Parallels Plesk Panel - 8.6 - Unix Installation Manual

Parallels® Plesk Control Panel

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Contents

Preface 4

Typographical Conventions ........................................................................................................... 4

Feedback ....................................................................................................................................... 5

Installing Plesk on Linux and FreeBSD 6

Upgrading Plesk on Linux and FreeBSD 9

Installing Plesk on Numerous Servers 11

Setting Up Mirrors........................................................................................................................ 12

Setting Up Mirrors with Auto-installer Utility ...................................................................... 13

Setting Up Mirrors with Rsync Utility ................................................................................. 17

Simplifying Installation and Upgrade of Plesk on Numerous Servers with Auto-installer

Configuration File ........................................................................................................................ 18

Installing Plesk Remotely on a Number of Servers ..................................................................... 22

Installing License Keys 25

Upgrading the Trial License Key Through the Control Panel ...................................................... 26

Installing License Keys Through the Control Panel .................................................................... 27

Installing License Keys Through the Command Line .................................................................. 27

Configuring Access to Vendor Updates for Your Server’s Operating System 28

Removing Plesk from Linux Systems 29

Removing Plesk from FreeBSD Systems 33

Appendix: Plesk Auto-installer Utility Command Line Options 34

4 Preface

In this section:

Typographical Conventions ............................................................................... 4

Feedback .......................................................................................................... 5

Formatting
convention

Type of Information

Example

Special Bold

Items you must select,
such as menu options,
command buttons, or items
in a list.

Go to the System tab.
Titles of chapters, sections,

and subsections.

Read the Basic
Administration chapter.

Italics

Used to emphasize the
importance of a point, to
introduce a term or to
designate a command line
placeholder, which is to be
replaced with a real name
or value.

The system supports the
so called wildcard
character search.

Monospace

The names of commands,
files, and directories.

The license file is located
in the

http://docs/common

/licenses 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 5

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.

If you have one or few servers to which you wish to install Plesk, you should follow the

C H A P T E R 1

Installing Plesk on Linux and FreeBSD

instructions provided below in this section. If you need to install Plesk on numerous
servers, please refer to the chapter Installing Plesk on Numerous Servers (on page

11).
If you have not partitioned your hard drive yet, see the article at

http://kb.parallels.com/article_17_819_en.html on partitioning tips.

Prior to installing Plesk on FreeBSD, you should add the
„kern_securelevel_enable=”NO”‟ entry to the /etc/rc.conf file on your server‟s file
system, and then restart your server.

 To install Plesk software on a server:
1 Download the Auto-installer utility that suits your operating system

from http://www.parallels.com/en/download/plesk8/ and save it on
your server‟s hard drive.

2 Change your working directory to the directory where the Auto-

installer utility resides, for instance:

# cd /root/plesk

3 Set the execution permission for Auto-installer:

# chmod +x plesk_auto_installer_file_name

4 Run the Auto-installer:

# ./plesk_auto_installer_file_name

5 Read installation notes displayed on the screen and type „n‟ to

proceed to the next screen. Press ENTER.

6 Specify the source of Plesk distribution package.

You can choose to install from a local medium, the official Plesk Update server, or
another site. By default, the official Plesk Update server is selected.

If you wish to retrieve installation files from a local medium or network storage:

a Type „s‟ and press ENTER.
b To choose a local medium, type 1. To choose a network storage device, type 3.

Press ENTER.

c If you chose a local medium, specify the location of psa.inf configuration file. If

you chose a network storage, specify the address. For example,

http://example.com, http://192.168.10.10, ftp://192.168.10.10.

Installing Plesk on Linux and FreeBSD 7

d When finished selecting the source, type „n‟ to proceed to the next step and

press ENTER.

7 If you use a proxy server, specify the following settings:

a Proxy host name and port number. To specify them, type „s‟, type the host name,

type the port number, press ENTER to continue.

b User name and password. If this proxy server requires authentication, type „a‟,

press ENTER, type user name and press ENTER, type password and press
ENTER.

c When finished with specifying proxy settings, type „n‟ and press ENTER to

continue with installation.

8 Select the product versions that you want to install: type the number

corresponding to the product version you need and press ENTER,
then type „n‟ and press ENTER to continue. By default, the latest
versions of Plesk control panel, Sitebuilder Web site creation and
management system, and Single Sign-on support components are
selected.

9 Select the components that you wish to install.

By default, typical installation is selected. It includes a minimal number of packages
required for Plesk to work.

 To install all components of Plesk including all Plesk modules and Web

applications, select Full installation: type the corresponding number and press
ENTER.

 To install only selected components, select Custom installation: type the

corresponding number and press ENTER.

 To review the components that will be installed, type L and then press ENTER.

The selected packages are marked with [*] symbols. The packages that are
already installed and do not require updating are marked with [=] symbols. To
select or deselect a package, type the corresponding number and press
ENTER.

Note: When there are several versions of a component available for installing,

for example, PHP v. 4 and PHP v.5, then you can choose the version that
you want to install.

10 To continue with installation, type „n‟ and press ENTER. When

prompted, confirm installing: type „n‟ and press ENTER again.

The packages will be downloaded and installed. When the installation is finished,
Plesk will have started automatically.

11 Now to complete the initial configuration, log in to the Plesk control

panel running on your host at https://machine.domain.name:8443/ or

https://IP-address:8443/. Use the username „admin‟ and password

„setup‟ (both are case sensitive). For security reasons, change the
password upon initial login.

8 Installing Plesk on Linux and FreeBSD

Once the installation is completed, a trial license key is installed for evaluation
purposes. See the chapter Installing License Keys (on page 25) to learn how to obtain
and install a new fully functional license key for your Plesk.

