Setting Up Hosting Plans

To create a hosting plan:

1. Go to Service Plans > Hosting Plans tab.
2. Click Add New Plan.
3. Specify the plan name.
4. To allocate resources, on the Resources tab, specify the following:
   • Overuse policy. This defines what happens to the hosting service subscription if the total disk space and traffic usage reaches the limit values defined by the plan.
     • Overuse is not allowed will suspend the subscription only if you select the checkbox Suspend subscription when its disk space or traffic usage goes beyond the limit. If you do not select it, websites will not be suspended; only a notice will be sent to recipients specified in Settings > Notifications: Resource usage limits exceeded by subscription option.

       If selected, it is possible to set up sending notifications as soon as usage of disk space or traffic reaches a particular value (the Notify upon reaching options), in order to prevent subscriptions from suspension. The notifications will be sent to users and/or e-mail addresses specified at Settings > Notifications: Resource usage limits exceeded by subscription option.

     • Overuse is allowed will let the subscription operate properly.

       The option When limit on usage of a resource is reached, send email according to server notification settings triggers sending notifications to users and/or e-mail addresses specified at Settings > Notifications: Resource usage limits exceeded by subscription option.

       Note: The overuse policy does not apply to the limits set on size of mailboxes. Therefore, even if you enable overuse, be sure to allocate enough disk space to mailboxes.

