................................... 20
Selecting Regional Settings................................................................................................... 21
Setting Up Messenger and S/MIME Signing for E-mail ...................................................... 22
Securing the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Tools Using SSL........................... 23
Setting the Statistics Storage Period...................................................................................... 25
Customizing the Onscreen Help in Control Panel ................................................................ 25
General Configuration of Parallels Business Automation - Standard 20
Getting Started Checklist
This step-by step procedure helps setting up the Reseller Control Center.
To start selling hosting plans:
1. Fill in all the contact data into the Reseller account profile to avoid any problem connected
with contact data discrepancies when registering domains online. Click on your account
name at the top of the Navigation tree in the left pane and edit the Company Profile and
Contacts.
2. Check IP addresses availability in Service Director > IP Manager. If no IP addresses are
available, contact your vendor.
3. Register a domain in the Service Directo r > Domain Manager and set it as the default one to
allow your customers to create subdomains in this default domain. If something goes wrong
with domains registration, contact your vendor.
4. Set up the billing system:
a Create Credit Terms that define the order of settlement with your customers and select
the default credit terms to be applied by default to customers accounts created from your
online store (Account Director > Subscription Manager).
b Optionally: create Discount Categories to be able to give the per-account discounts to
your customers.(Billing Director > Discount Manager)
c Configure taxation.
d Configure payment methods processing in the Commerce Director.
5. Copy some Provider's hosting plans or create your own ones.
6. Configure online store and open it using the Commerce Director > Store Manager.
To view or process orders placed at your store, go to the Billing Director > Receivable. To view
or pay Provider's invoices, go to the Payable section.
General Configuration of Parallels Business Automation - Standard 21
Selecting Regional Settings
To make regional settings, go to the Configuration Director > Miscellaneous Settings > Regional
Settings.
The regional settings include:
The language;
The default time zone;
The calendar settings (the first day of week);
The system-wide currency.
Selecting languages available for your customers to switch the interface.
Language
The language setting allows you to set the system-wide language of the Parallels Business
Automation - Standard interface.
Default Time Zone
In respect to registration of the events that happen within the system, the Parallels Business
Automation - Standard database is bound to GMT. This means that automatically-generated
notifications and system messages (for example, about subscriptions expiration dates) may
occur to be hardly understandable for the customers that reside in the other time zones.
Thus, the Parallels Business Automation - Standard provides an opportunity of setting different
time zones for different Customers (or Resellers). This can be done during creation of a new
Account or later. The special time zone can be set for each user associated with an Account.
After this, all the time-related data (in Action Log, Event Manager, or automatically-generated
notifications) will be bound to the User’s time zone, without the need for him (or her) to
recalculate time.
However, if most of your prospect customers will reside in the single time zone, it is quite
reasonable to set default time zone for the newly registered persons.
First Day of Week
You can select the day a week starts. For example, this setting is used when setting the weekly
time interval in the Billing Reports (on page 78) view.
Currency
You can set the system-wide currency (for all financial documents and Hosting Plan prices).
Resellers can set the own currency and enter the cross rate between the Provider currency and
Reseller currency. This feature is very useful for selling through international channels as well
as having separate branches in different countries around the world.
General Configuration of Parallels Business Automation - Standard 22
Note: Parallels Business Automation - Standard is a single-currency system. In other words
automatic currency recalculations are not available. If you change the system-wide currency,
you will have the unified currency sign, fractional part format, etc., however you will need to
recalculate all prices manually. For example, most of domain-registration Plug-Ins support US
Dollar only as an accounting currency. Thus, in order to update domain-registration prices
correctly the system-wide currency should be US Dollar by prices update, otherwise the new
prices will not be used in Parallels Business Automation - Standard billing.
Available Languages
Check the boxes next to language names to allow your customers to switch the interface into
these languages. The list of languages in this section is comprised of the languages shipped
within separate language packs with Parallels Business Automation - Standard kit and installed
during the Parallels Business Automation system configuration.
Setting Up Messenger and S/MIME Signing for E-mail
Parallels Business Automation - Standard provides an opportunity to automatically generate and
send e-mail notifications to Provider Administrator and other HSP staff members (for example,
about resources overusage or nodes outages) or to HSP Customers (for example, if Subscription
period is about to expire). The set of events that can be followed by e-mail notifications is readonly and defined in the Event Manager (on page 130). The component that automatically
generates
configured for a certain number of events that take place within Parallels Business Automation Standard system and tracked by the Event Manager.
