Parallels Plesk Panel 9.0 for Windows Release Notes

Contents

1. Introduction
2. Installation Instructions
   1. Before Installation
   2. Software Requirements
   3. Installation Steps
   4. Completing Installation
3. Upgrade Instructions
4. Supplied Components
5. What's New
   1. Parallels Plesk Panel 9.0.0
6. Supported 3rd party components
7. Known Problems and Limitations
8. Contact Information

1. Introduction

Thank you for downloading this release of Parallels Plesk Panel 9.0 for Windows. This file contains information that supplements the Parallels Plesk Panel 9.0 for Windows documentation such as requirements, information on new features, corrected bugs, known problems etc. This file was updated with the latest information available at release time.

2. Installation Instructions

We strongly recommend that you refer to the product installation instructions and the product user manual prior to upgrading/installing and operating Parallels Plesk Panel. Refer to the Parallels, Inc. web site at http://www.parallels.com for more information.

Parallels Plesk Panel 9.0 for Windows Knowledge Base:http://kb.parallels.com/en/products/pleskwindows/

2.1. Before Installation

Before starting the installation process we strongly recommend that you create a full system backup of the entire server.

Internet Information Services (IIS) should be preinstalled with World Wide Web (WWW) Service support.

2.2. Software Requirements

Parallels Plesk Panel 9.0 for Windows requires one of the following OS installed on your computer:

• Windows 2003 Server SP1/SP2/R2 Web Edition
• Windows 2003 Server SP1/SP2/R2 Standard Edition
• Windows 2003 Server SP1/SP2/R2 Enterprise Edition
• Windows 2003 Server SP1/SP2/R2 Datacenter Edition
• Windows 2008 Server Web Edition
• Windows 2008 Server Standard Edition
• Windows 2008 Server Enterprise Edition
• Windows 2008 Server Datacenter Edition

Parallels Plesk Panel 9.0 for Windows can be installed only on NTFS partition.

In order for your server to support ASP.NET 1.1, FrontPage 2002 Server Extensions, Miva, File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Service, Server Side Includes (SSI) and Active Server Pages (ASP), you need to install these components manually.

In order for your server to support domain performance configuring, you need to enable QoS Packet Scheduler service.

If you plan to use MS SQL Server support in Parallels Plesk Panel 9.0 for Windows, the MS SQL Server should be installed and configured to use standard or mixed security mode. If MS SQL Server is not installed, you can select Microsoft SQL Server to be installed with Parallels Plesk Panel 9.0 for Windows and configured with administrator name 'sa' and random password.

IMPORTANT: We strongly recommend that you install Parallels Plesk Panel 9.0 for Windows on a clean server; specifically, only above-mentioned operating system components should be installed.

2.3. Installation Steps

1. Log in as "Administrator" or another user with Administrator's privileges.
2. Change your working directory to the directory where the Parallels Plesk Panel 9.0 for Windows distribution resides.
3. Run the SetupPlesk.exe or plesk_9.0.0_buildYYMMDD.HH.exe (where YYMMDD.HH is the actual build date).
4. Follow the on-screen instructions.
5. In some cases when the installation is finished, reboot confirmation will be requested.
6. After the reboot Parallels Plesk Panel will be started automatically.

2.4. Completing Installation

In order to finish the initial configuration of Parallels Plesk Panel, you need to login to Parallels Plesk Panel 9.0 for Windows on your host at https://domain.name:8443/ or https://IP-address:8443/

The default username is "admin" and the default password is "setup". The password is case sensitive. For security reasons the password has to be changed upon initial login.

3. Upgrade Instructions

IMPORTANT: Make sure you upgrade all installed components when upgrading to Parallels Plesk Panel 9.0. This is required to avoid conflicts caused by outdated components.

IMPORTANT: If you are upgrading Parallels Plesk Panel on a intensively used hardware node, it is strongly recommended to use the following PVC parameters for the upgrade:

vprvmem (virtual memory) - 700
numproc (number of processes) - 100

After the upgrade is finished, these parameters should be set to their old values.

