Parallels PLESK PANEL 10 ADMINISTRATOR GUIDE
Parallels® Panel
Copyright Notice
Parallels Holdings, Ltd.
c/o Parallels International GMbH
Vordergasse 49
CH8200 Schaffhausen
Switzerland
Phone: +41 526320 411
Fax: +41 52672 2010
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Mac is a registered trademark of Apple, Inc.
All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Contents
Preface 8
Typographical Conventions ........................................................................................................... 8
Feedback ....................................................................................................................................... 9
Operating Inside Parallels Containers 10
Becoming Familiar with Parallels Plesk Panel 12
Server Administration Panel ........................................................................................................ 13
Control Panel ............................................................................................................................... 14
Power User Panel........................................................................................................................ 16
Changing Your Password and Contact Information 18
If Your Panel Works with Customer & Business Manager .......................................................... 19
Serving Your Customers and Employing Resellers 20
Understanding Plans and Subscriptions ..................................................................................... 21
Hosting service customers ................................................................................................ 21
Resellers ........................................................................................................................... 22
Allocation of Resources and Services .............................................................................. 23
Hosting service customers ................................................................................................ 23
Resellers ........................................................................................................................... 23
Relations Between Subscriptions and Service/Add-on Plans ........................................... 23
Hosting subscriptions ........................................................................................................ 23
Reseller subscriptions ....................................................................................................... 25
Syncing Subscriptions and Plans. States of Subscriptions ............................................... 25
Unsynced subscriptions .................................................................................................... 25
Properties of Plans and Subscriptions ........................................................................................ 28
Hosting Plans and Subscriptions ...................................................................................... 29
Overuse policy................................................................................................................... 30
Disk space ......................................................................................................................... 30
Traffic ................................................................................................................................ 30
Notify upon reaching ......................................................................................................... 30
Sites published with SiteBuilder ........................................................................................ 30
Domains ............................................................................................................................ 31
Mobile sites ....................................................................................................................... 31
Subdomains ...................................................................................................................... 31
Domain aliases .................................................................................................................. 31
Mailboxes .......................................................................................................................... 31
Mailbox size....................................................................................................................... 31
Mailing lists ........................................................................................................................ 31
Additional FTP accounts ................................................................................................... 32
MySQL databases and Microsoft SQL Server databases (Windows hosting) ................. 32
MySQL databases quota and Microsoft SQL databases quota (Windows hosting) ......... 32
Validity period/Expiration Date .......................................................................................... 32
Java applications ............................................................................................................... 32
Web users ......................................................................................................................... 33
Preface 4
DNS zone management .................................................................................................... 33
Hosting settings management........................................................................................... 33
Management of access to server over SSH (Linux\Unix hosting) .................................... 34
Management of access to server over Remote Desktop (Windows hosting) ................... 34
Anonymous FTP management ......................................................................................... 34
Scheduler management .................................................................................................... 34
Spam filter management ................................................................................................... 34
Antivirus management ...................................................................................................... 35
Data backup and restoration using the server repository ................................................. 35
Back up and restore using a personal FTP repository ...................................................... 35
Web statistics management .............................................................................................. 35
Log rotation management ................................................................................................. 35
Access to Application Catalog........................................................................................... 35
Domain creation ................................................................................................................ 35
Subdomains management ................................................................................................ 36
Domain aliases management............................................................................................ 36
Additional FTP accounts management ............................................................................. 36
Java applications management......................................................................................... 36
Mailing lists management .................................................................................................. 36
Hosting performance settings management ..................................................................... 36
Additional write/modify permissions management (Windows hosting) ............................. 37
Hard disk quota assignment .............................................................................................. 37
Database server selection ................................................................................................. 37
Enable hosting................................................................................................................... 37
Hard disk quota ................................................................................................................. 38
SSL support....................................................................................................................... 38
Web statistics .................................................................................................................... 38
Custom error documents ................................................................................................... 38
SSH access to server shell under the subscription's system user (Linux/Unix hosting) .. 38
Scripting ............................................................................................................................ 39
Additional write/modify permissions (Windows hosting) ................................................... 39
Allow web users to use scripts .......................................................................................... 39
Webmail ............................................................................................................................ 41
Enable mailing lists ........................................................................................................... 41