   • Disk space. The total amount of disk space allocated to the subscription. It includes disk space occupied by all files related to the subscription: contents of websites, databases, applications, mailboxes, log files and backup files.
   • Traffic. The total amount of data that can be transferred from websites during a month.
   • Notify upon reaching. This option is available only if overuse is not allowed. It sets the soft quota for disk space or traffic usage in order to prevent subscriptions from suspension. When the quota is reached, the Panel sends notifications to users and/or e-mail addresses specified at Settings > Notifications: Resource usage limits exceeded by subscription option.
   • Sites published with Web Presence Builder. The number of websites that can be published with Web Presence Builder.
   • Domains. The total number of domains that can be created under a subscription. This includes websites, web forwardings that point to websites hosted on other servers, and domain names on which a website or a web forwarding is not yet set up (domains with no hosting).
   • Mobile sites. The total number of Mobile versions of websites, created and hosted with UNITY Mobile - an external service partnered with Parallels.
   • Subdomains. The total number of subdomains that the subscriber will be able to host within the subscription.
   • Domain aliases. The total number of additional alternative domain names that the subscriber will be able to use for their websites.
   • Mailboxes. The total number of mailboxes that the subscriber can host within the subscription.
   • Mailbox size. The amount of disk space that is allocated to each mailbox for storing e-mail messages and auto-reply attachment files.
   • Total mailboxes quota (available only for Windows hosting). The total amount of disk space in megabytes available for all mailboxes within the subscription.
   • Mailing lists. The total number of mailing lists that the subscriber can host within the subscription.
   • Additional FTP accounts. The maximum number of FTP accounts used to access the files and folders created within a hosting service subscription. This number does not include an account that is always created during the subscription creation.
   • Databases (Unix hosting). The total number of databases that can be created on the Panel database servers and used by the subscription's websites.
   • MySQL databases and Microsoft SQL Server databases (Windows hosting). The maximum number of MySQL and Microsoft SQL Server databases respectively that can be created on the Panel database servers and used by the subscription's websites.
   • MySQL databases quota and Microsoft SQL databases quota (Windows hosting). The maximum amount of disk space in megabytes that the subscription's MySQL and Microsoft SQL Server databases respectively can occupy.
   • Validity period. The term for a subscription. It is used only when a subscription is created: the Panel derives the subscription expiration date from it. On this date, the subscription will be suspended, meaning that all sites within the subscription will be suspended, their web, FTP and mail services will no longer be accessible to the Internet users, and the subscriber and their users will not be able to log in to the Control Panel. Subscriptions are not renewed automatically, so to bring a subscription's services back to operation, you will need to manually activate the subscription.
   • Java applications. The total number of Java applications that can be hosted on the subscription's websites.
   • Web users. The total number of personal web pages that the subscriber can host for other users under their websites. This service is mostly used in educational institutions that host non-commercial personal pages of their students and staff. These pages usually have addresses like http://example.com/~webuser.
   • FrontPage accounts (Windows hosting). The maximum number of Microsoft FrontPage accounts that the subscriber can create within the subscription.
   • Shared SSL links (Windows hosting). The total number of shared SSL links that the subscriber can use within the subscription.
   • ODBC connections (Windows hosting). The total number of ODBC connections that the subscriber can use within the subscription.
   • ColdFusion DSN connections (Windows hosting). The total number of ColdFusion DSN connections that the subscriber can use within the subscription.
5. To grant permissions for operations that the customer can perform in the Panel, click the Permissions tab, and specify the following:
   • DNS zone management. Allows the subscriber to manage the DNS zones of their domains.
   • Hosting settings management. Allows modifying parameters of hosting service provided with the subscription: changing hosting account features and switching on or off support for programming and scripting languages, custom error documents, SSL support, and (Windows only) Microsoft FrontPage support.
   • Setup of potentially insecure web scripting options that override provider's policy. Allows the subscriber to override the hosting security policy, if it is set up. To learn about configuring the policy, refer to the Administrator's Guide, section Restricting the Use of Potentially Insecure Hosting Options.
   • PHP safe mode management (Linux/Unix hosting). Allows the subscriber to toggle such hosting parameter as PHP safe mode for their sites. By default, PHP is configured to operate in safe mode with functional restrictions. However, some web applications may not work properly with the safe mode enabled. To learn more about PHP safe mode, refer to http://php.net/features.safe-mode.
   • Management of access to server over SSH (Linux\Unix hosting). Provides the subscriber with access to a server shell over SSH under their system user account. Also, lets the subscriber set up such hosting parameter as SSH access to server shell under the subscription's system user.
   • Management of access to server over Remote Desktop (Windows hosting). Lets the subscriber access the server via Remote Desktop protocol.
   • Anonymous FTP management. Provides the anonymous FTP service, which lets the subscriber set up a directory shared over FTP protocol and available to anonymous users. A subscription should reside on a dedicated IP address in order to provide this service.
   • Scheduler management. Provides the Scheduler service, which lets the subscriber schedule running of scripts or utilities.
   • Spam filter management. Lets the subscriber customize filtering settings of SpamAssassin spam filter.
   • Antivirus management. Lets the subscriber change settings of server-side protection of incoming and outgoing mail from viruses.
   • Data backup and restoration using the server repository. Provides the Backup/Restore service which lets the subscriber use storage on the server for their backups.
   • Data backup and restoration using a personal FTP repository. Provides the Backup/Restore service which lets the subscriber use external FTP servers for storing their backups.
   • Web statistics management. Lets the subscriber set up such hosting parameter as Web statistics, that is, selecting which web statistics engine should be used, and toggling if the data is accessible via a specific password-protected directory.
   • Log rotation management. Lets the subscriber adjust the cleanup and recycling of processed log files for his or her sites. Also, lets the subscriber remove log files.
   • Access to Application Catalog. Lets the subscriber install applications on websites through the Control Panel.
   • Domain creation. Lets the subscriber add domains, create websites, and set up web forwardings.
   • Subdomains management. Lets the subscriber set up additional websites accessible by <subdomain>.<domain> addresses.
   • Domain aliases management. Lets the subscriber set up additional alternative domain names for their websites.
   • Additional FTP accounts management. Lets the subscriber manage additional FTP accounts for accessing the subscription's files and folders.
   • Java applications management. Lets the subscriber install Java applications on their websites.
   • Mailing lists management. Lets the subscriber use mailing lists provided by the GNU Mailman software.
   • Hosting performance management. Lets the subscriber set up limits on bandwidth usage and number of connections to their websites.
   • IIS application pool management (Windows hosting). Provides the dedicated IIS pool service, and lets the subscriber manage their IIS application pool: enable or disable it, and set up the maximum amount of CPU that the pool may use.
   • Additional write/modify permissions management (Windows hosting). Lets the subscriber toggle such hosting parameter as Additional write/modify permissions. These permissions are required if a subscriber's web applications use a file-based database (like Jet) located in the root of httpdocs folder. Please note that selecting this option might seriously compromise the websites security.
   • Shared SSL management (Windows hosting). Provides the shared SSL service, and lets the subscriber set up shared SSL links for their websites within the subscription.
   • Hard disk quota assignment. Lets the subscriber set up such hosting parameter as Hard disk quota.
   • Database server selection. Lets the subscriber select a database server of each type for creating their databases, as opposed to always using the default database server.
6. To configure hosting settings for websites, click the Hosting Parameters tab, and specify the following:
   • Enable hosting. Defines if the hosting service is actually provided with the plan.

     Clear this option to make up a service plan that provides only mail service. Subscribers of such a plan will be able to have 'domains without hosting' which will serve mailboxes.

   • Hard disk quota. Hard quota imposed on disk space in addition to the soft quota (set with the option Notify when reaching). Hard disk quota will not allow writing more files to the web space when the limit is reached: users will get an "Out of disk space" error at an attempt to write files.