To install a license key for Sitebuilder, refer to the Plesk Administrator‟s Guide, section
Enabling Integration with Sitebuilder.

You can upgrade Plesk in either of the following ways:

C H A P T E R 2

Upgrading Plesk on Linux and FreeBSD

 Using the friendly interface of your Plesk control panel. You log in to your Plesk

control panel as administrator, go to the Server > Updater section of the control
panel, choose the product version and the components to install, and simply wait
until the installation is completed. This is recommended for most users.

 Using the Auto-installer console utility. You can find it in your Plesk distribution or

download from the Parallels download site. After you run it, you are taken through
the upgrade procedure step by step. This will take more time as you will be
prompted to choose the options and packages to install at each step.

 To update or upgrade your Plesk software from the control panel:
1 Log in to Plesk as administrator, and click the Server shortcut in the

left side navigation pane.

2 Click the Updater icon in the Services group.

The control panel connects to the Plesk Update server, retrieves information on the
available releases, then analyses the components installed in your system, and
displays the lists of available releases and component updates. For each Plesk
version released a brief description of available operations is displayed.

Note: If you want to update/upgrade from a locally stored Plesk distribution or Plesk
update server mirror inside your network, click Preferences, select the “Network
storage” source type, specify the URL and click OK.

3 Select the Plesk version that you want to update, or upgrade to. A list

of available components appears.

4 Select the check boxes corresponding to the components you wish to

install and click Install.

5 Specify your e-mail address. You will be sent a notice by e-mail once

update is completed.

6 To confirm installation of the selected components, select the check

box and click OK. The components or updates you selected will be
downloaded and automatically installed in the background mode.

 To update or upgrade your Plesk software by means of the Auto-installer utility:

1 Run the autoinstaller binary file, which is located in the directory

/usr/local/psa/admin/bin/ on RPM-based Linux, FreeBSD and

Mac OS systems, and /opt/psa/admin/bin/ on deb-based Linux
systems.

10 Upgrading Plesk on Linux and FreeBSD

2 Read the installation instructions displayed on the screen, and then

type „n‟ and press ENTER to continue. The Auto-installer will detect
your existing installation of Plesk and ask if you want to upgrade it.

3 To confirm upgrade, type „y‟ and press ENTER.
4 Specify the source of Plesk distribution package.

You can choose to upgrade from a local medium, the official Plesk update server,
or another site. By default, the official Plesk update server is selected. If you wish to
retrieve installation files from a local medium or network storage:

a Type „s‟ and press ENTER.
b To choose a local medium, type 1. To choose a network storage device, type 3.

Press ENTER.

c If you chose a local medium, specify the location of psa.inf configuration file. If

you chose a network storage, specify the address. For example,

http://example.com, http://192.168.10.10, ftp://192.168.10.10.

5 If you use a proxy server, specify the following settings:

a Proxy host name and port number. To specify them, type „s‟, type the host name,

type the port number, and press ENTER to continue.

b User name and password. If this proxy server requires authentication, type „a‟,

press ENTER, type user name and press ENTER, type password and press
ENTER.

c When finished with specifying proxy settings, type „n‟ and press ENTER to

continue with installation.

6 Select the product version that you wish to upgrade to: type the

number corresponding to the product version you need and press
ENTER, then type „n‟ and press ENTER to continue.

7 Select the components that you wish to install or upgrade.

Type „L‟ and press ENTER. The selected packages are marked with [*] symbols.
The packages that are already installed and do not require updating are marked
with [=] symbols. To select or deselect a package, type the respective number and
press ENTER.

8 To continue with the upgrade, type „n‟ and press ENTER. When

prompted, confirm upgrading: type „n‟ and press ENTER again.

The packages will be downloaded and installed.

To install Plesk on a number of servers, you may want to set up a mirror of the official

In this chapter:

Setting Up Mirrors ............................................................................................. 12

Simplifying Installation and Upgrade of Plesk on Numerous Servers with Auto-

installer Configuration File ................................................................................. 18

Installing Plesk Remotely on a Number of Servers ............................................ 22

C H A P T E R 3

Installing Plesk on Numerous Servers

Plesk update server (http://autoinstall.plesk.com) inside your network so as not to
download the distribution files through the Internet each time, and then install Plesk as
described in the Installing Plesk Remotely on a Number of Servers (on page 22)
section.

If you do not want to set up a mirror, you can skip the Setting Up Mirrors (on page 13)
section and go on to the Installing Plesk Remotely on a Number of Servers (on page

22) section.

Setting Up Mirrors

In this chapter:

Setting Up Mirrors with Auto-installer Utility ....................................................... 13

Setting Up Mirrors with Rsync Utility .................................................................. 17

C H A P T E R 4

This chapter provides the instructions on setting up mirrors with Plesk Auto-installer
and Rsync utilities.

If you have a relatively small number of Plesk servers and you need to mirror only a
few versions of Plesk software, you should use Plesk Auto-installer utility as described
in the Setting Up Mirrors with Auto-installer Utility section of this guide. The utility is
easy-to- use and does not require advanced server administration skills.

If you have numerous Plesk servers and you need to mirror all versions of Plesk
including Plesk distributions for Virtuozzo, you should use Rsync open source utility as
described in the Setting Up Mirrors with Rsync Utility section of this guide.

Installing Plesk on Numerous Servers 13

Setting Up Mirrors with Auto-installer Utility

 To set up a mirror with Plesk Auto-installer:

1 Download the Auto-installer utility that suits your operating system

from http://www.parallels.com/en/download/plesk8/ and save it on
your server‟s hard drive.

The utility is a binary file named as follows: psa_installer_v<auto-
installer version>_os_<operating system version>_<platform>. If
you have Plesk installed on the server, you can use the autoinstaller binary
file, which is stored in the directory /usr/local/psa/admin/bin/ on RPM­based Linux, FreeBSD and Mac OS systems, and /opt/psa/admin/bin/ on
deb-based Linux systems.

