Preparing Servers to Be Used for Publishing User's Sites

In Plesk Sitebuilder, sites can be published to:

• FTP servers
• Virtuozzo Containers on servers running Parallels Business Automation, Standard
• Local Plesk Sitebuilder server using XCOPY technology

The default Plesk Sitebuilder license allows you to register only one publishing server (or host). To purchase a license with unlimited number of publishing servers, contact Parallels Sales. With this license, you can publish Plesk Sitebuilder sites to any FTP servers at your disposal, without having to register a new server in Plesk Sitebuilder first. (After you publish a site to a new host, this host is automatically registered in Plesk Sitebuilder.)

Host is a web server used for publishing web sites.

If the number of hosts is Unlimited, then users who have the permission to modify site publishing settings can also publish their sites to any available FTP servers. For users restricted from modifying the site publishing settings, you specify the publishing settings yourself. The permission to modify the site publishing settings, as well as a list of servers available to a particular user, is defined in the user's service plan.

Plan is a set of limits and permissions applied to a user account. The general purpose of a plan is to regulate distribution of the Plesk Sitebuilder resources, such as hosts, sites, modules, and so on among the users.

Before adding a server to be used for publishing Plesk Sitebuilder sites, make sure that the following requirements are met:

• ASP.NET 2.0.50727 or later is installed on the publishing server.

  For detailed information about configuring ASP.NET 2.0, refer to the ASP.NET 2.0 Deployment Guide.

• The working directory is mapped on the IIS server as web application.
• Application pool to which the working directory is assigned does not contain ASP.NET 1.1 applications.
• For the ASP.NET ISAPI to be executed, the working directory must have the Scripting permission enabled (working directory menu > Execute Permissions > Scripts Only).
• ASP.NET account has the following permissions:
  • If the App_Data folder does not exist, read/write/delete permission for the working directory is required.
  • If the App_Data folder exists, then read/write/delete permission for the App_Data folder and read permission for the working directory are required.

    Note: 1. If you use IIS 5.0, the above permissions should be given to the identity specified in /configuration/system.web/deployment/processModel/@userName of the %WINDIR%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\CONFIG\machine.config file.

              2. If you use IIS 6.0, the above permissions should be given to the application pool identity specified in IIS settings (Start > IIS Manager > Application Pools > respective application pool > Properties > Identity tab).

• IIS application pool identity (NETWORK SERVICE by default) must have permission to create files and folders in the %WINDIR%\temp folder.
• The order in which the default documents (default.htm, default.aspx, and so on) will be used to respond the browser request is defined (working directory menu > Properties > Documents tab).
• Publishing server works in the Medium Trust mode at least. If a server works in the Medium Trust mode, it must be granted with OleDbPermission for accessing Microsoft Access database and with WebPermission for some of the modules to work correctly.
  • OleDbPermission is set in the web_mediumtrust.config file, stored on the publishing server. By default, this permission is disabled. To grant this permission, you should add the OleDbPermission class to the following sections of the web_mediumtrust.config file:
    • SecurityClasses

      Example:

            <SecurityClass Name="OleDbPermission"

            Description="System.Data.OleDb.OleDbPermission, System.Data, Version=2.0.0.0,

                   Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089"/>

    • PermissionSet

      Example:

            <IPermission class="OleDbPermission" version="1" Unrestricted="true" />

  • WebPermission is set in the web_mediumtrust.config file. To grant this permission, add the WebPermission class to the PermissionSet section of the web_mediumtrust.config file.

    Example:

          <IPermission class="WebPermission" version="1" Unrestricted="true" />

    Note: The server where Plesk Sitebuilder is installed must work in the Full Trust mode.

  More detailed information about OleDbPermission you can find here.

  More detailed information about trust levels you can find here.

To register a publishing server in the system:

1. On the navigation pane, click Server.
2. Click Hosts.
3. Click Add New Host.
4. On the Host Settings tab, enter a host title in the Host title field.

   It can be any title that will be easy for you to remember and associate with a particular host.

5. In the IP address or DNS name field, enter an IP address or domain name of the host.

   Note: 1. Do not use loopback address (127.0.0.1) or domain name "localhost".

             2. You cannot create two hosts with the same IP address.

6. To set up SMTP server for sending e-mail notifications from sites:
   • Click the SMTP Settings tab.
   • In the SMTP server host field, enter the domain name of the SMTP server.
   • In the SMTP server port field, enter the number of port used for connection to the SMTP server.
   • In the SMTP server from address field, enter an e-mail address that will appear in the 'From' field of notifications.
   • If the SMTP server is password protected, click Change Password and provide the credentials.
7. Click OK.

To verify that a publishing server meets all the Plesk Sitebuilder requirements, go to Sites > site name > Publishing Settings tab, specify all the required parameters and click Verify Location.

To make a publishing server available to a user, include the server into this user's service plan (on the Hosts tab) and make sure that the corresponding publishing mode is also included in the plan (on the Publishing Settings tab). For information on configuring service plans for users, see the next chapter.