Parallels® Helm
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Parallels
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Contents
Preface 4
Typographical Conventions ........................................................................................................... 4
Feedback ....................................................................................................................................... 5
About Microsoft DNS in Parallels Helm 6
Installing Microsoft DNS 7
Configuring Microsoft DNS 8
Setting Up the MS DNS Secondary Server Module 9
Setting Up the Secondary Microsoft DNS Service 10
Setting Up the Secondary Microsoft DNS Backup Service 11
Setting Up a DNS Template 12
Setting Up the Microsoft DNS Resource 14
Adding the Microsoft DNS Resource into Your Plan Template 15
In this chapter:
Typographical Conventions ............................................................................... 4
Feedback .......................................................................................................... 5
Formatting convention
Type of Information
Example
Special Bold
Items you must select,
such as menu options,
command buttons, or
items in a list.
Go to the System tab.
Titles of chapters,
sections, and
subsections.
Read the Basic
Administration chapter.
Italics
Used to emphasize the
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 system supports the
so called wildcard
character search.
Monospace
The names of
commands, files,
directories, and domain
names.
The license file is located
in the
http://docs/common/
licenses directory.
C H A P T E R 1
Preface
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.
Preface 5
Preformatted
On-screen computer
output in your commandline sessions; source
code in XML, C++, or
other programming
languages.
# ls –al /files
total 14470
Preformatted
Bold
What you type,
contrasted with on-screen
computer output.
# cd /root/rpms/php
CAPITALS
Names of keys on the
keyboard.
SHIFT, CTRL, ALT
KEY+KEY
Key combinations for
which the user must
press and hold down one
key and then press
another.
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.
Depending on how your server is set up, you may or may not have Microsoft DNS
C H A P T E R 2
About Microsoft DNS in Parallels Helm
installed. If you want to use Microsoft DNS as your DNS server, then you need to make
sure that it is first installed.
Note: These are guidelines only. We will not provide support for MS DNS or any other
C H A P T E R 3
Installing Microsoft DNS
third party applications directly.
1. Go to Start > Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs > Add/Remove Windows Components.
1. Double-click Networking Services.
2. You will see that Domain Name System (DNS) Server is not checked.
Check the box. Press OK.
You may need your Windows CD in the server drive before you can do this.
1. Once installed, open Microsoft DNS (Start > Programs > Administrative Tools > DNS) and
C H A P T E R 4
Configuring Microsoft DNS
make sure that you can manually create zones. If you cannot do this then <Helm>
will not be able to do this either, since <Helm> calls the same function to create
zones as Microsoft DNS uses. If this is the case, refer to your MS DNS
documentation, or contact your server administrator.
3. Also, in very rare instances you may need to disable recursion in DNS.
If it is enabled, it may cause issues when <Helm> tries to create zone
files for domains. To disable DNS recursion:
1. Open Microsoft DNS, right-click your server and choose Properties.
2. Choose the Advanced tab, and you will see at the top the option Disable recursion
(also disables forwarders).
3. Check this box and click Apply. This will allow <Helm> to create zone files
correctly.
Important: The Microsoft DNS Secondary Server module requires you to have the
C H A P T E R 5
Setting Up the MS DNS Secondary Server Module
Microsoft DNS Server module installed first in order to use it correctly. Please refer to
Microsoft DNS Installation and Configuration Guide for Parallels Helm 4
(http://www.parallels.com/en/products/helm/docs/).
To install the Microsoft DNS Secondary Server module:
1. Open the Parallels Helm Configuration Tool and click the Installed Modules button on
the left.
4. Scroll down the list of modules available and ensure that the Microsoft
DNS Secondary Server module is checked and that it is Installed, Up to date. If
not, you can check the module, and then click the Install/Uninstall Modules
button to install the module.
Once installed, you can configure the Microsoft DNS Secondary service within the
Control Panel itself.