2 Choose a host where you want to set up a mirror.

You can use any of your existing domains, or create a new domain specifically for
that purpose. Let‟s assume you will use the domain updates.example.com.

1. Choose the directory within the virtual host where the auto-

installer will store packages and other required files. Let‟s

assume this will be the root directory of the virtual host.

2. Find out the absolute path to this directory.

Look up the value of the „HTTPD_VHOSTS_D‟ variable in the
/etc/psa/psa.conf file. This variable stores the path to the location of virtual
hosts. Let‟s assume that this will be the /var/www/vhosts/ directory.

Within the /var/www/vhosts/ directory, there are subdirectories for each
domain. The names of those subdirectories coincide with names of existing
domains. In our example we will have the following path to the virtual host:
/var/www/vhosts/updates.example.com/.

All documents available via HTTP protocol are stored in the httpdocs
subdirectory within the virtual host.

Therefore, the absolute path to the directory where the updates will reside will
be
/var/www/vhosts/updates.example.com/httpdocs/.

3 Set up the mirror.

As you probably will not need a copy of all contents of the official Plesk update
server, you should choose what Plesk versions for what operating systems you
want to mirror. To obtain a list of available product versions:

1. Run the auto-installer with the following options:

autoinstaller—show-all-releases

A list of product versions will be displayed:

PLESK_8_0_0 (Plesk 8.0.0)

PLESK_8_0_1 (Plesk 8.0.1)

14 Installing Plesk on Numerous Servers

PLESK_8_1_0 (Plesk 8.1.0)

PLESK_8_1_1 (Plesk 8.1.1)

PLESK_8_2_0 (Plesk 8.2.0)

PLESK_8_2_1 (Plesk 8.2.1)

SB_4_1_0 (Sitebuilder 4.1.0)

SB_4_0_0 (Sitebuilder 4.0.0)

SB_3_0_2 (Sitebuilder 3.0.2)

SB_3_0_1 (Sitebuilder 3.0.1)

SB_3_0_0 (Sitebuilder 3.0.0)

Release identifiers are shown on the left, and release names are given in
brackets. You will need to use these identifiers when working with the auto­installer through command line.

2. Once you have decided which Plesk version to mirror, you
need to choose the operating systems for which you want to
obtain packages. To retrieve a list of operating systems
supported by the Plesk version of your choice, for example,
Plesk 8.2.0, you should run auto-installer with the following
options:

autoinstaller—select-release-id PLESK_8_2_0 --show-os-list
A list of operating systems will show operating system names, their versions and

identifiers:

CentOS3.6: plesk-8.2.0-cos3.6-i386.inf3

CentOS4.2: plesk-8.2.0-cos4.2-i386.inf3

CentOS4.3: plesk-8.2.0-cos4.3-x86_64.inf3

CentOS5: plesk-8.2.0-cos5-i386.inf3

CentOS5: plesk-8.2.0-cos5-x86_64.inf3

FedoraCore1: plesk-8.2.0-fc1-i386.inf3

FedoraCore2: plesk-8.2.0-fc2-i386.inf3

FedoraCore3: plesk-8.2.0-fc3-i386.inf3

FedoraCore4: plesk-8.2.0-fc4-i386.inf3

FedoraCore4: plesk-8.2.0-fc4-x86_64.inf3

FedoraCore5: plesk-8.2.0-fc5-x86_64.inf3

FedoraCore5: plesk-8.2.0-fc5-i386.inf3

FedoraCore6: plesk-8.2.0-fc6-x86_64.inf3

FedoraCore6: plesk-8.2.0-fc6-i386.inf3

RedHatel3: plesk-8.2.0-rhel3-i386.inf3

RedHatel3: plesk-8.2.0-rhel3-x86_64.inf3

RedHatel4: plesk-8.2.0-rhel4-i386.inf3

RedHatel4: plesk-8.2.0-rhel4-x86_64.inf3

Installing Plesk on Numerous Servers 15

RedHatel5: plesk-8.2.0-rhel5-i386.inf3

RedHatel5: plesk-8.2.0-rhel5-x86_64.inf3

SuSEes9: plesk-8.2.0-susees9-x86_64.inf3

SuSE9.3: plesk-8.2.0-suse9.3-x86_64.inf3

SuSE9.3: plesk-8.2.0-suse9.3-i386.inf3

SuSE10.1: plesk-8.2.0-suse10.1-i386.inf3

SuSE10.1: plesk-8.2.0-suse10.1-x86_64.inf3

SuSE10.2: plesk-8.2.0-suse10.2-i386.inf3

SuSE10.2: plesk-8.2.0-suse10.2-x86_64.inf3

SuSE10.0: plesk-8.2.0-suse10.0-i386.inf3

SuSE10.0: plesk-8.2.0-suse10.0-x86_64.inf3

SuSEes10: plesk-8.2.0-susees10-i386.inf3

SuSEes10: plesk-8.2.0-susees10-x86_64.inf3

Debian3.1: plesk-8.2.0-deb3.1-i386.inf3

Debian4.0: plesk-8.2.0-deb4.0-i386.inf3

Debian4.0: plesk-8.2.0-deb4.0-x86_64.inf3

Ubuntu6.06: plesk-8.2.0-ubt6.06-i386.inf3

Ubuntu6.06: plesk-8.2.0-ubt6.06-x86_64.inf3

Ubuntu6.10: plesk-8.2.0-ubt6.10-i386.inf3

Ubuntu6.10: plesk-8.2.0-ubt6.10-x86_64.inf3

FreeBSD5.3: plesk-8.2.0-fr5.3-i386.inf3

FreeBSD5.5: plesk-8.2.0-fr5.5-i386.inf3

FreeBSD6.1: plesk-8.2.0-fr6.1-i386.inf3

For instance, plesk-8.2.0-cos3.6-i386.inf3 is the identifier of CentOS

3.6 operating system. You will need to use these identifiers when you run auto­installer for downloading packages to the local mirror.