Policy on mail for non-existent users ................................................................................ 41
Master ............................................................................................................................... 42
Slave ................................................................................................................................. 42
Use dedicated IIS application pool (Windows hosting) ..................................................... 42
Maximum bandwidth usage .............................................................................................. 42
Connections limited to ....................................................................................................... 42
Retain web and traffic statistics......................................................................................... 43
Log rotation ....................................................................................................................... 43
Reseller Plans and Subscriptions ..................................................................................... 44
Overuse policy................................................................................................................... 45
Overselling policy .............................................................................................................. 45
Customers ......................................................................................................................... 45
Other Resources ............................................................................................................... 45
Ability to use remote API ................................................................................................... 46
Access to the Panel .......................................................................................................... 46
Customer account creation ............................................................................................... 46
Allow overselling ............................................................................................................... 46
Other Permissions ............................................................................................................. 46
Allocate shared IP addresses ........................................................................................... 46
Allocate exclusive IP addresses........................................................................................ 47
Serving Customers ...................................................................................................................... 47
Managing Service Plans ................................................................................................... 48
Subscribing to Hosting Services ....................................................................................... 50
Changing Services Provided to Customers ...................................................................... 52
Managing Customers ........................................................................................................ 54
Preface 5
Managing Service Subscriptions ....................................................................................... 57
Employing Resellers .................................................................................................................... 60
Creating Reseller Account/Subscription ........................................................................... 61
Changing Reseller Subscription ........................................................................................ 61
Adding Services to Your Offerings .............................................................................................. 64
Using Integrated Customer and Business Manager 66
Configuring Your Parallels Plesk Panel 70
Obtaining and Installing a License Key ....................................................................................... 71
Upgrading the Trial License Key ....................................................................................... 72
Installing Additional License Keys for Parallels Plesk Panel Add-ons .............................. 73
Upgrading Your License Key ............................................................................................ 74
Rolling Back to Your Previously Used License Key .......................................................... 74
Securing Your Parallels Plesk Panel ........................................................................................... 74
Restricting Administrative Access to Parallels Plesk Panel .............................................. 75
Securing Communication to Server with SSL Encryption ................................................. 76
Rebranding Your Parallels Plesk Panel ...................................................................................... 79
Changing Interface Language ........................................................................................... 79
Setting a Custom Logo ...................................................................................................... 80
Setting Up Interface Languages........................................................................................ 80
Hiding and Unhiding Sets of Buttons ................................................................................ 82
Adding and Removing Custom Buttons ............................................................................ 83
Adjusting Session Preferences ................................................................................................... 85
Logging Actions Performed by Your Customers in the Panel ..................................................... 86
Setting Up Action Logging ................................................................................................. 87
Downloading the Action Log ............................................................................................. 87
Clearing the Action Log ..................................................................................................... 88
Configuring the Server 89
Adding and Removing IP Addresses........................................................................................... 90
Viewing and Selecting Software Components Used on the Server ............................................ 93
Configuring DNS Services ........................................................................................................... 93
Configuring the Panel to Run Behind Router with NAT .............................................................. 98
Configuring the Panel to Run Behind a Firewall ....................................................................... 100
Using the Software Firewall Built into Your Panel (Windows Hosting) ........................... 101
Configuring Port Range for Passive FTP Mode (Windows Hosting) ......................................... 105
Setting Up Mail Services ........................................................................................................... 106
Setting Up Spam Protection ............................................................................................ 110
Setting Up Virus Protection (Linux Hosting) .................................................................... 119
Setting Up Virus Protection (Windows Hosting) .............................................................. 120
Selecting Webmail Software ........................................................................................... 120
Configuring Mailman Mailing List Software (Linux Hosting) ........................................... 121
Preventing Your Customers From Sending Mass E-mail (Linux Hosting) ...................... 122
Configuring Parallels Plesk Panel to Use SiteBuilder in Trial Mode ......................................... 122
Customizing SiteBuilder Trial Mode Notifications ........................................................... 123
Customizing SiteBuilder Getting Started Demo ........................................................................ 126
Configuring Parallels Plesk Panel for Database Hosting .......................................................... 127
Setting Up Remote Database Hosting ............................................................................ 128
Managing Database Servers........................................................................................... 130
Configuring the Connection to External Database Management Systems (Windows Hosting) 131
Creating New Connections to External Databases (Windows Hosting) ......................... 132
Changing Settings of Existing ODBC Connections (Windows Hosting) ......................... 132
Removing Connections to External Databases (Windows Hosting) ............................... 133
Enabling Support for Adobe ColdFusion (Linux Hosting) ......................................................... 133
Preface 6
Enabling Integration with Google Services for Websites .......................................................... 134
Providing Panel Users with Access to Google Services for Websites ............................ 136
Enabling Integration with UNITY Mobile Services for Mobile Sites ........................................... 137
Enabling Support for Miva E-commerce Applications (Linux Hosting) ...................................... 139
