The Plesk Hosting Control Panel is a complete web hosting system that offers system administration and web hosting management features in an easy to use web interface. With Plesk you can manage everything from one website to an entire web hosting business. eApps offers Plesk for both Linux and Windows Virtual Servers.
Plesk comes in three editions (Web ADMIN, Web PRO, and Web HOST), each geared toward a specific audience. All editions come with a rich feature set, including application libraries, the basic Plesk Security Core package with ModSecurity rules by Atomicorp, Plesk Mobile Manager, Let's Encrypt, and Plesk Email Security. Advanced editions have additional features, including the Developer Pack and full WordPress Toolkit. See https://www.plesk.com/editions/.
The default installation for Plesk is the Web ADMIN Edition, but you can easily upgrade to the Web PRO or Web HOST editions from the Customer Portal Store menu under Licenses > Plesk License Options. Here you also have options to upgrade the Security Core application version to Security Core "Complete" and purchase additional license packs.
Accessing the Plesk Hosting Control Panel
Plesk Editions and Licensing Options
Securing your Websites and Virtual Server Using Plesk
Plesk Security Core Package
Backing up and Restoring Files and Applications
Plesk provides an easy to use web interface that allows you to manage all aspects of your websites and web applications, as well as manage customers and resellers if your edition supports that feature.
Plesk has extensive built-in Help available that is context-sensitive - meaning that when you click on Help > Read the Guide from a screen, you will be taken to the Plesk Help documentation for that screen or feature. There are also video tutorials available from Help > Watch Video Tutorials.
The built-in Plesk Help and the official Plesk documentation are the definitive guides on how to configure, use, and administer Plesk. While easy to use, Plesk also has a lot of available options and settings, and your best answers to any configuration or usage questions will come from the official documentation.
The official Plesk documentation is here - Plesk Documentation.
After you order your Plesk Virtual Server, it may take up to an hour before it is available to you. The Virtual Server has to be provisioned, and then Plesk has to be installed. Once Plesk has been installed, our Billing department will purchase a license for you, and then our Technical Support department will install that license. Once these steps have been completed, you will be notified via e-mail.
Once Plesk has been installed and licensed, you will be able to log in and begin setting up your websites and users. You can access Plesk in two ways: 1) from the Customer Portal, or 2) using a direct URL.
Accessing Plesk from the Customer Portal - from the Customer Portal, go to My Cloud > Virtual Servers, and select the Virtual Server where Plesk is installed. Click on the magnifying glass to the right of that Virtual Server. From here you can find the Plesk login button, or a URL link to the Plesk control panel. You will need your root password which for some types of Virtual Servers is in the Details page.
Accessing Plesk from a Direct URL - you can access Plesk from a direct URL instead of going through the Customer Portal. The URL for Plesk will be https://IP_ADDRESS:8443, where IP_ADDRESS is the primary IP of your Virtual Server.
Once you are at the login screen, log in as admin, using the password you set for the root user when you created the Virtual Server.
There are four "Editions" of Plesk available, each with a different license and designed for different audiences. The four Editions are:
Web ADMIN Edition - for website admins who manage sites for a single entity such as their employer, a small business, or themselves. No reseller or customer management functions are available in this edition, which comes with a 10 domain license. This is the edition installed by eApps when you order your Virtual Server.
Web PRO Edition - for website admins and developers who are hosting and managing websites that they have developed for their customers. There are no reseller functions available in this edition, but there are customer management tools to manage the subscriptions for the websites being hosted. This edition comes with a 30 domain license.
Web HOST Edition - this is the full reseller package that allows you to sell web hosting services and allow your customers access to install and manage their own websites and applications. This edition has tools to manage customers, manage subscriptions, and manage resellers. This edition comes with an unlimited domains license.
The definitive guide to the features and differences between the three Plesk Editions is found here - Plesk Editions. More information is also available from the eApps website - Plesk Control Panel
When you create your Virtual Server using an OS template with (Plesk) in the name, the Web ADMIN Edition license is installed as part of the Virtual Server configuration. This is the base configuration, and all other editions build off the Web ADMIN Edition.
You can easily upgrade your Plesk license to one of the other editions. Go to the eApps Store - Licenses and click on Plesk License Options. This will expand the screen, and you will be able to purchase your new license here.
Once you purchase the license, eApps Billing will procure the license from Plesk, and then Technical Support will install the license for you, and then notify you by e-mail that the new license is installed and available.