3. Now that you have decided which Plesk versions to mirror, run
the auto-installer in order to download packages.

For instance, if you wish to set up a mirror for Plesk 8.2.0 for CentOS 3.6 and
CentOS 5, run the following command:

autoinstaller—select-release-id PLESK_8_2_0 --mirror-os
plesk_8.2.0_cos3.6-i386.inf—mirror-os plesk_8.2.0_cos5­i386.inf3 --target
/var/www/vhosts/updates.example.com/httpdocs/

The „—target‟ option points to the directory where package files are stored. This
is the directory within a virtual host that you selected at the step 2.

Note: All releases and operating systems should be specified in a single

command line.

16 Installing Plesk on Numerous Servers

4. To have the contents of the mirror site automatically updated,
you should create a cron job and specify the auto-installer
execution command there. The cron task should be added to
the crontab of the respective FTP user (see the respective
section of Plesk Administrator‟s Guide).

5. Now, to use this mirror during installation or upgrade, you
should configure the Auto Updater through Plesk control panel
or command line: select the 'Network Server' option, and specify
the URL of the mirror. In our example, this would be

http://updates.example.com/.

Installing Plesk on Numerous Servers 17

Setting Up Mirrors with Rsync Utility

Before setting up mirrors with rsync, you should familiarize yourself with the directory
structure of the official Plesk Updates server.

The Plesk Updates server, available at rsync://rsync.autoinstall.plesk.com/autoinstall,
contains the following files and directories:

 Several subdirectories named in accordance with Plesk versions, for example,

PSA_7.5.4, PSA_8.2.0. Each of these subdirectories contains the following files:
 dist-<type>-<os-name>-<version>-<architecture> - system updates for the

server‟s operating system; <type> is the package type: rpm, deb, pkg.

 update-<type>-<os-name>-<version>-<architecture> - additional third-party

packages.

 plesk-<plesk-version>-<os-name>-<architecture>.inf3 - auto-installer

configuration files.

 backup-agent-<plesk-version>.tar - a standalone backup agent for backing up

and transferring data from Plesk servers.

 plesk_getkeinfo.sh - a script used by auto-installer for detection of Plesk license

key version.

 Auto-installer configuration files: products.inf3 describing Plesk and Sitebuilder

products; plesk.inf3 and versions.inf3 describing different versions of Plesk.

 PSA8 - Plesk 8 metadata used for installing Plesk inside Virtuozzo virtual

environments using EZ templates.

 debian and ubuntu directories used as apt-get repositories for installing Parallels

products using EZ templates and Plesk Auto-installer.

 To set up a mirror for a single version of Plesk, for example, 8.2:

1 Log in to the server where you are going to set up a mirror.
2 Create a directory where the files should reside. For illustration

purposes, we will call this directory destination_directory.

3 In this directory, create two subdirectories: debian and ubuntu.
4 To set up a mirror, issue the following commands:

rsync -au—delete
rsync://rsync.autoinstall.plesk.com/autoinstall/PSA_8.2.0
/destination_directory

rsync -au—delete
rsync://rsync.autoinstall.plesk.com/autoinstall/debian/PSA_8.

2.0 /destination_directory/debian

rsync -au—delete
rsync://rsync.autoinstall.plesk.com/autoinstall/unbuntu/PSA_8
.2.0 /destination_directory/ubuntu

18 Installing Plesk on Numerous Servers

rsync -au—delete
rsync://rsync.autoinstall.plesk.com/autoinstall/debian/PSA_8.

2.0 /destination_directory/debian/PSA8

rsync -au—delete
rsync://rsync.autoinstall.plesk.com/autoinstall/ubuntu/PSA_8.

2.0 /destination_directory/ubuntu/PSA8

rsync -au—delete
rsync://rsync.autoinstall.plesk.com/autoinstall/PSA8
/destination_directory

rsync -auv—delete
rsync://rsync.autoinstall.plesk.com/‟autoinstall/products.inf
3 autoinstall/versions.inf3 autoinstall/plesk.inf3‟

/destination_directory

5 Edit the files versions.inf3 and products.inf3: remove all

entries related to the products and versions that your mirror does not
provide.

 To set up a mirror for all versions of Plesk and Sitebuilder available from

rsync.autoinstall.plesk.com (requires transfer of 150 gigabytes of data and the same
amount of free disk space on the server):

1 Log in to the server where you are going to set up a mirror.
2 Issue the command rsync -au—delete

rsync://rsync.autoinstall.plesk.com/autoinstall

/destination_directory.

Note: For more information about the Rsync utility, visit http://samba.anu.edu.au/rsync/

Simplifying Installation and Upgrade of
Plesk on Numerous Servers with Auto­installer Configuration File

To simplify installation and upgrade of Plesk on numerous servers:

1 Create a configuration file that will tell Auto-installer where to get

updates, which temporary directory on the server to use during
deployment, and what components installed on the system Auto­installer must not overwrite, upgrade, or otherwise modify. The file
must be in the text format. Refer to the table below for the list of
options and syntax you can use.

Installing Plesk on Numerous Servers 19

2 Save the configuration file under name .autoinstallerrc and

Option

Description and possible arguments

SOURCE_TYPE=”local”,
“network”, “plesk”

Specify the location of Plesk packages: type “local” for local
file system, “plesk” for the official Plesk update server at

http://autoinstall.plesk.com (the URL is hardcoded in the auto-

installer binary), and “network” for any network server (ftp, http
and https protocols are supported).

