Parallels H-Sphere 3.6.1 Guide
Annons
Annons
Parallels H-Sphere 3.6.1 Administrator
Guide
Parallels H-Sphere 3.6.1
Revision 1.0
Legal and Copyright Notice
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All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Contents
Introduction To Parallels H-Sphere 18
Parallels H-Sphere Licensing 27
Preface
4
Control Panel Web Interface 101
Preface
Control Panel Configuration 123
5
Step 2. Associating Top Level Domains with Domain Registrars ................................... 149
Preface
6
Preface
7
Preface
2. Activate Webmoney payments in your Parallels H-Sphere control panel ................... 237
8
Preface
9
Preface
10
Preface
11
Preface
12
Preface
13
Preface 14
Parallels Virtuozzo Containers 519
Parallels Sitebuilder Integration 525
C H A P T E R 1
Preface
In this chapter:
Typographical Conventions
Before you start using this guide, it is important to understand the documentation conventions used in it.
The following kinds of formatting in the text identify special information.
Formatting convention Type of Information
Special Bold
Italics
Monospace
Example
Items you must select, such as menu options, command buttons, or items in a list.
Titles of chapters, sections, and subsections.
Used to emphasize the importance of a point, to introduce a term or to designate a command line placeholder, which is to be replaced with a real name or value.
The names of commands, files, directories, and domain names.
Go to the System tab.
Read the Basic
Administration
chapter.
The system supports the so called wildcard character search.
The license file is located in the http://docs/common/ licenses directory.
16 Preface
Preformatted
Preformatted
Bold
On-screen computer output in your commandline sessions; source code in XML, C++, or other programming languages.
What you type, contrasted with on-screen computer output.
# ls –al /files total 14470
# cd /root/rpms/php
CAPITALS Names of keys on the keyboard.
SHIFT, CTRL, ALT
KEY+KEY Key combinations for which the user must press and hold down one key and then press another.
CTRL+P, ALT+F4
Feedback
If you have found a mistake in this guide, or if you have suggestions or ideas on how to improve this guide, please send your feedback using the online form at http://www.parallels.com/en/support/usersdoc/ . Please include in your report the guide's title, chapter and section titles, and the fragment of text in which you have found an error.
C H A P T E R 2
About This Guide
Parallels H-Sphere Administrator guide aims at hosting providers and explains how to configure and administer Parallels H-Sphere control panel.
C H A P T E R 3
Introduction To Parallels H-Sphere
Parallels H-Sphere is a comprehensive hosting automation system that allows you to provide a heterogeneous operating system environment to your customers across multiple servers. It can manage hosting servers located in various data centers.
Parallels H-Sphere can have a multiple server layout, called a cluster. The main server in the cluster is the actual Parallels H-Sphere Control Panel, a web application with graphical interface, which centralizes all hosting management tasks, controls all hosting servers and services, manages users, domains, events, and processes. Through
Parallels H-Sphere web interface, you can configure and manage these and other
subsystems, other servers (on page 18), user accounts and domains, etc. All system
data, such as billing, domain, and other info, is stored in the Postgres system database.
The Control panel consists of many subsystems, the major of them described below.
In this chapter:
User/Account/Domain Management .................................................................. 22
Introduction To Parallels H-Sphere 19
DNS Management
All DNS is managed by Parallels H-Sphere.
A typical Parallels H-Sphere setup requires one service domain name ( example.com
) which is used as:
the control panel domain ( cp.example.com:8080 or cp.example.com:8443 ),
web server domain ( web1.example.com
, web2.example.com
),
name server domain ( ns1.example.com
, ns2.example.com
), etc.
It can also be used for third level hosting (on page 100) and instant access domain
aliases (on page 89), as well as to host the corporate (promotional) website. (on page
The most typical configuration is to have two DNS servers, each on a separate box. In
case of one-server installations, you can put two DNS servers on one box (on page 49).
By default, Parallels H-Sphere randomly assigns primary and secondary DNS servers for each domain to balance server load. If you want, you can assign master and slave roles to DNS logical servers.
Parallels H-Sphere creates a zone file for each domain name on both name servers, and allows end users to create custom DNS records through a web interface.
You can find more info on DNS Server Configuration in Understanding DNS Server
Configuration documentation in System Administrator Guide.
20 Introduction To Parallels H-Sphere
Server Management
We differentiate between physical and logical servers.
Physical servers (on page 35) are actually or virtually separate computers with their
own operating systems (Linux, FreeBSD Unix, or Windows). They can be emulated with VMWare or other software packages.
Logical servers (on page 38) are programs that run on physical servers and process
client requests. For instance when we talk about web, mail, DNS, mysql and other servers, we mean logical servers. A physical server can have one or more logical servers running.
Logical servers of the same nature and purpose make a server group (on page 67). In
case of multiserver installations, logical servers of the same group are located on different physical servers, and Parallels H-Sphere randomly chooses from them to create user accounts, which evens server load and disk space usage.
In most instances, Parallels H-Sphere operates with logical servers, not physical
servers. We work with logical servers when we add IPs (on page 45), configure system
SMTP relays (on page 55), assign mail server roles, assign name server roles (on page
User Signup
To use hosting services, users (site owners and resellers) need to sign up for a hosting plan.
Parallels H-Sphere offers fully automated user signup (on page 445) through the signup
wizard. Depending on the billing type and signup settings, accounts may not be created
until moderated by administrator (on page 452). For instance, an account may not be
immediately created because it was blacklisted by Signup Guard (on page 455) or
because the user doesn't pay with a credit card.
Depending on the plan, access to the signup wizard can be unrestricted (available
"from the street") or allowed only from the admin control panel. Registration "from the street" can be performed by anybody without admin's interaction. Registration from the admin control panel goes through exactly the same steps, but can be performed only by the administrator. The latter is the only way to sign users up for publicly unavailable plans.
Introduction To Parallels H-Sphere 21
Billing And Plan Management
Parallels H-Sphere comes with a complete billing solution. When users sign up, buy or use hosting resources, it calculates user charges based on the prices you have specified and charges them to users' credit cards. When credit card charges don't apply, customer payments are added manually in the admin control panel. For more, see Introduction to Billing and Introduction to Plans.
Merchant Gateway Management
Parallels H-Sphere can work with credit card processors and web based payment systems to collect payments from customers. To enable a connection with either of these, you need to configure a connection with the corresponding server.
C REDIT C ARD P ROCESSORS .
Parallels H-Sphere offers complete automation with credit card processing. To charge an amount to a customer's credit card, Parallels H-Sphere connects to the merchant gateway server and sends an http request. Next, it waits for a response, and once the success confirmation is received, respective changes are made to the account balance.
Merchant Gateway Manager allows you to set up different merchant gateway accounts for different types of credit cards. For instance, you can process VISA cards with
Authorize.Net, and MasterCard, with Verisign PayFlowPro. This way you can maximize your profits by processing every type of credit card with the gateway that offers the lowest rate for this type of card. For more, see Merchant Gateway Manager (on page
W EB B ASED P AYMENT S YSTEMS .
Parallels H-Sphere partially automates payments through
web based payment gateways, including WorldPay (on page 238), PayPal, 2CheckOut
(on page 228), GestPay (on page 232), PaySystems, and PayNova (on page 233).
Once you have registered an account with one of these gateways, you enter the account details in Parallels H-Sphere. Every time a user chooses to pay, Parallels H-
Sphere passes account ID, amount payable, and possibly other details to the gateway.
The user is then taken to the gateway's web interface to enter the credit card number and complete the transaction. When you receive the payment, you need to credit this
user's account (on page 409) through the Parallels H-Sphere admin interface, as in
processing check payments (on page 444). As a result, Parallels H-Sphere doesn't
store credit card numbers of customers using web payment systems. For more, see
Web Payment Systems Manager (on page 226).
22 Introduction To Parallels H-Sphere
User/Account/Domain Management
On the user side, Parallels H-Sphere operates with three different tiers: users, accounts, and domains.
U SERS .
A user, for the most part, is nothing but a login and password to enter Parallels
H-Sphere control panel. One user can have many accounts (control panels) created under the same or different plans, and switch between them without having to log in every time.
A CCOUNTS .
Parallels H-Sphere primarily operates with accounts, not users. One account equals one license and one control panel with its own billing and interface settings. This means an account has its own balance, billing profiles, invoices, etc. The unique thing about each account is the numeric account ID. One user can have many accounts created under different plans and platforms, for instance an account under a Unix plan
for SSH access (on page 448) and an account under a Windows plan for ODBC or
ColdFusion hosting.
D OMAINS .
Domains represent the third tier in the end-user side hierarchy. Your customers can have as many domains as they want under their one control panel license, unless you limit the domains they can have. In terms of a web server, a domain is little more than a correspondence to a web-site. Domains within one account share one control panel (one menu tree with the same look and feel), and, having no traffic usage or disk quota of their own, are billed in bulk with the same invoices.
Understanding Accounts, Domains, and Users (on page 274)
Introduction To Parallels H-Sphere 23
Resellers
The Reseller feature allows you to sell your hosting services through resellers. Unlike in other control panels, resellers in Parallels H-Sphere do not resell your plans. Rather, they sell your hosting resources such as disk space, traffic, mailboxes, etc. at retail prices, and are charged for them at wholesale prices. In other words, you set wholesale prices and allow your resellers to group your resources into their own plans and define
their own retail prices for them. More on Billing Resellers (on page 379)
With the reseller admin CP, each reseller gets a private label hosting system, which leaves you completely invisible to the end customer even at user signup and domain registration. Resellers can have their own independent control panel URL, DNS server names, company information, and all other parameters visible from the user's control panel. They will appear to end customers as totally independent hosting companies.
Furthermore, reseller control panels are inaccessible by IP, which excludes the possibility of accidental or intentional visits to your control panel URL.