Enabling Support for Miva E-commerce Applications (Windows Hosting)................................ 140
Prepackaging Applications ........................................................................................................ 140
Configuring ASP.NET (Windows Hosting) ................................................................................ 143
Configuring IIS Application Pool (Windows Hosting) ................................................................ 145
Configuring Shared SSL (Windows Hosting) ............................................................................ 147
Configuring Statistics ................................................................................................................. 148
Configuring E-mail Notification System ..................................................................................... 148
Tags used in notification messages ................................................................................ 149
Adjusting System Date and Time .............................................................................................. 152
Enabling Piped Logs for Web Server to Reduce the Risk of Web Service Disruption (Linux Hosting)
................................................................................................................................................... 152
Extending Parallels Plesk Panel Capabilities with Modules and Add-ons (Linux Hosting) ....... 153
Restricting the Use of Potentially Insecure Hosting Options ..................................................... 154
Scripting Options ............................................................................................................. 155
Execution of Scripts via Cron Task Scheduler (Linux Hosting) ...................................... 157
Setting Up Help Desk ................................................................................................................ 157
Administering the System 159
Viewing Statistics ....................................................................................................................... 160
Automating Report Generation and Delivery by E-mail .................................................. 161
Viewing Virus and Spam Protection Statistics (Windows Hosting) ................................. 162
Managing System Services ....................................................................................................... 162
Monitoring Mail Server Message Queue and Troubleshooting Mail Congestion (Linux Hosting)165
Scheduling Tasks ...................................................................................................................... 166
Scheduling Tasks on Linux-based Servers ..................................................................... 167
Scheduling Tasks on Windows-based Servers ............................................................... 169
Delegating Administrative Privileges to Technical Support Engineers (Windows Hosting) ...... 171
Creating Additional Administrator Accounts .................................................................... 172
Modifying Additional Administrator Accounts .................................................................. 172
Suspending and Activating Additional Administrator Accounts ...................................... 173
Removing Additional Administrator Accounts ................................................................. 173
Backing Up and Restoring Data ................................................................................................ 174
Schedule backups. .......................................................................................................... 174
Restore data from backup archives. ............................................................................... 174
Configuring Global Backup Settings ............................................................................... 175
Configuring the Panel for Using FTP Repository ............................................................ 175
Backing Up the Entire Server .......................................................................................... 176
Backing Up Individual Accounts and Sites ...................................................................... 177
Scheduling Backups ........................................................................................................ 177
Restoring Data From Backup Archives ........................................................................... 179
Downloading Backup Files from Server .......................................................................... 180
Uploading Backup Files to Server ................................................................................... 180
Removing Backup Files from Server .............................................................................. 180
Accessing the Server Using Remote Desktop (Windows Hosting) ........................................... 181
Monitoring Connections to the Panel and FTP Services........................................................... 183
Monitoring Connections to the Panel .............................................................................. 183
Monitoring Connections to FTP Service ......................................................................... 184
Monitoring Terminal Session Connections to Your Server (Windows Hosting) .............. 185
Migrating Data from Other Hosting Platforms 186
Importing Data From a File ........................................................................................................ 189
Importing Data From Linux/Unix-based Servers ............................................................. 190
Preface 7
Importing Data From Windows-based Servers ............................................................... 191
Updating and Upgrading the Panel 192
Notes on updating procedures: ....................................................................................... 193
Changing Updater Settings ....................................................................................................... 194
Sending E-mail Notices to Multiple Customers at Once 195
Creating, Editing and Removing Message Templates .............................................................. 196
Sending E-mail Notices ............................................................................................................. 198
Using Event Tracking Mechanism 200
Adding Event Handlers (Linux Hosting) .................................................................................... 201
Adding Event Handlers (Windows Hosting) .............................................................................. 202
Removing Event Handlers ......................................................................................................... 204
Glossary 205
Add-on plan ..................................................................................................................... 205
Reseller plan ................................................................................................................... 205
Hosting plan .................................................................................................................... 205
Subscription..................................................................................................................... 205
Custom subscription ........................................................................................................ 205
Webspace ....................................................................................................................... 205
8 Preface
In this section:
Typographical Conventions ............................................................................... 8
Feedback .......................................................................................................... 9
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, and directories.
The license file is located in the
http://docs/common/licen
ses directory.
Preface
Typographical Conventions
Before you start using this guide, it is important to understand the documentation
conventions used in it.
The following kinds of formatting in the text identify special information.
Preface 9
Formatting convention
Type of Information
Example
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 an error 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.
The following operations are not available from the Panel when it is operating inside
C H A P T E R 1
Operating Inside Parallels Containers
Parallels Containers:
Adding to and removing IP addresses from the server's network cards.
Changing host name.
Setting system date and time.
When installing the Panel inside a Parallels Container, you need to configure the
Offline Service parameter for the Container to ensure that the both Parallels Plesk
Panel web interface and the Parallels Power Panel, used for managing Containers, are
accessible.
By default, the Container is configured so that the following parameters are enabled for
the Offline Management service: VZPP-plesk (redirection of connections on the port
8443) and VZPP (redirection of connections on the port 4643). You need to disable the
VZPP-plesk service. You can do this on Parallels Virtuozzo Containers for Linux and
Windows by using the Parallels Management Console utility.
