How to install plesk?

Installation Requirement :

Before you install Plesk on your server, make sure the following requirements are met:

Microsoft Windows 2003 Server is installed on your system.

Your server uses static IP address.

QoS Packet Scheduler service is enabled.

Internet Information Server (IIS) is installed on your system with WWW and FTP support.

Mail Server role is NOT chosen for your server, otherwise there will be conflicts with MailEnable mail server included with Plesk.

Your server is NOT working as a Windows Domain Controller (neither primary nor backup). If this requirement is not fulfilled, a system crash may occur during the creation of domains with certain names.
The following things should be taken in consideration when before installing Plesk or some of its specific components:

If you want to use SSI, ASP and FrontPage services, select the respective components during the installation of IIS.

If you want to install SiteBuilder for Windows included with Plesk for Windows installation package, make sure that .NET Framework 2.0 is installed on your server.

If you want to install the Tomcat component included with Plesk installer, please make sure that the folder where Tomcat will be installed has no national or special characters in its name. The following characters are allowed: basic Latin characters, numerals, space and the following symbols: !#$%&()+,-.:;=@[]_{}.

If you want to use ColdFusion:

ColdFusion should be installed separately before installing Plesk.

If you intend to use ColdFusion support in Plesk, ColdFusion should be installed on the server with Default Web Site chosen on the Web Server Selection step of installation. Otherwise, if you choose All IIS Websites, ColdFusion support will always be activated for all domains that have physical hosting, regardless of the corresponding checkbox status.

If you want to use Microsoft SQL Server DBMS support in Plesk:

Microsoft SQL Server should be installed and configured to use standard or mixed security mode.

If Microsoft SQL Server is not installed, you can select Microsoft Database Engine (MSDE) to be installed with Plesk and configured with administrator name „sa‟ and random password, which you can change later on the Server > Databases page.

If you want to use external Microsoft SQL Server (in case it was installed before Plesk), you need to supply the required password on the Server > Databases page.

the large quantity of various software available on the market, SWsoft cannot guarantee compatibility with all third-party software products, except when explicitly stated otherwise. The following software is known to malfunction when working on the same server where Plesk is installed:

Microsoft Free Sharepoint

Personal Tiny Firewall

F-Prot Antivirus

Black Ice

Various antivirus/firewall software that may have malfunctions in blocking of potentially dangerous programs.


To install Plesk for Windows on your server using GUI:

1 Log in to your system as Administrator or another user with Administrator privileges.

2 Make sure that you have the Plesk installation package ready (web installer or network installer). You can download the required Plesk installation package from SWsoft web site (http://www.swsoft.com (http://www.swsoft.com/)).

3 Run Plesk installer. After checking your system, the installer will display a welcome message. If you ran the web installer, it will download a small file required for installation before continuing. Click Next > to proceed.

Web installer is started by running the plesksetup.exe file.

Network installer is started by running the plesk_x.x.x_buildYYMMDD.HH.exe file, where x.x.x is the version number, YY is the two last digits of the year, MM is the month, DD is the day and HH is the hour when the build was created.
If you have an earlier version of Plesk installed on your server, you will be prompted to update your version of Plesk to the current Plesk for Windows version. Refer to the Updating Earlier Versions of Plesk for Windows to Latest Version of Plesk for Windows (on page 47) chapter for more information.

4 Read the license agreement. Select the I accept the license agreement option, if you agree with all terms and conditions stated in the license agreement, and click Next > to proceed.

If your server already hosts domains on IIS 6.0 or mail accounts on a mail server supported by Plesk, you will be prompted to migrate the existing data to Plesk. Refer to the In-Place Migration to Plesk for Windows Administrator‟s Guide for more information.

5 Choose the installation paths for Plesk and its applications (Destination Folder), Plesk and its applications data (Application Data Folder) and virtual hosts data (Virtual Hosts Destination Folder). Click Next > to proceed.

6 Choose the required installation type (Typical, Complete or Custom) and click Next >.

Selecting Typical will install all available Plesk components included in Plesk distribution, except the following:

Site Applications: Mambo, bbClone, gtChat, phpBB, phpBook, postNuke, Uebimiau

ASP.NET Web Applications: Time Tracker Starter Kit, Reports Starter Kit, Community Starter Kit

Kaspersky Antivirus

Plesk documentation in PDF format

Python script engine

Tomcat and Java 2 SDK

Selecting Complete will install all available Plesk components included in Plesk distribution.