Through their admin interface, resellers can customize the default look and feel of their users' control panels. They can change colors, replace all control panel images with those of their own, edit many texts, change the default control panel language and the currency of end user payments, etc. in exactly the same manner as it is done by the master admin.
24 Introduction To Parallels H-Sphere
Domain Management
There are several options to setting up a domain in Parallels H-Sphere:
R EGISTER A NEW DOMAIN .
Parallels H-Sphere allows automatic registration of standard second level domains right from the user control panel. It supports the regisrtation of all TLDs supported by Enom or OpenSRS in real time. You can configure
Parallels H-Sphere to associate different TLDs with different registrars using the
Domain Registrar Manager (on page 147). TLDs with non-automatic registration,
including most regional domains, can be requested by the end user and then manually registered by the admin through the Email Domain Registrar (on page
T RANSFER an existing domain. Users can transfer domains they have been using outside Parallels H-Sphere. After the transfer, users will need to update their info on the root DNS servers.
Set up a THIRD LEVEL DOMAIN . Users can set up domains based on the service domain, such as userdomain.servicedomain.com
.
Set up a WEBSITE WITHOUT A REGULAR DOMAIN NAME .
Such websites have all basic functionalities and are accessible from the web at automatically generated addresses based on the service domain, such as
123.uNNNN.servicedomain.com
.
P ARK A DOMAIN . This allows you to use Parallels H-Sphere DNS server for mapping
IPs and domain names serviced and hosted elsewhere.
Create an ACCOUNT WITHOUT ANY DOMAIN . The user will be given disk space on the web server with FTP access, but no DNS to set up a website.
Introduction To Parallels H-Sphere 25
SSL
Parallels H-Sphere recognizes the following uses and types of SSL certificates:
W EBSITE SSL
- users can install SSL certificates one per website right from their user control panels. For instance, a user can set up a certificate on user.com to have the user.com website secured with SSL. This can be installed only on websites with dedicated IPs.
S HARED SSL
uses wildcard certificates to secure third level domains. For instance, if provider.com is a service domain offered for third level hosting, you can set up a wildcard certificate on provider.com to secure domains like user1.provider.com and
user2.provider.com. More>> (on page 133)
CP SSL
- you can secure your control panel with a regular SSL certificate. At this point,
CP SSL is installed from the command line on the CP server.
R ESELLER CP SSL
- you can configure your Parallels H-Sphere to let resellers secure their
control panels with regular SSL certificates. More>> (on page 381)
R ESELLER S HARED SSL
- resellers can install wildcard certificates to secure their customers'
websites. More>> (on page 387)
D ELEGATED S HARED SSL
- you can allow your resellers to offer their customers your service domain for third level hosting and wildcard certificate installed on it.
M AIL SSL
- you can install SSL on the service DNS zone to secure mail sent and received by your customers' mail clients (such as Outlook Express). Mail SSL is enabled globally in the system for all end users, including those under resellers. It is
available only to master admin. More>> (on page 137)
26 Introduction To Parallels H-Sphere
Support Center
Parallels H-Sphere Support Center includes Ticket Center, Knowledge Base, and
Custom Jobs modules.
T ICKET C ENTER .
Trouble tickets can be created either from any place in the user control panel or from email messages. Parallels H-Sphere periodically polls support mailbox, converts incoming messages into trouble tickets, and puts them in the general queue where they can be picked up, assigned to other administrators, answered, and closed.
Depending on how they were created, answered tickets are emailed back to the customers or show up in the ticket center of end users' control panels. Support personnel can exchange notes on tickets - the notes are invisible to customers. More on Providing Customer Support
K NOWLEDGE B ASE .
Administrators can add common questions and answers to a centralized location, group them by categories, and perform search by keywords. The knowledge base is integrated with the ticket center to suggest answers to typical
questions. More on Knowledge Base (on page 503)
C USTOM J OBS .
Parallels H-Sphere also offers an interface to track additional services offered to resellers or end users, such as web design and development, installation, migration, and alike. The list of custom jobs and their status can be viewed from the
customer's interface. More on Custom Jobs (on page 509)
Look and Feel Management
Parallels H-Sphere comes with a few skins users can choose from. Different skins offer different navigation schemes:
XP Reloaded - default left-menu skin since Parallels H-Sphere 3.1.
XPressia
- pages are accessible from the horizontal JavaScript navigation bar AND icons on the home page.
Left Menu - although this skin has a quick access page linking to the most frequently used pages, the principal navigation is through the left side menu.
No Menu - pages are accessible from clicking navigation icons on the home page.
Each of the skins has a text based variation where navigation icons are replaced with text links.
As administrator, you can configure interface settings, including images and icons (on
page 104), default skins and colors (on page 108), interface texts (on page 107), and
notification e-mails (on page 115).
The administrator can also allow users to choose preferred skins and languages.
C H A P T E R 4
Parallels H-Sphere Licensing
Parallels H-Sphere 3.6.1 uses a unified Parallels key administration system for licensing.
You will need a new license key if you are going to:
Purchase or lease Parallels H-Sphere 3.6.1 or higher
Upgrade earlier Parallels H-Sphere versions to the latest version
Upgrade the number of accounts
Purchasing and Leasing Parallels H-Sphere
Before installing Parallels H-Sphere, go to http://www.parallels.com/store/hsphere/ to purchase or lease Parallels H-Sphere.
Every new license purchase includes 12 months of Software Update Service (SUS) that entitles you to version upgrade licenses throughout the life of your SUS. You will be required in order to receive further upgrades. All leased license keys (monthly) include
SUS.
After a fresh installation, when you first log into the Parallels H-Sphere control panel, you will see the prompt to enter the license from the file. Add the purchased license as described below. After the license has been added successfully, you will see the license details on the License Info page.
Upgrading to Parallels H-Sphere 3.6.1 or higher
Before upgrading earlier Parallels H-Sphere versions to 3.6.1 or higher, make sure to upgrade your key
at https://www.parallels.com/hsphere/key_upgrade/
Parallels H-Sphere keys can be updated to support newer versions of the software when they are SUS enabled. When the SUS feature of your key is up-to-date, you can perform the upgrade of the key without extra costs. In case you run out of this service, please contact our sales representatives in order to renew/reinstate it.
Warning: Old Parallels H-Sphere licenses are incompatible with Parallels licenses!
Also, no backward compatibility is provided for Parallels licenses on Parallels H-Sphere
3.1 Patch 1 and earlier.
Important: When you upgrade Parallels H-Sphere from 3.1 Patch 1 or earlier, you would lose your older license and would not be able to enter your control panel unless you apply a new license. So you must upgrade your license
before the upgrade.
28 Parallels H-Sphere Licensing
To upgrade the license:
1. Click License Info in the Parallels H-Sphere control panel menu.
2. Add the purchased license key. You have two ways of adding the license key:
Under
License Code Activation
in the
Activate Code field, enter the
Key Activation
Code and click
Activate
.
Under License File in the License Key File field, click Upload, then click Browse to choose the license key file (you could add the license key either zipped or in
XML format), then click Submit.
After that, you will get the details of the applied key in the page:
Key Number
: license key identifier
Key Version
: a number which is incremented each time you upgrade your license.
When you add the license for the first time, its value will be 0001 .
Auto Update Date : the date when Parallels H-Sphere will try to automatically update the license.
Expiration Date
: 10 days after the Auto Update Date are given to the Parallels H-
Sphere administrator to update the license manually if the automatic update fails or not possible.
H-Sphere Version
: Parallels H-Sphere version the license is applicable to.
Accounts
: the number of accounts this license is provided for.
Physical Servers
,
Resellers
,
Staff Members
: the license may restrict the number of physical servers, resellers, or administrator accounts in the Control Panel.
Sitebuilder Support
: Parallels H-Sphere now comes with Parallels SiteBuilder integration (reserved for future implementation).
Sharepoint Support
,
SiteStudio Support
,
MS Exchange Support
,
VPS Support
: support for legacy Parallels H-Sphere features.
Upgrading Parallels H-Sphere Accounts
If you want to upgrade the number of accounts that your key holds, you can do that through our online store at http://www.parallels.com/store/hsphere/upgrades .
C H A P T E R 5
Getting Started
This document explains what you need to do in order to set up your hosting system with minimum required configuration, considering the following:
We presume that you have purchased Parallels H-Sphere license, installed
Parallels H-Sphere system, configured and tested it.
A standard Parallels H-Sphere installation sets up a service dns zone (on page 87),
reseller CP alias, and an instant alias template (on page 89), creates a wwwuser
account for hosting your corporate site (on page 97).
Follow the given instructions step by step to configure your control panel.
In this chapter:
Step 3. Configure Mail Notification Addresses ................................................... 31
30 Getting Started
Step1. Disable Global Resources
Skip this step if you're not going to disable any resources, hosting platforms or logical servers.
You can globally disable resources, hosting platforms, CP designs, dedicated of virtual private servers, etc. if you don't offer them to your customers.
1. Go to
Plans
- >
Globals
in your Admin CP.
2. On the page that shows, uncheck the resources and/or hosting platform you want to be entirely disabled in the system and submit changes. This will affect all your plans and those of resellers. However, only new sing ups, but not your current accounts, are subject to such changes.
To disable resources and platforms only for specific plans:
1. Go to
Plans
- >
Manage
menu and click to edit the existing plan via Plan
Edit Wizard.
2. Go through Plan Edit Wizard and submit it step by step without changing prices.
Getting Started 31
Step 2. Set up a Domain Registrar
Domain registrars need to be added and configured to allow customers to register second level domains directly from their control panels.
1. Select
Domain Registrar
in the
Settings
menu.
2. Select a domain registrar in the
Add New Registrar
drop down box and click
Add
.