To set up the secondary Microsoft DNS service:
C H A P T E R 6
Setting Up the Secondary Microsoft DNS Service
1. In Parallels Helm, go to Home > Helm System > Servers > [Your Server] > Services
5. Create a new service, select DNS Backup: Microsoft DNS Secondary from the
provider drop-down box and give it a friendly name (such as Microsoft DNS
Secondary Service). You will then be presented with the following screen:
Friendly Name: Edit the friendly name of the Service to one of your choice.
Master IP Address: This box allows you to limit the IPs of severs that are able to
initiate zone transfers, if you wish to add them for security reasons. Enter one IP
per line. Since this service is being used as the secondary DNS service, you
would need to add the IP of the Primary DNS service in this box.
Default Name Server
Name Server: The most likely scenario is that you have already added the default
name server into Default DNS service on your primary DNS server. If this is the
case, you can add your secondary name server into this field. Example:
ns2.webhost.com
IP Address: This field allows you to configure the corresponding IP for the name
server you have just selected.
Optional Name Server
Enabled Check box: Checking this box enables you to setup a second name server
within this service.
Name Server: You can add the details of another (optional) name server into this
field, if you have one. Example: ns3.webhost.com
IP Address: Here you can place the corresponding IP for your optional
(secondary/tertiary) name server.
Once the Secondary DNS service has been added into Parallels Helm, it will need to be
C H A P T E R 7
Setting Up the Secondary Microsoft DNS Backup Service
added as a backup service in the Primary DNS service. This will effectively mean that
when you create a domain, it will add the DNS records to both the primary DNS server
and the backup (secondary) DNS server. In the event that one of your DNS servers
goes down, the other will still work and keep your sites responding to DNS calls.
To set up the secondary Microsoft DNS backup service:
1. In Parallels Helm, go to Home > Helm System > Servers > [Primary DNS Server] > Services.
6. Click the primary DNS service (for example, Default DNS Service) and
scroll down the page to the Backup Services section. Your secondary DNS
service will be visible in the available services box.
7. The DNS server name (where the service resides) will appear in
brackets along with the name of the service. Use the >> button to select
the service and click Save to save the DNS service. This has now set up
your primary DNS Service to also use your backup (secondary) DNS
service.
DNS Templates allow you to specify custom DNS records that will be added to a
C H A P T E R 8
Setting Up a DNS Template
domain’s DNS zone when it is created. You do not need a DNS service in Parallels
Helm to create DNS Templates, but they will not come into effect, or get added to any
new domains until you have added the DNS service.
1. Click the Add button in an existing DNS service to get to the Create DNS Record
screen.
8. Choose Record Type from the four types of DNS Record you can create:
“A”, “CNAME”, “MX”, and “TXT” - and then click the Next button. You will
be taken to a screen which will differ depending on the record you
picked.
A Record
An A record is an address record which is used for mapping an IP address to a
domain name.
Host Name: Enter the name of the record you want to add, e.g. webmail or sql.
IP Address: Enter the IP address that this record will point to, e.g. 1.2.3.4.
CNAME Record
A CNAME, or canonical name, record is a record which makes one domain name
an alias of another. The aliased domain will receive all of the subdomains and DNS
records of the original.
Alias Name: Enter the name of the domain alias that you want to add, e.g.
http://www.domainalias.com/
Target Host Name: Enter the fully qualified domain name that you want to alias,
e.g. http://www.example.com/
MX Record
An MX, or mail exchange, record maps a domain name to a list of mail exchange
servers for that domain.
Host Name: Enter the host name of the record you want to add, for example,
webmail or mail02.
Mail Server Address: Enter the IP address of the mail server that this record will
map to.
Record Priority: Choose a priority for your mail server, which will determine which
mail server will get tried first when e-mail is sent (if you have more than one mail
server). The MX record with the highest priority has the lowest numerical value,
and will be the first to be tried. So if you have three records pointing to three
servers with values of 20, 80, and 40, then the server with priority of 20 will be
tried first, then the server with 40, then 80.
TXT Record
Setting Up a DNS Template 13
A TXT, or text, record allows an administrator to insert arbitrary text into a DNS
record. One use of this is for the implementation of the Sender Policy Framework
specification.