Each message (including automatically generated ones) shall have the 'From' field. For
automatically-sent messages (or notifications) the 'From' field should contain the sender name
and e-mail of a messenger. In addition, you can enable or disable e-mail notifications sending
and select the e-mail messages encoding (character set). Finally, you can configure e-mail
messages S/MIME signing. To set the messenger, go to the Configuration Director >
Miscellaneous Settings > E-Mail Setup.
and sends e-mail notifications is called 'Messenger'. Notifications themselves may be
General Configuration of Parallels Business Automation - Standard 23
Securing the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Tools Using SSL
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) provides a level of security and privacy for those wishing to
conduct secure transactions over the Internet. Introduced to the Internet market by Netscape
Communications, the SSL protocol protects HTTP transmissions over the Internet by adding a
layer of encryption. This insures that your transactions are not subject to "sniffing" by a third
party.
SSL provides visitors of your website with the confidence to communicate securely via an
encrypted session. For companies wishing to conduct secure e-commerce, such as receiving
credit card numbers or other sensitive information online, SSL is essential.
Important: SSL Setup for Resellers
SSL certificate is generated per vendor domain name. For provider, this domain name is
Management Node hostname, by default.
Resellers use the same domain as their provider until a reseller URL is not hidden. Thus, if a
reseller with not hidden URL tries to generate an SSL Certificate request, the same domain as
provider's one will be used. This can corrupt provider's SSL settings. That is why Parallels
Business Automation - Standard does not allow SSL setup for resellers with not hidden URL -
the SSL Setup item is not available in RCC menu in this case.
To make SSL Setup available for a reseller, provider should do the following:
1. Hide reseller URL to provide a reseller with own domain name, which makes it possible to
generate an SSL Certificate for this reseller.
2. Make sure that Reseller Administrator permissions allow managing SSL. To this effect, go
to the Configuration Director > Security Manager > Setup, select Reseller Permissions tab, and
then select Reseller Administrator role. Open the Configuration Director > Miscellaneous
settings item and make sure that the SSL Setup check box is selected. After this, SSL setup
will become available for all resellers in Reseller Control Center.
General Configuration of Parallels Business Automation - Standard 24
Getting the SSL Certificate
For SSL to work a valid signed SSL certificate is required. Certificates are a standard way of
binding a public key to a name. Public key encryption is a technique that uses a pair of
asymmetric keys for encryption and decryption. Each pair of keys consists of a public key and a
private key. The public key is made public by distributing it widely. The private key is never
distributed; it is always kept secret. Data that is encrypted with the public key can be decrypted
only with the private key. Conversely, data encrypted with the private key can be decrypted only
with the public key. This asymmetry makes public key cryptography so useful.
You can generate a self-signed certificate and use it for some time until the certificate “signed”
by a trusted external authority: VeriSign (http://www.verisign.com) or Thawte
(http://www.thawte.com) will be ready.
Note: Net
scape and Mozilla browsers automatically detect whether a website uses encryption of
transmitted data or not (as for Internet Explorer, please encourage your website visitors who use
IE to use Internet Explorer 5.0 or later). Thus, if you use a self-signed certificate, your website
visitors will be notified that your website uses encryption, but the authority that signed a
certificate is not recognized. So if you intend to conduct e-commerce at your website, it is better
to obtain an SSL certificate signed by VeriSign or Thawte
To obtain the SSL certificate:
1. Generate Certificate Request in the Configuration Director > Miscellaneous Settings > SSL
Setup > Certificate Request tab.
2. After the Certificate request is generated, you can do one of the following:
Copy the Certificate Request and send it to the Certificate Authority to obtain the signed
Certificate and import it later;
Generate self-signed Certificate and use it for some time.
3. Restart Apache on your Management Node. Please note that in this case your Management
Node will be not available for some time. So if you already have customers by the moment
of importing the SSL Certificate, your customer's Containers will also become offline till
Apache on your Management Node restarts.
Enabling SSL for Parallels Business Automation - Standard Tools
You can enable the SSL protocol separately for the Provider Control Center and Reseller
Control Canter, Control Panels, website, and your online store.
