Parallels Plesk Expand - 2.3 Getting Started
Parallels® Plesk Expand
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Parallels
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Contents
Preface 5
About This Guide ........................................................................................................................... 5
Who Should Read This Guide ....................................................................................................... 5
Organization of This Guide ............................................................................................................ 6
Documentation Conventions ......................................................................................................... 6
Typographical Conventions ........................................................................................................... 6
Feedback ....................................................................................................................................... 7
Learning Plesk Expand Basics 8
About Plesk Expand ...................................................................................................................... 9
Introducing Plesk Expand Interface ............................................................................................. 12
Navigation Pane ................................................................................................................ 13
Plesk Expand Work Area .................................................................................................. 15
Action Bar .......................................................................................................................... 18
Getting Help ................................................................................................................................. 19
Finding Helpful Information ............................................................................................... 19
Requesting Help From Support Team .............................................................................. 19
Starting Plesk Expand 22
Preparing Plesk Expand for Work ............................................................................................... 23
Configuring Plesk Expand to Run Behind a Firewall ........................................................ 24
Logging In To Plesk Expand ....................................................................................................... 26
Accepting Parallels License Agreement ...................................................................................... 27
Changing Default Login Data ...................................................................................................... 27
Managing Plesk Expand License 28
Licensing Policy ........................................................................................................................... 28
Upgrading Limited License Key to Full-Functional License Key ................................................. 29
Registering Plesk Server in Plesk Expand 30
Registering New Plesk Server ..................................................................................................... 31
Resolving the IP Range Issue ..................................................................................................... 33
Creating Expand Client Account 35
Creating Client Template ............................................................................................................. 36
Registering New Expand Client ................................................................................................... 41
Adding IP Address to Expand Client’s IP Pool .................................................................. 42
Creating Domain for Expand Client 43
Creating Domain Template ......................................................................................................... 44
Creating a Domain for an Expand Client ..................................................................................... 51
Preface 4
Providing for the Information Safety in Plesk Expand 53
Registering a Remote Backup Storage in Plesk Expand ............................................................ 54
Scheduling Backups in Plesk Expand ......................................................................................... 55
Preface 5
In this section:
About This Guide ............................................................................................... 5
Who Should Read This Guide ........................................................................... 5
Organization of This Guide ................................................................................ 6
Documentation Conventions ............................................................................. 6
Typographical Conventions ............................................................................... 6
Feedback .......................................................................................................... 7
Preface
About This Guide
This guide is intended to provide a practical introduction to Plesk Expand by explaining how
to start your work with Plesk Expand immediately after its installation and how to perform
basic administrative tasks in it.
This document provides step-by-step instructions you should follow after logging in to Plesk
Expand. It does not cover all features of this control panel. For detailed information on the
entire Plesk Expand functionality, refer to the Plesk Expand Administrator’s Guide and the
Plesk Expand Client’s Guide at http://www.parallels.com/en/products/plesk/expand/docs/.
If you encounter any problems when installing the control panel, refer to the Plesk Expand
Installation Guide at http://www.parallels.com/en/products/plesk/expand/docs/.
For more information on how to integrate Plesk Expand with external systems, see the Plesk
Expand Integration Guide at http://www.parallels.com/en/products/plesk/expand/docs/.
Who Should Read This Guide
This guide is intended for anyone who has purchased Plesk Expand and is willing to start
working in it. Good knowledge of the operating system your Plesk servers operate on is
required. This can be Linux, FreeBSD or Windows.
6 Preface
Organization of This Guide
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.
Chapter 2, Learning Plesk Expand Basics (see page 8), familiarizes you with Plesk Expand, its
basic concept of centralized management and its interface, and tells you how you can get
help in case you encounter any problems in the control panel.
Chapter 3, Starting Plesk Expand (see page 22), provides information on the preliminary steps
you should take before starting to work in Plesk Expand, on the possible problems you may
encounter at the start of Plesk Expand, and also teaches you how you can find your
password in case you have forgotten it.
Chapter 4, Managing Plesk Expand License (see page 28), tells you about the Plesk Expand
licensing policy and provides instructions on how you can install a new license in your Plesk
Expand.
Chapter 5, Registering Plesk Server in Plesk Expand (see page 30), teaches you how to register
your first server in Plesk Expand.
Chapter 6, Creating Expand Client Account (see page 35), provides step-by-step instructions on
how to create Expand client accounts on the basis of client templates.
Chapter 7, Creating Domain for Expand Client (see page 43), explains in detail how to create
domain templates and add new domains based on these templates.
Documentation Conventions
Before you start using this guide, it is important to understand the documentation
conventions used in it.