Example: SOURCE_TYPE=”plesk”

SOURCE=”path”, “url”

When retrieving Plesk packages from a local file system,
specify the local path to the file that contains the information
on the Plesk build you want to install.

When retrieving Plesk packages from a network server,
specify the URL of the directory where the mirror of Plesk
update server resides.

USE_PLESK_UPDATES=”y
es”, “no”

To retrieve only Plesk distribution files from the Plesk Update
server, specify USE_PLESK_UPDATES=”no”. If you also wish
to retrieve the updates for your operating system, specify
USE_PLESK_UPDATES=”yes”.

ADDITIONAL_SOURCE=”<t
ype>, <priority>, <url>,
<username>, <password>”

To retrieve updates for server‟s operating system from vendor
sites, specify the following option with arguments:
ADDITIONAL_SOURCE=”<type>, <priority>, <url>,
<username>, <password>”

Replace <type> with repomd value, priority with a number
from 1 to 999 (999 is the highest priority), and <url> with a
URL of the vendor updates source. The values <username>
and <password> are required only if your vendor‟s site
requires authentication.

TARGET

By default, Auto-installer saves the retrieved files in the
directory /<current user name>/psa. For instance, if
Auto-installer was executed by user root, the /root/psa
directory will be created and used. If you want to use a custom
directory for storing the retrieved files, use the TARGET
option.
Example: TARGET= “/opt/storage/plesk”

PROXY_HOST=”network
address”

When using a proxy server or firewall, use this option to
specify proxy server domain name or IP address.

Example: PROXY_HOST=”proxy.example.com”

PROXY_PORT=”port
number”

Default port for connecting to proxy server is 3128. If your
proxy server uses different port number, you should specify it
using this option.

Example: PROXY_PORT=”5741”

copy it to the /root/ directory on each server where Plesk should be
installed or upgraded. During installation or upgrade initiated through
the control panel or command line, Auto-installer will read the
configuration file and use the options you specified as default.

Table. The options you can specify in the .autoinstallerrc file.

20 Installing Plesk on Numerous Servers

Proxy authentication options:
PROXY_USER=”user name”
PROXY_PASSWORD=
“password”

If your proxy server requires authentication, you should use
these options to authenticate Auto-installer at the proxy
server.

Example: PROXY_USER=”doe” PROXY_PASSWORD=
“f1sZ9AnQ4EnO52”

ALLOW_KERNEL_INSTALL
=”yes”, “no”

Use the option ALLOW_KERNEL_INSTALL=”yes” if you want
to allow kernel upgrade. By default, Auto-installer does not
make any kernel upgrades.

Note that Auto-installer installs new kernels to the system,
leaving the older kernel aside so that you can revert to it at
any time.

IGNORE_KEY_ERRORS=”y
es”, “no”

To be able to upgrade to a newer version of the control panel
that requires a license key that you may or may not have at
the moment, specify IGNORE_KEY_ERRORS=”yes”. For
example, if you had Plesk 7.5.4 installed with a valid license
key, and decided to upgrade to Plesk 8.0, having the
IGNORE_KEY_ERRORS=”yes” directive in the configuration
file will make Auto-installer retrieve a license key for Plesk 8
that you previously ordered, otherwise it will retrieve and
install a trial license key. Specifying
IGNORE_KEY_ERRORS=”no”, you will not be able to
upgrade Plesk until you obtain the appropriate license key.

NOTIFY_EMAIL=”e-mail
address”

Use this option to have Auto-installer send you status reports
by e-mail. A successful completion report includes a list of
installed/upgraded packages with a detailed log.

HOLD_PACKAGES=”packa
ge name1”, “package
name2”

Specify the packages that Auto-installer should not upgrade,
modify or delete from the system.

Example: HOLD_PACKAGES=”apache2.*”, “mysql*.*”

NO_CLEAR_SCREEN=”yes
”, “no”

Specify whether Auto-installer should clear the screen after
each performed operation.

TRUNCATE_LOG=”yes”,
“no”

By default, Auto-installer keeps a single log file (“no” option is
used) and adds the information on each installation or
upgrade process to the end of this file. Specifying
TRUNCATE_LOG= “yes” will clear the log file before each
installation or upgrade.

SEPARATE_LOGS=”yes”,
“no”

If you wish to have separate log files for each installation or
upgrade, specify SEPARATE_LOGS=”yes”, otherwise, Auto­installer will use one log file for all installations and upgrades.

DEBUG=”yes”, “no”

Specifying DEBUG=”yes” will make Auto-installer write
detailed information on installation or upgrade progress to the
log file. Specifying DEBUG=”no”, will make Auto-installer write
only general information to the log file.

OVERRIDE_OS_NAME=”Li
nux”, “FreeBSD”, or
“MacOS”

If Auto-installer detects your operating system incorrectly, you
can work around this by explicitly specifying your operating
system.

Installing Plesk on Numerous Servers 21

OVERRIDE_OS_VENDOR=

”Fedora”, “RedHat”,
“Debian”, “SuSE”, “CentOS”,
“Apple”

If Auto-installer detects your operating system distribution
incorrectly, you can explicitly specify it.
OVERRIDE_OS_VERSION=
”version number”

If Auto-installer detects your operating system version
incorrectly, you can explicitly specify it.

OVERRIDE_OS_ARCH=”i38
6”, “x86_64”

If Auto-installer detects your operating system‟s architecture
incorrectly, you can explicitly specify it.

OVERRIDE_ENVIRONMEN
T=””, “vz”

If Auto-installer does not detect that you are operating within a
Virtuozzo virtual private server, you can explicitly specify it:
OVERRIDE_ENVIRONMENT=”vz”.