To configure the container using the Parallels Management Console:
1. Open the Parallels Management Console.
2. Connect to the Parallels Containers hardware node.
3. Click Virtuozzo Containers.
4. Select the Container, right-click it, and select Properties from the context
menu.
5. Go to Network > Offline Management, and disable the VZPP-plesk service.
To configure the container using the command line tools on a Linux-
based hardware node:
1. Connect to the hardware node over SSH.
2. Issue the following command:
vzctl set CT_ID --offline_management yes --offline_service vzpp --save
To configure the container using the command line tools on a Windows-
based hardware node:
1. Connect to the hardware node over Remote Desktop.
2. Issue the following commands:
vzctl set CT_ID --offline_management yes --save
Operating Inside Parallels Containers 11
vzcfgt set CT_ID offlineservices vzpp
After configuring the Container, you will be able to access the Container management
functions from the Panel (at Tools > Manage Your Container [in the Server Management
group]).
Parallels Plesk Panel provides two separate panels with different sets of available
In this chapter:
Server Administration Panel .............................................................................. 13
Control Panel .................................................................................................... 14
Power User Panel ............................................................................................. 16
C H A P T E R 2
Becoming Familiar with Parallels Plesk Panel
functions: Server Administration Panel and Control Panel. System administration and user
account management tasks are performed in Server Administration Panel. All
operations related to managing websites, hosting features, and mail accounts are
performed in Control Panel. Server Administration Panel provides links for access to
Control Panel: You can use them to log in to Control Panel and manage websites on
behalf of your resellers and customers.
There is also the power user interface - a special modification of the user interface
switchable on and off through the command line.
The power user interface combines the simplicity of Parallels Small Business Panel
and powerful hosting management features of Parallels Plesk Panel product line. It is
intended for users who do not need functions for reselling shared hosting services and
accommodating new resellers and customers:
There is no hierarchy of user accounts specific to shared hosting: no resellers and
no customers.
There are no service plans, subscriptions, and limits on amounts of resources
consumed by websites.
Becoming Familiar with Parallels Plesk Panel 13
Server Administration Panel
When you log in to Parallels Plesk Panel as administrator, it shows a Home page with
a summary on allocated and used resources.
The top banner area provides the following links:
A link with your name. Click this if you need to update your contact information.
Log out. This is where you close your session when you have finished working with
the Panel.
Help. This provides context-sensitive help with a search function.
The navigation pane on the left provides access to the following sets of functions:
Home. This is where you start working with the Panel. Most of the operations you
might need to perform are accessible from this area.
Customers. This is where you perform operations on user accounts. Customers are
end users of hosting services; they cannot resell hosting services. You can
accomplish the following tasks from this area of the Panel:
Create, modify, suspend, activate, and remove user accounts
View traffic usage reports
Resellers. This is where you perform operations on reseller accounts. Resellers can
use hosting services and resell the services to end users. Resellers cannot create
reseller accounts for other users. You can accomplish the following tasks from this
area of the Panel:
Create, modify, and remove user accounts for resellers and their customers.
View traffic usage reports
Domains. This is where you can view information about hosted websites and their
domain names, and go to the Control Panel for managing them.
Subscriptions. This is where you manage customer subscriptions to your services.
Subscription is a way a customer obtains services and resources provided by a
service plan.
Service Plans. This is where you manage your service plans. Service plan is a set of
resources and services provided to hosting service customers by means of
subscriptions. There are also service plan add-ons that extend the amount of
resources and services provided with a subscription.
Tools & Utilities. This is where you configure and manage system services, and view
resource usage statistics.
Settings. This is where you configure the global settings related to hosting services
and Panel branding.
Modules. This link is available only on Linux-based hosting servers. Click it to install
or manage additional modules that add useful functions to Parallels Plesk Panel.
These modules are Firewall, Counter-Strike Game Server, and VPN.
Profile & Preferences. This is where you set interface language and skin, and update
contact information.
14 Becoming Familiar with Parallels Plesk Panel
Change Password. This is where you change your password for logging in to the
Server Administration Panel as administrator.
Note: The number and location of these icons and links in your Panel depend on the
number of available services, installed applications, and functions provided in
accordance with your software license. For this reason, some of the functions and
items described in this guide might not be available to you. If you want to use the
functions that are currently missing in your Panel, then upgrade your software license,
install the necessary software packages, or contact your hosting service provider for
assistance.
If the Customer and Business Manager component is installed, the navigation pane
also includes the following groups of links:
Business Operations. Manage customer accounts and service subscriptions.
Business Monitoring. View accounting reports and work with invoices and payments.
Business Setup. Set up Customer and Business Manager for serving your
customers.