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 7
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, and directories.
The license file is located in the
http://docs/common/licen
ses directory.
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.
From this chapter you will learn the following information about Plesk Expand:
In this chapter:
About Plesk Expand .......................................................................................... 9
Introducing Plesk Expand Interface ................................................................... 12
Getting Help ...................................................................................................... 19
C H A P T E R 1
Learning Plesk Expand Basics
Basic Plesk Expand concept of centralized management (see page 9).
Introduction to the Plesk Expand interface (see page 12).
How to find help in case you encounter any problems in the Plesk Expand control
panel (see page 19).
Learning Plesk Expand Basics 9
About Plesk Expand
The main thing about Plesk Expand is that it is intended to extend Plesk™ functionality
and is considered to be an add-on application for Plesk™. Plesk Expand cannot be
used separately, it requires at least two Plesk servers to operate.
Below, we provide short descriptions of Plesk™ and Plesk Expand.
Plesk™ is a control panel designed to automate all aspects of your hosting business
and deliver superior flexibility and stability to your customers. It enables users to create
and remotely manage hundreds of virtual hosts through an easy-to-use, intuitive
interface, without in-depth technical knowledge of web hosting technologies. The
extensive set of Plesk features allows you to completely automate product installation,
enrich self-administration capabilities for your clients, and minimize the number of
support calls.
Plesk Expand is the hosting automation software that unites multiple Plesk servers on
a single hosting platform. It allows hosting service providers to administer several Plesk
servers from one centralized point: the Plesk Expand control panel. Using Plesk
Expand, the administrator can centrally manage all Plesk client accounts, domains and
other objects registered on different Plesk servers, without having to log in to these
servers. Plesk Expand offers centralized administration of major client services - such
as e-mail, DNS and database management - across all Plesk Expand servers, thus
allowing to effectively balance the workload. Specialized user roles - such as the Plesk
Expand reseller and Plesk Expand client - allow the administrator to configure and sell
a number of advanced web hosting reseller packages. Plesk Expand can be easily
integrated with the provider’s infrastructure through special APIs (Application
Programming Interfaces).
The principles of the Plesk Expand operation are presented in the following schema:
10 Learning Plesk Expand Basics
Plesk Expand user roles and basic object types are described further in this section.
Plesk Expand objects
Plesk Expand objects are Plesk servers and accounts registered on Plesk servers,
which are managed by Plesk Expand users.
There are the following kinds of objects in Plesk Expand:
Plesk Server. A hosting server running Plesk
TM
control panel software (either Plesk
for Windows or Plesk for Linux/Unix) registered in Plesk Expand.
Plesk Server Group. Several Plesk servers to which common rules or features are
assigned by Administrator, or which are assigned to one Reseller.
Plesk client is a Plesk client account residing on one of Plesk servers registered in
Plesk Expand. You can grant Plesk clients access to Plesk control panel, where he
can manage his or her account and domains.
Learning Plesk Expand Basics 11
Domain is a virtual host on the Internet owned by a Plesk client, Expand Reseller or
Expand client. For each domain, you can create a Domain Administrator account
allowing to manage the domain in the Plesk control panel.
Plesk Expand users
Plesk Expand Users have certain rights and privileges on certain Plesk objects they
own. Plesk Expand users have access to the Plesk Expand control panel, where they
can manage their objects and accounts, within the limits and capabilities provided by
their user role. There are the following user roles in Plesk Expand:
Administrator. A Plesk Expand user who has full rights to configure Plesk Expand
and manage all its objects and user accounts.
Expand Reseller is a Plesk Expand user who owns and manages Plesk servers,
groups of Plesk servers, Plesk client accounts and domains. Reseller has
Administrator rights on all objects registered on Plesk servers which he or she
owns.
Expand Client is a Plesk Expand user who owns and manages domains and Plesk
clients in Plesk Expand. These domains and Plesk clients may be registered on
several Plesk servers, including servers running different platforms (Plesk for
Windows or Plesk for Linux/Unix).
Plesk Expand Centralized servers
Plesk Expand offers a set of distributed (or centralized) services. A distributed service
is a service received by several Plesk servers remotely, from a single centralized
dedicated server. Such a server (called a Centralized server) is allocated for providing
this service to several or all objects registered on other Plesk servers. This allows to
reduce the workload on each Plesk server, optimize the overall system performance,
and helps to quickly and easily detect and resolve typical service issues. There are the
following types of centralized servers in Plesk Expand:
Mail server. A Plesk server registered in Plesk Expand which operates as a
centralized mail server for several Plesk servers.
