Parallels Plesk Expand 2.3 Quick Start

Brand: Parallels

Model: Plesk Expand 2.3

Category: Software

Type: Quick Start

Parallels

Plesk Expand

ISBN: N/A

Parallels

660 SW 39

Street

Suite 205

Renton, Washington 98057

USA

Phone: +1 (425) 282 6400

Fax: +1 (425) 282 6444

Parallels, Inc.

Distribution of this work or derivative of this work in any form is prohibited unless prior written

permission is obtained from the copyright holder.

Patented technology protected by U.S.Patents 7,328,225; 7,325,017; 7,293,033; 7,099,948;

7,076,633.

Patents pending in the U.S.

Product and service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.

Contents

Preface 5

About This Guide ........................................................................................................................... 5

Who Should Read This Guide ....................................................................................................... 5

Organization of This Guide ............................................................................................................ 6

Documentation Conventions ......................................................................................................... 6

Typographical Conventions ........................................................................................................... 6

Feedback ....................................................................................................................................... 7

Learning Plesk Expand Basics 8

About Plesk Expand ...................................................................................................................... 9

Introducing Plesk Expand Interface ............................................................................................. 12

Navigation Pane ................................................................................................................ 13

Plesk Expand Work Area .................................................................................................. 15

Action Bar .......................................................................................................................... 18

Getting Help ................................................................................................................................. 19

Finding Helpful Information ............................................................................................... 19

Requesting Help From Support Team .............................................................................. 19

Starting Plesk Expand 22

Preparing Plesk Expand for Work ............................................................................................... 23

Configuring Plesk Expand to Run Behind a Firewall ........................................................ 24

Logging In To Plesk Expand ....................................................................................................... 26

Accepting Parallels License Agreement ...................................................................................... 27

Changing Default Login Data ...................................................................................................... 27

Managing Plesk Expand License 28

Licensing Policy ........................................................................................................................... 28

Upgrading Limited License Key to Full-Functional License Key ................................................. 29

Registering Plesk Server in Plesk Expand 30

Registering New Plesk Server ..................................................................................................... 31

Resolving the IP Range Issue ..................................................................................................... 33

Creating Expand Client Account 35

Creating Client Template ............................................................................................................. 36

Registering New Expand Client ................................................................................................... 41

Adding IP Address to Expand Client’s IP Pool .................................................................. 42

Creating Domain for Expand Client 43

Creating Domain Template ......................................................................................................... 44

Creating a Domain for an Expand Client ..................................................................................... 51

Preface 4

Providing for the Information Safety in Plesk Expand 53

Registering a Remote Backup Storage in Plesk Expand ............................................................ 54

Scheduling Backups in Plesk Expand ......................................................................................... 55

Preface 5

In this section:

About This Guide ............................................................................................... 5

Who Should Read This Guide ........................................................................... 5

Organization of This Guide ................................................................................ 6

Documentation Conventions ............................................................................. 6

Typographical Conventions ............................................................................... 6

Feedback .......................................................................................................... 7

About This Guide

This guide is intended to provide a practical introduction to Plesk Expand by explaining how

to start your work with Plesk Expand immediately after its installation and how to perform

basic administrative tasks in it.

This document provides step-by-step instructions you should follow after logging in to Plesk

Expand. It does not cover all features of this control panel. For detailed information on the

entire Plesk Expand functionality, refer to the Plesk Expand Administrator’s Guide and the

Plesk Expand Client’s Guide at http://www.parallels.com/en/products/plesk/expand/docs/.

If you encounter any problems when installing the control panel, refer to the Plesk Expand

Installation Guide at http://www.parallels.com/en/products/plesk/expand/docs/.

For more information on how to integrate Plesk Expand with external systems, see the Plesk

Expand Integration Guide at http://www.parallels.com/en/products/plesk/expand/docs/.

Who Should Read This Guide

This guide is intended for anyone who has purchased Plesk Expand and is willing to start

working in it. Good knowledge of the operating system your Plesk servers operate on is

required. This can be Linux, FreeBSD or Windows.