To learn more about working with Customer and Business Manager, refer to the
chapter Using Integrated Customer and Business Manager (on page 66).
To see information about a tool or an item on the page, hover the cursor over an item,
without clicking it, and a small hover box appears with supplementary information
regarding the item being hovered over.
The main working area on the right provides access to the tools available for the
current section of the Panel selected in the navigation pane. Additional operations are
accessible from the More Actions menus.
To navigate through Parallels Plesk Panel, you can use a path bar: a chain of links that
appears in the right part of the screen, below the banner area.
To return to a previous screen, use the shortcuts in the path bar, or the Up Level icon in
the upper-right corner of the screen.
To sort a list by a certain parameter in ascending or descending order, click on the
parameter's title in the column heading. The order of sorting will be indicated by a small
triangle displayed next to the parameter's title.
Control Panel
Control Panel provides access to the following functions:
Home. Provides access to the most frequently performed operations. The most part
of administrative tasks can be performed using the links on this page:
View statistics on resource usage by websites.
Host a new website and fill it with content using the integrated SiteBuilder visual
editor.
Manage files.
Becoming Familiar with Parallels Plesk Panel 15
Secure sites with SSL encryption.
Set up e-mail addresses.
Manage user roles and user accounts.
Select and install applications on websites.
Users. Provides access to functionality for creating, modifying, deleting user
accounts and user roles.
Mail. Provides access to functionality for creating, modifying, deleting e-mail
addresses and mailing lists.
Websites & Domains. Provides access to functionality for registering domain names,
creating, modifying, deleting websites, setting up hosting features, databases,
subdomains, domain aliases, viewing website visits statistics, and managing files
published at the websites.
Applications. Provides access to functionality for installing, configuring, and
removing web applications that add useful features to your sites, such as blogs,
photo galleries, online stores, and other applications.
Statistics. Provides reports on disk space and traffic used by websites.
Account. This is where you view information about your hosting package, change
your contact information and password for access to the Panel.
Note: The number and location of these icons and links in your Panel depend on the
number of available services, installed applications, and functions provided in
accordance with your software license. For this reason, some of the functions and
items described in this guide might not be available to you. If you want to use the
functions that are currently missing in your Panel, then upgrade your software license,
install the necessary software packages, or contact your hosting service provider for
assistance.
Above the tabs, the following links are located:
Link with your name. Click this to specify your contact information, e-mail address,
and set a new password for accessing the Panel.
Log out. This closes your session when you have finished working with the Panel.
Help. View the context-sensitive help articles.
16 Becoming Familiar with Parallels Plesk Panel
Power User Panel
When you switch on the Power User mode, as described in Parallels Plesk Panel
Deployment Guide, section Enabling Power User UI, Server Administration Panel and
Control Panel are replaced with a single Panel which provides access to the following
functions:
Home. Provides access to the most frequently performed operations. The most part
of administrative tasks can be performed using the links on this page:
View statistics on resource usage by websites.
Host a new website and fill it with content using the integrated SiteBuilder visual
editor.
Manage files.
Secure sites with SSL encryption.
Set up e-mail addresses.
Manage user roles and user accounts.
Select and install applications on websites.
Users. Provides access to functionality for creating, modifying, deleting user
accounts and user roles.
Mail. Provides access to functionality for creating, modifying, deleting e-mail
addresses and mailing lists.
Websites & Domains. Provides access to functionality for registering domain names,
creating, modifying, deleting websites, setting up hosting features, databases,
subdomains, domain aliases, viewing website visits statistics, and managing files
published at the websites.
Applications. Provides access to functionality for installing, configuring, and
removing web applications that add useful features to your sites, such as blogs,
photo galleries, online stores, and other applications.
Statistics. Provides reports on disk space and traffic used by websites.
Server. Provides controls for setting up the Panel and managing services.
Webspaces. Provides access to functions for setting up and managing webspaces.
Each webspace is associated with one main domain name, one IP address, and is
suitable for hosting multiple websites. You might want to create separate
webspaces for hosting websites with SSL protection on dedicated IP addresses.
Note: The number and location of these icons and links in your panel depend on the
number of available services, installed applications, and functions provided in
accordance with your software license. For this reason, some of the functions and
items described in this guide might not be available to you. If you want to use the
functions that are currently missing in your Panel, then upgrade your software license,
install the necessary software packages, or contact your hosting service provider for
assistance.
Becoming Familiar with Parallels Plesk Panel 17
Above the tabs, the following links are located:
Link with your name. Click this to specify your contact information, e-mail address,
and set a new password for accessing the Panel.
Log out. This closes your session when you have finished working with the Panel.
Help. View the context-sensitive help articles. There is no dedicated Power User
Panel guide; however, when you click this link, the relevant help topics will be
shown either from Administrator's Guide or Control Panel User's Guide.