Installing AtomiCorp ModSecurity
Plesk includes the Security Core package which provides several tools to enhance the overall security of your websites and your Virtual Server. These tools include the AtomiCorp ModSecurity web application firewall that protects your websites and web applications using a ruleset (updated monthly) to block malicious traffic while still allowing legitimate traffic through. A basic version is included with the default Plesk edition.
To install AtomiCorp ModSecurity, go to the official documentation - Web Application Firewall (ModSecurity).
The default edition of Plesk installs the Core version of the AtomiCorp ModSecurity ruleset, which is updated once a month. You can update to the Complete version of the ModSecurity ruleset, which is updated daily, by going to the Licenses section of the eApps store and selecting Plesk License Options, and under the Configuration Options choose the Security Core "Complete" version of the AtomiCorp application.
Fail2ban is installed by default. More information Fail2Ban and how to change the settings can be found here - Protection Against Brute Force Attacks (Fail2Ban).
By default Plesk installs the Postfix mail server to send and receive e-mail and Courier IMAP to deliver e-mail to users. There are also anti-spam tools available in Plesk, as well as the SpamExperts service provided by eApps.
With Plesk you can create and manage e-mail addresses, configure the mail server, install anti-spam and anti-virus applications, provide a webmail client to your users, and setup and configure mailing lists. More information about using the Mail service in Plesk is available here - Mail configuration.
Along with the anti-spam and anti-virus tools that can be configured inside Plesk, eApps also offers SpamExperts, which is an anti-spam and anti-virus scanning and filtering service that runs at the network level and is available for free for the first five domains on a Virtual Server (additional domains are $1.00 per domain per month). SpamExperts comes with a web interface that allows users and domain administrators to manage their spam filters and quarantines. More information about SpamExperts is available here - SpamExperts Admin Guide and SpamExperts User Guide.
Plesk includes access to applications. These are applications that have been packaged in a format that allows them to be easily installed from Plesk.
In Plesk, there are two sources for applications:
For information on how to install applications see Plesk Web Applications.
If you have the Web PRO or Web HOST edition of Plesk, you are able to control which applications your customers can see and install from the Application Vault, and also control some of the settings for those applications.
NOTE - the applications from the eApps Application Repository are NOT available from within Plesk. These applications are only available for customers using the ISPmanager Control Panel.
Plesk has built-in functionality to backup your files and applications. Using the backup tools available in Plesk, you can:
You can also schedule backups, and restore files from backups. The backups can either be stored on your Virtual Server, or sent via FTP to an external server such as another Virtual Server at eApps or another location.
If you have reseller functions available in your edition, you can also allow your customers to create and manage their own backups.
More information about the backup functionality available in Plesk can be found here - Backing Up and Restoration.
eApps offers a commercial-grade Backup service as an option for backing up your files and data:
Enterprise Backup Service - the Enterprise Backup Service (using R1soft) allows file-level control for backup and restore, a web interface to manage your backups, and allows frequent backups. Using the free MySQL plugin, you can also ensure the integrity of your MySQL databases.
More information about the backup service available through eApps is available here - eApps Online Backup Services
SSL is a cryptographic protocol that provides secure communication on the Internet for web pages and other data transfers. If you are visiting a website that has https in the URL, that website is using SSL.
Information about setting up SSL in Plesk can be found here - SSL Protection.
eApps sells a variety of SSL certificates that you can use with Plesk, including the Extended Validation certificate that shows the green security bar in most browsers. More information about the SSL certificates available from eApps can be found here - eApps SSL Certificates.
Plesk keeps all IP addresses in an IP Pool, which is a set of IPs that can be assigned for customers and resellers, or used for your own websites. IP addresses can be Dedicated, meaning that only one user or one website uses that IP address, or Shared, meaning multiple users and websites can use that IP address.
More information about how to manage IP addresses in Plesk can be found here - IP Addresses Management.
By default, your Plesk Virtual Server comes with one public IP address. Using the Upgrade/Downgrade Options in the Customer Portal, you can add additional public and private IP addresses to your Virtual Server - 25 public IPs and 100 private (internal) IPs. If you need more IPs than are available from the Portal, please contact eApps Sales for assistance. More information about adding additional IPs to your Virtual Server is available here - eApps Upgrade/Downgrade Resources.
Once you purchase your additional IP addresses, you will need to add them to Plesk according to the Plesk documentation.