To enable the SSL protocol, go to the Configuration Director > Miscellaneous Settings > SSL
Setup. Select the the Enable SSL tab. You can enable the SSL protocol by checking the Enable
SSL in Parallels Business Automation > Standard Web Tools boxes next to the name(s) of the web
tools (Control Centers, Control Panels, store, etc.).
General Configuration of Parallels Business Automation - Standard 25
Setting the Statistics Storage Period
You can set how long both the resources usage statistics and events history will be stored in the
Parallels Business Automation - Standard database in the Configuration Director > Miscellaneous
Settings > Data Retention. The resource usage statistics retention cycle defines the timeframe for
resource usage reports you can view.
The outdated statistics is removed automatically, once a day. In addition, at any moment you
can manually remove the outdated statistics (use the Tasks tab on the Data Retention screen).
In respect to the resource usage statistics (on page 27), you can set:
For how m
For how many last months to store the daily statistics.
For how many last years to store the monthly statistics.
For how many last years to store the yearly statistics.
In respect to the action log, events history, and sent e-mail notifications you can set the period to
store the data.
any last days to store the hourly statistics.
Customizing the Onscreen Help in Control Panel
Each screen of the Parallels Business Automation - Standard Control Panels is provided with a
short onscreen help topic.
If needed, you can edit the onscreen help topics for each screen of the Control Panels your
customers use. To this effect, login to the Control Panel (yourcompany.com/cp) using one of the
logins of your Provider Account (as a staff member). In this case, on almost every Control
Panel screen (excluding dashboards) a special "question-mark" icon appears at the upper right
corner of the screen.
Click
text appears. Type the text and click the Update button.
From the Provider Control Center you can hide or show the onscreen help and show/hide in the
source HTML of each Parallels Business Automation - Standard screen the special metatags
used to mark the Parallels Business Automation - Standard screen elements (called controls).
Usage of these metatags is described in details in the Parallels Business Automation - Standard
SDK.
at the screen you want to add a help topic for. The popup window with the help bar
C HAPTER 4
Managing Your Data Center
The Service Director provides the tools for your Data Center management.
In spite of the fact that Parallels Business Automation - Standard operates the virtual-server
farm, a Data Center should be understood in common sense, i.e., as a centralized storage facility
to retain database information related to decision-making processes.
In general, Parallels Business Automation - Standard Data Center activity includes the
following:
DNS and IP addresses management.
Servers management.
Service level management.
In this chapter:
Supervising Service Level..................................................................................................... 27
Viewing Log Files................................................................................................................. 27
Supervising Service Level
The Service Level Manager provides a mechanism for checking the current resource utilization
throughout Containers and Hardware Nodes. Using the Service Director > Service Level Manager,
you can:
View the both the current resources consumption and the resources usage history for every
Container or every Hardware Node. Go to the Service Director - Service Level Manager.
Select Virtuozzo Container or Hardware Nodes. For every Container or Hardware Node you
an view the current resources usage (the Current Values tab) or resource usage history
(Statistics tab). This feature is very useful if, for example your customer believes that some
resource was under-delivered. In this case you can settle a customer's doubts by checking the
total resource usage during a particular period and daily or hourly consumption for a given
period of time.
View traffic usage statistics for third-party dedicated servers.
Set the thresholds in percents for disk space and traffic that when exceeded are reported into
the list of Containers that are approaching limits. To this effect, go to the Service Level
Manager - Setup. To view the list of Containers that have exceeded the threshold percentage
of promised disk space and traffic, select Container approaching limit.
Note: When traffic or disk space usage for a Container approaches the limits set in the Service
Level Manager, the corresponding event is registered by the Parallels Business Automation -
Standard Event Manager (namely, Traffic is nearly used up and Disk space is nearly used up, to
find these events, filter the list by the Subscription object type). Thus, you can attach an action
to such events, for example, e-mail notification or SMS message to your staff member.
Finally, you can configure traffic accounting by classes in the Service Director > Service
Level Manager > Traffic Classes.
Viewing Log Files
During the normal course of work, it is often necessary to track all the actions performed within
your Parallels Business Automation - Standard system. To view action logs, click Action Log on
the left menu.
The Parallels Business Automation - Standard logs are stored on the Management Node in the
/var/log/hspc/hspc.log file.