Selecting Custom will allow you to choose the Plesk components you wish to install, including Plesk database engine and Plesk web server engine.


1. If you chose Custom installation, the next screen will prompt you to choose the Plesk engine components (database and web server) you wish to use. Select the required components and click Next >.
You have the following choice of Plesk database engines:

MySQL. MySQL database can be used to ensure the compatibility with earlier versions of Plesk. This engine is used by default when upgrading Plesk from versions earlier than 7.6.

Microsoft Access. Select this database engine if you wish Plesk to use less server resources, but operate slower. This engine is used by default when Plesk is installed in Virtuozo environment.

Microsoft SQL Server. Select this database engine if you wish Plesk to use more server resources and operate faster. This engine is used by default for Plesk installation.

You can choose the following web server engines for Plesk:

Internet Information Server (IIS). IIS uses less server resources than Apache, but it is not as stable as Apache. This engine is used by default for Plesk installation. It is also used when upgrading Plesk from 7.5.

Apache Web Server. Apache is more stable than IIS, but uses more server resources.

2. Select the Plesk components you would like to install and click Next >. You can click Reset to reset the components selection to the default values.

3. If you chose not to install MSDE during the selection of Plesk components to be installed, you will be prompted to specify the parameters of local MSDE instance (host name and administrator's login with password). This is required if you selected Microsoft SQL Server as Plesk database engine or if you chose to install SiteBuilder for Windows. Otherwise, if you do not want to use MSDE, you can select the Don’t use Microsoft SQL Server check box and click Next >.

7 Specify the administrator password for default login („admin‟) used for accessing Plesk control panel after the installation.
The password cannot be shorter than 4 symbols and longer than 15 symbols. For security reasons, the password should be more than 8 symbols, and it should comprise a combination of letters, numbers, and punctuation; dictionary words and proper names should be avoided.

8 Leave the Enable Shared W3WP Desktop check box selected if you want IIS to allocate one shared desktop for all World Wide Web Worker Processes to optimize server memory usage. Click Next > to proceed with the installation.

Windows has a notion of desktops where applications write their output to. By default, IIS allocates a new desktop for each application pool it creates. However, application pools do not have any graphical output and this could be a waste of memory to allocate separate desktops for each of them. Leaving the the Enable the use of a Shared W3WP Desktop check box selected allows IIS to allocate one shared desktop for all World Wide Web Worker Processes (W3WP). Note that sometimes this setting could cause problems. Use the following Microsoft resources to get more information on this topic:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;184802
http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/f/?en/library/70bd36c1-fa5e-4da4-8daf-2a71916e5c031033.mspx

9 Plesk installer will notify you that clicking Next > will install Plesk with selected options. Click Next > to proceed.

10 The installer will start the components installation process. If you are using web installer, it will connect to the SWsoft website, download the components you selected, and install them. When the installation of Plesk components is finished, the installer will notify you that Plesk for Windows was successfully installed. Click Finish to finish the installation process.

Plesk will start working right after the installation is finished. If you chose to install Acronis True Image Module, Plesk will ask you to reboot the system. After the reboot, Plesk launches automatically.

To complete the initial configuration of Plesk, 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. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the initial configuration of Plesk.

Installing Plesk for Windows Using Command Line Interface

The installation of Plesk through command line interface is recommended only for advanced users. It is assumed that the reader of this section and its subsections possesses a sufficient degree of knowledge about creating files and working with command line interface


To install Plesk from command line using network installer:
Open the command prompt (Start > Run > cmd.exe) and run the following command, supplying the full path to the .msi file in place of and specifying other installation options in place of =:
msiexec /i = = ... =

To install Plesk from command line using web installer:

Open the command prompt (Start > Run > cmd.exe) and run the following command, supplying the full path to the .msi file in place of and specifying other installation options in place of =:

setupplesk.exe = = ... =

For example, the following command installs Plesk into the „c:\plesk bin‟ directory and Plesk data into the „d:\plesk data‟ directory:
msiexec /i plesk_8.2.0_build070613.19.msi INSTALLDIR=”c:\plesk bin” DATADIR=”d:\plesk data”

To do the same using web installer, run:
setupplesk.exe INSTALLDIR=”c:\plesk bin” DATADIR=”d:\plesk data”.



To see the list of variables that can be used when installing Plesk through command line, refer to the List of Variables Available for Plesk Installation Through Command Line (on page 35) section.

