Parallels H-Sphere - 3.2 Reseller Guide
Parallels® H-Sphere
Parallels H-Sphere 3.2 Reseller Guide
REVISION 1.0
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ISBN: N/A
Parallels
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USA
Phone: +1 (425) 282 6400
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© Copyright 2008,
Parallels, Inc.
All rights reserved
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Product and service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.
Contents
Preface 11
Typographical Conventions ......................................................................................................... 11
Feedback ..................................................................................................................................... 12
About This Guide 13
Introduction 14
Getting Started ............................................................................................................................. 15
Step 1. Access Your Reseller Account ........................................................................................ 15
Step 2. Create a DNS Zone ......................................................................................................... 16
Step 3. Create an Instant Alias Template .................................................................................... 16
Step 4. Add Server Aliases .......................................................................................................... 17
Step 5. Change Temporary CP Alias to Your Own Reseller CP URL ......................................... 17
Step 6. Configure Mail Notification Addresses ............................................................................ 18
Step 7. Set up Payment Settings ................................................................................................. 18
Step 8. Create Plans.................................................................................................................... 19
Create Hosting Plans ........................................................................................................ 19
Create a System Plan and Account For Your Corporate Domain ..................................... 19
Step 9. Create Billing Periods ...................................................................................................... 20
Step 10. Configure Support Center ............................................................................................. 20
Step 11. Look and Feel ............................................................................................................... 21
DNS and Hosting 22
DNS Manager .............................................................................................................................. 23
Adding DNS Zones ...................................................................................................................... 23
Instant Alias Templates ............................................................................................................... 25
Adding Instant Alias Templates ......................................................................................... 26
Editing Instant Alias Templates ......................................................................................... 27
DNS Records ............................................................................................................................... 28
Adding custom A records .................................................................................................. 29
Adding custom MX records ............................................................................................... 30
Adding custom CNAME records ........................................................................................ 30
Hosting Your Corporate Site ........................................................................................................ 32
Step 1. Make sure you have a service DNS zone ............................................................. 32
Step 2. Create a service plan ............................................................................................ 32
Step 3. Disallow signups from outside your admin account. ............................................. 33
Step 4. Create a service account ...................................................................................... 33
Adding Domains for Third Level Hosting ..................................................................................... 33
Providing Mail Under Service Domain for Third-Level Hosting ................................................... 34
Control Panel Web Interface 35
Regional Settings ......................................................................................................................... 36
Images and Icons ........................................................................................................................ 39
Logo Images ...................................................................................................................... 39
Icons And Control Images ................................................................................................. 40
Interface Language ...................................................................................................................... 42
Setting Default System Language ..................................................................................... 42
Preface 4
Setting Admin Interface Language .................................................................................... 42
Skins and Colors .......................................................................................................................... 43
Interface Texts ............................................................................................................................. 45
Login Texts ........................................................................................................................ 45
Signup Texts ...................................................................................................................... 45
Miscellaneous Texts .......................................................................................................... 45
E-Mail Notifications 46
Setting E-Mail Notification Recipients .......................................................................................... 46
Editing E-Mail Notifications .......................................................................................................... 48
Configuring User Notification Rules ............................................................................................. 52
Online Invoices .................................................................................................................. 53
“No Charge” Notifications .................................................................................................. 54
Control Panel Configuration 55
Company Information .................................................................................................................. 56
Supported TLD‟s .......................................................................................................................... 57
Provider‟s Shared SSL ................................................................................................................ 58
Shared SSL Certificates Installation ............................................................................................ 59
Shared SSL installation wizard .......................................................................................... 60
Credit Card Brands ...................................................................................................................... 62
Domain Registrar Manager ......................................................................................................... 64
Merchant Gateways 66
Merchant Gateway Manager ....................................................................................................... 67
Setting Up Merchant Gateway .......................................................................................... 68
Editing Merchant Gateway Settings .................................................................................. 68
Associating Merchant Gateways with Credit Card Vendors ............................................. 69
Editing Description for User Credit Card Statements ........................................................ 69
Handling CC Charge Request Failures ............................................................................. 70
One Step Gateways .......................................................................................................... 71
AssureBuy Configuration ............................................................................................................. 71
Preparation ........................................................................................................................ 71
Configuration ..................................................................................................................... 71
Authorize.Net (Sim Protocol) Configuration ................................................................................ 73
Setting Up Authorize.Net ................................................................................................... 73
Bibit Configuration ....................................................................................................................... 75
Preparation ........................................................................................................................ 75
Configuration ..................................................................................................................... 75
Cardia Services Configuration ..................................................................................................... 76
Preparation ........................................................................................................................ 76
Configuration ..................................................................................................................... 76
ECHO Configuration .................................................................................................................... 77
Preparation ........................................................................................................................ 77
Configuration ..................................................................................................................... 77
ePDQ Configuration..................................................................................................................... 78
Preparation ........................................................................................................................ 78