You can set the log level and log messages format in the Configuration Director > Logging and
Errors > Log Settings.
28
C HAPTER 5
Managing Hosting Plans
A hosting plan is a set of services you can sell. Depending on a hosting plan type, different types
of services can be included in a plan.
When HSP creates hosting plans, they can make a hosting plan available for Resellers. In this
case, Resellers can copy such hosting plans and set own prices. In addition, Resellers can create
own hosting plans.
Hosting plans are managed under the Billing Director > Product Manager > Hosting Plans.
The list of hosting plans displays the following:
ID - Numerical identifier, automatically assigned to a hosting plan in Parallels Business
Automation - Standard database.
Title - A hosting plan name used to refer to a plan in Parallels Business Automation -
Standard. In HSPstore, hosting plans are referred by their titles.
Active - Whether this plan is enabled for use (create subscriptions from Provider Control
Center and/or sell.
Sell - Green tick in this column indicates that services, based on this hosting plan can be sold
by the Hosting Provider or by Resellers, red cross - that not.
Type - a type of hosting services provided by a hosting plan.
Category - Hosting Plan Categories are used to logically group hosting plans.
Trial - whether a free trial subscription period is available for a hosting plan or not. Green
tick means that a trial period is available, red cross - that not.
Subscriptions. The total number of active subscriptions based on a hosting plan.
In This Chapter
Hosting Plan Types ............................................................................................................... 29
Selling Licenses .................................................................................................................... 30
Adding Custom Services to a Hosting Plan .......................................................................... 33
Promoting Hosting Plans ...................................................................................................... 34
Allowing or Disallowing Upgrades to a Hosting Plan.......................................................... 35
Calculations for the Hosting Plan Change ............................................................................ 35
Managing Hosting Plans 29
Hosting Plan Types
The set of hosting plan types is read-only in respect to its composition, however Provider can
rename the hosting types in a way that, for example, seems more descriptive. The names of
hosting plan types are shown on the first step of hosing plan creation wizard.
To rename or view the hosting plan types available, go to the Billing Director > Product Manager
> Hosting Plans > Hosting Plan Types tab. Then select the type and edit its name.
You can also make use of the multilingual conversion option to switch the language of the
hosting plan type into the one you need.
Parallels Business Automation - Standard supports multi-lingual customization for a wide range
of fields (website texts, hosting plan names and description, notification templates). You can
enter and save texts in any of the languages available for the current Parallels Business
Automation - Standard implementation (Bulgarian, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional,
Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Spanish). To select
the language, click one of the buttons with language names tiled below the field you want to
enter the text and enter the text in the language selected. For example, click English - and edit
the English text, then click German (the English content will be saved and replaced with the
German content in the same field) and edit the German text, and so on, for all languages you
want to use in your store.
To restore the default hosting plan type name, click the Reset to Default button.
Note: It is possible to create the trial-only hosting plans (for the types of hosting the trial period
is allowed for) and so-called one-time-fee hosting plans, which allow selling services or other
goods without subscription creation and thus, without renewals.
Managing Hosting Plans 30
Selling Licenses
Parallels Business Automation - Standard allows selling Parallels Plesk Control Panel, Parallels
Plesk Sitebuilder, Parallels Virtuozzo Container, and some other types of licenses as a part of
services included in the following types of hosting plans:
Dedicated node.
Dedicated Plesk server.
Virtuozzo Container (in case a hosting plan includes the Plesk Server Administrator
application). A Virtuozzo Container behaves like a Plesk server, but is not registered in
Parallels Business Automation - Standard as a Plesk node.
Plesk Server in Virtuozzo Container (Plesk Virtual Node). A Virtuozzo Container behaves
like a Plesk server, and is registered in Parallels Business Automation - Standard as a Plesk
node.
Miscellaneous.
The special plug-in for licenses issuing (Parallels Key Administrator) that can be installed
similarly to the other plug-ins makes it possible to request licenses on a customer order. The
plug-in can be configured both for working in online and offline mode.
The requisites and keys necessary for Parallels Key Administrator (Parallels KA) to work online
are issued by Parallels. Depending on a HSP needs, Parallels can issue a special key for a
particular license class or for a number of license classes.
Tools for license services management are grouped under the Service Director > License
Manager. The list of licenses classes available for the Parallels partner if shown under the
License Manager > Licenses.
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