Installing Plesk on Linux, FreeBSD and Mac OS

If you have one or few servers to which you wish to install Plesk, you should follow the instructions provided below in this section. If you need to install Plesk on numerous servers, please refer to the chapter Installing Plesk on Numerous Servers.

If you have not partitioned your hard drive yet, see the article at http://kb.swsoft.com/article_17_819_en.html on partitioning tips.

Prior to installing Plesk on FreeBSD, you should add the 'kern_securelevel_enable="NO"' entry to the /etc/rc.conf file on your server's file system, and then restart your server.

To install Plesk software on a server:

1. Download the Auto-installer utility that suits your operating system from http://www.swsoft.com/en/download/plesk8/ and save it on your server's hard drive.
2. Change your working directory to the directory where the Auto-installer utility resides, for instance:

   # cd /root/plesk

3. Set the execution permission for Auto-installer:

   # chmod +x plesk_auto_installer_file_name

4. Run the Auto-installer:

   # ./plesk_auto_installer_file_name

5. Read installation notes displayed on the screen and type 'n' to proceed to the next screen. Press ENTER.
6. Specify the source of Plesk distribution package.

   You can choose to install from a local medium, the official Plesk update server, or another site. By default, the official Plesk update server is selected.

   If you wish to retrieve installation files from a local medium or network storage:

   1. Type 's' and press ENTER.
   2. To choose a local medium, type 1. To choose a network storage device, type 3. Press ENTER.
   3. If you chose a local medium, specify the location of psa.inf configuration file. If you chose a network storage, specify the address. For example, http://example.com, http://192.168.10.10, ftp://192.168.10.10.
   4. When finished selecting the source, type 'n' to proceed to the next step and press ENTER.
7. If you use a proxy server, specify the following settings:
   1. Proxy host name and port number. To specify them, type 's', type the host name, type the port number, press ENTER to continue.
   2. User name and password. If this proxy server requires authentication, type 'a', press ENTER, type user name and press ENTER, type password and press ENTER.
   3. When finished with specifying proxy settings, type 'n' and press ENTER to continue with installation.
8. Select the product version that you wish to install: type the number corresponding to the product version you need and press ENTER, then type 'n' and press ENTER to continue.
9. Select the components that you wish to install or upgrade.

   By default, all packages are selected, including Plesk modules. The selected packages are marked with [*] symbols. The packages that are already installed and do not require updating are marked with [=] symbols. To select or deselect a package, type the respective number and press ENTER.

10. To continue with installation, type 'n' and press ENTER. When prompted, confirm installing: type 'n' and press ENTER again.

    The packages will be downloaded and installed. When the installation is finished, Plesk will have started automatically.

11. Now to complete the initial configuration, log in to the Plesk control 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.

Once the installation is completed, a trial license key is installed for evaluation purposes. See the chapter Installing License Keys to learn how to obtain and install a new fully functional license key for your Plesk.