Table of Contents
This chapter describes what is required in order to be able to install Plesk on your server as well as what changes will be made in the process of installation to the server environment. Please familiarize yourself with this information before proceeding with installing Plesk.
You must install Plesk 6.0 on a clean server; specifically only the operating system should be installed. SWsoft will not be held liable for damages as a result of installing Plesk on a server with anything other than a fresh installation of the operating system for which the Plesk installation was intended.
Following are the various requirements that must be met in order to be able to install Plesk 6.0 on your server.
The Plesk 6.0 is available for the following platforms:
Theoretically, Plesk should work on all versions of Linux (e.g. Caldera OpenLinux, Debian Linux, et cetera), but SWsoft has not tested the software on all versions and cannot guarantee the product's performance. The current release runs on specified versions of RedHat Linux. Future releases of Plesk may run on other Linux versions.
Minimal hardware requirements for the Plesk 6.0 installation are the same as that of the operating system being installed for use with Plesk 6.0.
Table 2.1. Recommended hardware configuration.
| Number of domains | Amount of RAM | Processor |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | 256 MB | Pentium II |
| 500 | 512 MB | Pentium III |
| 1500 | 2000 MB | dual Pentium III |
| 2000 | 4000 MB | dual Pentium 4 |
By default Plesk is entirely installed into the /usr/local/psa directory. It is important to partition the hard drive accordingly.
Plesk requires that the network components including inetd/xinetd be properly installed in the system before installation of the Plesk software.
The following packages must be installed in your system before installing Plesk 6.0.
Table 2.3. The package requirements for the RedHat® Linux-based Plesk servers.
The process of installing Plesk 6.0 introduces certain changes in the system. New directories are created, various configuration files are modified, a number of system user accounts are added, etc. This section lists the modifications made to system when installing Plesk on RedHat Linux and on FreeBSD servers.
The following services will be controllable under Plesk:
Table 2.4. Controllable services on RedHat® Linux-based Plesk servers.
| RedHat® Linux 7.2 | RedHat® Linux 7.3 | RedHat® Linux 9 |
|---|---|---|
Additional services controllable under Apache are mod_throttle, mod_perl, mod_python, mod_ssl, PHP, apache::asp, Front Page 2000 and Front Page 2002.
Plesk creates the directory /usr/local/psa/ as its root software directory. The location of this directory is defined and changeable within the /etc/psa/psa.conf file.
Plesk also modifies configuration files in following directories:
Plesk creates accounts for Plesk administrator, anonymous FTP user and qmail pseudo-users. These pseudo-users do not have shells in which to operate, alleviating security concerns involving the users.
You can use an external DNS service with Plesk, but you should follow these manual configuration steps:
During operating system installation, a remote DNS server can be specified. Or after installation, the remote DNS can be specified in the /etc/resolv.conf file.
The line search localdomain must be removed from the /etc/resolv.conf file on the Plesk server.
Any DNS configurations on the local Plesk server must be reflected on the external DNS server.
Plesk creates some links to the MySQL libraries in the /usr/lib subdirectory and adds the @psacln string to /etc/ftpchroot. Also, it adds a string to the file /etc/shells:
If the POP3 service record is not in /etc/services, Plesk adds it. Plesk moves the sendmail binary file to sendmail.plesk. The Plesk startup script is placed in the appropriate location to start Plesk; this script will enable Plesk to start each time the server is booted up.
The Plesk Self-Extracting install includes the following components:
The following services will be controllable under Plesk:
Additional services controllable under Apache are mod_throttle 3.1.2, mod_perl 1.27, mod_python 2.7.8, mod_ssl 2.8.14, PHP 4.3.1, apache::asp 2.49, Front Page 2000 and Front Page 2002.
Plesk creates the directory /usr/local/psa/ as its root software directory. The location of this directory is defined and changeable within the /etc/psa/psa.conf file.
Plesk creates accounts for Plesk administrator, anonymous FTP user, Apache, MySQL, Mailman and qmail pseudo-users and Tomcat and PostgreSQL users. These pseudo-users do not have shells in which to operate, alleviating security concerns involving the users.
The following changes in services take place:
You can use an external DNS service with Plesk, but you should follow these manual configuration steps:
During operating system installation, a remote DNS server can be specified. Or after installation, the remote DNS can be specified in the /etc/resolv.conf file.
The line search localdomain must be removed from the /etc/resolv.conf file on the Plesk server.
Any DNS configurations on the local Plesk server must be reflected on the external DNS server.
Plesk creates some links to the MySQL libraries in the /usr/lib subdirectory and adds the @psacln string to /etc/ftpchroot. Also, it adds a string to the file /etc/shells:
If the POP3 service record is not in /etc/services, Plesk adds it. Plesk moves the sendmail binary file to sendmail.plesk. The Plesk startup script is placed in the appropriate location to start Plesk; this script will enable Plesk to start each time the server is booted up.