3. Enter this domain registrar properties. Check with Domain Registrar
Manager (on page 147) for detailed instructions.
4. In the
Set Active
drop down box, select this domain registrar.
5. In the
TLD
drop down box, select the top level domain you would like to associate with this registrar.
6. Click the
Activate
button.
7. Click
Define Terms/Prices
button for the new record that appeared.
Enter prices for each time period and click
Submit Query
.
Step 3. Configure Mail Notification
Addresses
To subscribe your staff to receive copies of user e-mail notifications:
1. Go to the
Settings
menu - >
Notifications
- >
Notification Recipients
.
2. On the page that appears add subscribers to mailing lists you choose.
32 Getting Started
Step 4. Set up Payment Settings
On this step you can configure Parallels H-Sphere to process credit cards, accept check payments and perform online web payments for the services you provide.
To configure credit card processing through Merchant Gateway Manager
(on page 171):
1. Go to the
Settings
menu ->
Payment Settings
->
CC Brands
and add necessary CC brands.
2. Go to the
Settings
menu ->
Payment Settings
->
Merchant Gateway
and add necessary merchant gateway from the drop down menu and click
Add
.
3. In the Set Active drop down box, select this merchant gateway. You can have only one active merchant gateway at a time.
4. In the
Payment Type
drop down box, select the CC brand you would like to process with this merchant gateway.
5. Click the
Activate
button.
To configure Web Payment Processor (on page 226), like PayPal or
2CheckOut:
1. Go to the
Settings
menu ->
Payment Settings
->
Merchant Gateway
.
2. Select the payment system from the drop-down menu and click
Edit
:
3. Enter your account settings. Once you enter correct settings, the web payment system will appear in the list as Active
To configure Processing Check Payments (on page 444):
1. Go to the
Settings
menu ->
Payment Settings
->
Merchant Gateway
.
2. Enable
Accept Checks
.
Getting Started 33
Step 5. Create Plans
Now that your control panel is configured, you can create hosting plans.
1. Go to
Plans
->
Create
and click
Select
next to the plan to start the wizard.
2. Enter the name of the plan at the top of the page.
3. Select the resources (features) you would like to include in the plan.
Make sure to leave
Service Domain
unchecked.
4. In the last section of the wizard, make sure to enter
Credit limit
, e.g. 10 and click
Next
to proceed.
5. Enter prices and free units for each type of resource and click the
Create button at the bottom of the page.
6. Go to
Plans
->
Manage
and turn this plan ON for signups.
Now your control panel is ready for signing up users (on page 445). Please read all
documentation before using Parallels H-Sphere as a production system.
Step 6. Create Billing Periods
Each plan can have several billing periods with different price discounts for each. You can't delete billing periods, but you can change their duration. For instance, if you create a billing period for 1 year and you find out you don't need it, you can change it to
3 months.
To create a billing period for a plan:
1. Go to
Plans
->
Manage
and click
Settings
in the
Advanced
section.
2. Scroll down to the
Payment Intervals
and click
Add
.
3. Specify the duration of the billing period. For instance, to make it 3 months long, select MONTH and enter 3 in the
Size
box.
4. Optionally, enter discounts. For instance, if you want to cancel any setup fee for this billing period, enter 100 in the
Setup Discount
field.
5. Click
Submit
. This will add the billing period to the list.
34 Getting Started
Step 7. Configure Support Center
Support Center is the web-based means of providing customer support.
To configure your Support Center:
1. Go to
Plans
->
Create
menu and choose
Administrator Plan Wizard
.
2. Enter
TechSupport Admin
as the name of the plan, check to include
TroubleTicket Admin
and
Allow assignment of trouble tickets
and submit.
3. Go to
Plans
->
Manage
and turn this plan ON for signups.
4. Go to
Signup
menu, click to sign up for
Tech Support Admin
and create
Tech Support Admin account using the signup wizard.
5. Go to
Settings
- >
Tech Support
and configure your Support Center (on
page 501). It is required to collect customers' e-mails and convert them
into trouble tickets.
Step 8. Configure Look and Feel
Go to
Settings
->
Look and Feel
menu and enter information to all necessary sections.
These settings will affect all your customers' control panels.
Corporate Logos (on page 104): enter
Banner HTML Code
for the banner to show up in your users CPs and the location and sizes of the logos. Click the help [ ? ] icon for details.
Company Info (on page 124): enter the company info that will show in customer e-
mail notifications and the address will be used by customers to send checks.
Default language (on page 111): choose CP interface language. It can be
overridden by individual customers.
Regional options (on page 102): enter preferred currency symbol.The language and
the regional settings will affect all your customers' control panels.
Default CP design (on page 108): set designs to be available by users and the
default design for Users CPs.
C H A P T E R 6
Server Configuration
This chapter provides you with the instructions on how you can configure physical and logical servers in Parallels H-Sphere.
In this chapter:
Updating Physical Boxes From CP Interface ..................................................... 73
Physical Servers
Physical servers (also referred to as boxes) are represented by physically or virtually separate computers with their own operating systems (Linux, FreeBSD Unix, or
Windows). Physical servers can be emulated with VMWare or other software packages.
Separate physical servers are required for:
Windows web hosting
MS SQL user database hosting
Windows real media hosting
PostgresSQL user database hosting
In this section:
36 Server Configuration
Adding Physical Servers
Important: note that this document provides instructions on how to add physical servers via the control panel. It is just a step in the procedure of adding servers and services to the Parallels H-Sphere cluster. You can read about this in a separate guide.
To add a new physical server to Parallels H-Sphere:
1. In your admin control panel, go to E. Manager -> Servers -> Add P.Server
.
2. Click
Add Physical Server
at the bottom of the page that appears.
3. Enter the name of the physical server, its IP and associated net mask:
Specify
Login
and
Password
parameters:
For Windows servers, these are login ( hsadmin by default) and password chosen when installing the Winbox.
For Unix servers, enter login: root and root password for this server.
Don't enter IP2 and Mask2, they are not implemented for Linux and for Windows.
4. Click
Submit
.
5.
Add server groups (on page 67) (types) of logical servers to be placed
on this physical server.
For example, if you add only web servers and mail servers groups, you won't be able to add any DNS servers to this physical server.
6. Go to
E.Manager
->
Servers
->
P.Servers
to see the newly added server in the list of all physical servers in the system.
To finish adding this physical server to Parallels H-Sphere, add to it also logical servers
(on page 38) (services that you plan to place on it). Further steps are described in a
separate guide on Adding servers and services to Parallels H-Sphere .
Server Configuration
Physical Server Controls
To see all physical servers in your Parallels H-Sphere cluster, go to E. Manager ->
Servers
->
P.Servers
:
37
From this page you can:
!
means that this physical server hasn't been physically added to the system
- view system information for this server
You can disable monitoring information for this server to preserve resources of the system. To do this, click the physical server title on the page E. Manager -> Servers ->
P.Servers
. Scroll down and click the button against
Enable server info monitoring
:
When this service is enabled, you can also view, from the System Information page, which packages and services are installed on the system and perform system
service management (on page 84).
See also:
Load balanced server clusters (on page 69)
Updating physical boxes from the CP interface (on page 73)
Physical server installation/update profiles (on page 76)
38 Server Configuration
Deleting a Physical Server
A physical server can be deleted only if it's free of logical servers.
To delete a physical server:
1. Go to
E.Manager
->
Servers
->
P.Servers
.
2. Click the name of the physical server you've decided to delete.
3. In the
Used by
section, find the
Delete
icon. It appears only if the server isn't used by any services:
Logical Servers
By logical servers we mean the software that runs on physical servers and processes client requests.
In this section:
Enabling User Signup on Logical Servers.......................................................... 40
Server Configuration 39
Adding Logical Servers
Important: for correct system performance, we don't recommend that you have more than one logical server of the same type (web, mail, dns etc.) per each physical box. As an exception, two logical dns servers are permissible under one- server installation. As soon as the second box is added to the system, one of the name servers should be moved to that box.
Before you begin adding a logical server to Parallels H-Sphere, make sure to have the physical server added to Parallels H-Sphere configuration.
To add a new logical server to Parallels H-Sphere:
1. Go to your admin control panel.
2. Go to
E.Manager
->
Servers
->
Add L.Server
.
3. On the page that appears, enter the properties of the logical server:
Name : The domain name of the logical server;
Group : The group of logical servers you are adding this server to.
Type : The type of the server.
Physical Server : The box where the logical server is installed. If nothing is available in the dropdown box, add this server group to the physical server (on
Description : The note that will help you identify this server among others.
File Server : redundant parameter, not in use any longer.
File Path : redundant parameter, not in use any longer.
4. Click
Submit
to create a logical server. You will proceed to the page where you can configure other parameters for this logical server: a
Enable user signup (on page 38) on this server
40 Server Configuration b
Automatically generate custom DNS records (on page 93) by clicking
Generate in front of
Generate custom DNS records for this logical server c
Add IP range (on page 45) available for hosting on this server
d
Configure additional options (on page 38) specific to this logical server type
(Web, mail, DNS, Windows, ...)
5.
Add DNS records (on page 93) for this logical server.
6. If you are adding a web server, select Shared SSL Manager in the E.Manager
menu, click the Edit icon next to the domain name and enter the certificate key and certificate file in the Install completely new certificate key and file pair boxes. Then click the Upload button. This will update the shared SSL certificate installation on all servers, including the newly installed one.
7. For each type of logical servers, configure specific additional options
Enabling User Signup on Logical Servers
By default, customer signup is disabled on new logical servers. Sometimes you may want to keep it disabled to provide dedicated servers to individual customers or to prevent them from getting overloaded. In most cases, however, you would need to turn it on.
To enable user signup:
1. Go to
E.Manager
->
Servers
->
L.Servers
.