     Note: (Linux/Unix hosting) Confirm that your operating system supports hard disk quota before you set any value other than Unlimited. In case you define a hard quota when it is not supported, you will get a synchronization conflict on all the plan's subscriptions. For details on syncing subscriptions with plans, refer to the Administrator's Guide, section Syncing Subscriptions and Plans.

   • SSL support. Allows setting up SSL encryption on websites hosted within the subscription.
   • Web statistics. Selects a statistics engine that will create reports on how the subscription's websites are visited: how many people visited a site, and which web pages they viewed. The accessible via password protected directory /plesk-stat/webstat option allows a subscriber view website statistics at URLs like https://example.com/plesk-stat/webstat using their system user account login and password.
   • Custom error documents. Allows subscribers to design and use their own error pages that the web server returns with HTTP error codes.
   • SSH access to server shell under the subscription's system user (Linux/Unix hosting). Allows subscribers to upload securely web content to the server through SSH.
   • Scripting. Support for programming and scripting languages that should be interpreted, executed or otherwise processed by a web server: Microsoft ASP.NET framework, PHP hypertext preprocessor (PHP), Common Gateway Interface (CGI), Perl, Python, Fast Common Gateway Interface (FastCGI), Microsoft or Apache Active Server Pages (ASP), Server Side Includes (SSI), ColdFusion, and Miva scripting required for running Miva e-commerce solutions.
   • Allow web users to use scripts. Allows scripting at web pages available at URLs like http://example.com/~<username>/<webpage>, where <username> refers to a web user. Web users are individuals who do not need their own domain names. This service is popular with educational institutions that host non-commercial personal pages of their students and staff.
   • Additional write/modify permissions (Windows hosting). This option is required if subscriber's web applications use a file-based database (like Jet) located in the root of httpdocs folder. Please note that selecting this option might seriously compromise the website security.
   • FrontPage support (Windows hosting). The options in the FrontPage support group allow subscribers to connect to the server and create websites with Microsoft Frontpage.
7. To configure mail service settings, click the Mail tab, and specify the following:
   • Webmail. Provides the webmail service, which allows users of mailboxes within the subscription to work with their mail through a web browser. Select the required webmail application from the menu.
   • Enable mailing lists. Turns on the mailing lists service provided by the GNU Mailman software on the subscription's websites.
   • Policy on mail for non-existent users. Defines how mail server should treat e-mail messages sent to e-mail addresses that are supposed to be registered under the subscription's domains but actually do not exist. The following options are available:
     • Bounce with message returns the mail back to sender with a notice.
     • Forward to address forwards the mail to another e-mail address.
     • Redirect to external mail server with IP address (on Windows hosting) forwards the mail to the specified mail server.
     • Reject silently rejects the mail without accepting it. This setting can decrease mail server load caused by a large amount of spam, which is often directed at randomly generated user names. However, this might be useful to spammers because scanning your mail server for valid e-mail addresses will speed up in such a case.
8. To configure the DNS server settings, click the DNS tab. Specify whether the DNS server managed by your Panel should act as a master (primary) or slave (secondary) name server for the domain name zones.

   A primary name server stores locally the zone file it serves, while a secondary server only retrieves a copy of this file from the primary. You would normally leave the Master option selected.

9. To configure hosting performance settings, click the Performance tab, and specify the following:
   • Use dedicated IIS application pool (Windows hosting). Enables the use of dedicated IIS application pool for web applications within the subscription. Using dedicated IIS application pool dramatically improves the stability of web applications due to worker process isolation mode. This mode gives each site hosted on the server a possibility to allocate a separate process pool for execution of its web applications. This way, malfunction in one application will not cause stopping of all the others. This is especially useful for shared hosting services.

     The Maximum CPU use (%) option limits the amount of the server CPU that the pool can use.

   • Maximum bandwidth usage. Defines the maximum speed in kilobytes per second that a domain can share between all its connections.
   • Connections limited to. Defines the maximum number of simultaneous connections to web server for all websites within the subscription. This setting is intended for preventing the websites from Denial of Service (DOS) attacks and excessive usage of bandwidth.
10. To configure the settings for keeping statistics and logs related to subscription, click the Logs & Statistics tab, and specify the following:
    • Retain web and traffic statistics. Sets a period (in months) for which reports on the subscription's web statistics (generated by selected web statistics component) and traffic statistics (generated by the Panel) should be available.
    • Log rotation. Enables automatic cleanup and recycling of web server log files. You can also switch on compression of processed log files and sending them to a specific e-mail address.
11. To finish creating the plan, click OK.

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