Preface

6 Preface

Organization of This Guide

Chapter 2, Learning Plesk Expand Basics (see page 8), familiarizes you with Plesk Expand, its

basic concept of centralized management and its interface, and tells you how you can get

help in case you encounter any problems in the control panel.

Chapter 3, Starting Plesk Expand (see page 22), provides information on the preliminary steps

you should take before starting to work in Plesk Expand, on the possible problems you may

encounter at the start of Plesk Expand, and also teaches you how you can find your

password in case you have forgotten it.

Chapter 4, Managing Plesk Expand License (see page 28), tells you about the Plesk Expand

licensing policy and provides instructions on how you can install a new license in your Plesk

Expand.

Chapter 5, Registering Plesk Server in Plesk Expand (see page 30), teaches you how to register

your first server in Plesk Expand.

Chapter 6, Creating Expand Client Account (see page 35), provides step-by-step instructions on

how to create Expand client accounts on the basis of client templates.

Chapter 7, Creating Domain for Expand Client (see page 43), explains in detail how to create

domain templates and add new domains based on these templates.

Documentation Conventions

Before you start using this guide, it is important to understand the documentation

conventions used in it.

Typographical Conventions

Before you start using this guide, it is important to understand the documentation

conventions used in it.

The following kinds of formatting in the text identify special information.

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.

Preface 7

Italics

Used to emphasize the

importance of a point, to

introduce a term or to

designate a command line

placeholder, which is to be

replaced with a real name

or value.

The system supports the so

called wildcard character search.

Monospace

The names of commands,

files, and directories.

The license file is located in the

http://docs/common/licen

ses directory.

Preformatted

On-screen computer

output in your 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.

From this chapter you will learn the following information about Plesk Expand:

 Basic Plesk Expand concept of centralized management (see page 9).

 Introduction to the Plesk Expand interface (see page 12).

 How to find help in case you encounter any problems in the Plesk Expand control

panel (see page 19).

In this chapter:

About Plesk Expand .......................................................................................... 9

Introducing Plesk Expand Interface ................................................................... 12

Getting Help ...................................................................................................... 19

C H A P T E R 1

Learning Plesk Expand Basics

Learning Plesk Expand Basics 9

About Plesk Expand

The main thing about Plesk Expand is that it is intended to extend Plesk™ functionality

and is considered to be an add-on application for Plesk™. Plesk Expand cannot be

used separately, it requires at least two Plesk servers to operate.

Below, we provide short descriptions of Plesk™ and Plesk Expand.

Plesk™ is a control panel designed to automate all aspects of your hosting business

and deliver superior flexibility and stability to your customers. It enables users to create

and remotely manage hundreds of virtual hosts through an easy-to-use, intuitive

interface, without in-depth technical knowledge of web hosting technologies. The

extensive set of Plesk features allows you to completely automate product installation,

enrich self-administration capabilities for your clients, and minimize the number of

support calls.

Plesk Expand is the hosting automation software that unites multiple Plesk servers on

a single hosting platform. It allows hosting service providers to administer several Plesk

servers from one centralized point: the Plesk Expand control panel. Using Plesk

Expand, the administrator can centrally manage all Plesk client accounts, domains and

other objects registered on different Plesk servers, without having to log in to these

servers. Plesk Expand offers centralized administration of major client services - such

as e-mail, DNS and database management - across all Plesk Expand servers, thus

allowing to effectively balance the workload. Specialized user roles - such as the Plesk

Expand reseller and Plesk Expand client - allow the administrator to configure and sell

a number of advanced web hosting reseller packages. Plesk Expand can be easily

integrated with the provider’s infrastructure through special APIs (Application

Programming Interfaces).

The principles of the Plesk Expand operation are presented in the following schema:

10 Learning Plesk Expand Basics

Plesk Expand user roles and basic object types are described further in this section.

Plesk Expand objects

Plesk Expand objects are Plesk servers and accounts registered on Plesk servers,

which are managed by Plesk Expand users.

