Parallels Plesk Automation

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Contents

Introduction

4

1. Installing PPA on the Management Node

7

2. Adding Service Nodes

8

2.1 Logging In to PPA ... 9

2.2 Configuring the DNS Server ... 9

2.3 Adding a Service Node with Apache Web Hosting ... 11

2.4 Adding a Service Node with Mail Server ... 12

3. Installing License Keys

14

4. Offering Services to Customers

16

4.2 Creating a Customer Account ... 20

4.3 Creating a Subscription for a Customer ... 23

4.4 Logging in to Panel as a Customer ... 26

Getting Help with PPA

27

Parallels Plesk Automation is a scalable, multi-server automation solution for shared hosting, giving growing hosters the power, performance, and scale previously only available to hosting giants. Parallels Plesk Automation is designed to centrally manage thousands of customers from a central point with a modern design and exceptional usability.

PPA Architecture

The idea behind the PPA architecture is a distributed environment with one central server. This server, called a management node, controls an arbitrary number of servers with various roles - web, mail, DNS, and others. In terms of PPA, these controlled servers are called service nodes. Service nodes provide a full set of hosting services that are delivered to customers through the management node. All operations including infrastructure and hosting management are also performed through this central node. The diagram below represents the PPA architecture.

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Introduction 5

The PPA User Interface

The PPA UI consists of the following components:  Administration Panel.

6 Introduction

 Hosting Panel.

Customers use this panel to manage their hosting services: add domains and mailboxes, manage website content and so on. The panel is based on Parallels Plesk Panel.

 (Optional) Billing solution.

Administrators and resellers can employ a billing solution to automate subscribing customers to hosting plans as well as to automate the monetization of this process. Currently, PPA supports the following solutions:

 Parallels Business Automation Standard.

 Web Host Manager Complete Solution (WHMCS).

 Any homegrown billing system integrated with Plesk Automation by means of API.

Note: Administration and Hosting panels are hosted on the management node. Service

nodes do not provide the UI.

Running PPA

Putting PPA into operation involves the following steps:  Installation of PPA packages to the management node.

 Deploying attendant infrastructure (registering and configuring service nodes).  Installing license keys for the management and service nodes.

 Configuring PPA to start serving customers (creating a hosting plan).

This guide is intended for hosting providers who plan to deploy Parallels Plesk

A management node is the central server in a distributed system, which allows performing all operations including infrastructure and hosting management. Thus, the first step in deploying PPA is to install its packages to the management node.

The PPA installation is fully automated and performed by the single script file ppa_installer. To install PPA management node components on your server:

1. Log in to your server as root.

2. Download the PPA installation script from the Parallels website.

#wget http://download1.parallels.net/ppa/ppa_installer 3. Allow script execution.

#chmod +x ppa_installer

4. Run the script with the following options.

#./ppa_installer --password setup --admin_email [email protected]

where

 setup - the PPA login password.

 [email protected] - your e-mail address.

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After the installation is finished, proceed to infrastructure deployment, or, in other words, registering your auxiliary servers (service nodes) that will provide various hosting services. In this guide, we will explain how to register one Apache web service node and one Postfix mail service node.

In this chapter:

2.1 Logging In to PPA ... 9

2.2 Configuring the DNS Server ... 9

2.3 Adding a Service Node with Apache Web Hosting ... 11

2.4 Adding a Service Node with Mail Server ... 12

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2. Adding Service Nodes 9

2.1 Logging In to PPA

To log in to PPA, type the following address in your browser: https://<PPA_IP_address>: 8443

where <PPA_IP_address> is the IP address of your management node, or its host name.

When PPA prompts to enter the administrator's credentials, use the admin username and the password you specified during the PPA installation.

2.2 Configuring the DNS Server

By default, DNS services are provided by the management node. It acts as a master DNS server for all zones registered in the system. Setup of DNS zones for newly added domains is automated: When a customer adds a new domain in the Hosting Panel, PPA automatically generates its zone file and registers it in the name server's database.

If you want to run the DNS server on a separate service node, complete the following steps:

1. Go to Infrastructure > Service Nodes, and click Add New Node. A list of server roles is

displayed.

2. Select the DNS server role from the list.

10 2. Adding Service Nodes

4. Click Next, and then click Finish.

Once you add the node, it appears in the list of registered PPA nameservers, which is available at Operations > DNS Manager > Nameservers.