To change your password:
C H A P T E R 3
Changing Your Password and Contact Information
1. Click the Change Password link in the navigation pane.
2. Enter your old and new passwords.
3. Click OK.
To update your contact information:
1. Click the Profile & Preferences link in the navigation pane.
2. Update your information as required, and click OK.
If you forgot your password:
1. In your web browser’s address bar, type the URL where your Parallels
Plesk Panel is located.
2. For example, https://your-server.com:8443.
3. Press ENTER. Parallels Plesk Panel login screen will open.
4. Click the Forgot your password? link.
5. You will be prompted to specify your login name and e-mail address
registered in the system. Type your login name into the Login box, type
your e-mail address registered in the system into the E-mail box, and
click OK.
6. If your password cannot be sent by e-mail because it was stored by the
system in encrypted form, you will be prompted to set up a new
password using a secret code that will be generated for that purpose
and sent to your e-mail.
7. Once you received the e-mail from the password reminder, click the link
in the message body. A new browser window will open.
8. At this step, specify your login name and a new password.
The Secret Code field of the form should be automatically filled by the system, and if
it is not, copy the secret code from the message you received to the clipboard and
paste to the form.
9. Click OK to submit.
Changing Your Password and Contact Information 19
The instructions on how to restore your password will be sent to your e-mail
In this chapter:
If Your Panel Works with Customer & Business Manager ..................................19
address.
If Your Panel Works with Customer & Business Manager
For the Panel to work fine with Customer & Business Manager, you will have to actually
change two passwords. The first is that you and Business Manager use to work with
the Panel, and the second is a global password you use to log in to both Business
Manager and the Panel.
To change your password if you employ Business Manager:
1. Change your password in the Panel by following instructions from
section Changing Your Password and Contact Information (on page 18).
2. Update this password in connection settings of Business Manager.
a. Click Business Setup > All Settings.
b. Click Server Groups.
c. Select the ID of the server group where the Panel resides
(PleskUnix or PleskWin).
d. Click Edit.
e. Change the password to the one you specified at step 1.
3. Set this password as global account password.
a. Make sure you are in Business Manager and click the Profile link
in the upper-right corner of the page.
b. Repeat the password you specified at step 1.
In this chapter:
Understanding Plans and Subscriptions ............................................................ 21
Properties of Plans and Subscriptions ............................................................... 27
Serving Customers ............................................................................................ 47
Employing Resellers .......................................................................................... 60
Adding Services to Your Offerings ..................................................................... 64
C H A P T E R 4
Serving Your Customers and Employing Resellers
Serving Your Customers and Employing Resellers 21
Understanding Plans and Subscriptions
Parallels Plesk Panel lets you organize your business by means of service plans and
subscriptions.
Hosting service customers
Service plan is a set of services and resources offered to hosting service customers.
Typically, the resources include disk space on the server and bandwidth for hosting
websites, and the services include web hosting service, mail hosting service, and such. It is
assumed that a service plan you create in the Panel represents your particular business
offer.
There are also add-on plans which let you broaden the amount of resources and/or services
provided to a customer with a particular service plan.
Subscription is an instance of service plan assigned to a customer. To provide a particular
customer with services and resources offered with a service plan, you subscribe the
customer to the service plan, or, in other words, you create a subscription for the customer.
For more details about how subscriptions are related to service plans and add-ons, refer to
the section titled Relations Between Subscriptions and Service/Add-on Plans (on page 23).
Actually, not only customers can be subscribed to hosting services and host their websites
and mail, the Panel administrator and resellers can have their own subscriptions as well,
which they may use for their own purposes.
Subscriptions are meant for multi-domain hosting, each hosting subscription provides disk
space and other resources, and services defined by the plan and necessary for hosting
several sites. Each subscription is assigned a system user account, used by a hosting
customer to connect to the server over FTP and SSH or Remote Desktop connection, and an
IP address, which can be exclusively allocated for the subscription or shared with other
subscriptions. Each subscription is also linked to a domain, called 'main domain' - a domain
created along with the subscription, which is necessary for allocating system resources. All
subscriptions are named after their 'main domains', and such domains cannot be transferred
from one subscription to another. The following diagram explains how domains and websites
are hosted with subscriptions.
22 Serving Your Customers and Employing Resellers
Here, example.com and jenny.net are main domains of the subscriptions, and other domains
In this section:
Allocation of Resources and Services ............................................................... 23
Relations Between Subscriptions and Service/Add-on Plans ............................ 23
Syncing Subscriptions and Plans. States of Subscriptions ................................ 25
depicted as orange rectangles are websites hosted with these subscriptions.
Resellers
If your business model employs resellers, plans and subscriptions work as well, almost in the
same way as they do for the hosting service customers. The differences are as follows:
In such a case, we are talking about reseller plans and reseller subscriptions.
