Introduction to Panel

Parallels Plesk Panel files can be divided into six major groups responsible for different aspects of Panel work. The diagram below shows these groups (components of the Panel) and the connections they have to each other and to external services that Panel manages.

Panel components are as follows:

• Panel core. The core processes requests that Panel receivess from the Panel GUI, command line interface, and API RPC. The core contains scripts, binary files and other resources used to link Panel components with each other and with external services.
• Panel database psa. The database stores information about Panel objects, such as IP addresses, domains, user accounts, and so on.
• sw-cp-server - a web server based on lighttpd. This serves requests to the Panel GUI.
• Panel GUI - a web interface provided with sw-cp-server. The GUI is the main means of interaction with Panel.
• Command line utilities. The command line interface allows integration of third-party software with Panel objects. In addition, it is a way for administrators to manage Panel through the server shell. For more information on the Panel command line interface, refer to Panel Command Line Reference.
• API RPC. This interface is another way to integrate third-party software with Panel. It allows Panel objects to be managed remotely by sending specifically structured XML packets and receiving responses from Panel. For more information on API RPC, refer to API RPC Developer's Guide and API RPC Protocol Reference.

The Most Important Files and Directories

Parallels Plesk Panel for Linux installs its main components into the following directory:

• On RPM-based operating systems: /usr/local/psa
• On DEB-based operating systems: /opt/psa

This directory (main Panel directory) contains Panel core files, command line utilities, log files and so on.

In addition, Panel creates files and directories outside the main directory. The list below contains those that you are likely to use when administering Panel.

• The main configuration file containing paths to utilities, services and packages used by Panel:

  /etc/psa/psa.conf

• The initialization script for opening and closing services during server startup and shutdown procedures:

  /etc/init.d/psa

• Initialization scripts for starting and stopping services with xinetd:

  /etc/xinetd.d/smtp_psa

  /etc/xinetd.d/smtps_psa

  /etc/xinetd.d/poppassd_psa

  /etc/xinetd.d/ftp_psa

  Find more information on xinetd at http://www.xinetd.org/.

• Panel database:

  /var/lib/mysql/psa/

• Backup files:

  /var/lib/psa/dumps/

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