22 Installing Plesk on Numerous Servers

Installing Plesk Remotely on a Number of
Servers

 To install Plesk on a number of servers:

1 If you have not obtained the Auto-installer utility yet, download a

distribution that suits your operating system from the URL

http://www.parallels.com/en/download/plesk8/ and save it on your

server‟s hard drive.

The utility is a binary file named as follows: psa_installer_v<auto-
installer version>_os_<operating system version>_<platform>. If
you have Plesk installed on the server, you can use the autoinstaller binary file,
which is stored in the directory /usr/local/psa/admin/bin/ on RPM-based
Linux, FreeBSD and Mac OS systems, and
/opt/psa/admin/bin/ on deb-based Linux systems.

2 Copy the auto-installer binary file to the server where you need to

install Plesk.

3 Set the executable bit in file permissions by running the command:

chmod 755 autoinstaller

4 Compile a list of auto-installer options and arguments. Further (at the

step 5) you will need to add these options to the installation script we
have prepared for you.

1. To specify what Plesk version to install, you will need to know
its release ID. To get a list of versions and their identifiers, run
the auto-installer with the following options:

autoinstaller—show-all-releases
A list of product versions will be displayed:

PLESK_7_0 (Plesk 7.0.4)

PLESK_7_1_7 (Plesk 7.1.7)

PLESK_8 (Plesk 8)

Release identifiers are shown on the left, and release names are given in
brackets. You will need to use these identifiers when working with the auto­installer through command line. For instance, if you want to install Plesk 8, you
will need to specify the release ID „PLESK_8‟.

2. Decide on the components that you want to install. To retrieve
a list of components for the selected product version, use
the—show-components option. For Plesk 8 you should type:

Installing Plesk on Numerous Servers 23

autoinstaller—select-release-id PLESK_8 --show-components
A list of components will open displaying component identifiers in the left part,

and brief descriptions in brackets:

base (Base packages of Plesk)

autoinstaller (Plesk Updater)

asp (Apache ASP support)

mailman (Mailman mailing list manager support)

postgresql (PosgreSQL server support)

java (Tomcat Java Servlets support)

spamassassin (SpamAssassin support)

rblsmtpd (SPAM blocker for QMail daemon)

mod_python (Apache mod_python module)

vault (Application vault packages)

horde-comps (Additional Horde (webmail) components for
Plesk)

docs (Additional Plesk manuals)

bu (Backup utilities)

drweb (Dr. Web antivirus)

ppwse (Plesk Professional Web Site Editor)

api (Plesk API [former Plesk Agent])

sshterm (SSHTerm - SSH Terminal java applet)

pmm (Plesk migration manager)

psa-firewall (Plesk Firewall module)

cs-gs (Plesk Counter-Strike game server module)

psa-vpn (Plesk VPN module)

battlefield (Plesk Battlefield 1942 game server module)

psa-fileserver (Plesk Fileserver module and SMB file server
package)

watchdog (Watchdog (System monitoring module))

sitebuilder (SiteBuilder and SiteBuilder Remote
Administration module for Plesk)

psa-cf (ColdFusion support for Plesk)

Therefore, for Plesk 8 installation comprising the components „base‟,
„postgresql‟ and „asp‟, you will need to use the following string of options and

arguments: „—select-release-id PLESK_8 --install-component base—install-
component postgresql—install-component asp‟.

24 Installing Plesk on Numerous Servers

3. If you have set up a local mirror of Plesk updates server (as
described in the Setting up mirrors (on page 13) section of this
guide), you will need to include the following option into the
installation script: --source-type network—source <mirror
URL>.

4. By default all downloaded packages are stored in the /root/psa
directory. If you wish to use another directory, you should use
the option '—target /<directory name>'.

5. If you wish to receive installation progress reports by e-mail,
you should include the '—notify-email <your e-mail address>'
option.

6. To avoid being prompted for password each time you connect
via SSH to the servers where Plesk should be installed, place
your public key to the list of authorized keys of user root on
each server (see SSH documentation for details on the
procedure).

5 Prepare the installation script based on the example below. Replace

the options in the example script with the ones you prepared, and

specify server names in the „SERVERS_LIST=‟ string separated by

white spaces:

#!/bin/sh

SERVERS_LIST=”node1.example.com node2.example.com”

for current_server in $SERVERS_LIST; do
scp psa_installer root@current_server:
ssh -f root@current_server “autoinstaller—source-type
network—source http://updates.example.com/ --target
/tmp/plesk—select-release-id PLESK_8 --install-component
base—install-component postgresql—install-component asp—
notify-email [e-mail]”

done

6 Run the script. It will copy auto-installer to the specified servers and

install Plesk. Keep the passwords for access to the servers at hand,
as you may be required to specify them.

Once the installation/upgrade is completed, a trial license key that unlocks a limited

In this chapter:

Upgrading the Trial License Key Through the Control Panel ............................. 26

Installing License Keys Through the Control Panel............................................ 27

Installing License Keys Through the Command Line ......................................... 27

C H A P T E R 5

Installing License Keys

number of features is installed to your Plesk control panel. You should obtain a new
license key that provides basic functionality to be able to fully use Plesk to your
advantage.

The license key is automatically updated every six months regardless of your Software
Update Service subscription term. To allow proper license handling, be sure to leave
the port 5224 open for outgoing connections.

26 Installing License Keys

Upgrading the Trial License Key Through
the Control Panel

 To upgrade the trial license key:

1 Login to Plesk as administrator.
2 Click the Server shortcut in the navigation pane.

3 Click the License Management icon in the System group.

4 Click Order New Key.
5 The Parallels online store will open in a separate browser window. In

this window, select the items and features you want to include into
your Plesk license and click Submit. In the next steps, indicate the
currency, number of license keys, provide contact details, billing
address, and payment method, and submit the form. The new key will
be sent to the specified e-mail address.