If your machine has Plesk 8.1.x, 8.2.x, 8.3.x, 8.4.x or 8.6.x installed, you will be prompted to upgrade existing Plesk installation to Parallels Plesk Panel 9.0 after running the installer.

Parallels Plesk Panel 9.0 for Windows includes Sitebuilder 4.5 in the distribution package, but your Sitebuilder 2.x or 3.x installation will not be upgraded automatically. If you want to upgrade your Sitebuilder installation, add the following key to the command line of EXE installer when installing Parallels Plesk Panel 9.0: WSB_UPGRADE=force

If you have used SiteBuilder 2.0.5 with earlier versions of Plesk, you can migrate web sites created in SiteBuilder 2.0.5 to SiteBuilder 4.5 after you upgrade your Plesk to Parallels Plesk Panel 9.0.

To successfully migrate web sites created in SiteBuilder 2.0.5 to SiteBuilder 4.5:

1. Install SiteBuilder 4.5:
   • Go to Start > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs, select Parallels Plesk Panel 9.0 for Windows in the list of available programs and click Change.
   • Make sure that Modify option is selected, click Next >, select SiteBuilder 4.5 for Windows component in Parallels Plesk Panel Core group for installation and click Next >.
2. Run sitebuilder.exe utility located in the folder where Parallels Plesk Panel is installed with the following parameters:
   • To migrate all available web sites, run "sitebuilder.exe --migrate2to3"
   • To migrate all web sites from a domain of your choice, run "sitebuilder.exe --migrate2to3 -domain_name <domain name>, where <domain name> is the name of the required domain. The websites will be imported to SiteBuilder 4.5.

4. Supplied Components

Parallels Plesk Panel 9.0 for Windows distribution package ships the following components:

• DrWeb 4.44.0.10170
• Kaspersky AV 5.0.0.49
• Acronis True Image Enterprise Server version 9.1 (build 3939)
• Microsoft SQL Server 9.00.3042
• Microsoft SQL Server 10.0.1442.32
• MySQL 5.0.45
• MySQL ODBC connector 3.51.25
• BIND DNS Server 9.4.2
• JDK 1.5
• Apache 2.0.59
• Apache Tomcat 5.5.4
• MailEnable Standard 1.986
• Plesk Agent 1.5.2.1
• Perl v5.8.8 built for MSWin32-x86-multi-thread
• PHP 4.4.7
• PHP 5.2.6
• Python 2.5.0.0
• FastCGI 6.1.36.1
• SiteBuilder for Windows 4.2.108
• SpamAssassin 3.2.3
• ASP.NET Enterprise Manager 0.1.3
• myLittleAdmin 2000 2.7.r126, 2005 3.2
• phpMyAdmin 2.11.6
• AWStats 6.6 (build 1.887)
• Atmail Webmail Light 1.0
• Webalizer V2.01-10-RB02 (Windows NT 5.2) English
• stunnel 4.07
• Horde IMP H3 (4.1.6)

5. What's New

5.1. Parallels Plesk Panel 9.0.0

1. [+] Resellers - Parallels Plesk Panel user hierarchy is enriched with Reseller accounts in Parallels Plesk Panel 9.0. Resellers sign up their own Clients and resell Web hosting services to them, distributing available resources within the limits acquired by a reseller from the Parallels Plesk Panel Administrator. Resellers can also create and manage their own domains. GUI integration with Parallels Plesk Billing completes the shared hosting solution based on Parallels Plesk products.

2. [+] Overselling and Overuse - The ability to conveniently manage the overselling and overusage of provided resources directly via Parallels Plesk Panel tremendously improves the flexibility of business model implementation and opens up new possibilities for those who provide shared hosting services.

3. [+] APS Catalog - Now you can browse web applications packaged in APS Format and published at www.apsstandard.com/app/ directly from Parallels Plesk Panel administration screen, with ability to add them to the server Application Vault online without the hassles of manual uploading. These applications can be made freely available to all customers or their distribution can be restricted for provision on a per-user basis, allowing you to conveniently sell the applications according to the hosting plans you provide.