Configuration ..................................................................................................................... 78
eWay Configuration ..................................................................................................................... 80
Preparation ........................................................................................................................ 80
Configuration ..................................................................................................................... 80
HSBC Configuration .................................................................................................................... 81
Preparation ........................................................................................................................ 81
Configuration ..................................................................................................................... 81
Innovative Gateway Configuration ............................................................................................... 82
Preface 5
Preparation ........................................................................................................................ 82
Configuration ..................................................................................................................... 82
LinkPoint (API v3.01) Configuration ............................................................................................ 83
Preparation ........................................................................................................................ 83
Configuration ..................................................................................................................... 85
MainStreetSoftWorks Configuration ............................................................................................ 87
Preparation ........................................................................................................................ 87
Configuration ..................................................................................................................... 87
Moneris Configuration.................................................................................................................. 89
Preparation ........................................................................................................................ 89
Configuration ..................................................................................................................... 89
NetBilling Configuration ............................................................................................................... 90
Preparation ........................................................................................................................ 90
Configuration ..................................................................................................................... 91
NTPNow Configuration ................................................................................................................ 92
Preparation ........................................................................................................................ 92
Configuration ..................................................................................................................... 92
Paradata Configuration ................................................................................................................ 94
Preparation ........................................................................................................................ 94
Configuration ..................................................................................................................... 94
PayGate Configuration ................................................................................................................ 95
Preparation ........................................................................................................................ 95
Configuration ..................................................................................................................... 95
PayJunction Configuration ........................................................................................................... 97
Preparation ........................................................................................................................ 97
Configuration ..................................................................................................................... 97
Pay-Me-Now Configuration ......................................................................................................... 98
Preparation ........................................................................................................................ 98
Configuration ..................................................................................................................... 98
PosNet Configuration................................................................................................................... 99
Preparation ........................................................................................................................ 99
Configuration ..................................................................................................................... 99
Protx (VSP Direct Protocol 2.22) Configuration ........................................................................ 100
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 100
Configuration ................................................................................................................... 100
PSiGate (XML API) Configuration ............................................................................................. 101
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 101
Configuration ................................................................................................................... 101
SecurePay Configuration ........................................................................................................... 103
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 103
Configuration ................................................................................................................... 103
SkipJack Configuration .............................................................................................................. 104
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 104
Configuration ................................................................................................................... 105
SecurePay.com.au Configuration .............................................................................................. 106
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 106
Configuration ................................................................................................................... 106
SecureTrading Configuration ..................................................................................................... 107
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 107
Configuration ................................................................................................................... 107
ThePayDesk Configuration ........................................................................................................ 109
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 109
Configuration ................................................................................................................... 110
Tucows Configuration ................................................................................................................ 111
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 111
Configuration ................................................................................................................... 111
Web-based Payments 114
Preface 6
Web Payment Systems Manager .............................................................................................. 115
Work Principles................................................................................................................ 115
Configuration Procedure ................................................................................................. 115
Setting Web Payment Instant Notification URL ............................................................... 116
2CheckOut Configuration .......................................................................................................... 117
Authorize.Net (Sim Protocol) Configuration .............................................................................. 118
Setting Up Authorize.Net ................................................................................................. 118
ChronoPay Configuration .......................................................................................................... 120
Setting Up ChronoPay ..................................................................................................... 120
GestPay Configuration............................................................................................................... 121
PayNova Configuration .............................................................................................................. 122
PayPal Configuration ................................................................................................................. 123
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 123
Setup Procedure.............................................................................................................. 123
Sentry Configuration .................................................................................................................. 125
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 125
Setup Procedure.............................................................................................................. 125
Webmoney Configuration .......................................................................................................... 127
1. Set your own purse ..................................................................................................... 127
2. Activate Webmoney payments in your Parallels H-Sphere control panel ................... 127
WorldPay Configuration ............................................................................................................. 128
Setting Up WorldPay ....................................................................................................... 128
Resources 130
User/Account/Domain Management .......................................................................................... 131
Users ............................................................................................................................... 132
Accounts .......................................................................................................................... 132