6 Save the new key to the hard drive on your local machine.
7 Open again the License Management screen in Plesk (Server > License

Management) and click Upload Key.

8 Enter the path to the key file that you saved on your local machine or

click Browse to locate it.

9 Select the Replace the currently installed license key with the selected one check

box to confirm that you really want to replace the current license key
with the new one.

If this check box is not selected, the new license key will not be installed and
installation will be aborted.

10 If your new license key allows hosting fewer sites than you already

host on the server, Plesk will stop working. However, to prevent the
control panel from comparing the amount of the resources used and
those covered by the new key, select the Do not check the limits on resource
usage defined by the key check box.

This might be helpful if you want to temporarily install a license key that covers less
resources and then upgrade it through the control panel interface.

11 Click OK to install the new key to the control panel.

If you experience any problems, please contact [e-mail].

Installing License Keys 27

Installing License Keys Through the
Control Panel

 To install a license key through the Control Panel:

1 Click the Server shortcut in the navigation pane.

2 Click the License Management icon in the System group.
3 If you wish to upload a key for an additional Plesk feature, select the

Additional License Keys tab.

4 Click the Upload Key icon.
5 Specify the path to the license key file location: enter the path into the

input box provided, or click Browse to browse for the desired location.

6 Click OK to submit. Plesk will upload the given license key file to your

control panel.

Installing License Keys Through the
Command Line

Once you have the new license key stored on your local machine, you can install it
from the command line.

 To install a new license key from the command line:
1 Copy the license key from your local machine to the Plesk host:

scp license_key_file_name.sh root@your_plesk_host_name:~/

2 Connect to your Plesk host over SSH:

ssh root@your_plesk_host_name

3 To install the license key, run the following command:

sh license_key_file_name.sh

28 Configuring Access to Vendor Updates for Your Server’s Operating System

To keep your server‟s operating system up-to-date, you may want to configure Auto-

Configuring Access to Vendor Updates
for Your Server’s Operating System

installer so as to notify you of new update packages available from your vendor. Note
that Auto-installer will not install any packages without your confirmation, it will only
notify you.

 To have Auto-installer check vendor sites for updates:

1 Log in to your Plesk control panel as administrator (user admin).
2 Go to Server > Updater > Preferences.
3 Select the Check for updates upon administrator’s login to control panel check

box and click OK.

4 Create a text file with name .autoinstallerrc in the /root/

directory on the server, or, if you previously created this file, modify it.
Add the following line to the file:

ADDITIONAL_SOURCE=”<type>, <priority>, <url>, <username>, <password>”
where you should replace <type> with repomd value, priority with a number from 1

to 999 (999 is the highest priority), and <url> with a URL of the vendor updates
source. The values <username> and <password> are required only if your vendor‟s
site requires authentication.

5 Save the file and exit from the text editor.

Important: following this procedure you will completely remove Plesk and erase all

C H A P T E R 6

Removing Plesk from Linux Systems

user data.

It is recommended that you have a Plesk distribution package at hand, because you
will need to know the titles of RPM packages that your installation of Plesk comprises.

 To deinstall Plesk from a Linux system:

1 Log in to your Plesk server as user root.
2 To deinstall packages, run the command rpm -e <titles of

packages separated by white spaces>. Example:

#rpm -e psa psa-proftpd psa-proftpd-xinetd

The following is a list of packages included in Plesk 8 distribution:

 AdvancedPoll
 AutoIndex
 b2evolution
 bbclone
 Coppermine
 courier-imap
 cs-gs
 CSLH
 DocFAQ
 drweb
 drweb-qmail
 gallery
 gtchat
 libidn
 Mambo
 mod_webapp
 openbiblio
 osCommerce
 Owl
 perl-Apache-ASP

30 Removing Plesk from Linux Systems

 perl-Compress-Zlib
 perl-Font-AFM
 perl-FreezeThaw
 perl-HTML-Format
 perl-HTML-Tree
 perl-IO-Ftp
 perl-IO-Zlib
 perl-MIME-Lite
 perl-MLDBM
 perl-MLDBM-Sync
 perl-Text-Iconv
 phpAds
 phpBB
 phpBook
 phpBugTracker
 phpDig
 phpMoney
 phpMyFamily
 phpsurveyor
 phpWiki
 pLog
 PostNuke
 PPWSE
 psa
 psa-agent
 psa-api-cli
 psa-api-common
 psa-api-rpc
 psa-api-rpc-doc
 psa-api-rpc-protocol
 psa-bu
 psa-courier-imap-add
 psa-fileserver
 psa-firewall
 psa-hotfix
 psa-key
 psa-locale-base-en-US

Removing Plesk from Linux Systems 31

 psa-logrotate
 psa-manual-custom-skin-guide
 psa-migration-manager
 psa-pre-keyupdate
 psa-proftpd
 psa-proftpd-xinetd
 psa-qmail
 psa-qmail-rblsmtpd
 psa-spamassassin
 psa-sve
 psa-tomcat-configurator
 psa-vpn
 SSHTerm
 Tellme
 TUTOS
 typo
 UebiMiau
 WebCalendar
 WebShopmanager
 WordPress
 xrms

3 Delete all databases and database tables used by Plesk:

#mysql -uadmin -p„cat /etc/psa/.psa.shadow„

drop database psa;

drop database horde;

4 Find out in which directory virtual hosts reside. To do this, open

/etc/psa/psa.conf file and look up the value assigned to the

„HTTPD_VHOSTS_D‟ variable. Delete this directory by running the
following command:

rm -rf /directory_name/*

5 Erase all data related to mailboxes:

#rm -rf /var/qmail/mailnames/*

6 Delete other directories used by Plesk:

32 Removing Plesk from Linux Systems

#rm -rf /usr/local/psa/

#rm -rf /etc/psa

#rm -rf /var/mailman

#rm -rf /var/drweb

#rm -rf /var/lib/webalizer

#rm -rf /var/tomcat4 (if you had Tomcat 5 installed, run rm ­rf /var/tomcat5)

7 Delete all references to DNS zones from the file

/var/named/conf/named.conf, remove zone files from
/var/named/run-root/var/, and modify the files in the directory
/var/qmail/control appropriately.

