Installing Parallels Plesk Panel for Windows Using the GUI

To install Parallels Plesk Panel for Windows on your server using the GUI:

Log in to your system as Administrator or another user with Administrator privileges.
Make sure that you have the Parallels Plesk Panel installation package ready. You can download the required Parallels Plesk Panel installation package from Parallels Web site at http://www.parallels.com.
Run the Parallels Plesk Panel installer by running the SetupPlesk.exe file.
The installer will check your system for required components and determine whether your system is ready to install Parallels Plesk Panel or not. If some of the required components are missing, the installer will run Parallels Plesk Panel for Windows Prerequisites Wizard to install the missing components. In this case, click Next > to proceed with the installing the components and click Next > again after the required components are installed.
After the installation of the required components is complete, Parallels Plesk Panel installer will display a welcome message. Click Next > to proceed.
If you have an earlier version of Parallels Plesk Panel installed on your server, you will be prompted to update your version of Parallels Plesk Panel to the current Parallels Plesk Panel for Windows version. Refer to the chapter Updating Earlier Versions of Parallels Plesk Panel for Windows to the Latest Version for more information.
Read the license agreement. Select the I accept the license agreement option, if you agree with all terms and conditions stated in the license agreement, and click Next > to proceed.
If your server already hosts domains on IIS 6.0 or mail accounts on a mail server supported by Parallels Plesk Panel, you will be prompted to migrate the existing data to Parallels Plesk Panel. Refer to the In-Place Migration to Parallels Plesk Panel for Windows Administrator's Guide for more information.
Choose the installation paths for Parallels Plesk Panel and its applications (Destination Folder), Parallels Plesk Panel and its applications data (Application Data Folder) and virtual hosts data (Virtual Hosts Destination Folder). Click Next > to proceed.
Choose the required installation type (Typical, Complete or Custom) and click Next >.
- Selecting Typical will install all available Parallels Plesk Panel components included in Parallels Plesk Panel distribution, except the following:
  - Parallels Plesk Panel documentation in PDF format
  - Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition
  - Kaspersky Antivirus
  - Tomcat and Java 2 SDK
  - Python script engine
- Selecting Complete will install all available Parallels Plesk Panel components included in Parallels Plesk Panel distribution.
- Selecting Custom will allow you to choose the Parallels Plesk Panel components you want to install, including Parallels Plesk Panel database engine and Parallels Plesk Panel Web server engine.
  Note: Sitebuilder for Windows is integrated in Parallels Plesk Panel and is installed with Parallels Plesk Panel by default. You can choose not to install it by clearing the corresponding option during Custom installation.
1. If you chose Custom installation, the next screen will prompt you to choose the Parallels Plesk Panel engine components (database and web server) you want to use. Select the required components and click Next >.
  You have the following choice of Parallels Plesk Panel database engines:
  - MySQL. MySQL database can be used to ensure the compatibility with earlier versions of Parallels Plesk Panel. This engine is used by default when upgrading Parallels Plesk Panel from versions earlier than 7.6.
  - Microsoft Access. Select this database engine if you wish Parallels Plesk Panel to use less server resources, but operate slower. This engine is used by default for Parallels Plesk Panel installation.
  - Microsoft SQL Server. Select this database engine if you wish Parallels Plesk Panel to use more server resources and operate faster.
  You can choose the following web server engines for Parallels Plesk Panel:
  - Internet Information Services (IIS). This engine is used by default for Parallels Plesk Panel installation. It is also used when upgrading Parallels Plesk Panel from 7.5.
  - Apache Web Server. Select this option to use Apache Web Server for Parallels Plesk Panel installation.
2. Select the Parallels Plesk Panel components you would like to install and click Next >. You can click Reset to reset the components selection to the default values.
3. If you chose not to install MSSQL Server during the selection of Parallels Plesk Panel components to be installed, you will be prompted to specify the parameters of local MSSQL Server instance (host name and administrator's login with password). This is required if you selected Microsoft SQL Server as Parallels Plesk Panel database engine or if you chose to install Sitebuilder for Windows. Otherwise, if you do not want to use MSSQL Server, you can select the Don't use Microsoft SQL Server check box and click Next >.
Specify the administrator password for default login ("admin") used for accessing Parallels Plesk Panel after the installation.
The password cannot be shorter than 4 symbols and longer than 15 symbols. For security reasons, the password should be more than 8 symbols, and it should comprise a combination of letters, numbers, and punctuation; dictionary words and proper names should be avoided.
Leave the Enable Shared W3WP Desktop check box selected if you want IIS to allocate one shared desktop for all World Wide Web Worker Processes to optimize server memory usage. Click Next > to proceed with the installation.
Windows has a notion of desktops where applications write their output to. By default, IIS allocates a new desktop for each application pool it creates. However, application pools do not have any graphical output and this could be a waste of memory to allocate separate desktops for each of them. Leaving the Enable the use of a Shared W3WP Desktop check box selected allows IIS to allocate one shared desktop for all World Wide Web Worker Processes (W3WP). Note that sometimes this setting could cause problems. Use the following Microsoft resources to obtain more information on this topic:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;184802

http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/f/?en/library/70bd36c1-fa5e-4da4-8daf-2a71916e5c031033.mspx
Parallels Plesk Panel installer will notify you that clicking Next > will install Parallels Plesk Panel with selected options. Click Next > to proceed.
The installer will start the components installation process. If you are using Web installer, it will connect to the Parallels Web site, download the components you selected, and install them. When the installation of Parallels Plesk Panel components is finished, the installer will notify you that Parallels Plesk Panel for Windows was successfully installed. Click Finish to finish the installation process.

Parallels Plesk Panel will start working right after the installation is finished. If you chose to install Acronis True Image Module, Parallels Plesk Panel will ask you to restart the system. After the restart, Parallels Plesk Panel launches automatically.

To complete the initial configuration of Parallels Plesk Panel, log in to the Parallels Plesk Panel running on your host at https://machine.domain.name:8443/ or https://IP-address:8443/. Use the username admin and password setup (both are case sensitive). For security reasons, change the password upon initial login. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the initial configuration of Parallels Plesk Panel. For more information on post-installation configuration of Parallels Plesk Panel, refer to the Parallels Plesk Panel Administrator's Guide.

Note: In Parallels Plesk Panel there is a port not protected by a secure SSL connection at http://machine.domain.name:8880/ or http://IP-address:8880/. This port is also used for RSS news feeds and Virtuozzo Power Panel.