Domains .......................................................................................................................... 135
Traffic ......................................................................................................................................... 136
Traffic Calculation ............................................................................................................ 137
Traffic Limit ...................................................................................................................... 137
Traffic Pricing ................................................................................................................... 137
Restricting Traffic Usage and Traffic Limit ...................................................................... 138
Charging for Traffic .......................................................................................................... 139
Traffic Configuration Changes ......................................................................................... 145
Tracking End User Traffic Consumption ......................................................................... 146
Disk Space ................................................................................................................................. 146
Charging Users for Disk Space ....................................................................................... 147
Enabling/Disabling Summary Disk Usage ....................................................................... 148
Blacklists in Parallels H-Sphere ................................................................................................. 149
Domains in blacklist ......................................................................................................... 149
Emails in blacklist ............................................................................................................ 150
Uploading and Exporting Black Lists ............................................................................... 151
Plans 152
Creating And Editing Reseller Plans ......................................................................................... 154
Starting Plan Creation Wizards ....................................................................................... 154
Starting Plan Edit Wizards ............................................................................................... 154
Simplified Plan Wizards ................................................................................................... 155
A Typical Plan Wizard................................................................................................................ 157
Step 1. Selecting Resources and Configuring Plan Settings .......................................... 158
Subsequent Steps. Setting Prices ................................................................................... 168
Unix RealMedia Plan Wizard ..................................................................................................... 168
MySQL Plan Wizard .................................................................................................................. 168
Windows Plan Wizard ................................................................................................................ 169
Windows RealMedia Plan Wizard ............................................................................................. 170
E-mail Plan Wizard .................................................................................................................... 170
Preface 7
VPS Plan Wizard ....................................................................................................................... 170
Hosted Exchange Plan Wizard .................................................................................................. 170
Markup Plan Wizard .................................................................................................................. 171
Admin Plans ............................................................................................................................... 172
Creating Admin Plans ...................................................................................................... 172
Editing Admin Plans ........................................................................................................ 173
Demo Plans ............................................................................................................................... 174
Access to Plans ......................................................................................................................... 177
Plan Controls ............................................................................................................................. 178
Show ................................................................................................................................ 179
Copy ................................................................................................................................ 179
Delete .............................................................................................................................. 179
Plan Settings .............................................................................................................................. 180
Controlling RAM And CPU Usage ............................................................................................. 183
Enable RLimit in Plans .................................................................................................... 183
Configure RLimit Values .................................................................................................. 184
Limiting Resource Use For Individual Accounts .............................................................. 184
Billing 185
Plans ................................................................................................................................ 185
Billing Types .................................................................................................................... 185
Trial Hosting .................................................................................................................... 185
Billing Profiles .................................................................................................................. 185
Prices ............................................................................................................................... 186
Billing Periods .................................................................................................................. 186
Crediting Accounts .......................................................................................................... 186
Debiting Accounts ........................................................................................................... 186
Billing Modes ................................................................................................................... 186
Traffic ............................................................................................................................... 187
Disk Space ...................................................................................................................... 187
E-mailing Invoices ........................................................................................................... 187
Taxes ............................................................................................................................... 187
Promotions ...................................................................................................................... 187
Suspending Debtors ........................................................................................................ 188
Money Returns ................................................................................................................ 188
Billing Statements ............................................................................................................ 188
Reseller Billing ........................................................................................................................... 189
Wholesale Prices vs Retail Prices ................................................................................... 190
How do I view my billing history? .................................................................................... 193
How do I pay?.................................................................................................................. 195
Billing Types .............................................................................................................................. 198
Billing Profiles ............................................................................................................................ 199
Billing Periods and Discounts .................................................................................................... 199
Default and Actual Billing Periods. Base Prices .............................................................. 199
Monthly and Billing Period Resources ............................................................................ 200
Opening a New Billing Period/Month............................................................................... 200
Creating and Configuring Actual Billing Periods ............................................................. 200
Changing Account‟s Billing Period ............................................................................................. 202
Changing Billing Period Start Date ............................................................................................ 203
Credit Limit ................................................................................................................................. 205
Setting Credit Limit in a Plan ........................................................................................... 206
Increasing Credit Limit for Individual Accounts ............................................................... 206
Resetting Credit Limit For All Users ................................................................................ 206
Fees Collected From Customers ............................................................................................... 207
Plan Fees ........................................................................................................................ 207
Taxes ......................................................................................................................................... 208
Tax Exemption ........................................................................................................................... 210
Enabling Tax Exemption ................................................................................................. 210
Preface 8
