Parallels

Resolution

The Plesk Virtual Node hosting plan provides the full-featured Plesk server running in Virtuozzo VE. The customer who purchases such hosting plan gets the Plesk Server Administrator permissions with the ability of creating Plesk Client accounts and Plesk Domains. The number of Plesk clients allowed for creation on the VE-based Plesk server is up to the Plesk License certificate installed on the Plesk server.

The main difference of Plesk Virtual Node from Virtuozzo VE hosting is in post-VE creation actions. For regular Virtuozzo VE HSPcomplete will just create a VE and install all selected application templates into it. In case of Plesk Virtual Node the same initial steps will be taken but after VE is created it will be automatically registered in HSPcomplete as a Virtual Plesk Node under the reseller account. As such reseller will receive a full-managed Plesk node in their Reseller Control Center in just a couple clicks.

Virtual Plesk node registration is not needed for regular customers who just want to get a server with pre-installed Plesk control panel. You may check this article for more details on Virtuozzo VE hosting plan with Plesk Server Administrator included suitable for regular customers.  Plesk Virtual Node hosting plan is suitable for Resellers only.

Important: The VE created for Plesk server hosting plan is a special one. For a HSPcomplete to create the Plesk Virtual Node hosting plans, the special set of applications must be installed and enabled, namely:

* The Plesk Server Administrator application itself and application templates required for it:

o SSL for Apache (mod_ssl)
o Apache mod_perl

o PHP

o MySQL server
o AWstats 6.5 or later (for Plesk Server Administrator 8.x)

In addition, the HSPcomplete Control Panel applications (System Administrator and Workgroup Administrator ones) are not available for installation inside the Plesk server VE (as designed). However a customer who subscribed for such a hosting plan, can log in to the HSPcomplete Control Panel with System, My Account, Upgrade Center, and Help&Support tabs available. In this case, the System tab provides the limited ability of managing the Plesk server as VE, namely, view server status, manage DNS, manage IP addresses and install/uninstall applications included in the subscription. Other tabs provide the full set of tools similar to the available for an ordinary VE.

In respect to managing a Plesk server in VE as a Plesk physical server, a customer can log in to the Plesk Control Panel using the conventional Plesk logging credentials (specific URL, login, and password).

Only resellers can buy the Plesk server in VE hosting plan in HSPcomplete store.

For reseller accounts the HSPcomplete Control Panel and Plesk Server Administrator Control Panel will be available. There are no subscription periods for resellers available and such hosting plans do not have a trial period. Resellers can manage Plesk server VE both as a dedicated Hardware Node and VE using the HSPcomplete Reseller Control Center and Control Panel. And to perform Plesk administrative tasks resellers can use Plesk Control Panel.

As soon as a customer buys a Plesk Virtual Node hosting plan and pays the order, services provision starts in the following order (all phases pass automatically):

1. VE creation.

2. Installation of all the applications. The process lasts until all the applications (and especially the Plesk Server Administrator) are successfully installed. The subscription is in the pending state.

3. VE registration as a new Hardware Node. In this phase it is very important that the IP address assigned to the VE is resolved correctly because HSPcomplete needs to establish connection with a Hardware Node to register it.

4. Subscription activation.

Note: It is not possible to delete the Plesk Virtual Node subscription as soon as at least one Plesk domain is created on Plesk VE and such subscription cannot be terminated.

To create the Plesk Server in VE hosting plan go to the "Business Director - Billing Manager - Hosting Plans" and click the "New Hosting Plan" button.

Select the Plesk Server in VE type of hosting. Enter the hosting plan title and other general settings as this described earlier in this guide, then follow the wizard:

1. Enter the billing rates:

• Specify the setup fees for all subscription periods in the Setup fee fields. The setup fee is to be once paid by a customer for a subscription creation.
• Type the subscription fees for all subscription periods in the Recurring fee fields. The recurring fee is to be paid by a customer for a subscription period.

Note: The Plesk Virtual Node hosting plans are intended for sale by Provider only. Thus, there are no options for setting sales periods for Resellers.