You can choose what Plesk components you want to install. To see the list of Plesk components that can be installed when installing Plesk through command line, refer to the List of Plesk Components Available for Plesk Installation Through Command Line (on page 39) section.


Installing Plesk Without MSDE
The following typical installation cases are addressed in this section:
Complete or Typical installation of Plesk in silent mode without MSDE is described in the Performing Complete or Typical Installation of Plesk Without MSDE from Command Line (on page 16) section. In case of Typical installation, all available Plesk components included in Plesk distribution are installed, except the following:

Site Applications: Mambo, bbClone, gtChat, phpBB, phpBook, postNuke, Uebimiau

ASP.NET Web Applications: Time Tracker Starter Kit, Reports Starter Kit, Community Starter Kit

Kaspersky Antivirus

Plesk documentation in PDF format

Python script engine

Tomcat and Java 2 SDK

Custom installation of Plesk in silent mode without MSDE is described in the Performing Custom Installation of Plesk Without MSDE from Command Line

Complete installation of Plesk in silent mode using external Microsoft SQL Server is described in the Installing Plesk with External Microsoft SQL Server

Complete installation of Plesk in silent mode without SiteBuilder and MSDE is described in the Installing Plesk Without SiteBuilder and MSDE

Complete installation of Plesk in silent mode without PHP, Perl or Python and MSDE is described in the Installing Plesk Without PHP, Perl or Python and MSDE


Performing Complete or Typical Installation of Plesk Without MSDE from Command Line

To perform a Complete or Typical Plesk for Windows installation without MSDE from command line:

1 Make sure that you have extracted the required .msi installer file, if you are using the network installer (see the Installing Plesk for Windows Using Command Line Interface (on page 12) section for more details).

2 Create a file called install-plesk.cmd in your system. Copy the following information into it:

@echo off
if “%6” == “”
(
echo “ USAGE: install-plesk.cmd ”
echo “ where
echo “ can be:
echo “ complete - Complete Plesk installation
echo “ typical - Typical Plesk installation
echo “ {comp_list} - Complete Plesk installation without
specified components (use a comma to separate the components)
echo “ is MSSQL Server location with optional
instance name (e.g. localhost\SQLEXPRESS),
echo “ is MSSQL Server administrator name
echo “ is MSSQL Server administrator
password
exit /b 1 )
set plesk_distrib_dir=%~dp1
set plesk_msi_name=%~nx1
set plesk_dir=%~2
set plesk_non_typical=CommunitySK,Mambo,bbClone,gtChat,phpBB,phpBook,postNuke,Uebimiau,TimeTrackerSK,ReportsSK,KasperskyAV,SiteBuilder,PDFDoc,Python,JDK,Tomcat
if “%3” == “complete” set plesk_exclude=MSDE
if “%3” == “typical” set plesk_exclude=MSDE,%plesk_non_typical%
if “%plesk_exclude%” == “” set plesk_exclude=MSDE,%~3
@echo on
“%plesk_distrib_dir%\%plesk_msi_name%” /qn MSSQL_HOST=%4 MSSQL_ADMIN_NAME=%5 MSSQL_ADMIN_PASSWD=%6 INSTALLDIR=”%plesk_dir%” ADDLOCAL=ALL REMOVE=%plesk_exclude% /l*v “%plesk_dir%\plesk-install.log”
If “%ERRORLEVEL%” NEQ “0” exit /b %ERRORLEVEL%

3 Open the command line interface (Start > Run > cmd.exe).

4 Run one of the following commands to install Plesk without MSDE:

To perform a Complete installation of Plesk, run:
install-plesk.cmd complete


To perform a Typical installation of Plesk, run:

install-plesk.cmd typical


Both commands use the following variables:

 - full path to plesk_x.x.x_buildYYMMDD.HH.msi file.

 - full path to the folder where Plesk should be installed.

 - external Microsoft SQL host name.

 - external Microsoft SQL administrator login.

 - external Microsoft SQL administrator password.

Installing Plesk Without PHP, Perl or Python and with MSDE from Command Line

Ø To install Plesk 8.1 without PHP, Perl or Python and with MSDE from command line:

1 Make sure that you have extracted the required .msi installer file, if you are using the network installer (see the Installing Plesk for Windows Using Command Line Interface (on page 12) section for more details).