2. You will be taken to the list of all logical servers in the system. Click the server you would like to edit:
Server Configuration 41
3. On the page that appears, turn on the
Available for signup
option.
Removing Logical Servers
To remove a logical server:
1. Make sure no accounts, mail domains, web sites or other resources are run on it.
2. Delete all the IPs designated to it (
E.Manager
->
L.Servers
->
'selected logical server'
page)
3. Click the
Delete
icon which will then appear in the
Usage
field
42 Server Configuration
Setting Logical Server Additional Options
Once a logical server is added, you can set additional options for it. To set additional options, click the logical server name in the list of all logical servers and scroll down to the bottom of the page.
Web server additional options
You can set the following for the webserver:
Miva Merchant version
: this option allows setting correct extensions prior to installation: .mv for v. 4.12 and older and .mvc for v.4.14 and later.
Unix user home directory
: enter home directory if necessary.
Webshell (File Manager)
: this option allows choosing between Webshell4 and
Webshell5 (CGI Mode)
Prohibit users from switching to dedicated IP
: disables switching to dedicated IP for all users
Choose External Horde DB Server
: set MySQL logical server for Horde Webmail
Frontend. If you set
LOCAL
, Parallels H-Sphere will use the default server.
Outgoing rsync connection IP address
: Usually, rsync would connect from the Web server's shared IP, but for non-default rsync allow host parameters you can set the outgoing rsync connection IP(s) (delimited with comma) in the logical server options.
Make sure to click
Set
to apply changes.
Windows server additional options
Server Configuration 43
You can set the following parameters for the Windows server:
FTP Server Type: you can choose between IIS and FTP
Miva Merchant version
: this option allows setting correct extensions prior to installation: .mv for v. 4.12 and older and .mvc for v.4.14 and later.
Maximum number of worker processes by Shared Application Pool
: once you set the restriction, users won't be able to exceed it in their User CP.
Maximum number of worker processes by Dedicated Application Pool
: once you set the restriction, users won't be able to exceed it in their User CP.
Prohibit users from switching to dedicated IP
: disables switching to dedicated IP for all users, if necessary
DNS server additional options
Additional options in DNS logical server allow assigning master and slave roles to DNS logical servers and limiting resellers to particular DNS logical servers.
For detailed information, read about DNS Servers (on page 49).
44 Server Configuration
Mail server additional options
Additional options in mailserver allow to choose:
Mail server role at the system level
External Spamassassin DB Server If you set
LOCAL
, Parallels H-Sphere will use default server.
Unix Hosting server for Horde If you set
LOCAL
, Parallels H-Sphere will use default server.
R EMOVING MAIL RELAYS ON A CHOSEN MAIL SERVER
If your mail server has none of mail domains, you can remove all its mail relays in one click on the
Mail Servers Settings
page. Firstly, make sure the
CleanMailRelaysForMailServer cron is enabled in Background Job Manager
Once you removed all mail relays, you can remove the corresponding logical server.
MySQL server additional options
Server Configuration 45
You can set the following for the MySQL server:
Unix Hosting server for PHPMyAdmin that will host your users' built-in phpMyAdmin control panel. If you set LOCAL , Parallels H-Sphere will use default server.
Remote Access To MySQL Server
PostgreSQL server additional options
Unix Hosting server for PHPPgAdmin that will host your users' built-in phpPgAdmin control panel. If you set LOCAL , Parallels H-Sphere will use local server.
Load Balancer File Server (Filer) Settings
Once the physical server for this logical server (master server only!) is configured in the load balanced server cluster, the following
Load Balancer File Server Settings
should be set in Logical Server options:
File Server Type: file storage OS type, like UNIX for generic Linux NFS;
File Server: file storage volume location, like 10.9.8.7:/vol/vol0;
File Path:
(optional) file storage path to Parallels H-Sphere directory, like
/ vol/vol0/hsphere .
File server Volume ID: file storage volume ID, like vol0 .
See Installation of Load Balanced Web/Mail Clusters in Parallels H-Sphere in Parallels
H-Sphere System Administrator Guide for explanations.
46 Server Configuration
Adding IPs
To add IPs to a logical server:
1. Go to
E.Manager
->
Servers
->
L.Servers
.
2. Select the logical server from the list:
3. On the page that appears, enter the IP(s):
Server Configuration 47
From : enter the first IP of the range of dedicated IPs. If you are adding only one
IP , enter it here.
To : enter the last IP of the range of dedicated IPs.
Mask : enter the netmask -- you should have received it from your Internet
Service Provider. When adding a pool of IPs on FreeBSD servers, add the first
IP separately with the real mask, then add the other IPs as a pool with the mask
255.255.255.255.
Type : select the type of IP you are adding to the system:
48 Server Configuration
Dedicated IP - the IP will be dedicated only to one site/service. This means that
Dedicated IP should be unique and cannot be used anywhere else. Choose it only for Web and Windows servers.
Shared IP - the IP will be used by multiple Web sites under Unix and Windows via typical Virtual hosting. Choose it only for Web and Windows servers. Make sure to add shared IPs one by one, NOT as a range of IPs.
Important: We recommend having at least one shared IP ("default" one with default Shared IP tag 2) on every Web/Windows server. This is in particular essential for creation of reseller DNS aliases.
Service IP
- choose it for logical servers other than Web and Windows. Don't choose it for Web and Windows servers!
Note:
1. For every logical server other than Web/Windows exactly one service IP must be set!
2. If you add a service IP to a logical server in the "Control Panel" or
"MRTG" group, make sure it is the IP of the physical server.
Mind also, that service IP doesn't automatically bind to a physical server.
Instead you have to put it up manually or use physical server's primary IP.
DNS Reseller IP - choose it only for resellers' name server aliases.
System Management IP - reserved for future use. Don't select it.
Outgoing IP
- configure separate IP for sending outgoing mail. If this value is specified, all your mail is sent from the specified IP, not from your actual mail server IP. Use this control when your mail server IP is added to a spam blacklist, and mail from your domain is rejected. Important: You can have only one
Outgoing IP per mail server.
Bouncing IP
- configure separate IP for sending bounced mail. It allows isolating bounced message on a different IP address and block them without blocking other mail. Important: You can have only one Bouncing IP per mail server.
Shared IP Tag
: a digital "mark" that helps to separate sites on one logical server. It allows you to allocate a separate shared IP address to a group of sites of, say, explicit nature. This may become necessary, because many corporate firewalls filter sites based on their IP address, not domain name. Note: Make sure to have one shared IP tag used by one shared IP within one logical server.
Server Configuration 49
IMPORTANT:
1. Make sure the same dedicated or shared IP is not used by more than 1 server.
2. When added to the logical Web server, dedicated IPs are not registered in ipconfig. They are only added when new accounts are created.
4. Added IPs will show up under
IPs
in the
Logical Server
section.
Once added, IPs can be painlessly changed only when no Websites are running on the system. Changing IPs on production servers implies an IP migration.
DNS Servers
How Do I Put Several DNS Servers On One Box?
You can have more than one DNS servers on one box. However, if you'd like to put your DNS servers on more than one box, you need to put each of them on a separate box.
To configure multiple DNS servers on one physical box, see Single DNS Confiruration in System Administrator Guide.
How do I assign master and slave roles to DNS logical servers?
1. Go to
E.Manager
->
Servers
->
L.Servers
.
Click DNS logical server name. You'll be taken to its configuration page. At the bottom of the page you'll see the Additional options form:
2. From the DNS role drop-down box choose either master
or slave1
or slave2
.
3. Repeat steps 1-3 for the rest of your DNS logical servers.
If DNS logical servers are not assigned any roles or more than one DNS logical servers are assigned the same role (e.g. two master or two slave1 servers), Parallels H-Sphere will randomly assign "master" to one of them and address another one as "slave". In this case it's quite likely that the same DNS logical server will have different roles for different DNS zones.
50 Server Configuration
How do I limit resellers to particular DNS logical servers?
1. Go to
E.Manager
->
Servers
->
L.Servers
.
2. Click DNS logical server name. You'll be taken to its configuration page.
At the bottom of the page you'll see the Additional options form:
3. From the
Used by
drop-down box choose:
all accounts to allow both regular and reseller customer accounts to use this DNS logical server;
resellers only to allow only reseller end customer accounts to use this DNS logical server;
master admin only to allow only your regular customer accounts to use this DNS logical server.
Important: if all DNS logical servers are used by the same group, signups from under the other group will fail.
Mail Server Settings
Parallels H-Sphere incorporates the following mail server functionality configured from
CP web interface:
Qmail controls - configuring general and antispam Qmail controls (System
Administrator Guide).
SpamAssassin - configuring mail server SpamAssasin parameters.
SPF and SRS - configuring SPF and SRS on server level.
Blocking IP - fighting spam or ignoring unwanted emails by denying relay to specific
IP.
Adding Qmail Settings To IP/Subnet - adding mail relay and other Qmail settings to a chosen IP/subnet.
Server Configuration 51
SPF and SRS
SPF
or Sender Policy Framework figthts e-mail forgery in SMTP transaction. It prevents unauthorized people from forging email addresses. When users enable
SPF, a DNS TXT record is created for DNS zone hosting this domain. It defines what IP's can be used to send mail from this domain. On receiving e-mail from user's domain, recipient, providing SPF is enabled on their side, can check if it indeed was sent from the IP listed in this DNS record.
SRS
or Sender Rewriting Scheme is a mechanism to rewrite sender addresses when a mail is forwarded in such a way that mail forwarding continues to work in an
SPF compliant world. When you add SRS, then srs qmail parameters will be included on all mail servers, also base64 secret key used in the SRS address cipher will be generated. You can include mailSRS cron in the Background Job Manager to regenerate secret key every month.
