ISSUE: Logging into Plesk fails and you receive the following message:

ERROR: PleskMainDBException
<b>Source:</b> Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server<br/><b>Description:</b> Cannot open database "psa" requested by the login. The login failed.

0: plib\common_func.php3:600
 db_mssql_connection()
1: plib\common_func.php3:629
 reconnect()
2: plib\common_func.php3:590
 db_connect()
3: auto_prepend\auth.php3:87

CAUSE: This happens when Plesk is not able to log into its PSA database. The most common causes for this are:
1) SQL is not running
2) The "admin" user's password was changed.

RESOLUTION:
Part 1: Reset the "admin" password in SQL.

1. Log into the server via remote desktop
2. Ensure that SQL is running.
3. Open up SQL Server Management Studio and connect to the local server.
4. In Management Studio, Go to Security > Logins.
5. Right-Click on the "admin" user and select "Properties"
6. Under "Password" and "Confirm Password", type in the new password and then click "OK"

Part 2: Reset the "admin" password in Plesk.

1. Click on Start > Run. Type "cmd" and press enter.
2.  In the command prompt, type (the quotes are required): "%plesk_bin%\PleskSrvClient.exe"
3.  A "Set Plesk Admin Password" dialog will appear. It will display an error message indicating that it can not connect to the Plesk SQL Server. That is OK.
4.  Type in the same password you typed above and then click "OK" followed by "Yes".
5.  You will now be able to log into Plesk with the password you entered.

Problem:
You have lost your Plesk Admin password and cannot retrieve via Email.

Resolution

Apart from the password reminder available on the login screen, you can use theplesksrvclient.exe utility located in %plesk_bin% folder to set up a new password or retrieve the old one. 

You could set the new passsword by running the following command:


You could also get the current password by running this utility with:


To retrieve password in command line you can use -nogui option:

E.g. 


After that you can see retrieved Plesk password in plesk_password.txt file.

Parallels Plesk 9 for Windows brings a whole suite of new features to further enhance the popular hsoting control panel software. All of AUSWEB's Windows VPS hosting solutions come with the option of installing Plesk 9 for only an additonal $29.95 per month.

Plesk provides four tiers of administration: admin, client, domain, and mail name user. All can perform various tasks at remote locations via any standard Internet browser. The following capabilities are provided:

Plesk users do not need to know the operating system in order to use Plesk. Also, the Plesk software is easy to install. Plesk must be installed on a clean server in one dedicated host. The installation procedure is automated, informing you of system changes and progress at each step. There are no complex commands to learn and no technical information to know.

This section focuses on description of the specific features of Plesk web-based interface.

Plesk DNS named.conf Issue - Zone file and corresponding record in named.conf are missed for particular domain

Symptoms:

Occasionally Plesk can be a little temperamental and suspend accounts over expired validity errors. Attempting to "unsuspend" the account from your Plesk control panel will generally fail, and you will need to activate the domain by force using the command line.

In Windows, goto Start -> Run and cd to your Plesk "bin" folder - typically c:\Program Files\Parallels\Plesk\admin\bin

Then type the following: domain.exe --on yourdomain.com

This can take a little time but you should see "SUCCESS, status of domain changed" once finished, and the domain will also appear as "Active" again from your Plesk Control Panel.

To alleviate security concerns it is recommended that you use a security measure, allowing to restrict access to control panel with administrator privileges from certain IP's. You can make use of this function by creating a list of IP addresses to which a restriction policy will be applied, two modes are available:

Firewall is a protection measure aimed at prohibiting specific incoming network connections that may be used to compromise your server.

Plesk Firewall operates on the base of rules, which specify parameters of connections, which are to be blocked or passed through.

You can set the following parameters for any user session in Plesk:

One of the new features of the IIS 6.0 web server is worker process isolation mode where each web site has the 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.

Plesk allows to specify the Microsoft ASP.NET configuration settings that most commonly need to be customized in order for ASP.NET applications to function in a desirable way.

You can set up the server-wide framework configuration that will be the default configuration for all domains registered in the system. The ASP.NET configuration can be adjusted for a certain domain as well (see the Setting Up ASP.NET Configuration section in the Administering Domains chapter).

You can set manually the server date and time through the interface and enable server time synchronization with the Network Time Protocol (NTP) server. To manage the system date and time settings, follow these steps:

You can configure the following server-wide mail system settings:

As the administrator (server owner) you can get commissions on purchases made by your customers via My.Plesk.com service: domain registration, renewal, transfers, purchases of SSL certificates and third-party tools or services. To do this, you need to create a My.Plesk.com account and register your server (Plesk instance) with it. After that you will be able to track the purchases made by your customers via MPC and earn commissions. You can register multiple servers with a single My.Plesk.com account.

An SSL certificate represents a set of rules used when exchanging encrypted information between two computers. Certificates ensure secure communications; this is especially important when handling e-commerce transactions and other private transmittals. Only authorized users can access and read an encrypted data stream.

SSL stands for "Secure Socket Layer" and you can use this feature to protect all data exchanged between your Web site and the client. Shared SSL is a means of secure Web server access without requiring users to purchase a digital key.