To remove Plesk from your server, follow these steps:

C H A P T E R 7

Removing Plesk from FreeBSD Systems

1 Log in to Plesk server as root.
2 Run the command /usr/local/etc/rc.d/psa.sh stop
3 Run the command pkg_delete „pkg_info | grep psa | awk

„{print $1}‟ | xargs -n100„

4 Run the command rm -rf /usr/local/psa
5 Delete all references to DNS zones from the file

/var/named/etc/namedb/named.conf, remove zone files from
/var/named/etc/namedb/master/, and modify the file
/etc/rc.conf appropriately.

6 Run the command rm -rf /etc/psa

Option

Description and possible arguments

--source-type <local |
network | plesk>

Specify the location of Plesk packages: type „local‟ for local file

system, „plesk‟ for the official Plesk update server (the URL is

hardcoded in the auto-installer binary), and „network‟ for any
network server (ftp, http and https protocols are supported).

--source <path | url>

When retrieving Plesk packages from a local file system, specify
the „—source‟ option to point to the file that contains the
information on the Plesk build you want to install.

When retrieving Plesk packages from a network server, specify
the „—source <URL>‟ option to point to the directory where the
mirror of Plesk update server resides.

--add-source <type,
priority, url, username,
environment variable with
password>

To retrieve updates for server‟s operating system from vendor
sites, specify this option with the arguments: --add­source=”<type>, <priority>, <url>, <username>, <environment
variable with password>”

Replace <type> with repomd value, priority with a number from
1 to 999 (999 is the highest priority), and <url> with a URL of the
vendor updates source. The values <username> and
<environment variable with password> are required only if your
vendor‟s site requires authentication. For security reasons, you
cannot specify the password in plain text; you can only assign
the password to an environment variable and then specify this
variable name as password.

Example:
export PASSWORD=”my password”

--add-source repomd, 100,

http://download.fedora.redhat.com/fedora/linux/core/updates/2/i3
86, username, PASSWORD

--target

By default, the auto-installer saves the retrieved files in the
directory /<current user name>/psa. For instance, if auto­installer was executed by user root, the /root/psa directory
will be created and used. If you want to use a custom directory
for storing the retrieved files, use the „—target‟ option.
Example: --target /opt/storage/psa

--proxy-host <network
address>

When using a proxy server or firewall, use this option to specify
proxy server domain name or IP address.

Example: --proxy-host proxy.mydomain.org

C H A P T E R 8

Appendix: Plesk Auto-installer Utility
Command Line Options

Appendix: Plesk Auto-installer Utility Command Line Options 35

--proxy-port <port
number>

Default port for connecting to proxy server is 3128. If your proxy
server uses different port number, you should specify it using
this option.

Example: --proxy-port 5741

Proxy authentication
options:

--proxy-user <user name>

--proxy-password
<password>

If your proxy server requires authentication, you should use
these options to authenticate auto-installer at the proxy server.

Example: --proxy-user smith—proxy-password
f1sZ9AnQ4EnO52

--show-releases

Specify this option to retrieve a list of available releases for the
operating system where the auto-installer is executed. You will
be given a list of release identifiers and release descriptions.
The release identifiers are what you will need to deal with.

--show-all-releases

This option shows all releases available from the Plesk updates
server.

--select-release-id
<release id>

Use this option to specify a release version that you want to
install or view properties of.

--select-release-latest

Use this option to select the latest release available for your
operating system.

--show-components

Specify this to obtain the information on the components

available for the selected release. Components‟ descriptions

and names will be displayed.
The component names are what you need to specify when
selecting additional components to install.

--install-component
<component name>

Use this option to specify the components that you wish to
install. If you want to install two or more components at once,
repeat this option for each component.

--install-everything

Use this option to install all components of the selected release.

--allow-kernel-install

Use this option if you want to allow kernel upgrade. By default,
the auto-installer does not make any kernel upgrades.

Note that auto-installer installs new kernels to the system,
leaving the older kernel aside so that you can revert to it at any
time.

--show-os-list

Use this option to find out what operating systems are supported
by the Plesk version you selected.

--mirror-os <OS name
from OS list>

This option activates the mirroring feature in auto-installer. If you
want to mirror releases for different operating systems, you
should specify this option per each operating system.

--notify-email <e-mail
address>

Use this option to have the auto-installer send you status reports
by email. A successful completion report includes a list of
installed/upgraded packages with a detailed log.

--enable-xml-output

This option is designed for communicating with the Plesk control
panel, and it may be used for interaction with other applications.

When you specify this option, all output of auto-installer is XML­wrapped. Note that this option disallows auto-installer to report
errors by exit code. Exit code is always zero and all errors are
reported inside XML output.

36 Appendix: Plesk Auto-installer Utility Command Line Options

--query-status

Because RPM database does not allow multiple accesses, auto­installer makes a lock on its functionality. Run this option to find
out if auto-installer is active. This will check for a lock, and will
return either an exit code (0 - auto-installer is idle, 1 - auto­installer is running and busy), or XML-formatted output.

--check-updates

Specify this option to check the updates server for updates
applicable to your Plesk version.

A list of releases that you can update or upgrade to will be
shown.