Setting Tax Exemption Mode at Signup .......................................................................... 211
Activating User Accounts with Tax Exemption Code Entered ........................................ 211
Money Returns .......................................................................................................................... 212
Events that Trigger Refunds ............................................................................................ 213
Refund Formulas ............................................................................................................. 213
Moneyback Period ........................................................................................................... 214
Reducing Quotas and Limits ........................................................................................... 214
Refund Percentage ......................................................................................................... 215
Managing Debtors ..................................................................................................................... 216
Punitive Measures ........................................................................................................... 216
Punitive Measures Automation ........................................................................................ 216
Start Date of Time in Debt ............................................................................................... 217
Promotions ................................................................................................................................. 218
Promotion Types ............................................................................................................. 218
Calculating Promotion Discounts .................................................................................... 218
Creating Promotions ........................................................................................................ 218
Associating Promotions With Plans................................................................................. 219
Extra Packages .......................................................................................................................... 220
Creating Extra Packs ....................................................................................................... 220
Managing Extra Packs .................................................................................................... 221
Dedicated Servers 222
Adding Network Switches .......................................................................................................... 223
Creating/Managing Dedicated Server Templates ..................................................................... 224
Custom-built Dedicated Servers ...................................................................................... 225
Dedicated Server Plans ............................................................................................................. 226
User Plans ....................................................................................................................... 226
User‟s Choosing a Server at Signup ............................................................................... 229
Managing Dedicated Servers .................................................................................................... 229
Adding Dedicated Servers ............................................................................................... 230
Editing Dedicated Servers ............................................................................................... 231
Deleting Dedicated Servers ............................................................................................. 231
Custom-built Dedicated Servers ................................................................................................ 232
Dedicated Server Status ............................................................................................................ 232
Assigning Additional IP Ranges ................................................................................................ 235
1. Set Prices for Extra IPs in Plans ................................................................................. 235
2. Add IP Subnet ............................................................................................................. 235
3. Split IP Subnet to Smaller IP Ranges ......................................................................... 236
4. Create PTR zone for Reverse DNS Records .............................................................. 237
5. Assign IP Range to Dedicated Server ......................................................................... 238
6. Unassign IP Range ..................................................................................................... 239
Dedicated Servers‟ Maintenance ............................................................................................... 239
Regular Backups ............................................................................................................. 240
Maintenance Requests .................................................................................................... 240
Automatic Cancellation Settings...................................................................................... 242
Customer Signup 243
Signing Up Users ....................................................................................................................... 243
Signing Up Users from Admin Control Panel .................................................................. 243
Signing Up Users from the Street .................................................................................... 245
Moderating User Signups .......................................................................................................... 245
Moderated Signups ......................................................................................................... 245
Email Notifications ........................................................................................................... 246
Activating Or Rejecting Signups ...................................................................................... 246
Changing Details of Moderated Accounts ....................................................................... 247
Moderated Credit Card Signup ........................................................................................ 247
Signup Guard Settings .............................................................................................................. 248
Preface 9
Creating moderation rules ............................................................................................... 248
Setting Signup Guard Blacklist ........................................................................................ 250
Viewing Signup Info ................................................................................................................... 255
Signup IPs ....................................................................................................................... 255
Signup Statistics .............................................................................................................. 256
Trial Hosting ............................................................................................................................... 256
Introduction to Trial Hosting ............................................................................................ 256
Managing Trial Accounts ................................................................................................. 257
Enabling Trial Registration .............................................................................................. 258
Grouping Trial Plans ........................................................................................................ 259
Managing Trial Accounts ................................................................................................. 259
Enabling Trial Registration .............................................................................................. 260
Grouping Trial Plans ........................................................................................................ 261
Account Management 262
Finding User Accounts............................................................................................................... 263
Generic Search................................................................................................................ 264
Search in Resellers ......................................................................................................... 265
Search Deleted Accounts ................................................................................................ 266
Search Dedicated Server Accounts ................................................................................ 266
Search Suspended Accounts .......................................................................................... 267
Search by Contact Info .................................................................................................... 268
Search by Credit Card Charges ...................................................................................... 268
Search by Disk Usage ..................................................................................................... 269
Search by Domain Name ................................................................................................ 269
Search by Invoice/Balance Entries.................................................................................. 269
Search by Logical and Physical Servers ......................................................................... 270
Search by Merchant Gateway Transactions ................................................................... 270
Search by Reseller Traffic ................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Search by Resellers Disk Usage ..................................................................................... 271
Search by Transfer Traffic ............................................................................................... 271
User Details ............................................................................................................................... 271
Admin Notes .............................................................................................................................. 272
Crediting Accounts ..................................................................................................................... 273
Debiting Accounts ...................................................................................................................... 274
View debits ...................................................................................................................... 276