In this section:
Enabling SPF and SRS
SPF is included in plans as a regular resources with plan edit wizards.
SRS is enabled for the whole system and doesn't require enbaling it in the plans.
To enable SRS, go to Mail Servers (the E.Manager
-> Servers menu) and turn it ON, clicking the OFF button in the SRS entry:
52 Server Configuration
Configuring SPF and SRS
To access SPF/SRS configuration form:
1. Select
Mail Servers
from the
E.Manager
->
Servers
menu:
2. Click the
Action
icon in the
Mail Server Settings
section:
3. At the bottom of the page you will find SPF/SRS configuration form:
Server Configuration 53
For SPF/SRS configuration parameters see details in Configuring SPF/SRS parameters in System Administrator Guide
AntiSpam and AntiVirus
Parallels H-Sphere incorporates SpamAssassin and ClamAV filters into its mail servers.
They have been added to Parallels H-Sphere as the Antispam and Antivirus resources globally enabled in the system, and can be configured in Control Panel both at the
server level (on page 50), and for individual plans, accounts, domains and mailboxes.
In this section:
Enabling AntiSpam and AntiVirus in Control Panel ............................................ 53
Configuring AntiSpam and AntiVirus Default Settings ........................................ 54
Enabling AntiSpam and AntiVirus in Control Panel
To enable AntiSpam and AntiVirus in Control Panel:
1.
G
LOBAL
S
ETTINGS
:
In
Info
->
Global Resources
, check
AntiSpam
and
AntiVirus and click
Submit Query
.
2.
P LANS :
In
Info
->
Plans
select the plans where you would like to enable spam and virus protection. On the first page of the wizard, enable
Antispam
and
Antivirus
. Optionally, set prices for these resources on the subsequent steps.
3. Accounts, domains and mailboxes: managing Antispam and Antivirus on this level is managed via User CP.
54 Server Configuration
Configuring AntiSpam and AntiVirus Default Settings
You can set default AntiSpam and AntiVirus settings for new mail domain. They will be applied to all new mail domains. Later each user can change it via user CP.
To set defaults in your Admin CP:
1. Go to
Settings
menu - >
AntiSpam and AntiVirus Defaults:
Choose Spam and Virus processing manipulation
Set MaxScore level: this value cannot be chosen with Spam processing Remove value simultaneously
2. Click
Submit
Server Configuration 55
System SMTP Relays
There are two system SMTP relays you can choose for each individual mail server -
POP before SMTP and SMTP AUTH.
In POP before SMTP , the relay system collects IP addresses of users who successfully authenticate themselves with a POP server, and then permits SMTP relaying from that
IP address for a short period of time.
If clients do not have known IP addresses, relays use SMTP AUTH , an SMTP based protocol, in which the client must send a name and password in addition to the normal
SMTP envelope information. Obviously this requires a special client, which has been configured to use this protocol.
To specify the protocol for a specific server:
1. Go to E.Manager
-> Servers -> Mail Servers .
2. At the top of the page that appears, click the
Action
icon next to the mail server.
3. At the very bottom of the page select the protocol and click
Submit
.
56 Server Configuration
Advanced Web Server Settings
Parallels H-Sphere 3.1 branch adds support of Apache 2.2 and adds more flexibility in configuring the web service for Unix boxes, while many options are available right from the administrator interface. These settings are available under icon near the server on
E. Manager
->
Servers
->
P.Servers
page. After you're done with the settings, don't forget to click
Submit
.
In this section:
Using Gotroot.com Modsecurity™ Rules With H-Sphere ................................... 59
Apache Version
To choose Apache version for your physical Unix box:
1. Go to
E. Manager
->
Servers
->
P.Servers
and click the ( Server options ) icon.
2. On the page that appears choose Apache versions:
1 corresponds to Apache 1.3.x, 2 to Apache 2.2.x. If you enable Apache 2.2.x, choose also MPMs (Multi-Processing Modules): prefork or worker.
3. Click
Submit
.
Server Configuration
Apache Modules
Some Apache modules like apache_ssl consume much of the system resources, some are obsolete like apache_throttle
and apache_frontpage
. You can toggle them from the interface for each Apache version. By default, only apache_ssl of the following is enabled, the rest are disabled:
57
apache_ssl - this module provides strong cryptography for the Apache 1.x webserver via the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL v2/v3) and Transport Layer Security (TLS v1) protocols by the help of the Open Source SSL/TLS toolkit OpenSSL.
apache_fastcgi
- this module provides support for the FastCGI protocol. FastCGI is a language independent, scalable, open extension to CGI that provides high performance and persistence without the limitations of server specific APIs.
apache_scgi
- the SCGI protocol is a replacement for the Common Gateway
Interface (CGI) protocol. It is a standard for applications to interface with HTTP servers. It is similar to FastCGI but is designed to be easier to implement.
apache_throttle
- limit the bandwidth usage and server load of virtual hosts, directories, locations, or users according to selected policies.
apache_frontpage
- this module adds front page support.
apache_status
- this module allows a server administrator to find out how well their server is performing. A HTML page is presented that gives the current server statistics in an easily readable form. If required this page can be made to automatically refresh (given a compatible browser). Another page gives a simple machine-readable list of the current server state.
apache_security
- open source Intrusion Detection and Prevention module for Web applications.
apache_cache
- enables memory caching scheme with most common set of related parameters. If you want to change them, or use disk caching scheme, or combination of the two, prepare a custom template for corresponding include file.
58 Server Configuration
When enabling apache_security , set also Apache mod_security options.
We also provide a new tool for loading Gotroot rules included into hsphere-apacheshared-h3.1 package.
If you want to use Gotroot.com rules with Apache mod_security, you should first load them into H-Sphere. Read about Using Gotroot.com Modsecurity Rules With H-Sphere
asecurity_rules
- Web Application protection. Config file: rules.conf. Default: 0
(disabled).
asecurity_jitp
- Just in Time Patches for Vulnerable Applications. Config file: jitp.conf.
Default: 0 (disabled).
asecurity_useragents
- Bad UserAgents blocking. Config file: useragents.conf.
Default: 0 (disabled).
asecurity_blacklist
- Comment spam blacklist. Config file: blacklist.conf. Default: 0
(disabled).
asecurity_blacklist2
- Compromised/Hacker boxes blacklist. Config file: blacklist2.conf. Default: 0 (disabled).
asecurity_apache2-rules
- Additional Apache 2.x rules. Effective for apache 2.2 only.
Config file: apache2-rules.conf. Default: 0 (disabled).
asecurity_rootkits
- Known rootkits/worms. Config file: rootkits.conf. Default: 0
(disabled).
asecurity_exclude
- Rule Exclusions. Config file: exclude.conf. Default: 0 (disabled).
asecurity_recons
- "Google Hacks" signatures. Config file: recons.conf. Default: 0
(disabled).
Server Configuration 59
Using Gotroot.com Modsecurity™ Rules With H-Sphere
Parallels H-Sphere provides a tool for loading Atomicorp’s Gotroot Modsecurity rules included into hsphere-apache-shared-h3.1 package.
At the moment, the following Gotroot rules are supported:
apache2-rules
badips
blacklist2
blacklist
exclude
jitp
proxy
recons
rootkits
rules
useragents
You can download Gotroot rules from https://www.atomicorp.com/ .
To be able to use Gotroot rules in Parallels H-Sphere, follow steps below:
Step 1. Download necessary Gotroot rules archives and place them into the corresponding directories in your web box(es).
Note : Gotroot rules are supported on Apache 2.x only.
1. Enter a temporary directory
2. Download archived Gotroot rules:
# wget http://www6.atomicorp.com/channels/rules/delayed/modsec-
201205051644.tar.gz
3. Untar it into the temporary directory
# tar zxf modsec-201205051644.tar.gz
4. Copy the configuration *.conf files to the
/hsphere/pkg/config/httpd/gotrootrules directory:
# cp -f ./modsec/*.conf /hsphere/pkg/config/httpd2/gotrootrules2/
60 Server Configuration
Step 2. run apache-load-gotrootrules.sh tool to load Gotroot rules into H-Sphere from configuration files:
# /hsphere/shared/scripts/apache-load-gotrootrules.sh -h
-h|--help option will show usage details: usage: apache-load-gotrootrules.sh [-f|--force] [<rule> <rule2>
<ruleN>] [-h|--help]
-f|--force : process rules from gotrootrules configuration files '*.conf' by force even if they were already loaded ('*.conf.tmpl' exists).
<rule*> : process rules from file '<rule*>.conf' only. Space separated list allowing to process more then one gotrootrule configuration file.
-h|--help : print this help messagee.
Following gotrootrules are supported:
apache2-rules badips blacklist2 blacklist exclude jitp proxy recons rootkits rules useragents
Examples:
# apache-load-gotrootrules.sh --force jitp
Process rules from 'jitp.conf' even if 'jitp.conf.tmpl' already exists
# apache-load-gotrootrules.sh
That will process only rules from new configuration files (if
'*.conf' exista and '*.conf.tmpl' - not).
Server Configuration
Step 3. enable Apache mod_security options in Admin CP:
61 asecurity_rules - Web Application protection. Config file: rules.conf. Default: 0
(disabled). asecurity_jitp - Just in Time Patches for Vulnerable Applications. Config file: jitp.conf.
Default: 0 (disabled). asecurity_useragents - Bad UserAgents blocking. Config file: useragents.conf. Default:
0 (disabled). asecurity_blacklist - Comment spam blacklist. Config file: blacklist.conf. Default: 0
(disabled). asecurity_blacklist2 - Compromised/Hacker boxes blacklist. Config file: blacklist2.conf.
Default: 0 (disabled). asecurity_apache2-rules - Additional Apache 2.x rules. Effective for apache 2.2 only.