There are the following kinds of objects in Plesk Expand:

 Plesk Server. A hosting server running Plesk

control panel software (either Plesk

for Windows or Plesk for Linux/Unix) registered in Plesk Expand.

 Plesk Server Group. Several Plesk servers to which common rules or features are

assigned by Administrator, or which are assigned to one Reseller.

 Plesk client is a Plesk client account residing on one of Plesk servers registered in

Plesk Expand. You can grant Plesk clients access to Plesk control panel, where he

can manage his or her account and domains.

Learning Plesk Expand Basics 11

 Domain is a virtual host on the Internet owned by a Plesk client, Expand Reseller or

Expand client. For each domain, you can create a Domain Administrator account

allowing to manage the domain in the Plesk control panel.

Plesk Expand users

Plesk Expand Users have certain rights and privileges on certain Plesk objects they

own. Plesk Expand users have access to the Plesk Expand control panel, where they

can manage their objects and accounts, within the limits and capabilities provided by

their user role. There are the following user roles in Plesk Expand:

 Administrator. A Plesk Expand user who has full rights to configure Plesk Expand

and manage all its objects and user accounts.

 Expand Reseller is a Plesk Expand user who owns and manages Plesk servers,

groups of Plesk servers, Plesk client accounts and domains. Reseller has

Administrator rights on all objects registered on Plesk servers which he or she

owns.

 Expand Client is a Plesk Expand user who owns and manages domains and Plesk

clients in Plesk Expand. These domains and Plesk clients may be registered on

several Plesk servers, including servers running different platforms (Plesk for

Windows or Plesk for Linux/Unix).

Plesk Expand Centralized servers

Plesk Expand offers a set of distributed (or centralized) services. A distributed service

is a service received by several Plesk servers remotely, from a single centralized

dedicated server. Such a server (called a Centralized server) is allocated for providing

this service to several or all objects registered on other Plesk servers. This allows to

reduce the workload on each Plesk server, optimize the overall system performance,

and helps to quickly and easily detect and resolve typical service issues. There are the

following types of centralized servers in Plesk Expand:

 Mail server. A Plesk server registered in Plesk Expand which operates as a

centralized mail server for several Plesk servers.

 DNS server. A Plesk or a non-Plesk server which operates as a centralized DNS

server for several Plesk servers.

 Database Server. A Plesk or a non-Plesk server which operates as a centralized

database server for several Plesk servers.

Communication between Plesk Expand and Plesk servers

The communication between Plesk and Plesk Expand is provided by PSA API RPC,

the data and command communication software. PSA API RPC should be installed on

every Plesk/Linux server prior to registering it in Plesk Expand. On and Plesk/FreeBSD

and Plesk for Windows servers there is no need to install PSA API RPC; it is included

in the distribution package.

12 Learning Plesk Expand Basics

Introducing Plesk Expand Interface

This section describes the basics of the Plesk Expand web-based interface. Here you

can find instructions on how to navigate through your Plesk Expand control panel.

A regular Plesk Expand page looks as follows:

Figure 1: Plesk Expand interface

Any Plesk Expand page consists of the following elements:

 Navigation pane (see page 13) contains navigation items and the context help area.

 Work area (see page 15) provides access to available operations (depending on

the current context), input forms, lists, and other interface elements.

 Action bar (see page 18) displays the name and the status of the currently

executed action.

In this section:

Navigation Pane ................................................................................................ 13

Plesk Expand Work Area................................................................................... 15

Action Bar ......................................................................................................... 18

Learning Plesk Expand Basics 13

Navigation Pane

The navigation pane is located on the left side of the Plesk Expand page. In the right

part of the screen there is the work area where you can perform management

operations on a particular Plesk Expand component selected in the navigation pane.

Figure 2: Navigation pane

The navigation pane is divided into four sections: Plesk, Expand, System and Help &

Support. To expand or collapse the contents of each section, click the arrows in the

upper right corner of each section.