Deleting Accounts ...................................................................................................................... 277
Suspending and Resuming Accounts........................................................................................ 278
Suspending Accounts ...................................................................................................... 280
Resuming Accounts ........................................................................................................ 280
Restoring Accounts.................................................................................................................... 281
Reports ...................................................................................................................................... 282
Billing Balance ................................................................................................................. 283
Estimated balance exhaustion date ................................................................................ 285
Daily Report ..................................................................................................................... 286
Charge Log ...................................................................................................................... 287
Web Payments Log ......................................................................................................... 288
Registrar Log ................................................................................................................... 289
Credit Card Charge ......................................................................................................... 290
CC Processing Errors Report .......................................................................................... 291
Billing Entries ................................................................................................................... 292
Tax/Refund Report .......................................................................................................... 294
Signup/Go-away Statistics .............................................................................................. 295
Monthly Revenue ............................................................................................................ 296
Monetary Transactions .................................................................................................... 297
Transfer Traffic Report .................................................................................................... 298
Disk Usage Report .......................................................................................................... 299
Reports Installed in a Package ........................................................................................ 300
Preface 10
Processing Check Payments ..................................................................................................... 306
Technical Support 307
Client Support Center ................................................................................................................ 309
Configuring Administration Security ................................................................................ 310
Managing Trouble Tickets ............................................................................................... 311
Task System .................................................................................................................... 315
Searching Trouble Tickets ............................................................................................... 316
Exchanging Private Messages ........................................................................................ 317
Supporting Reseller End Users ....................................................................................... 318
Ticket Statistics................................................................................................................ 319
Ticket Queues ................................................................................................................. 320
Configuring Support Center ....................................................................................................... 321
Knowledge Base ........................................................................................................................ 325
Creating Knowledge Bases ............................................................................................. 326
Editing and Removing Knowledge Bases ....................................................................... 326
Exporting Knowledge Base ............................................................................................. 327
Importing Knowledge Bases ............................................................................................ 328
Spellcheck ....................................................................................................................... 328
Search ............................................................................................................................. 329
Settings ............................................................................................................................ 329
Custom Jobs .............................................................................................................................. 330
Adding Custom Jobs ....................................................................................................... 331
Adding Tasks to Custom Jobs ......................................................................................... 332
Tracking Custom Job Status ........................................................................................... 333
Mass Mail ................................................................................................................................... 334
Comodo SSL Manager 336
Step 1. Register as a Comodo CA Web host reseller ............................................................... 337
Step 2. Configure prices for various certificate types ................................................................ 337
Step 3. Enable SSL Support in plans ........................................................................................ 339
Step 4. Manage your customer requests................................................................................... 339
EasyApp Collection: Providing Third-Party PHP/MySQL Applications 341
Installing/Updating the Package ................................................................................................ 342
Disabling/Enabling Applications ................................................................................................ 342
Making Applications Available for Users ................................................................................... 343
In this chapter:
Typographical Conventions ............................................................................... 11
Feedback .......................................................................................................... 12
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.
12 Preface
Preformatted
On-screen computer output
in your command-line
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.
Parallels H-Sphere Reseller guide aims at resellers of hosting services and explains
C H A P T E R 2
About This Guide
how to configure and administer Parallels H-Sphere control panel.
Parallels H-Sphere is a comprehensive hosting automation system that allows you to
In this chapter:
Getting Started .................................................................................................. 15
Step 1. Access Your Reseller Account .............................................................. 15
Step 2. Create a DNS Zone ............................................................................... 16
Step 3. Create an Instant Alias Template .......................................................... 16
Step 4. Add Server Aliases ................................................................................ 17
Step 5. Change Temporary CP Alias to Your Own Reseller CP URL ................ 17
Step 6. Configure Mail Notification Addresses ................................................... 18
Step 7. Set up Payment Settings ....................................................................... 18
Step 8. Create Plans ......................................................................................... 19
Step 9. Create Billing Periods ............................................................................ 20
Step 10. Configure Support Center ................................................................... 20
Step 11. Look and Feel ..................................................................................... 21
C H A P T E R 3
Introduction
provide a heterogeneous operating system environment to your customers across
multiple servers. It can manage hosting servers located in various data centers.
Parallels H-Sphere can have a multiple server layout, called a cluster. The main server
in the cluster is the actual Parallels H-Sphere Control Panel, a web application with
graphical interface, which centralizes all hosting management tasks, controls all hosting
servers and services, manages users, domains, events, and processes. Through
Parallels H-Sphere web interface, you can configure and manage these and other
subsystems, other servers, user accounts and domains, etc. All system data, such as
billing, domain, and other info, is stored in the Postgres system database. The Control
panel consists of many subsystems, the major of them described below.
Getting Started
To switch to Reseller Billing CP:
To switch to Reseller Admin CP:
This document explains what you need to do in order to set up your hosting system with
minimum required configuration. We presume that your reseller account has been created.
Follow the given instructions step by step to configure your Reseller CP.
Step 1. Access Your Reseller Account
Parallels H-Sphere offers simplified reseller concept which means more convenient way to
work with both the Reseller User account (hereinafter referred to as Reseller Billing) and the
Reseller Master Admin account which is now created automatically once reseller account is
created. Each of the above accounts has its own CP design.
The new approach allows resellers to switch between accounts easily without having to log
out/into accounts as if they worked with one CP. Both Reseller Admin and Reseller Billing
interfaces are provided with respective links (menu items) to switch between reseller billing
account and reseller admin account CP‟s. They will open in one and the same window.
Second way to access Reseller Admin CP is to log into your Reseller Admin CP from
Reseller Billing interface. In this case, however, Reseller Admin CP will open in the new
window.