DNS server. A Plesk or a non-Plesk server which operates as a centralized DNS
server for several Plesk servers.
Database Server. A Plesk or a non-Plesk server which operates as a centralized
database server for several Plesk servers.
Communication between Plesk Expand and Plesk servers
The communication between Plesk and Plesk Expand is provided by PSA API RPC,
the data and command communication software. PSA API RPC should be installed on
every Plesk/Linux server prior to registering it in Plesk Expand. On and Plesk/FreeBSD
and Plesk for Windows servers there is no need to install PSA API RPC; it is included
in the distribution package.
12 Learning Plesk Expand Basics
Introducing Plesk Expand Interface
In this section:
Navigation Pane ................................................................................................ 13
Plesk Expand Work Area................................................................................... 15
Action Bar ......................................................................................................... 18
This section describes the basics of the Plesk Expand web-based interface. Here you
can find instructions on how to navigate through your Plesk Expand control panel.
A regular Plesk Expand page looks as follows:
Figure 1: Plesk Expand interface
Any Plesk Expand page consists of the following elements:
Navigation pane (see page 13) contains navigation items and the context help area.
Work area (see page 15) provides access to available operations (depending on
the current context), input forms, lists, and other interface elements.
Action bar (see page 18) displays the name and the status of the currently
executed action.
Learning Plesk Expand Basics 13
Navigation Pane
The navigation pane is located on the left side of the Plesk Expand page. In the right
part of the screen there is the work area where you can perform management
operations on a particular Plesk Expand component selected in the navigation pane.
Figure 2: Navigation pane
The navigation pane is divided into four sections: Plesk, Expand, System and Help &
Support. To expand or collapse the contents of each section, click the arrows in the
upper right corner of each section.
14 Learning Plesk Expand Basics
The Plesk section contains the following shortcuts:
Plesk Servers. This shortcut takes you to the list of all Plesk servers registered in
Plesk Expand. There you can manage Plesk servers, register a new Plesk server,
reload selected servers or remove the servers you no longer need.
Plesk Clients. This shortcut takes you to the list of all Plesk client accounts from all
Plesk servers registered in Plesk Expand. There you can manage Plesk clients,
create a new Plesk client, create a new client template. You can also suspend,
unsuspend, remove Plesk clients or refresh the particular client’s data from the
corresponding Plesk server.
Plesk Domains. This shortcut takes you to the list of all domains from all Plesk
servers registered in Plesk Expand. There you can manage domains, create new
domains, create and edit domain templates, manage DNS zones configured for
domains. You can also suspend, unsuspend, remove domains from Plesk Expand
and refresh a particular domain data from the corresponding Plesk server.
Plesk CP Sessions. This shortcut takes you to the list of all sessions with Plesk
servers registered in Plesk Expand.
The Expand section contains the following shortcuts:
Expand Resellers. This shortcut takes you to the list of all resellers registered in Plesk
Expand. There you can manage reseller accounts, create or remove resellers.
Expand Clients. This shortcut takes you to the list of all Expand client accounts
registered in Plesk Expand. There you can create Expand clients (from scratch or
by transforming a regular Plesk client into an Expand client), remove Expand
clients, or proceed to the administration page of each Expand client.
Centralized Mail. This shortcut takes you to the list of all central mail servers
registered in Plesk Expand. There you can create or remove central mail servers,
proceed to the administration page of each central mail server by clicking its name
in the list. You can also view the overall centralized mail statistics and proceed to
the list of all mail accounts (Plesk clients and domains) registered on all the central
mail servers.
Centralized DNS. This shortcut takes you to the list of all central DNS servers
registered in Plesk Expand. There you can create or remove central DNS servers,
proceed to the administration page of each central DNS server by clicking its name
in the list.
Centralized DB. This shortcut takes you to the list of all central database servers
registered in Plesk Expand. There you can create or remove central database
servers, proceed to the administration page of each central database server by
clicking its name in the list.
Central Backups. This shortcut takes you to the list of all remote storages for backing
up Plesk servers, Plesk clients and domains. There you can schedule and manage
backup tasks for Plesk servers, Plesk clients and domains.
Migrations. This shortcut takes you to the list of all migrations of accounts between
Plesk servers, which were initiated in Plesk Expand. There you can start a new
migration, view and refresh statuses of migrations, remove migrations, proceed to
viewing information about each migration task by clicking its name in the list.
The System section contains the following shortcuts:
Learning Plesk Expand Basics 15
Server. This shortcut takes you to the page, where the Plesk Expand administrator
In this section:
Path Bar ............................................................................................................ 15
Working with Lists of Objects ............................................................................ 16
can perform system management tasks, such as viewing system statistics and
action log, editing administrator profile and login information, managing Plesk
Expand license and so on.