14 Learning Plesk Expand Basics

The Plesk section contains the following shortcuts:

 Plesk Servers. This shortcut takes you to the list of all Plesk servers registered in

Plesk Expand. There you can manage Plesk servers, register a new Plesk server,

reload selected servers or remove the servers you no longer need.

 Plesk Clients. This shortcut takes you to the list of all Plesk client accounts from all

Plesk servers registered in Plesk Expand. There you can manage Plesk clients,

create a new Plesk client, create a new client template. You can also suspend,

unsuspend, remove Plesk clients or refresh the particular client’s data from the

corresponding Plesk server.

 Plesk Domains. This shortcut takes you to the list of all domains from all Plesk

servers registered in Plesk Expand. There you can manage domains, create new

domains, create and edit domain templates, manage DNS zones configured for

domains. You can also suspend, unsuspend, remove domains from Plesk Expand

and refresh a particular domain data from the corresponding Plesk server.

 Plesk CP Sessions. This shortcut takes you to the list of all sessions with Plesk

servers registered in Plesk Expand.

The Expand section contains the following shortcuts:

 Expand Resellers. This shortcut takes you to the list of all resellers registered in Plesk

Expand. There you can manage reseller accounts, create or remove resellers.

 Expand Clients. This shortcut takes you to the list of all Expand client accounts

registered in Plesk Expand. There you can create Expand clients (from scratch or

by transforming a regular Plesk client into an Expand client), remove Expand

clients, or proceed to the administration page of each Expand client.

 Centralized Mail. This shortcut takes you to the list of all central mail servers

registered in Plesk Expand. There you can create or remove central mail servers,

proceed to the administration page of each central mail server by clicking its name

in the list. You can also view the overall centralized mail statistics and proceed to

the list of all mail accounts (Plesk clients and domains) registered on all the central

mail servers.

 Centralized DNS. This shortcut takes you to the list of all central DNS servers

registered in Plesk Expand. There you can create or remove central DNS servers,

proceed to the administration page of each central DNS server by clicking its name

in the list.

 Centralized DB. This shortcut takes you to the list of all central database servers

registered in Plesk Expand. There you can create or remove central database

servers, proceed to the administration page of each central database server by

clicking its name in the list.

 Central Backups. This shortcut takes you to the list of all remote storages for backing

up Plesk servers, Plesk clients and domains. There you can schedule and manage

backup tasks for Plesk servers, Plesk clients and domains.

 Migrations. This shortcut takes you to the list of all migrations of accounts between

Plesk servers, which were initiated in Plesk Expand. There you can start a new

migration, view and refresh statuses of migrations, remove migrations, proceed to

viewing information about each migration task by clicking its name in the list.

The System section contains the following shortcuts:

Learning Plesk Expand Basics 15

 Server. This shortcut takes you to the page, where the Plesk Expand administrator

can perform system management tasks, such as viewing system statistics and

action log, editing administrator profile and login information, managing Plesk

Expand license and so on.

 Log out. This shortcut takes you to the confirmation page, where you can close the

current session with Plesk Expand.

The Help & Support section contains the following shortcut:

 Help. This shortcut opens the Online Help topic providing information about the

page you are currently on.

Below the Help shortcut there is a context-sensitive help area that contains a short

description of the user interface item. When you point to an interface element, you can

see its brief description and available operations.

Plesk Expand Work Area

The Plesk Expand work area includes all interface elements located to the right of the

navigation pane. The work area displays the options available for the shortcut selected

in the navigation pane.

The sections below describe how to work with the following elements of the Plesk

Expand work area interface: a path bar (see page 15) and lists of objects (see page

16).

In this section:

Path Bar ............................................................................................................ 15

Working with Lists of Objects ............................................................................ 16

Path Bar

The path bar is a chain of links indicating your current location within the Plesk Expand

system. It is located at the top of the Plesk Expand work area. By clicking these links,

you can jump up one or more levels.

Figure 3: Path Bar

The Up Level button located in the upper right corner of the screen is used to jump up

one level.