4. [+] Redesigned User Interface - Parallels Plesk Panel 9.0 also boasts completely redone user interface designed to help users navigate in Parallels Plesk Panel and perform their tasks quicker and easier. Most popular and important actions are available right away on the user Home Page, while less popular but still important things can be accessed through the drop-down menus located on Home Pages. Navigating through Parallels Plesk Panel is faster than ever now due to ability to select Resellers, Clients, domains and mail accounts via pathbar.

5. [+] New Default Vista Skin - Parallels Plesk Panel 9.0 is presented in brand-new clear and nice Vista visual theme that combines the best elements of most popular Parallels Plesk Panel interface skins and provides less strain on the eyes.

6. [+] Alternative Webmail - Users can now enjoy additional choice of Atmail as their webmail tool. Parallels Plesk Panel 9.0 ships with free Atmail Webmail Light 1.0 and supports more powerful commercial Atmail Webmail 5.5. The selection of webmail can be done on a per-domain basis, guaranteeing that every customer can use their webmail client of choice.

7. [+] New Backup Tool - Completely revised Parallels Plesk Panel Backup/Restore functionality provides users with much more powerful and flexible backup solution than ever before. Selective data backup and restoration through Parallels Plesk Panel is now a comfortable, painless and fully controllable process. On-the-fly restoration conflicts resolution offers a variety of ways to resolve restoration conflicts prior to actual update of the system, thus guaranteeing success and complete control over the restoration process.

8. [+] Parallels Plesk Billing Bundle - Parallels Plesk Panel 9.0 for Windows seamlessly integrates with Parallels Plesk Billing solution (available for Parallels Plesk Panel 9.0 for Unix/Linux), eliminating the need of purchasing a third-party billing software and relieving administrators from the pain of integrating such software with Parallels Plesk Panel. Smooth navigation between provisioning and billing portions of Parallels Plesk Billing solution makes hosting provision much more efficient both for hosting service providers and their customers.

9. [+] Improved Hosting Setup UI - User interface for setting up hosting was redone to make the procedure quicker and more intuitive. Hosting now can be created and configured very fast and literally on one page due to radically improved usability of redesigned hosting setup UI.

10. [+] API RPC Protocol 1.6.0.0 - Updated API RPC protocol further improves the ability to intergrate your software solutions with Parallels Plesk Panel and completely supports all important features introduced in Parallels Plesk Panel 9.0.

11. [+] MSSQL 2008 support - Parallels Plesk Panel 9.0 for Windows works with Microsoft SQL Server 2008.

12. [+] Merak 9.3.2 support - Parallels Plesk Panel 9.0 for Windows supports Merak 9.3.2 Mail Server.

13. [*] ASP.NET Management Improvements - Configuration and management of ASP.NET were improved.

14. [*] Mail Server Behavior Improvements - The behavior of mail bounce/discard functionality was improved for all supported mail servers.

15. [*] Firewall GUI Improvements - Firewall GUI in Parallels Plesk Panel was improved.

16. [*] Database Backup Improvements - Database backup and restoration capabilities were enhanced.

17. [*] File Manager Usage Improvements - Handling of file and folder access permissions through File Manager was improved.

18. [*] Statistics Calculation Improvements - Handling of various time zones during statistics calculation was improved.

19. [*] Parallels Plesk Panel Upgrade Improvements - Upgrading of Parallels Plesk Panel with installed web applications was improved.