Config file: apache2-rules.conf. Default: 0 (disabled). asecurity_rootkits - Known rootkits/worms. Config file: rootkits.conf. Default: 0
(disabled). asecurity_exclude - Rule Exclusions. Config file: exclude.conf. Default: 0 (disabled). asecurity_recons - "Google Hacks" signatures. Config file: recons.conf. Default: 0
(disabled).
62 Server Configuration
PHP Modes
For each available Apache version you can choose from libphp (default), cgi, or fastcgi:
libphp
- PHP runs as an Apache module. The advantage is that PHP is always in memory use which results in a higher speed capability and lower server load.
cgi - PHP runs as a CGI script in a separate process which starts with each request and completes its work upon the script execution. This provides a simpler and more secure PHP work, but draws excessive memory usage and higher memory load.
fastcgi - PHP also runs as a CGI script, but under a single process which does not stop when the script is executed. This allows to minimize server load while running
PHP in CGI mode.
To configure advanced PHP mode settings in admin CP, go to E.Manager->Servers-
>P.Servers
and click on the Settings icon for a physical server. You will see the following interface:
This form allows you to choose which PHP 4 and PHP 5 libphp/cgi/fastcgi modes will be available for end users whose domains are hosted on this physical server, and to set the default mode for each PHP version.
The fastcgi and cgi modes can be enabled for all PHP versions, but the libphp mode, only for one of them. Modes checked as
Enabled
will be available for end users to choose from in the
Advanced PHP
configuration interface in
Web Options
. When users switch PHP version in the "simplified" PHP configuration interface, they switch between the default modes of PHP versions (the
Default
column in the form - choose one default mode per PHP version). After that, selected modes will be available for users to choose from for each domain.
Server Configuration 63
If you have enabled fastcgi mode, you can configure its VirtualHost options in the form below:
fcgi_idle-timeout - the number of seconds of FastCGI application inactivity allowed before the request is aborted and the event is logged (at the error LogLevel). The inactivity timer applies only as long as a connection is pending with the FastCGI application. If a request is queued to an application, but the application doesn't respond (by writing and flushing) within this period, the request will be aborted. If communication is complete with the application but incomplete with the client (the response is buffered), the timeout does not apply.
fcgi_killInterval - determines how often the dynamic application instance killing policy is implemented within the process manager. Smaller numbers result in a more aggressive policy, larger numbers a less aggressive policy.
fcgi_minProcesses - minimum total number of dynamic FastCGI application instances allowed to run at any one time without being killed off by the process manager (due to lack of demand).
fcgi_maxClassProcesses - maximum number of dynamic FastCGI application instances allowed to run for any one FastCGI application. It must be less or equal to maxProcesses (this condition is not programmably enforced).
fcgi_maxProcesses
- maximum total number of dynamic FastCGI application instances allowed to run at any one time. It must be greater or equal to maxClassProcesses (this condition is not programmably enforced).
fcgi_restart
- causes the process manager to restart dynamic applications upon failure (similar to static applications).
64 Server Configuration
fcgi_multiThreshold
- an integer between 0 and 100 used to determine whether any one instance of a FastCGI application should be terminated. If the application has more than one instance currently running, this attribute will be used to decide whether one of them should be terminated. If only one instance remains, singleThreshold is used instead.
fcgi_singleThreshold - An integer between 0 and 100 used to determine whether the last instance of a FastCGI application can be terminated. If the process manager computed load factor for the application is lower than the specified threshold, the last instance is terminated. In order to make your executables run in the "idle" mode for the long time, you would specify a value closer to 1, however if memory or CPU time is of primary concern, a value closer to 100 would be more applicable. Setting it to 0 will prevent the last instance of an application from being terminated; this is the default value, changing it is not recommended (especially if -appConnTimeout is set).
fcgi_updateInterval - determines how often statistical analysis is performed to determine the fate of dynamic FastCGI applications.
Server Configuration 65
PHP Plugins
In this form you can disable unwanted PHP plugins (PHP extensions as DSO modules):
66 Server Configuration phpext_dbx, phpext_domxml, phpext_filepro, phpext_mcal, phpext_xslt are implemented only for PHP 4, while phpext_soap and phpext_mysqli - for PHP 5.
PHP 5.3 extensions are not shown in the web interface. The provided extension are always enabled.
To obtain help on a plugin, click the button with ? near its title.
PHP Accelerators
Parallels H-Sphere 3.3 introduced PHP accelerators. They can be found in settings for each Web server.
To enable or disable PHP accelerator for a Web server:
1. Go to the
E.Manager > P.Servers > [Your Physical Server]
menu and click the
icon in the top right corner of the form that appears.
2. In the PHP Accelerators section check or uncheck respective boxes to enable or disable the following accelerators:
phpacc_apc . Alternative PHP Cache (APC) is a free and open opcode cache for
PHP.
phpacc_eaccelerator . eAccelerator is a free open source PHP accelerator, optimizer, encoder and dynamic content cache for PHP. It increases performance of PHP scripts by caching them in compiled state, so that the overhead of compiling is almost completely eliminated. It also optimises the script to speed up execution of PHP scripts. eAccelerator typically reduces server load and increases the speed of your PHP code by 1-10 times.
phpacc_xcache . XCache is a fast, stable PHP opcode cacher that has been tested and is now running on production servers under high load.
phpacc_ioncube
. Loader for ionCube encoded files. ionCube is required for
Parallels Sitebuilder.
phpacc_zend
. Zend Optimizer is a free runtime application that enables PHP to run the files encoded by Zend Guard. This can be freely used by anyone looking to run encoded applications.
3. Click Submit to apply changes.
Server Configuration 67
Server Groups
Logical servers are grouped by functionality and purpose. For instance, you can have a group of name servers, a group of 'priority' web servers, a group of 'basic' web servers etc. Logical server groups allow you to control the distribution of user data across servers.
Example: You have several customers on a priority hosting plan and you want to keep their sites on a separate box. To achieve this, you need to create a separate
'priority web' server group and add it to this box.
You can add one server group to many physical servers. For instance, if you add the 'priority web' server group to p.server1, p.server2, and p.server3, your priority plan customers will be randomly distributed across these three physical servers.
A physical server may have one or many server groups. For instance, you can add the
'priority web' server group to p.server1 and p.server2, whereas all other server groups can be added to p.server3.
Note: You can't add a logical server to a physical server if it doesn't have the respective server group.
Consider another example:
Let's say you've got:
p.server1 with the following groups on it: Control Panel, Mail, Web, Name and
p.server2 with Mail, Real and MySQL server groups.
In this case logical servers:
cp.net, web.net, name.net can be set up only on ph_server_1 and real.net with mysql.net - on ph_server_2;
while mail.net can be set up to any of them.
You can also have two logical servers carrying out mail service (e.g.: mail1.net and mail2.net) set up on different or the same physical server. Several different web, name, etc., logical servers can be put on one physical server, too. The only requirement is that it has the appropriate server group.
68 Server Configuration
To see the server groups available in your system, go to
E.Manager
->
Servers
->
Server
Groups
:
How Do I Create a Server Group?
1. Go to
E.Manager
->
Servers
->
Server Groups
.
2. At the bottom of the page that appears, enter the name of the server group and select its type.
3. Click
Add
.
How Do I Add a Group to a Physical Server?
1. Go to
E.Manager
->
Servers
->
P.Servers
.
2. Click the name of the physical server.
3. At the bottom of the page that appears, select a server group and click
Add
.
4. Now you can create logical servers in this server group.
Server Configuration
How do I delete a server group?
You can delete only custom server groups by clicking the
Delete
icon next to them.
69
Load Balanced Server Clusters
Parallels H-Sphere interface allows you to set master-slave relations between servers in Web and mail clusters. Please refer to the complete procedure of installation and configuration of load balanced cluster servers in Parallels H-Sphere System
Administrator Guide.
To structure Parallels H-Sphere physical servers in a load balanced cluster:
1.
Add physical servers to Parallels H-Sphere. (on page 35)
2.
Create server groups on these servers (on page 67), depending on their
functionality. Servers that belong to the same cluster must have the same server group created on them.
3. Create master servers:
1. In the E. Manager -> Servers menu choose P. Servers .
2. On the page which lists physical servers click the needed server name. Turn
Load Balance Server on:
70 Server Configuration
3. On the Load Balanced Server page chose No master and click change.
4. Add web or mail logical server group to each created physical server.
4. Create slave servers. Enable
Load Balanced Server
for the rest of the servers choosing a master server for them:
5. As the result, on the
Physical Servers
page you should have load balanced clusters visualized with master and slave servers clearly distinguished:
Server Configuration 71
Important: Logical servers can't be created on slave servers. Any number of slave servers can be created for master mail and load balanced web servers.
Platform Change
Parallels H-Sphere integrates a hostingPlatformChanger system package that enables users to change platform from Windows to Unix OS and vice versa.
WARNING:
Currently, hostingPlatformChanger system package is a beta version!
The platform change process with the help of hostingPlatformChanger package involves:
Hosting plan change
Domains IP change
Deletion of incompatible resources (currently, all resources listed on the
Web Options page)
Manual transfer of a user's content
To enable users to change the platform, perform:
Step 1.
Install the hostingPlatformChanger system package:
Log into your CP server as To log in as the
cpanel
user:
1. Log in as root first:
$ su -l
72 Server Configuration
2. Log in as the cpanel user:
1. # su -l cpanel
2. Download
(http://download.hsphere.parallels.com/downloads/index.html#platform_changer
) the latest hostingPlatformChanger package.
3. Install the package. See System Administrator Guide for detailed instructions on package installation.
Step 2.
Define the plans for which platform change is allowed:
1. Go to
Plans->Platform Change Groups
and click on the
Edit
icon next to the target platform.