5. Set this node as a master or slave nameserver in the DNS resource type properties

at Products > Resource Types > DNS > Activation Parameters tab > Edit.

In addition, you can set the SOA record template parameters: refresh and retry intervals, expiration period, and minimum TTL. The template settings are applied to the SOA record of all zones but can be overridden for a specific zone. You can learn more about this in Parallels Plesk Automation: Operations Guide, chapter

2. Adding Service Nodes 11

2.3 Adding a Service Node with Apache

Web Hosting

To provide web hosting services, we will add a service node running the Apache web server:

1. Go to Infrastructure > Service Nodes, and click Add New Node. A list of server roles is

displayed.

2. Select the Apache web server role from the list.

3. Specify the node's hostname or IP address, and a root password.

12 2. Adding Service Nodes

Normally, when the installation is complete, the node is marked as Ready to provide its services. If this does not happen, resolve the issue and mark it manually in node properties (Infrastructure > Service Nodes > node's hostname > Mark as ready to provide). After you add the web server node, PPA will automatically install all necessary packages on that server.

To make sure that all operations were performed successfully, check that the task log (System > Task Manager > Task Log) does not contain any failed tasks.

2.4 Adding a Service Node with Mail

Server

To provide mail services, we will add a service node running the Postfix mail server:

1. Go to Infrastructure > Service Nodes, and click Add New Node. A list of server roles is

displayed.

2. Select the Mail server role from the list.

2. Adding Service Nodes 13

4. Click Next, and then click Finish.

Normally, when the installation is complete, the node is marked as Ready to provide its services. If this does not happen, resolve the issue and mark it manually in node properties (Infrastructure > Service Nodes > node's hostname > Mark as ready to provide). After you add the mail server node, PPA will automatically install all necessary packages on that server.

PPA is shipped without a trial license key. To fully use PPA, you need to obtain the necessary license keys from Parallels or its partners and install them after you have finished installing PPA and adding service nodes.

Installation of license keys involves the following steps:

1. Install a main license key on the PPA management node. This key is free of charge

and it enables you to familiarize yourself with the product, but it does not enable service provisioning.

2. Install an additional license key for Parallels Plesk Panel for Linux and assign it to

the management node.

3. Obtain and install additional license keys for each service node, except for those

that act as dedicated database or DNS servers (service nodes with the DNS or MySQL roles). There are three essential types of additional license keys:  An unlimited license key for Parallels Plesk Panel for Linux-based dedicated

hardware servers. These keys should be used with all Linux-based web server or mail nodes.

 An unlimited license key for Parallels Plesk Panel for Microsoft Windows-based dedicated hardware servers. These keys should be used with IIS web server and SmarterMail mail service nodes.

 A license key for Parallels Premium Antivirus. These keys should be used when you want to use antivirus on mail service nodes. Without a license key, antivirus will not check mail for viruses and malware.

 To obtain license keys for PPA:

1. To obtain the main license key for PPA, follow the instructions provided

at

http://www.parallels.com/products/plesk-automation/get-it-now/

.

2. To obtain license keys for service nodes that will operate in a

production environment, visit Parallels online store at

http://www.parallels.com/store/plesk

or contact a Parallels reseller.

If you want to try the product, you can request trial license keys for service nodes by sending a message to [email protected].

 To install the main license key for the management node:

Go to License & Security > License Manager > Main License tab > Install / Update License.

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3. Installing License Keys 15

 To install an additional license key for the management node:

Go to the Administration Panel > License & Security > License Manager > Additional Licenses tab > Install / Update. Select the checkbox Assign to a service node and select the

management node.

 To install additional license keys for service nodes:

A typical workflow of serving hosting customers in PPA is as follows:

1. You create a shared hosting template in the Administration Panel. During the

template creation, you will be prompted to specify a number of template properties like the services and resources provided with the template, configuration of these services, and so on. One of the key steps when creating a template is to define which nodes will be used for allocation of the template subscriptions. This is done by means of attributes.

2. When a customer is ready to subscribe to the template, you create the account and

subscription for the customer.

3. Once the account is created, the customer can log in and use services provided

with the subscription.