There‟s also a third way to access Reseller Admin Section: via Reseller CP URL which can
contain either Reseller CP alias or registered domain name. Enter URL into the address bar
and when the login page is loaded, enter Reseller User (billing account) login and password.
Parallels H-Sphere will send you to the Reseller Admin CP. However, we don‟t recommend
doing so for privacy/security reasons. Reseller can have several Admin accounts but only
one Reseller Master Admin Account. According to that, switching between the Reseller Billing
and Reseller Admin is possible only via Reseller Master Admin. Minor Admin accounts can‟t
find and log into the Master Admin Account, therefore switching panels is security safe.
Step 2. Create a DNS Zone
Now that you have entered the admin account, you need to setup your DNS:
Go to DNS Manager -> E. Manager > Add DNS Zone.
Enter all necessary information on the page that appears, where:
Name: the name of your domain without the “www” part.
Admin e-mail: your e-mail address with „ .‟ instead of „@‟
Allow third level domain hosting: check this box to let your customers register domains
like customerdomain.yourdomain.com.
Master server and slave 1: Leave as is.
Click Submit.
Step 3. Create an Instant Alias Template
The instant alias template is required to generate instant aliases. They provide immediate
access to your customers‟ sites while DNS servers get updated.
To create an Instant Alias Template in your admin account control panel:
Select DNS Manager in the E. Manager menu.
Choose DNS zone and click the Edit icon under the Action field.
At the top of the page that shows, click the Add instant alias link.
In the form that appears, enter “u” or any other letter for prefix and
leave the shared IP tag value as it is. Click Submit.
You will now need to go to your domain registrar and create the name
servers that are associated with your domain name. Use the IP
numbers that were assigned to the name servers.
Step 4. Add Server Aliases
If you, as a reseller, don’t need your own DNS servers, skip this step.
Server alias is your own name for the parent host. Once you set up the server alias, it will
appear everywhere in place of the real server name. In other words, the parent host will
become totally transparent to the end customers, and you will look to them as a totally
independent hosting provider.
To add server aliases:
Select Server Aliases in the E. Manager menu.
Set your server aliases for each host in the Reseller„s DNS server aliases
section and click Submit. These server aliases must be registered with
your domain name registrar. Note: Name servers and the
corresponding IP‟s for each of them will show in Reseller„s DNS server
aliases section.
Set your server aliases for each host in the Other reseller‟s server aliases
section and click Submit. These server aliases must be registered with
any registrar. Note: until your name servers are registered by an
accredited registrar, they will never be recognized by servers across
the Internet and none of your reseller domains will work. It usually
takes about 2 to 4 days before these name servers become active
across the Internet.
Step 5. Change Temporary CP Alias to Your
Own Reseller CP URL
Once the system configuration is completed, the reseller CP can be accessed by the instant
reseller CP domain alias.
To change this temporary CP alias to your own Rreseller CP URL:
Switch to Reseller User panel
Go to Info - > Admin Settings and change Reseller CP URL:
Set the protocol: http for regular or https for SSL secured
Enter the new domain name with cp at the beginning. (e.g.: cp.example.com).
Leave the the port number as is - it must be the same as that of the parent hosting
company.
Click Change.
As a result, the URL of the control panel will be similar to http://cp.example.com:8080
Step 6. Configure Mail Notification Addresses
To subscribe your staff to receive copies of user e-mail notifications:
Go to the Settings menu - > Notifications - > Notification Recipients.
On the page that appears add subscribers to mailing lists you choose.
Step 7. Set up Payment Settings
On this step you can configure Parallels H-Sphere to process credit cards, accept check
payments and perform online web payments for the services you provide.
To configure credit card processing through Merchant Gateway Manager:
Go to the Settings menu ->Payment Settings -> CC Brands and add necessary
CC brands.
Go to the Settings menu ->Payment Settings -> Merchant Gateway and add
necessary merchant gateway from the drop down menu and click Add.
In the Set Active drop down box, select this merchant gateway. You can
have only one active merchant gateway at a time.
In the Payment Type drop down box, select the CC brand you would like to
process with this merchant gateway.
Click the Activate button.
To configure Web Payment Processor, like PayPal or 2CheckOut:
Go to the Settings menu ->Payment Settings -> Merchant Gateway.
Select the payment system from the drop-down menu and click Edit:
Enter your account settings. Once you enter correct settings, the web
payment system will appear in the list as Active
To configure Processing Check Payments:
Go to the Settings menu ->Payment Settings -> Merchant Gateway.
Enable Accept Checks.
Step 8. Create Plans
Create Hosting Plans
Now that your control panel is configured, you can create hosting plans.
Go to Plans -> Create and click Select next to the plan to start the wizard.
Enter the name of the plan at the top of the page.
Select the resources (features) you would like to include in the plan.
Make sure to leave Service Domain unchecked.
In the last section of the wizard, make sure to enter Credit limit, e.g. 10
and click Next to proceed.