On some screens, the Refresh Screen button appears in the upper right corner. It can be

used to renew the screen you are on.

Below the path bar, you can see the title of the Plesk Expand page you are currently

on.

16 Learning Plesk Expand Basics

Working with Lists of Objects

On some pages, you may see a considerable number of items, such as Plesk servers,

Plesk clients, Plesk domains, shown in Plesk Expand work area. Such multiple

elements are always displayed as shortcuts organized in tables. The list shows the

items themselves (on the Plesk servers’ management page, it shows Plesk servers, on

the domains’ management page - domains, and so on), and critical parameters of

these objects in separate columns of the table. Each item in the list is clickable; by

clicking the item you get to its administration page. Values in some columns are also

shortcuts to pages where these parameters can be adjusted.

The list of items can be sorted by any parameter. To sort items by a parameter, for

example, Client name (see the figure below), click the corresponding column title. The

list will be sorted by the client name in ascending alphabet order. You can change the

sorting order, ascending to descending or vice versa, by clicking column title once

more.

The example of such page is shown below.

Figure 4: Working with lists

You can perform the following typical operations on the items listed on such pages:

 Search. To search for a specific item in the list, enter the corresponding information

into one or several of the provided search fields, and click Search. All matching

items will be displayed in a reduced list.

Note: The search patterns slightly differ for different types of search fields. For the

ID field, only exact matches are shown. For example, if you enter “3”, only objects

with ID=3 are shown, objects with ID=33 are not shown. All the text fields use the

“any word” search pattern. For example, if you enter “John” in the Client Name field,

you will see all objects containing “John”, such as “Johnson”, “John Smith”, etc.

 Show All. If you are viewing a reduced list, click Show All to revert to the complete list

of objects.

 Customize View. Upon clicking this link, a pop-up window opens, where you can do

the following:

 Specify the number of items of the list to be displayed per page.

 Select the columns to be displayed:

 Select the check boxes of columns you want to be displayed;

Learning Plesk Expand Basics 17

 Clear the check boxes of columns you want to be hidden.

By default, all columns are selected.

 Migrate. To migrate one or several objects, select the objects in the list (select the

corresponding check boxes to the right of the table) and click Migrate. You will be

taken to the New Migration Wizard, where you should specify all other details for the

migration.

 Enable. To activate (unsuspend) one or several objects, select the objects in the list

and click Enable.

 Disable. To deactivate (suspend) one or several objects, select the objects in the list

and click Disable.

 Assign Selected. Plesk Expand objects or users can be assigned to Expand clients or

resellers, and also to centralized servers. To assign items, select them in the list

and click Assign Selected. Confirm assigning on the confirmation page that appears.

 Deassign Selected. To deassign items, select them in the list and click Deassign

Selected. Confirm deassigning on the confirmation page that appears.

 Reload. To refresh data about certain items in the list, select them and click Reload.

On the next page, select which data should be refreshed. This option might be

useful if you have applied some changes to these particular Plesk Expand objects

or users, and wish to refresh these data immediately, without having to wait for

Plesk Expand to do this automatically.

 Remove Selected. To remove items from the list, select them and click Remove or

Remove Selected. Confirm the deletion on the confirmation page that appears.

 Log in. To log in to a particular Plesk object’s administration page in the Plesk

control panel, click the Login icon next to the corresponding object. It takes you

straight to this object on the Plesk server where it resides. The Plesk control panel

opens in a separate browser window. No login is required.

To proceed to the administration page of a certain item in the list, click its name in the

list.

18 Learning Plesk Expand Basics

Action Bar

When a certain action is being executed in Plesk Expand, the state of its performance

is displayed in the action bar at the bottom of the page. If you don’t see the action bar,

click on the small triangle to the left of the Action Bar title in the bottom tray of the Plesk

Expand screen. The action bar shows actions recently performed in Plesk Expand and

their statuses:

Figure 5: Action Bar Screen

The status of an action can be indicated by one of the following icons:

The action was executed successfully;

The action failed;

The action is running;

The action is scheduled for execution.