2 Create a file called install-plesk-with-msde.cmd in your system. Copy the following information into it:

@echo off

 if “%3” == “” (

 echo “ USAGE: install-plesk-with-msde.cmd

  []”

 echo “ where can be:

 echo “ complete - Complete Plesk installation

 echo “ typical - Typical Plesk installation

 echo “ {comp_list} - Complete Plesk installation without

 specified components (use a comma to separate the components)

 exit /b 1

 )

set plesk_distrib_dir=%~dp1

set plesk_msi_name=%~nx1

set plesk_dir=%~2

set plesk_non_typical=CommunitySK,Mambo,bbClone,gtChat,phpBB,phpBook,postN

uke,Uebimiau,TimeTrackerSK,ReportsSK,KasperskyAV,SiteBuilder,PDFDoc,Py

thon,JDK,Tomcat

if “%3” == “complete” set plesk_exclude=MSDE

if “%3” == “typical” set plesk_exclude=MSDE,%plesk_non_typical%

if “%plesk_exclude%” == “” set plesk_exclude=MSDE,%~3

set msde_pwd=1q2w3e

if “%~4” NEQ “” set msde_pwd=%4

@echo on

extrac32.exe /Y /E /L “%windir%\Installer\MSDE” “%plesk_distrib_dir%\MSDE.cab”

If “%ERRORLEVEL%” NEQ “0” exit /b %ERRORLEVEL% “%windir%\Installer\MSDE\setup.exe” /qn DISABLENETWORKPROTOCOLS=0 SEQURITYMODE=SQL REBOOT=ReallySuppress SAPWD=”%msde_pwd%” TARGETDIR=”%plesk_dir%\Databases\MSDE” DATADIR=”%plesk_dir%\Databases\MSDE” REBOOT=R /l*v “%windir%\Installer\MSDE\msde-install.log” DISABLEROLLBACK=1

If “%ERRORLEVEL%” NEQ “0” exit /b %ERRORLEVEL%

reg ADD “HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSSQLServer\MSSQLServer” /v LoginMode /d 2 /t REG_DWORD /f

net stop MSSQLSERVER /Y

net start MSSQLSERVER /Y

“%plesk_distrib_dir%\%plesk_msi_name%” /qn MSSQL_HOST=localhost

MSSQL_ADMIN_NAME=sa MSSQL_ADMIN_PASSWD=”%msde_pwd%”

INSTALLDIR=”%plesk_dir%” ADDLOCAL=ALL REMOVE=%plesk_exclude% /l*v

“%plesk_dir%\plesk-install.log”

If “%ERRORLEVEL%” NEQ “0” exit /b %ERRORLEVEL%

3 Open the command line interface (Start > Run > cmd.exe).

4 Run the following command to install Plesk without PHP, Perl or Python and with MSDE:

install-plesk-with-msde.cmd

PHP,Perl,Python []

The following variables are used by this command:

§ - full path to plesk_x.x.x_buildYYMMDD.HH.msi file.

§ - full path to the folder where Plesk should be installed.

§ [] - Password for default MSDE administrator login „sa‟. Note that this parameter is optional; if you do not specify it, the default MSDE password will be set to „1q2w3e‟.

5 The installer will proceed with installing Plesk without PHP, Perl or Python and with MSDE.

List of Variables Available for Plesk Installation Through Command Line

This section covers the usage of variables available for installation of Plesk through command line interface.

Since Plesk uses Microsoft Installer technology, all standard Microsoft Installer parameters are fully supported. To see the list of Microsoft Installer parameters, please visit the following page:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/msi/setup/command_line_options.asp

For example, to perform a „silent‟ installation of Plesk, you can use the command line parameter „/q‟:

msiexec /i /q

 = = ...

 nameN>=

Variable	Description	Version	Default value
General Variables
MSSQL_SA_PWD	Password for „sa‟ user in MSDE installed by Plesk.	7.5.0
DOWNLOADFILES	Specifies whether to download necessary files from SWsoft‟s server during the installation (“yes” or “no”).	7.5.0	yes
ADMINMYSQL_PORT	Port number of Plesk SQL Server.	7.5.0	8306
ADMINAPACHE_SERVERPORT	Port number of Plesk Control Panel.	7.5.0	8443
SETVHOSTSDIR	Set vhosts directory path.	7.5.0	[Inetpub]vhosts
USE_SHARED_W_DESKTOP	Enable Shared W3WP Desktop (“true” or “false”).	7.5.0	true
PSA_PASSWORD	Password for Plesk „admin‟ user.	7.5.0	setup