2. On the page that appears, choose the plans that you are going to allow your users to switch to. For this, check boxes near the plans in the Add plans to a group column and
Submit
the request.
Step 3.
After users have requsted platform change from their User CP, you have to approve the process and choose the target server:
1. Go to E.Manager->Platform Change Processes and find the process to be approved
2. Click on the Approve icon in the Controls column
3. On the page you will be taken to, check with the details of the process, choose the target box, and approve the process by clicking Submit button
Server Configuration 73
Step 4.
Launch the process manually or the process will be handled by a special cron.
To launch manually use the icon in the
Controls
column of the page you will be taken to.
You can find the PlatformChange cron details from the Background Job Manager (on
In general, platform change process takes the following stages:
1. Check if resources to be re-created physically can be created on selected logical server
2. Physical creation of resources
3. Incompatible resources deletion
4. Plan switch
5. Domains IP and DNS change
6. DNS propagation. In 24hr the content and resources will be removed from the old server. On this stage, the process can be suspended/resumed if DNS propagation within 24hr is not acceptable.
To suspend, go to
E.Manager->Platform Change Processes
and use a respective icon in the
Controls
column.
To resume, go to
E.Manager->Platform Change Processes
and use a respective icon in the
Controls
column.
7. Old content on the source server deletion
When the procedure goes fine, the necessary resources are recreated, incompatible resources removed, DNS and IP changed. If something goes wrong, the process is rolled back and a trouble ticket created. You can view the TT from the
E.Manager-
>Platform Change Processes
page.
74 Server Configuration
Updating Physical Boxes From CP
Interface
In Parallels H-Sphere one can perform Parallels H-Sphere software installation and update on multiple boxes (except for the CP core and Parallels H-Sphere Windows core services) from the administrative control panel:
Parallels H-Sphere update to the latest version or update of particular services on selected boxes
Adding Parallels H-Sphere servers and services: physical installation of Parallels H-
Sphere software into the new boxes previously added in admin CP as Parallels H-
Sphere physical (on page 35) and logical (on page 38) servers
Installation and update from admin CP is performed under certain conditions:
Before you run Update Wizard to update the whole cluster to a required Parallels H-
Sphere version, you need first to update Parallels H-Sphere CP core (and Parallels
H-Sphere Winbox core for Windows servers) by downloading and running Parallels
H-Sphere update script with the cpupdate option (HSCore package for Windows servers) for this version.
Update of particular packages and services on each box is according to physical
server profiles (on page 76) - sets of update rules assigned to a group of physical
servers.
Procedure
To update or install Parallels H-Sphere on selected physical servers:
1. Go to
E.Manager -> Update -> Update Boxes
:
Server Configuration 75
2. Check the servers you need to update/install.
3. If necessary, you can get info about the box by checking boxes and clicking the
Fetch Boxes Info
button.
4. Click
Start Update
.
Update process indicator legend:
Yellow: ready for update
Blue: update is running
Green: update successfully finished
Red: update finished with error. If update fails, you will see an error message with details.
76 Server Configuration
Physical Server Installation/Update
Profiles
Parallels H-Sphere allows creating server update profiles to update/install packages on physical boxes according to the rules set by admin. For this, Parallels H-Sphere uses a so- called server update profile. By default, Parallels H-Sphere includes the 'DEFAULT' profile which can't be removed or changed. If not set otherwise, the box is updated according to this DEFAULT profile.
However, you can create your own update profiles and assign them to specific boxes.
In this case, the system will update the server according to the profile it's assigned to.
To create a profile:
1. Go to
E.Manager
->
Update
->
Physical server profiles
2. Choose the box (Unix/Windows) and click the Add button:
3. Name and configure your profile in the form that appears:
Adding Unix profile:
Server Configuration 77
78 Server Configuration
Adding Windows profile:
Where:
-
Update only pointed logical server groups.
You can choose between three hosting modes: Windows hosting only, MsSQL hosting only, or both Windows and MsSQL hosting modes
- Source URL for packages download redefinition is the link to an alternative server with
MSI packages. If not set, default MSI location is http://download.hsphere.parallels.com/shiv/HS/WINDOWS/
- Location of user home directory.
If it is not set there, Parallels H-Sphere Winbox installer will automatically create it on NTFS partition with the largest free space.
- MAC address of network interface to host dedicated IP's, etc.
If not set there, Parallels
H-Sphere Winbox installer will automatically choose an address based on the free
IPs of a physical server.
-
Name of MSSQL server instance
. Give a name to a MsSQL server instance if you want it to differ from a default one generated from a NetBIOS name of a specific server
4. Click
Save
to apply. Profile will appear in the list of existing profiles.
5. Click the
Assign Profiles to Physical Servers
link
Server Configuration 79
You can assign only one profile to a server. But one and the same profile can be assigned by several servers.
6. Click Apply .
If you want to reassign a profile:
1. Go to
E.Manager -> Servers -> P. Servers
2. Click the physical server name you want to reassign a profile to
3. Click the
Edit icon
in the
Physical Server Profile
field
4. Reassign the profile
From now on, every time you update this physical box from CP interface, it will update according to the profile.
80 Server Configuration
Resource Prerequisites
Resource Prerequisites
implies the following:
1. Some resources can be enabled/disabled for selected logical server groups despite their availability on physical boxes.
Resources like:
SSL, Throttle, Frontpage and RubyOnRail for Unix web boxes
PHP, Urchin, Miva, Miva Empresa and ColdFusion for Windows web boxes
VPS templates and VPS context RSS limit for VPS boxes can be enabled or disabled on the level of logical server groups, no matter if they are installed on physical servers or not.
1. Go
E. Manager
->
Servers
->
Server Groups
and click
Edit
for web server, win server or vps server group:
2. Enable/disable services for plans under this logical server group: for web servers group:
for win servers group:
Server Configuration 81 for virtual servers group:
3. Click
Submit
. Users who sign up to plans hosted on such server groups will have these resources enabled or disabled.
2.
Periodical availability checks for resources with prerequisites.
A special CP cron periodically polls physical servers to check whether resources with prerequisites are installed on physical boxes. If some of them are not available, the ! mark appears near the corresponding logical server name. Go E. Manager ->
Servers
->
L.Servers
and hover mouse over ! to see which resources are not installed physically:
Also, it is possible to see which resources with prerequisites are installed on physical boxes via the
Physical Servers
menu in administrator interface:
82 Server Configuration
1. Go E. Manager -> Servers -> P.Servers
2. Click the magnifier icon near a physical server:
3. On the page that appears click
Installed Services
.
Note: For Unix boxes, you will get a page with installed resources with prerequisites only. For Windows boxes, the page will show all installed resources.
3. Enabling/disabling of resources automatically affects end users, without a need of editing respective plans.
You can enable resources with prerequisites when creating or editing a plan, no matter if these resources are installed or not installed on physical boxes. If a service is absent on physical box, users will see a red exclamation mark in their control panels near the service. If they hover mouse over the mark, a note like this appears:
Then, after you installed missing services later, you don't need to go back to Plan
Wizard to enable them in the plan. If they were already enabled in the server group configuration, users will automatically obtain them in their control panels.
In plan edit wizards, resources which were disabled in server group configuration have a note like this:
You can choose a different logical server group with a different set of prerequisites right in plan edit wizards. To do this:
1. Enter a plan edit wizard, scroll to the
Web services
section and click the control in blue oval in the
Logical Server Group
field:
Server Configuration 83
For Virtual Private Server plans, find the Logical Server Group field right below the plan title:
2. Choose another group and click
Apply
. Parallels H-Sphere will update this wizard page with the status of resources with prerequisites for the chosen group.
84 Server Configuration
System Service Management
System Service Management is a utility that allows managing Parallels H-Sphere system services from the Admin CP interface.
To manipulate system services via Parallels H-Sphere interface:
1. Go to
E.Manager
->
Servers
->
P.Servers
2. Click the lens icon next to the chosen physical server to get to the
System Information
page.
3. Scroll down and click the
System Service Management
link.
Server Configuration 85
You see the list of all processes involved with this server split by groups; dns, mail, web, mysql, cp.
Type
of the service: supervise
- service is managed by supervising process; standalone - service is independent
Running time
: shows how log the service has been running, in seconds
4. Select necessary services and the action to start, restart, stop processes.
5. Click the
Apply
button.
Note: You can't manipulate httpdcp service for consistency reasons.
C H A P T E R 7
DNS and Hosting
This chapter discusses the configuration steps required for your DNS.
In this chapter:
Providing Mail Under Service Domain for Third-Level Hosting ........................... 100
DNS and Hosting 87
DNS Manager
DNS Manager in the Admin panel is used to create and manage:
service DNS zones (on page 87) - to host your corporate site and provide third level
domain hosting.
instant alias templates (on page 89) - to provide immediate access to users' newly
registered domains until their domain's DNS hasn't been propagated.
DNS records (on page 93) - to manage servers external to Parallels H-Sphere with
Parallels H-Sphere DNS.
It's not intended to work with your user domains' dns.
Adding DNS Zones
You must have at least one DNS zone in your system. Before you start adding a DNS zone, make sure to have added the DNS servers with Service IPs.
To add a DNS zone:
1. Select
DNS Manager
in the
E.Manager
menu:
2. Click the
Add DNS Zone
link:
88 DNS and Hosting
3. Enter zone name and zone administrator e-mail and choose whether to allow third level domain hosting in this zone:
Name : the name of the DNS zone you are going to create. If this domain name is not yet registered, don't forget to register it with a domain registration company.
Admin e-mail : the e-mail address of this DNS zone administrator.
Allow third level domain hosting : allow the creation of lower level domains in this
DNS zone.
Master/slave server : available only for service DNS zones - allows you to choose and appoint a master and a slave server. The information is backed up every hour.