Host Name: Enter the name of the record you want to add, for example, SPF.
Text: Enter the text you want to add to the DNS zone file.
9. Once you have chosen the type of DNS Template you want to add into
Parallels Helm, click the Save button to save it.
Once you have set up the Service, you will need to add this Service into your DNS
C H A P T E R 9
Setting Up the Microsoft DNS Resource
Resource so that Parallels Helm will use it when creating DNS records. A Resource is
simply a single service, or group of services, that you can use in your hosting plans to
offer to customers. For instance, you may have added a number of Microsoft DNS
Services into Parallels Helm, and want to utilize them all. To do this, you can simply
create an DNS Resource and then add all of your Microsoft DNS services to it. The
new Resource can then be utilized in plans and packages by your customers, which will
distribute domains between each DNS service, dependent on the settings you have
provided.
To set up the Microsoft DNS Resource:
1. Go to Home > Helm System > Resources
If you have not got a DNS resource, create a new Resource, selecting Microsoft DNS
from the Provider dropdown box.
10. On the screen that appears you can add a Resource into Parallels
Helm. These Resources will than be available for any plan templates
you wish to set up. The settings are:
Provider: Choose the Provider that you want this Resource to use (Microsoft DNS)
Resource Name: Enter a name for the Resource you are adding (for example, DNS
Resource).
Distribution Type: The same as for setting up the Microsoft DNS Service.
Available Services: In this box you can select the Services that you want to assign
to the Resource. You can either select them individually or use control-click
(hold down CTRL and left-click items) to select multiple items from the Available
Services box. Select the ones you want and choose the >> arrow to move them
into the Selected Services box. The Resource will then be assigned the Services in
the Selected Services box. If you want to take Services out of the Selected Services
box, simply select them and use the << arrow to move them out again. Click Save
to save your Resource settings.
Delete: If you want to delete the Resource, simply click the Delete button and
confirm the deletion on the screen that follows. This delete option is only
available if the Resource exists.
11. Once you have chosen your Resource options, click Save to save the
Resource.
Plan Templates are a way for you to configure Resources, domain provisioning and
C H A P T E R 10
Adding the Microsoft DNS Resource into Your Plan Template
DNS templates, and then group them together so that they can be assigned to your
plans. By creating Plan Templates, it will remove the need to go through each plan you
create, and assign different Resources to them, depending on what you offer. In
Parallels Helm 4 and up you simply set up a Plan Template for Web and FTP, and one
for Web, FTP and DNS, then choose the Plan Template you are basing the Plan on
when you create it.
To add the MS DNS resource into your Plan Template:
1. Navigate to Home > My Plan Templates. At this screen you can either add a new
template or edit an existing template (by clicking on the existing template name in
the list).
If you already have a Plan Template set up, then simply click the required
Plan Template in the list. You will see a list of Available Resources on the left, and
in there will be the DNS Resource you created earlier. Select it and use the >>
button to move the Resource to the Selected Resource box, then click Save.
If this is a fresh install and a new Plan Template, click Add and give name to
your Plan Template (e.g. All Services). A list of Available Resources should be
visible on the left. Highlight the Resource you wish to select and using the >>
button move the resources to the Selected Resources box.
12. On the screen that appears you can add your template name, select the
available resources of your choice and save your settings.
Template Name: Choose a friendly name for the Plan Template.
Resources: In this box you can select the Resources that you want to assign to
the Plan Template. Select them individually from the Available Resources box and
choose the >> arrow to move them into the Selected Resources box. The Plan
Template will then be assigned the Resources in the Selected Resources box. If
you want to take Resources out of the Selected Resources box, select them and
use the << arrow to move them out again.
Note: You can only have one Resource of each type in a Plan Template, and you will
not be able to see other available Resources for an assigned type until you unassign
that Resource. For instance, you may have added two FTP Resources into Parallels
Helm, such as Serv-U Resource and MS FTP Resource. If MS FTP Resource is currently
assigned to the Plan Template then you will not be able to see Serv-U Resource in the
Available Resources box until you unassign MS FTP Resource.
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