Log out. This shortcut takes you to the confirmation page, where you can close the
current session with Plesk Expand.
The Help & Support section contains the following shortcut:
Help. This shortcut opens the Online Help topic providing information about the
page you are currently on.
Below the Help shortcut there is a context-sensitive help area that contains a short
description of the user interface item. When you point to an interface element, you can
see its brief description and available operations.
Plesk Expand Work Area
The Plesk Expand work area includes all interface elements located to the right of the
navigation pane. The work area displays the options available for the shortcut selected
in the navigation pane.
The sections below describe how to work with the following elements of the Plesk
Expand work area interface: a path bar (see page 15) and lists of objects (see page
16).
Path Bar
The path bar is a chain of links indicating your current location within the Plesk Expand
system. It is located at the top of the Plesk Expand work area. By clicking these links,
you can jump up one or more levels.
Figure 3: Path Bar
The Up Level button located in the upper right corner of the screen is used to jump up
one level.
On some screens, the Refresh Screen button appears in the upper right corner. It can be
used to renew the screen you are on.
Below the path bar, you can see the title of the Plesk Expand page you are currently
on.
16 Learning Plesk Expand Basics
Working with Lists of Objects
On some pages, you may see a considerable number of items, such as Plesk servers,
Plesk clients, Plesk domains, shown in Plesk Expand work area. Such multiple
elements are always displayed as shortcuts organized in tables. The list shows the
items themselves (on the Plesk servers’ management page, it shows Plesk servers, on
the domains’ management page - domains, and so on), and critical parameters of
these objects in separate columns of the table. Each item in the list is clickable; by
clicking the item you get to its administration page. Values in some columns are also
shortcuts to pages where these parameters can be adjusted.
The list of items can be sorted by any parameter. To sort items by a parameter, for
example, Client name (see the figure below), click the corresponding column title. The
list will be sorted by the client name in ascending alphabet order. You can change the
sorting order, ascending to descending or vice versa, by clicking column title once
more.
The example of such page is shown below.
Figure 4: Working with lists
You can perform the following typical operations on the items listed on such pages:
Search. To search for a specific item in the list, enter the corresponding information
into one or several of the provided search fields, and click Search. All matching
items will be displayed in a reduced list.
Note: The search patterns slightly differ for different types of search fields. For the
ID field, only exact matches are shown. For example, if you enter “3”, only objects
with ID=3 are shown, objects with ID=33 are not shown. All the text fields use the
“any word” search pattern. For example, if you enter “John” in the Client Name field,
you will see all objects containing “John”, such as “Johnson”, “John Smith”, etc.
Show All. If you are viewing a reduced list, click Show All to revert to the complete list
of objects.
Customize View. Upon clicking this link, a pop-up window opens, where you can do
the following:
Specify the number of items of the list to be displayed per page.
Select the columns to be displayed:
Select the check boxes of columns you want to be displayed;
Learning Plesk Expand Basics 17
Clear the check boxes of columns you want to be hidden.
By default, all columns are selected.
Migrate. To migrate one or several objects, select the objects in the list (select the
corresponding check boxes to the right of the table) and click Migrate. You will be
taken to the New Migration Wizard, where you should specify all other details for the
migration.
Enable. To activate (unsuspend) one or several objects, select the objects in the list
and click Enable.
Disable. To deactivate (suspend) one or several objects, select the objects in the list
and click Disable.
Assign Selected. Plesk Expand objects or users can be assigned to Expand clients or
resellers, and also to centralized servers. To assign items, select them in the list
and click Assign Selected. Confirm assigning on the confirmation page that appears.
Deassign Selected. To deassign items, select them in the list and click Deassign
Selected. Confirm deassigning on the confirmation page that appears.
Reload. To refresh data about certain items in the list, select them and click Reload.
On the next page, select which data should be refreshed. This option might be
useful if you have applied some changes to these particular Plesk Expand objects
or users, and wish to refresh these data immediately, without having to wait for
Plesk Expand to do this automatically.
Remove Selected. To remove items from the list, select them and click Remove or
Remove Selected. Confirm the deletion on the confirmation page that appears.
Log in. To log in to a particular Plesk object’s administration page in the Plesk
control panel, click the Login icon next to the corresponding object. It takes you
straight to this object on the Plesk server where it resides. The Plesk control panel
opens in a separate browser window. No login is required.
To proceed to the administration page of a certain item in the list, click its name in the
list.
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