Reseller add-on plans are not implemented.
A reseller subscription is not linked to a domain, a reseller subscription provides a set of
resources and services that the subscribed reseller redistributes by the means of service
subscriptions belonging to their customers or to themselves.
Serving Your Customers and Employing Resellers 23
Allocation of Resources and Services
Hosting service customers
Service plans define potential services, the Panel does not check if a service or a resource
that a service plan should provide is actually available in the system. For example, when
creating a plan, you can select to provide ColdFusion when ColdFusion is not installed on the
server, and the Panel will let you do it and will show no error or warning messages.
Subscriptions provide actual resources and services, which are allocated during creation of
each subscription.
Resellers
Said above is true for reseller subscriptions, and for the service plans that resellers create. A
reseller can create a service plan which includes unlimited amounts of all resources, and all
services and privileges, no matter how many of the resources and services are actually
provided with their reseller subscription.
Relations Between Subscriptions and Service/Add-on Plans
Hosting subscriptions
Normally, a subscription is associated with a service plan, and this association is reflected in
a list of subscriptions: each subscription name contains the service plan name put in
brackets at the end. The amount of resources and services provided with a subscription can
be extended by associating the subscription with add-on plans. A subscription can be
associated with several add-ons, but each add-on can be added to the subscription only
once.
The following chart represents how hosting plan subscriptions are associated with plans and
add-ons.
24 Serving Your Customers and Employing Resellers
Serving Your Customers and Employing Resellers 25
It is also possible that a subscription is not associated with a service plan, and so it cannot
be associated with any add-on plans: add-ons are only added to a "main" service plan. We
call such subscriptions custom subscriptions, and their names are extended with "(Custom)" in
the list of subscriptions. Having a custom subscription may be useful in case you want to
provide services on some specific terms which outstand from the usual offerings in your
business model.
You can change the association between a subscription and plans at any time as follows:
Associate the subscription with another service plan.
Add and remove add-on plans.
Remove the subscription association with the service plan and add-ons.
Reseller subscriptions
Reseller subscription is either associated with a reseller plan, or is a custom subscription not
associated with any plan.
Syncing Subscriptions and Plans. States of Subscriptions
Subscriptions associated with a particular plan are synchronized, or synced, with it: any
changes made to the plan are automatically applied to all its subscriptions. This is true for all
kinds of plans: service plans, their add-ons, and reseller plans.
The Panel allows the following deviations from the default subscription state of being synced
with its plans:
Locked state, which means locked for syncing, indicates that a subscription is excluded
from syncing with the associated plans.
A subscription gets locked if you change the parameters of the subscription, without
changing the associated service plan. Such locking secures your customizations so that
they are not overwritten the next time you change the plan and all its subscriptions get
synced.
Unsynced state indicates that some services or resources offered with the associated
plan(s) cannot be actually provided with the subscription.
Unsynced subscriptions
A subscription is automatically marked as 'Unsynced' if the Panel cannot provision the
resources and/or services defined by the plan. This may happen in the following cases:
When the subscription is created.
When properties of the associated plan are changed.
When an add-on plan is added to or removed from the subscription.
26 Serving Your Customers and Employing Resellers
Hosting Subscriptions
In case a plan offers a privilege which makes it possible for a subscriber to change a
particular resource or service, this resource/service allocation is not synced. For example, if
a subscription provides the privilege of DNS zone management, then the DNS zone settings
of the associated service plan are ignored during synchronization.
To know which of the subscription's resources or services are not synced with
the plan:
1. Go to Subscriptions, and click the unsynced subscription name.
2. Click Sync.
The Panel will retry syncing the subscription with associated plans, and will display the
conflicting properties if syncing fails.
Be sure to take the note of the conflict report: which properties are affected, and what the
Plan value and the Available value are.
Clicking OK at this page will initiate setting the subscription values according to the
available values, Cancel will leave everything unchanged.
Once you have identified the problem, you can resolve it. There are two possible ways:
1. Fine-tune the plan to conform to the system actual state.
2. Fine-tune the system to provide resources and services offered with the plan.
To change the plan properties to conform to the system:
1. Go to Service plans > <plan name>.
2. Adjust values of the problem properties so that they correspond to the
Available values (see above).
3. Click Update & Sync.
The subscriptions will be synced automatically.
To adjust the system and re-sync a subscription:
1. Adjust your system: install missing components, add hard disks - whatever is
indicated by the conflict report.
2. Go to Subscriptions, and click the unsynced subscription name.
3. Click Sync.
The Panel will retry syncing the subscription with associated plans.
Serving Your Customers and Employing Resellers 27
Reseller Subscriptions
To know which of the subscription's resources or services are not synced with
the plan:
1. Go to Resellers, and click the unsynced reseller name.
2. Click Sync.
The Panel will retry syncing the subscription with the associated plan, and will display the
conflicting properties if syncing fails.