Enter prices and free units for each type of resource and click the Create
button at the bottom of the page.
Go to Plans -> Manage and turn this plan ON for signups.
Now your control panel is ready for signing up users. Please read all documentation
before using Parallels H-Sphere as a production system.
Create a System Plan and Account For Your Corporate
Domain
This step is required to host your corporate promotion site with your hosting system.
Go to Plans -> Create menu and select a Unix or Windows plan wizard
On Step 1, set the plan name to System and include resources you want
to use with your site.
Make sure to check Service domain and in the Settings section set Billing
Type to Without billing.
Submit and complete the wizard.
Go to Plans -> Manage and click Access for the System plan and make sure
only Admin is checked.
Go to Signup menu and create System account using the Signup Wizard
Note: Your system account is treated as an ordinary end customer account. You‟ll be
charged for all resources used in this account.
Step 9. Create Billing Periods
Each plan can have several billing periods with different price discounts for each. You can‟t
delete billing periods, but you can change their duration. For instance, if you create a billing
period for 1 year and you find out you don‟t need it, you can change it to 3 months.
To create a billing period for a plan:
Go to Plans -> Manage and click Settings in the Advanced section.
Scroll down to the Payment Intervals and click Add.
Specify the duration of the billing period. For instance, to make it 3
months long, select MONTH and enter 3 in the Size box.
Optionally, enter discounts. For instance, if you want to cancel any
setup fee for this billing period, enter 100 in the Setup Discount field.
Click Submit. This will add the billing period to the list.
Step 10. Configure Support Center
Support Center is the web-based means of providing customer support.
To configure your Support Center:
Go to Plans -> Create menu and choose Administrator Plan Wizard.
Enter TechSupport Admin as the name of the plan, check to include
TroubleTicket Admin and Allow assignment of trouble tickets and submit.
Go to Plans -> Manage and turn this plan ON for signups.
Go to Signup menu, click to sign up for Tech Support Admin and create Tech
Support Admin account using the signup wizard.
Go to Settings - > Tech Support and configure your Support Center. It is
required to collect customers‟ e-mails and convert them into trouble
tickets.
Step 11. Look and Feel
Go to Settings -> Look and Feel menu and enter information to all necessary sections. These
settings will affect all your customers‟ control panels.
Corporate Logos : enter Banner HTML Code for the banner to show up in your users CPs
and the location and sizes of the logos. Click the help [ ? ] icon for details.
Company Info: enter the company info that will show in customer e-mail notifications and
the address will be used by customers to send checks.
Default language: choose CP interface language. It can be overridden by individual
customers.
Regional options: enter preferred currency symbol.The language and the regional settings
will affect all your customers‟ control panels.
Default CP design: set designs to be available by users and the default design for Users
CPs.
This chapter discusses the configuration steps required for your DNS.
In this chapter:
DNS Manager ................................................................................................... 23
Adding DNS Zones ............................................................................................ 23
Instant Alias Templates ..................................................................................... 25
DNS Records .................................................................................................... 28
Hosting Your Corporate Site .............................................................................. 32
Adding Domains for Third Level Hosting ........................................................... 33
Providing Mail Under Service Domain for Third-Level Hosting ........................... 34
C H A P T E R 4
DNS and Hosting
DNS and Hosting 23
DNS Manager
DNS Manager in the Admin panel is used to create and manage:
service DNS zones - to host your corporate site and provide third level domain
hosting.
instant alias templates - to provide immediate access to users‟ newly registered
domains until their domain‟s DNS hasn‟t been propagated.
DNS records - to manage servers external to Parallels H-Sphere with Parallels H-
Sphere DNS.
It‟s not intended to work with your user domains‟ dns.
Adding DNS Zones
You must have at least one DNS zone in your system. Before you start adding a DNS
zone, make sure to have added the DNS servers with Service IPs.
To add a DNS zone:
Select DNS Manager in the E.Manager menu:
Click the Add DNS Zone link:
24 DNS and Hosting
Enter zone name and zone administrator e-mail and choose
whether to allow third level domain hosting in this zone:
Name: the name of the DNS zone you are going to create. If this domain name is
not yet registered, don‟t forget to register it with a domain registration company.
Admin e-mail: the e-mail address of this DNS zone administrator.
Allow third level domain hosting: allow the creation of lower level domains in this
DNS zone.
Master/slave server: available only for service DNS zones - allows you to choose
and appoint a master and a slave server. The information is backed up every
hour.
After you submit the form, the new zone appears in the DNS
Manager table:
DNS and Hosting 25
Click the EDIT icon to go to the DNS zone management page.