DEBUG	Set up Plesk in debug mode. The debug information will be written to Event Log. (0 or 1).		7.5.5		0
AUTOINSTALL	Pseudo-silent mode: user attention is not required during the installation (“none” or“auto”). Note that GUI sequence actions (e.g., MSDE installation) are performed as well.		7.5.5		none
MSSQL_HOST	Server name or IP address of server with installed MSSQL. If MSDE is installed by Plesk, then this parameter will be overwritten with local MSSQL server parameters. MSSQL_HOST may contain instance name (e.g. 127.0.0.1\OneMSSQLInstance)		7.6.0		localhost
MSSQL_ADMIN_NAME		MSSQL administrator‟s login.		7.5.0
MSSQL_ADMIN_PASSWD		MSSQL administrator‟s password.		7.5.0
Directories
INSTALLDIR	Install location of Plesk.		7.5.0		[Program files]SWsoft\Plesk
DATADIR	Location of data belonging to Plesk and all other components.		7.5.0		[INSTALLDIR]
ACRONIS_INSTALLDIR	Install location of Acronis.		7.5.0		[INSTALLDIR]Acronis
ACRONIS_TIA_INSTALLDIR	Install location of Acronis True Image Agent.		7.5.0		[ACRONIS_INSTALLDIR]TrueImageAgent
ACRONIS_TIC_INSTALLDIR	Install location of Acronis True Image Console.		7.5.0		[ACRONIS_INSTALLDIR]TrueImageConsole
ACRONIS_TIS_INSTALLDIR	Install location of Acronis True Image Server.		7.5.0		[ACRONIS_INSTALLDIR]TrueImageEnterprise
ADDITIONAL_INSTALLDIR	Install location of additional components.		7.5.0		[INSTALLDIR]Additional
DATABASE_DATADIR	Location of database servers data.		7.5.0		[DATADIR]Databases
DATABASE_INSTALLDIR	Install location of database servers.		7.5.0		[INSTALLDIR]Databases
MSDE_INSTALLDIR	Install location of MSDE.		7.5.0		[DATABASE_INSTALLDIR]MSDE

WSBNET_INSTALLDIR	Install location of SiteBuilder 3.1 for Windows.	7.6.0	[ProgramFiles] SiteBuilder
STARTERKITS_INSTALLDIR	Install location of StarterKits.	7.5.5	[INSTALLDIR]ASP.NET Starter Kits
APPVAULT_INSTALLDIR	Install location of AppVaults.	7.5.5	[INSTALLDIR]\var\cgitory
Plesk Engine Parameters
DBPROVIDER	Database engine for storing Plesk data: MySQL – use MySQL database server, Jet – use MS Access database file (mdb), MSSQL – use MS SQL database server.	7.6.0	Jet
DBLOGIN	Database username used for all Plesk operations. Password for this user is equal to PSA_PASSWORD. If DBPROVIDER is set to Jet or MySQL, DBLOGIN shouldn‟t be specified. If DBPROVIDER is set to MSSQL, user DBLOGIN will be created on the MSSQL server (specified by arguments MSSQL_HOST, MSSQL_ADMIN_NAME, and MSSQL_ADMIN_PASSWD).	7.6.0	admin
DBNAME	Plesk database name. If DBPROVIDER is set to Jet, DBNAME means the path to the mdb file	7.6.0	psa
PLESKCP_PROVIDER	Webserver engine for Plesk Control Panel: apache – use Apache web-server, iis – use Microsoft Internet Information Server.	7.6.0	iis

SiteBuilder For Windows Parameters
WSBNET_SQLSERVER		Address of MSSQL server for storing SiteBuilder database. If this argument isn‟t specified, it will be equal to MSSQL_HOST		7.6.0
WSBNET_SQLUSER		MSSQL server administrator name. If this argument isn‟t specified, it will be equal to MSSQL_ADMIN_NAME		7.6.0
WSBNET_SQLPWD		MSSQL server administrator password. If this argument isn‟t specified, it will be equal to MSSQL_ADMIN_PASSWD		7.6.0
WSBNET_DBNAME	SiteBuilder database name. If WSBNET_DBNAME is set to „auto‟, the name of SiteBuilder database will be generated randomly.		7.6.0		auto