2. Specify the configuration of Virtuozzo VE that will run the Plesk server and fill out the following forms:

• Select the operating system to be installed in VE from the Platform drop-down menu. In accordance with your choice you can further select the OS template for VE. 
• Select the OS template for VE from the OS template drop-down menu.
• You can check the Root Access box to grant the VE owner the root access to VE. 
• If you do not want to include the disk space occupied with operating system in the total disk space allocated for VE, you can check the Exclude system size from disk space box.

Note: Name-based VEs do not serve for this type of hosting plans since the VE with Plesk server inside must have an external static IP address.

3. Set the billable resources rates (monthly fees):

The pre-filled prices for resources are taken from the system-wide default prices. You can set values for each parameter within the allowable range in the Included value textboxes. The included value defines the limit of resource usage included in the hosting plan price.

And in the Cost for additional textbox you can enter the price for resource overusage or resources upgrade.

Do not forget to indicate the price for additional units. It is important for correct recalculation of customer account balance in case of Hosting Plan upgrade.

Important: Please make sure that at least one static IP address is allocated for VE. This is critical for future Plesk server network connectivity.

4. Review and if needed, adjust the VE configuration. The default values of VE resource parameters are shown next to the fields where you can key in the new values. The allowable ranges for each parameter are shown in the column to the right. Please refer to the Virtuozzo user documentation for a detailed description of each VE parameter. Examples of non-billable resources configuration suitable for VE with Plesk could be found in this article.

Note: We recommend adjusting VE parameters to a configuration that corresponds to hardware requirements for Plesk server.

5. Adjust the DNS settings for the Hosting Plan:

• Select the name servers set for a new domain registration from the Name servers set drop-down menu. All domains purchased within the frame of the new Hosting Plan will be registered using name servers from the name servers set selected. 
• And from the DNS Template drop-down menu, please select the DNS template that will define the standard set of resource records to be placed into the zone file for all domains registered within the frame of the Hosting Plan you are creating.

6. You can define one or more Hardware Nodes to host Plesk Clients being created for this Hosting Plan:

• Allow Plesk Clients creation on any of Hardware Nodes. In this case, set the radio button to All the Hardware Nodes. 
• Allow Plesk Clients creation on selected Hardware nodes only. In this case, set the radio button to "Selected Hardware Nodes" and click the Add button. The list of all registered Hardware Nodes appears in a popup window. Select Hardware Nodes by clicking on their names. In this case, the names of selected Hardware Nodes will appear in the "Selected Hardware Nodes" menu. In case you select a wrong Hardware Node, you can cancel selection. To this effect, click on the name of this Hardware Node in the Selected menu (its name will be highlighted) and then click the Remove button. 
• Allow Plesk Clients creation on all Hardware Nodes except selected, in other words, define Hardware Nodes where Plesk Domains creation is not allowed. In this case, set the radio button to Allow the hardware nodes except selected and select the Hardware Nodes the same way as described above.

7. Select applications to be available for installation inside the VE. To make an application available for installation inside the VE (i.e., enabled), check the box next to an application name in the left column. To include the price for the selected application in the subscription fees check the Included box next to the application name.

In this case, the application will be installed automatically on subscription creation. If you want to offer an application at a separate price, leave the Included box clear and type the fees into the relevant fields. In this case a customer will be able to select whether to install (and accordingly, pay for) the application or not.

Note: For VE to run the Plesk server the Plesk Server Administrator application is required. This application is already selected by default. Moreover Plesk must be both enabled and included so that a customer could not unintentionally unselect it when subscribing for the hosting plan. Plesk in its turn requires some other applications (e.g., Apache). All the required applications are selected by default. If you do not select the required applications and try to proceed with hosting plan creation you will be prompted which applications are absent.

8. You can optionally attach additional services (custom attributes) to a hosting plan as this was described in HSPcomplete Provider's Guide.

9. Add custom questions to be asked at the HSPcomplete store when a customer subscribes for a hosting plan as this was described in HSPcomplete Provider's Guide.

Review the hosting plan parameters and finish the process.

Additional information