Note: Actions are temporarily stored in the action bar. When the action bar is filled to

capacity, older actions are replaced by more recent ones. When you log out of the

control panel, the action bar is automatically cleared.

 To view the detailed information on a certain action, click this action name.

 To proceed to the action log, where you can view the list of all users’ and system’s

actions, click the Action Log shortcut.

 To refresh the data on the actions, click Refresh.

 To hide the action bar, click the small triangle to the left of the Action Bar title. To

show the action bar, click this triangle again.

Learning Plesk Expand Basics 19

Getting Help

If you encounter any problem in the system, you can find help in the following ways:

 Learn more information about Plesk Expand (see page 19);

 Request help from our support team (see page 19).

In this section:

Finding Helpful Information ................................................................................ 19

Requesting Help From Support Team ............................................................... 19

Finding Helpful Information

Plesk Expand help system has been created to assist you in finding answers to

questions you might have about the Plesk Expand control panel. You can find helpful

information in the following locations:

 Context-sensitive help. This is the quickest way to get instant help with your

immediate tasks. Click the Help shortcut in the navigation pane (see page 13) to

open a help topic related to the Plesk Expand page you are currently on.

 Printable Plesk Expand documentation. Refer to the extensive Plesk Expand

documentation package that answers most questions about using the product. The

files are available for download at

http://www.parallels.com/en/products/plesk/expand/docs/.

 Online forum. Join our online forum (http://forum.swsoft.com/), where all users can

post questions, exchange ideas, and troubleshoot common problems.

Requesting Help From Support Team

If you have any issues with Plesk Expand, you can request help from our technical

support team. This section tells you about available support options (see page 20) and

provides detailed instructions on how you can contact the technical support (see page

21).

In this section:

Support Options ................................................................................................ 20

Sending Request to Support Team ................................................................... 21

20 Learning Plesk Expand Basics

Support Options

Before contacting Technical Support, read carefully the information below on the

support options for our customers.

Parallels (former SWsoft) support services

Parallels Technical Support offers you the 24-hour Technical Support via e-mail and

phone (voice support). Our technical consultants can also help you fix problems on

your server from a remote location.

An average response time for a single incident reported is 6 hours during business

hours (Monday to Friday 9am - 6pm, Eastern Standard Time) or 12 hours during other

times.

Parallels Technical Consultants are ready to train your personnel and administrators on

how to use basic and advanced capabilities of our programs. We are happy to offer you

the following training programs: Plesk training, HSPcomplete training, Virtuozzo

training, and Reseller training. Each training course takes one day and is performed

onsite. All travel and accommodation expenses are covered by the customer. To

arrange onsite training, please contact your sales representative.

Important: Parallels Technical Support provides assistance with problems directly

related to the use of company products. All issues related to the use of your operating

system or other technologies can be purchased as a part of Plesk Expand Engineering

Services (see below).

Who is entitled to get Technical Support:

 If you purchased the product directly from the Sales Department of Parallels, a 30-

day after-purchase support program is included in your package. You will be able to

ask an unlimited number of questions via e-mail. However, if you are acting under

the 30-day support program, the Technical Support staff does not guarantee that

they will respond within the indicated time frame.

 If you purchased Plesk Expand from a reseller-company, you should contact the

company where you purchased the product.

Support programs

Parallels offers flexible support programs addressed to meet the unique needs of our

customers.

 Per incident support package covers assistance for specific problems you might

encounter while using Plesk Expand. Support is provided on an incident basis,

which means that there is a single support issue and some efforts have been

required to resolve it.

 1 year unlimited E-mail Support package entitles you to receive support from our

consultants as many times as you have requested it via e-mail.

 1 year Premium Support package provides comprehensive troubleshooting of your

issues via e-mail or phone. This package covers phone support for a maximum of

25 incidents from 9 am to 5 pm (EST) and unlimited e-mail support.

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Parallels Plesk Expand 2.3 Quick Start

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Model: Plesk Expand 2.3

Category: Software

Type: Quick Start

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