Be sure to take the note of the conflict report: which properties are affected, and what the
Plan value and the Available value are.
Clicking OK at this page will initiate setting the subscription values according to the
available values, Cancel will leave everything unchanged.
Once you have identified the problem, you can resolve it. There are two possible ways:
1. Fine-tune the plan to conform with the system actual state.
2. Fine-tune the system to provide resources and services offered with the plan.
To change the plan properties to conform with the system:
1. Go to Service plans.
2. Click the Reseller Plans tab and click the <plan name> in the list.
3. Adjust values of the problem properties so that they correspond to the
Available values (see above).
4. Click Update & Sync.
The subscriptions will be synced automatically.
To adjust the system and re-sync a subscription:
1. Adjust your system: configure IP addresses, add more hard disks - whatever
is indicated by the conflict report.
2. Go to Resellers, and click the unsynced reseller name.
3. Click Sync.
The Panel will retry syncing the reseller subscription with associated plans.
28 Serving Your Customers and Employing Resellers
Properties of Plans and Subscriptions
In this section:
Hosting Plans and Subscriptions ....................................................................... 29
Reseller Plans and Subscriptions ...................................................................... 44
Serving Your Customers and Employing Resellers 29
Hosting Plans and Subscriptions
In this section:
Resources......................................................................................................... 30
Permissions ...................................................................................................... 33
Hosting Parameters .......................................................................................... 37
Mail ................................................................................................................... 40
DNS .................................................................................................................. 42
Performance ..................................................................................................... 42
Logs & Statistics ............................................................................................... 42
Applications ...................................................................................................... 43
Additional Services ........................................................................................... 44
Properties of a hosting plan and subscription are grouped as follows:
Resources
Includes validity period, policy on overusing resources, system resources like disk space
and traffic, and service resources like websites, subdomains, mailboxes, databases and
so on.
Permissions
Includes provided services and privileges.
Note: Some permissions prevent settings of the following services from syncing (on page
25). See the details in the Permissions section (on page 33).
Hosting Parameters
Includes parameters of the provided hosting service.
Mail
Includes parameters of the provided mail service.
DNS
Specifies if the DNS zones of the subscription's domains should be master or slave.
Note: In case the DNS zone management privilege is provided, this parameter is not synced,
and subscribers can set up this parameter on a per-domain basis.
Performance
Includes parameters that affect performance of all services provided with the plan.
Logs & Statistics
Includes settings of how statistics and logs of the plan's subscriptions should be stored
Note: Hosting, Mail, DNS, Performance, Logs & Statistics parameters are fully visible and
editable in the Server Administration Panel only for service plans. For subscriptions,
these parameters are available only in the Control Panel. To view or modify the
parameters of a particular subscription, go to Subscriptions and click Control Panel to the
right of the subscription name. Also note that the availability of these parameters to a
subscriber depends on the permissions.
Applications
Lets you select which applications should be available to subscribers.
30 Serving Your Customers and Employing Resellers
Resources
Overuse policy
Defines what happens if the subscription's usage of disk space and traffic reaches limit
values:
Overuse is not allowed will suspend the subscription only if you select the checkbox Suspend
subscription when its disk space or traffic usage goes beyond the limit. If you do not select it,
websites will not be suspended; only a notice will be sent to recipients specified in Settings
> Notifications: Resource usage limits exceeded by subscription option.
You can also set up sending notifications as soon as usage of disk space or traffic
reaches a particular value (the Notify upon reaching options), in order to prevent
subscriptions from suspension. The notifications will be sent to users and/or e-mail
addresses specified at Settings > Notifications: Resource usage limits exceeded by subscription
option.
Overuse is allowed will let the subscription operate properly.
The option When limit on usage of a resource is reached, send email according to server
notification settings triggers sending notifications to users and/or e-mail addresses
specified at Settings > Notifications: Resource usage limits exceeded by subscription option.
Note: The overuse policy does not apply to the limits set on size of mailboxes. Therefore,
even if you enable overuse, be sure to allocate enough disk space to mailboxes.
Disk space
The total amount of disk space allocated to the subscription. It includes disk space occupied
by all files related to the subscription: contents of websites, databases, applications,
mailboxes, log files and backup files.
Traffic
The amount of data that can be transferred from the subscription's websites and FTP/Samba
shares during a month.
Notify upon reaching
Available only if overuse is not allowed. Sets the soft quota for disk space or traffic usage in
order to prevent subscriptions from suspension. When the quota is reached, the Panel sends
notifications to users and/or e-mail addresses specified at Settings > Notifications: Resource
usage limits exceeded by subscription option.
Sites published with SiteBuilder
The number of websites that can be published with SiteBuilder.
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