In this section:
Adding Instant Alias Templates ......................................................................... 26
Editing Instant Alias Templates ......................................................................... 27
Here you can add instant alias templates, custom DNS records
and Reseller CP alias to your DNS zone:
Instant Alias Templates
Instant Alias Templates are used to generate Instant Aliases, temporary addresses
providing immediate access to users‟ domains from the Internet. They are usually
helpful when the DNS servers worldwide are being refreshed and the site is temporarily
unavailable at the regular domain name.
Creating an instant alias template will automatically add one or more A-DNS records to
your service zone. These records resolve all your logical servers.
26 DNS and Hosting
Adding Instant Alias Templates
To add instant alias:
Select DNS Manager in the E.Manager menu.
Click the EDIT icon to go to the DNS zone management page. The
following page appears:
To add an instant alias template, click the Add instant alias link. This
will open the following form to fill out:
Normally, you are expected to have devoted one IP address for each shared IP
tag. To use a shared IP tag, you need to have it defined for every logical host.
Numbers 10 to 99 are acceptable. The default value of 2 is assigned when the
field is submitted being empty.
Click Submit. You will be taken back to the list of instant aliases
with the new instant alias template added to the list.
DNS and Hosting 27
Prefix: instant alias prefix that will appear on the left to the domain part in user‟s
instant domain alias. Different prefixes should be set if you use different shared
IP tags. Other than that, it is recommended to use one and the same prefix (e.g.
u for all instant alias templates).
Shared IP tag: a digital “mark” that helps separate sites within one plan on one
logical server. All sites located on the same logical host under the same plan are
usually assigned to the same shared IP. This feature allows to give a different
shared IP to a group of sites of, say, explicit nature. This may become
necessary as many corporate firewalls filter sites based on their IP, not the
domain name.
Editing Instant Alias Templates
Once an Instant Alias is created, the system adds all necessary A DNS records to this
DNS zone.
To view these DNS records, cilck the Edit button near the necessary Instant Aliases:
The upper part of the table lists the existing DNS A records in the selected DNS zone.
To delete DNS records, click the Trash icon.
The lower part of the table appears only when the DNS zone does not contain A
records for some logical servers. It lists these logical servers with their IP‟s.
To add a logical server to the DNS zone, click the Add button. You can add all these
servers to the DNS zone by clicking the Add records to all listed logical servers link at the
bottom of the table.
To delete Instant Alias Template, click the Trash icon next to the corresponding alias.
28 DNS and Hosting
DNS Records
Custom DNS records are required to manage non-HSphere servers with Parallels HSphere DNS zone or to configure new logical servers that are added manually.
Depending on the service, you can add:
A records
MX records
CNAME records
To add new custom DNS records:
In your admin control panel go to the E.Manager menu -> DNS Manager.
The following page shows:
Click the Edit icon near the chosen DNS zone. A page similar to
this will appear:
DNS and Hosting 29
At the bottom of the page that shows, select a DNS record from the
In this section:
Adding custom A records .................................................................................. 29
Adding custom MX records ............................................................................... 30
Adding custom CNAME records ........................................................................ 30
drop-down list and click the Go button.
On the form that shows enter all necessary data and click Submit to
save.
You can add one of the following types of DNS records:
A records to map domain names and web server IP‟s.
MX records to map domain names and their mail server IP‟s.
CNAME records to map aliases with domain names.
Adding custom A records
The Address record (A record) gives you the IP address of a domain. That way, users
that try to go to www.example.com will get to the right IP address.
To add a new DNS A record, you need to provide a set of parameters:
Name: the string appended to the domain name to create a FQDN mapped to the
IP. For example, if your domain name is besthosting.com, entering cp will make
the fully qualified domain name cp.besthosting.com.
TTL (a Time To Live): seconds to elapse before the record is refreshed in the
provider‟s DNS cache.
Data: the IP address that fully qualified domain name will be mapped to. You can
get this IP address with any ping utility.
30 DNS and Hosting
Adding custom MX records
A host name can have one or more Mail Exchange (MX) records. These records point
to hosts that accept mail messages on behalf of the host. Adding MX records is similar
to adding A records:
Name: your local domain name. If you leave the Name field blank, all mail will be
redirected for the base zone.
Data: the priority of the record and mail domain name (not the IP) mail will be
forwarded to.
Note: The priority of the custom MX record defines whether your external
servers will act as secondary or primary. For instance, if you set the priority of
the custom MX record higher than 10 (e.g. 11), your external mail server will be
used as secondary. If you set the priority of the custom MX record lower than 10
(e.g. 9), your external mail server will be used as primary. In the latter case, your
mail will be sent to your external mail server until it goes down or becomes
otherwise inaccessible. Then the default mail server will take over.
WARNING: Please pay attention to $ORIGIN when you add an MX record.
Adding custom CNAME records
The Canonical Name (CNAME) record allows a machine or host to be referenced by
more than one name. A CNAME can be used to define an alias host name. You can
also use aliases when a host changes its name.
If you have selected CNAME record, the following page appears:
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