6. Supported third-party components

Mail servers

1. MailEnable Standard 1.986
2. MailEnable Professional 3.52
3. MailEnable Enterprise 3.52
4. Merak 9.3.2
5. SmarterMail 5.1
6. MDaemon 9.6.5
7. hMailServer 4.4.1
8. CommuniGate Pro 5.2.6

Antiviruses:

1. DrWeb 4.44.0.10170
2. Kaspersky AV 5.0.0.49
3. ClamWin 0.93
4. Merak Antivirus

DNS servers:

1. Microsoft DNS 5.2
2. BIND DNS Server 9.4.2
3. SimpleDNS Plus 5.1

FTP servers:

1. Microsoft FTP 6.0
2. Microsoft FTP 7.0
3. Gene6 FTP Server 3.10
4. Serv-U FTP Server 6.4

Web Statistics:

1. Webalizer V2.01-10-RB02
2. AWStats 6.6
3. SmarterStats 3.3
4. Urchin 5.7

Web Scripting:

1. ASP 6.0.3790.0
2. ASP.NET 1.1.4322
3. ASP.NET 2.0.50727 (.Net Framework 2.0/3.0/3.5)
4. Miva Empresa 5.0.6
5. Perl 5.8.8
6. PHP 4.4.7
7. PHP 5.2.6
8. Python 2.5.0.0
9. SSI 6.0.3790.0
10. Apache Tomcat 5.5.4
11. ColdFusion 5.0
12. ColdFusion MX 6.1
13. ColdFusion MX 7.0
14. ColdFusion 8.0 x86
15. Microsoft FrontPage 5.0.2.5012

Web Administration Tools:

1. phpMyAdmin 2.11.6
2. ASP.NET Enterprise Manager 0.1.3
3. myLittleAdmin 2000 2.7.r126, 2005 3.2

Database servers:

1. Microsoft SQL Server 2000
2. Microsoft SQL Server 2005
3. Microsoft SQL Server 2008
4. MySQL 5.0.45

Web Mail Solutions:

1. Horde IMP H3 (4.1.6)
2. Atmail Webmail 5.5
3. MailEnable Web Client
4. IceWarp Web Mail
5. SmarterMail Web Client
6. CommuniGate Pro Web Client

Spam Filter:

1. SpamAssassin 3.2.3
2. Merak Spamfilter
3. SmarterMail Spamfilter

Other:

1. stunnel 4.07

7. Known Problems and Limitations

• Upgrade from Plesk 9 Beta to Parallels Plesk Panel 9.0 Release is not be supported.

• After the installation of Parallels Plesk Panel 9.0, the panel cannot be accessed for up to five minutes. Please wait five minutes after the installation to make sure that all post-installation scripts are finished correctly.
• Due to the massive amount of changes in Parallels Plesk Panel 9.0.0 GUI, old custom (third-party) skins for Plesk 8.x are not compatible with Parallels Plesk Panel 9.0.0. After you upgrade to Parallels Plesk Panel 9.0.0, all custom (third-party) skins will become unregistered to avoid visual issues.
• Language packs for Plesk 8.x are not compatible with Parallels Plesk Panel 9.0.
• Before creating a domain through CLI for a reseller or a client, make sure that this reseller or client has at least one free IP address in the IP pool for proper domain creation.
• Parallels Plesk Panel cannot be installed if installation path contains non-ASCII symbols.
• Plesk Firewall works only if Microsoft Windows 2003 Service Pack 1 (or later) is installed.
• Virtual directories are not restored by Parallels Plesk Panel backup/restoration functionality.
• Some MySQL databases might not be backed up during a complete backup of Parallels Plesk Panel server if McAfee VirusScan is active on the server. To resolve this issue, refer to Knowledge Base article at http://kb.parallels.com/en/5830.
• If you wish to patch Parallels Plesk Panel over the network, you should have write permissions for the Parallels Plesk Panel distribution package files (which are unpacked during Parallels Plesk Panel installation). This notice does not apply to the Web installer.
• SmarterStats user is created with the credentials of a corresponding domain FTP user. It should be noted though that SmarterStats user password will contain only alphanumeric characters and '_' symbol used in place of all non-alphanumeric characters.
• If an external Sitebuilder system (that is, Sitebuilder installed in SVE or VPS environment or on a remote server) is integrated with your Parallels Plesk Panel server, your customers will not be able to access Sitebuilder through Parallels Plesk Panel if they use Internet Explorer with default security settings. To resolve this issue, make sure that both Parallels Plesk Panel and Sitebuilder are located in one subnet (for example, 110.57.106.1 and 110.57.106.2). Alternatively, you can tell your customers to go through the following procedure:
  1. Open Internet Explorer and go to Tools > Internet Options > Privacy > Sites.
  2. Enter the address of the external Sitebuilder system in the Address of Web Site field and click Allow.
• Parallels Plesk Panel does not automatically detect third-party components. After a new third-party component is installed, you need to go to Parallels Plesk Panel > Server Components and click Refresh.
• If you run both Parallels Plesk Panel and Parallels Sitebuilder inside one Virtuozzo VE, then make sure that you allocated at least 700 megabytes of disk space to this VE.
• If you encounter problems with uploading large backup files into server backup repository through GUI, upload these backup files on a remote FTP server first, and then import them to Parallels Plesk Panel server repository through Backup Manager in Parallels Plesk Panel.
• It is not recommended to use period in the FTP account password for data backup on remote FTP location.
• Kaspersky Antivirus is not available for installation on Windows 2008.
• If it is reported by Parallels Plesk Panel that resource usage limits are exceeded but you cannot find which limits are affected, check mailbox quota usage since exceeded mailbox quota is not displayed on resource usage page.
• Acronis True Image Enterprise Server is not available for installation on Windows 2008.
• To avoid issues with inability to remove e-mail messages through Atmail Webmail Light 1.0, go to Atmail settings and select the Auto Delete Trash option.
• IIS Application Pool crashes on Windows 2008 if RPC Over HTTP Proxy feature is installed.
• Error message is shown when you install Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and the installation path is more than 57 characters long: see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/935371 for details.
• After the installation of Parallels Plesk Panel on some configurations the following error might appear in the Event Log:

  Failed to compile: Microsoft.SqlServer.BatchParser, Version=10.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=89845dcd8080cc91 . Error code = 0x800736b1

  This error is not caused by Parallels Plesk Panel, does not affect Parallels Plesk Panel functioning and can be safely ignored.
• Horde Webmail settings are missing after the upgrade from Plesk 8.2.x or earlier.
• If VZ MSDE template was installed after remote database servers were set up in Parallels Plesk Panel, working with remote database servers will be forbidden because VZ MSDE template switches the work mode from remote to local. To resolve this issue, you have to manually switch the work mode from local to remote.
• SMTP sessions are not blocked by DNSBL if you are using Smartermail Free 5.0, 5.1 or 5.5. To resolve this issue, set up SMTP sessions blocking by DNSBL in the Smartermail mail server settings.
• Drwebcom.exe is falsely detected as a virus by AVG, leading to Parallels Plesk Panel installation/upgrade failure.
• Parallels Plesk Panel servers using Single-Sign On service (required for integration with Parallels Plesk Billing) will not be accessible if Single-Sign On service stops working for some reason. To access Parallels Plesk Panel in this case, you have to switch off the usage of Single-Sign On by going to %plesk_cli% and running command sso --disable.
• You might encounter a warning about ASP.NET not being available when installing Parallels Plesk Panel on x64-based OS with .NET 2.0 installed beforehand and IIS working in 64-bit mode. This warning can be ignored because Parallels Plesk Panel will resolve this issue automatically.

8. Contact Information

Parallels Headquarters
13755 Sunrise Valley Drive Suite 600
Herndon, VA 20171 USA
Phone: +1.703.815.5670, Fax: +1.703.815.5675

Web: http://www.parallels.com

E-mail:
For billing information, email accounting@parallels.com
For purchasing or partnering information, email sales@parallels.com
For technical support, use our Online Support Form.
To report problems with Parallels Plesk Panel software, email bugreport@parallels.com
For information on career opportunities with Parallels, email careers@parallels.com
For press contact information, email press@parallels.com
For information about becoming a Partner, email partners@parallels.com
For information on translating Parallels Plesk Panel into your language, email i18n@parallels.com
For general product information, email info@parallels.com

©Copyright 1999-2008, Parallels.

Patented hosting technology protected by U.S.Patents 7,099,948; 7,076,633.
Patents pending in the U.S.