How to install Plesk on new server

The other day I got myself a brand new server – so barebones that I had to do everything myself, including picking a Linux distribution. Sadly the one I wanted (CentOS 6) did not come bundled with Plesk so I had to install it manually.

I thought I’d better take some notes so I can retrace my steps.

At the time of writing, Plesk 10.3 is current, with 10.4 just around the corner. Keep this in mind – things tend to change drastically with every major release.

Documentation

Let’s get started by remembering where all Plesk documentation is kept, i.e. at the Parallels Site:

http://www.parallels.com/uk/products/plesk/documentation/

Installation

Let’s install Plesk not via the Autoinstaller but instead use the super useful tool called the One Click Installer. Instead of downloading a package and then installing it to get the ball rolling, One Click determines your OS and does the whole shebang in one fair swoop.

Here’s how to use it:

wget -O - http://autoinstall.plesk.com/one-click-installer | sh

Works a treat! You may have to yum install wget before you can use this command.

Should this method fail you can download the first file yourself and follow the steps in this article.

Add Atomic Repo Power

YUM is already installed by default on CentOS 6 – but to make it even better we can add the Atomic Turtle Repo to it. How do we do this? Like so:

<code>wget -q -O - http://www.atomicorp.com/installers/atomic.sh | sh</code>

This step is optional but highly recommended. Make sure you do this AFTER you’ve installed Plesk, otherwise the installer will get confused due to differences in repositories.

How to Log In for the first time

Now Plesk is ready to rock under https://yourdomain.com:8443

Your credentials are the same as your root login for the server. Disregard the certificate warning. Once you’ve filled out all the relevant contact and config options you’ll be able to login with “admin” and that password you’ve chosen.

Parallels Panel Server Monitoring App

You may have heard of an iPhone / Android / Blackberry App that will connect with Plesk and keep you posted on the health of your server. Unfortunately that’s not quite been released yet but will be when Plesk 10.4 hits the virtual shelves.

Maybe we’ll get a Christmas present?

Uninstalling Plesk

Done with Plesk? Did something go wrong and you want to start again? This article explains which directories to delete:

http://www.ehow.com/how_8608908_remove-plesk.html

Further Reading (and hacking)

The guys at GraFX have compiled a very comprehensive guide on how to get started and how to secure your server once it’s up and running. Thanks guys – much appreciated! Go check it out here:

www.grafxsoftware.com/faq.php/HOW-TO-Setup-a-PLESK-Dedicated-Server/1/4/

If you don’t want to do all those steps yourself GraFX are happy to give you a hand for a very reasonable $50. Do check it out, it contains a huge host of information.