In this chapter:

4.1 Creating a Service Plan ... 17

4.2 Creating a Customer Account ... 20

4.3 Creating a Subscription for a Customer ... 23

4.4 Logging in to Panel as a Customer ... 26

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4. Offering Services to Customers 17

4.1 Creating a Service Plan

When the entire PPA infrastructure including management and service nodes is deployed, you are ready to proceed to serving your customers, that is, creating your first service plan. Service plans in PPA are referred to as shared hosting templates.

 To create a shared hosting template:

1. Go to Products > Service Templates. A list of service plans is displayed.

18 4. Offering Services to Customers

3. Specify the following:

 Plan name.

 Provided services.

The shared hosting template may include the Apache- or IIS-based web hosting service and Postfix or SmarterMail-based mail service. Leave the Apache-based and Postfix-based options selected.

 IP address type.

The service template can provide IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. IP addresses may be granted as either dedicated, meaning that the target subscriber becomes the only owner of this address, or shared, meaning that this address is shared among many subscribers. Note that in order to provide dedicated IP addresses, you should configure IP pools as described in the Parallels Plesk Automation:

Deployment Guide, section Configuring an IP Pool.

 Resource allotments. Specify the number of domains that customers will be able to host, the total amount of disk space, and the amount of monthly data transfer.

4. Click Next.

5. Specify the following web hosting settings:

 Attributes.

4. Offering Services to Customers 19

 Permissions and resource allotments.

These include: resource limits (diskspace, traffic, number of domains, and others); customer permissions (ability to create domains, subdomains, change PHP settings, access through SSH, and others); service settings (for example, if the template provides a web hosting service, this may be the support for various scripting languages, the PHP handler type, and others); log rotation options.

6. Click Next.

7. Leave the Postfix checkbox selected and specify the mail hosting

20 4. Offering Services to Customers

8. Click Finish.

After you have set up a service plan, proceed to creating a customer account.

4.2 Creating a Customer Account

 To create a customer account:

4. Offering Services to Customers 21

3. Specify the account administrator's information.

An account administrator is the company representative who has the administrative privileges to a customer account: They can log in to the Hosting Panel and perform hosting management (create websites and mailboxes, manage website content, install web apps, and so on).

You should provide PPA with the account administrator credentials (username and password) and their contact information (typically, the account administrator and the administrative contact are the same persons).

The billing and technical contacts are optional.

4. Click Next.

5. Specify the username and password that the customer will use for

logging in to the Hosting Panel. Under Personal Info, select the checkbox

22 4. Offering Services to Customers

6. Click Finish.

4. Offering Services to Customers 23

4.3 Creating a Subscription for a

Customer

 To subscribe a customer to a service plan:

1. Go to Operations > Customers > customer's company name > Subscriptions tab,

and click Create New Subscription. A list of service plans is displayed.

2. Click the plan name that you created in step 4.1 (on page 17).

3. Review the list of resource allotments and adjust them if needed.

24 4. Offering Services to Customers

4. Click Next.

5. Specify the customer's domain name, and click Next.

4. Offering Services to Customers 25

Once you complete the wizard, PPA will start the provisioning task - the allocation of subscription resources on service nodes. In case of any issues, you can check task details in System > Task Manager > Task Log.

26 4. Offering Services to Customers

4.4 Logging in to Panel as a Customer

Now let us log in as a customer to the Hosting Panel. To do this, log out from PPA by using the link in the top right corner of the page. Log in to PPA using the customer's credentials.

Note: You can also log in to the customer's account as the administrator at

Administration Panel > Operations > Customers > customer's company name > Subscriptions tab

> subscription name > Managed By tab > Login as Customer.

After logging in, you are taken to the Home tab, which provides shortcuts to the most frequently performed operations.

Your customers use the Hosting Panel to add domains and mailboxes, manage

website content, and so on. You can also use this panel to access customer accounts, or to manage your own hosting accounts. This panel is based on the Control Panel of Parallels Plesk Panel. Therefore, for details on how to perform certain hosting

To learn more about configuring and operating PPA, refer to the product documentation and video tutorials at

http://www.parallels.com/products/plesk-automation/learn/.

To discuss issues and ask questions about PPA, refer to the Parallels forum at

http://forum.parallels.com/forumdisplay.php?f=641.

To report a bug, use the Report a bug link located in the upper right corner of the PPA Administration Panel.

For technical assistance with PPA, send e-mail inquiries to [email protected].

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