4. After you submit the form, the new zone appears in the DNS Manager table:
DNS and Hosting 89
5. Click the EDIT icon to go to the DNS zone management page. Here you
can add instant alias templates (on page 89), custom DNS records (on
page 93) and Reseller CP alias (on page 370) to your DNS zone:
Instant Alias Templates
Instant Alias Templates are used to generate Instant Aliases , temporary addresses providing immediate access to users' domains from the Internet. They are usually helpful when the DNS servers worldwide are being refreshed and the site is temporarily unavailable at the regular domain name.
Creating an instant alias template will automatically add one or more A-DNS records to your service zone. These records resolve all your logical servers.
In this section:
90 DNS and Hosting
Adding Instant Alias Templates
To add instant alias, do the following:
1. Select
DNS Manager
in the
E.Manager
menu.
2. Click the EDIT icon to go to the DNS zone management page. The following page appears:
DNS and Hosting 91
3. To add an instant alias template, click the
Add instant alias
link. This will open the following form to fill out:
Prefix
: instant alias prefix that will appear on the left to the domain part in user's instant domain alias. Different prefixes should be set if you use different shared
IP tags. Other than that, it is recommended to use one and the same prefix (e.g. u for all instant alias templates).
Shared IP tag
: a digital "mark" that helps separate sites within one plan on one logical server. All sites located on the same logical host under the same plan are usually assigned to the same shared IP. This feature allows to give a different shared IP to a group of sites of, say, explicit nature. This may become necessary as many corporate firewalls filter sites based on their IP, not the domain name.
Normally, you are expected to have devoted one IP address for each shared IP tag. To use a shared IP tag, you need to have it defined for every logical host.
Go to the LServers (on page 38) section for instructions.
Numbers 10 to 99 are acceptable. The default value of 2 is assigned when the field is submitted being empty.
4. Click
Submit
. You will be taken back to the list of instant aliases with the new instant alias template added to the list.
92 DNS and Hosting
Editing Instant Alias Templates
Once an Instant Alias is created, the system adds all necessary A DNS records to this
DNS zone.
To view these DNS records, cilck the Edit button near the necessary Instant Aliases:
The upper part of the table lists the existing DNS A records in the selected DNS zone.
To delete DNS records, click the
Trash
icon.
The lower part of the table appears only when the DNS zone does not contain A records for some logical servers. It lists these logical servers with their IP's.
To add a logical server to the DNS zone, click the
Add
button. You can add all these servers to the DNS zone by clicking the
Add records to all listed logical servers
link at the bottom of the table.
If the IP address with the specified shared IP tag doesn't exist on one or more logical servers, you will get the corresponding message on the instant alias properties page. If you see this message, add a shared IP with this shared IP tag to the listed logical
servers. Go to the LServers (on page 38) section for instructions.
To delete Instant Alias Template, click the
Trash
icon next to the corresponding alias.
DNS and Hosting 93
DNS Records
Custom DNS records are required to manage non-HSphere servers with Parallels H-
Sphere DNS zone or to configure new logical servers that are added manually.
Depending on the service, you can add:
A records
MX records
CNAME records
To add new custom DNS records:
1. In your admin control panel go to the
E.Manager
menu ->
DNS Manager
.
The following page shows:
2. Click the
Edit
icon near the chosen DNS zone. A page similar to this will appear:
94 DNS and Hosting
3. At the bottom of the page that shows, select a DNS record from the drop-down list and click the
Go
button.
4. On the form that shows enter all necessary data and click
Submit
to save.
You can add one of the following types of DNS records:
A records
to map domain names and web server IP's.
MX records
to map domain names and their mail server IP's.
5.
CNAME records
to map aliases with domain names.
In this section:
Re-generating System Custom DNS Records ................................................... 97
Adding custom A records
The Address record (A record) gives you the IP address of a domain. That way, users that try to go to www.example.com will get to the right IP address.
To add a new DNS A record, you need to provide a set of parameters:
Name
: the string appended to the domain name to create a FQDN mapped to the
IP. For example, if your domain name is besthosting.com, entering cp will make the fully qualified domain name cp.besthosting.com.
TTL
(a Time To Live): seconds to elapse before the record is refreshed in the provider's DNS cache.
Data
: the IP address that fully qualified domain name will be mapped to. You can get this IP address with any ping utility.
DNS and Hosting
Adding custom MX records
A host name can have one or more Mail Exchange (MX) records. These records point to hosts that accept mail messages on behalf of the host. Adding MX records is similar to adding A records:
95
Name
: your local domain name. If you leave the
Name
field blank, all mail will be redirected for the base zone.
Data
: the priority of the record and mail domain name (not the IP) mail will be forwarded to.
Note: The priority of the custom MX record defines whether your external servers will act as secondary or primary. For instance, if you set the priority of the custom MX record higher than 10 (e.g. 11), your external mail server will be used as secondary. If you set the priority of the custom MX record lower than 10
(e.g. 9), your external mail server will be used as primary. In the latter case, your mail will be sent to your external mail server until it goes down or becomes otherwise inaccessible. Then the default mail server will take over.
WARNING: Please pay attention to $ORIGIN when you add an MX record.
Adding custom CNAME records
The Canonical Name (CNAME) record allows a machine or host to be referenced by more than one name. A CNAME can be used to define an alias host name. You can also use aliases when a host changes its name.
If you have selected CNAME record, the following page appears:
96 DNS and Hosting
In the case of CNAME records, the values have the same format as in the A record with the exception of the
Data
field. In the
Data
field you have to enter the name of the server to which you are creating the alias record.
WARNING: Please pay attention to $ORIGIN when you add a CNAME record.
The DNS records you create appear on the zone management page:
You can't edit DNS records. To remove unnecessary records, click the
Trash
icon
DNS and Hosting 97
Re-generating System Custom DNS Records
When you add a logical server (on page 38), it is necessary to append system DNS
records for it. You can automatically re-generate them.
Prior to re-generating system custom DNS records, make sure that:
the basis of the logical server domain name coincides with the registered system
DNS zones
you have added Shared and Service IPs
To re-generate system custom DNS records for all logical servers:
1. Go to
E.Manager
->
Enterprise
.
2. Click on the
Re-generate all system custom DNS records
link.
To re-generate system custom DNS records for all logical servers assigned to a particular physical server:
1. Go to
P.Servers
in the
E.Manager
menu.
2. You will be taken to the list of all physical servers in the system. Select the server you would like to generate custom DNS records for.
3. On the page that appears press the
Generate
button in the
Generate custom
DNS records for this physical server
field.
To re-generate system custom DNS records for a particular logical server:
1. Go to
L.Servers
in the
E.Manager
menu.
2. You will be taken to the list of all logical servers in the system. Select the server you would like to generate custom DNS records for.
On the page that appears press the Generate button in the Generate custom dns records for this logical server field.
Hosting Your Corporate Site
This document explains how to host your corporate (promotional) web-site at the service domain (the domain you are offering for third level hosing). For example, if you are offering third level domains at example.com, such as thirdlevel.example.com or userdomain.example.com, you need to have your corporate site available at www.example.com
.
98 DNS and Hosting
To set up your corporate site:
Step 1. Make sure you have a service DNS zone
1. Select
DNS Manager
in the
E.Manager
menu.
2. If the DNS zone is not in the list, click
Add DNS Zone
.
3. On the page that appears, enter the service domain name and other values and click
Submit
.
Step 2. Create a service plan
You may already have a service plan in your system. It can also be called 'System plan'. If you don't, do the following:
1. Select
Create
in the
Plans
menu:
2. Click the
Select
icon for
Unix plan wizard
:
3. On the fist step of the
Unix Plan Creation Wizard
, set the plan name to
System or Service .
4. Check the
Include
boxes next to the resources you would like to use with your site.
Read more about plan resources in Creating And Editing Plans (Plan
5. Make sure to check
Service domain
.
6. Scroll down to the the Settings section and set Billing Type to Without billing .
7. Click the
Next
button to go to Step 2.
8. Complete the wizard.
DNS and Hosting
Step 3. Disallow signups from outside your admin account.
After you have created the system plan, you need to make sure that it is not used by your customers:
1. Select
Manage
in the
Plans
menu.
2. Click Access for the system plan.
3. Make sure only
Admin
is checked.
4. Select
Manage
in the
Plans
menu.
5. Enable the
System plan
by clicking the
ON/OFF
button.
Step 4. Create a service account
Now you can create an account for your service domain:
1. Select the
Signup
menu.
2. Click
Select
next to the recently created
System
plan.
3. Select service plan signup wizard.
4. Create service account using the wizard. When prompted the type of the domain, select
Service domain
.
99
100 DNS and Hosting
Adding Domains for Third Level Hosting
Third level domains are created based on second level domains and have same features as second level domains. Customers can use your service domain to create third level domains of their own. For instance, if your second level domain is example.com
, your customers can create domains like illustrative.example.com
.
Third level domains are registered on your DNS server and need no domain registration company to be registered.
To add a domain for third level hosting, you need to create a DNS zone (on page 87)
and allow third level hosting in the zone settings.
Third level domain registration will be available for your users only if you allow it in the
plans. See Plan Creation Wizard (on page 242) for details.
Providing Mail Under Service Domain for
Third-Level Hosting
In Parallels H-Sphere it is possible to allow third-level domain hosters to create e-mail resources under their service domains. I.e., users that host third-level domains user.domain.com
under service DNS zone domain.com
, will be able to create mailboxes like [email protected]
from their user CP.
To allow third-level hosters to create mailboxes under a service domain:
1. Choose
Manage
in the
Plans
menu and check the
Third level domain (Mail
Under Host Domain)
option for a plan:
2. Choose
DNS Manager
in the
Settings
menu and click the
Off
icon to enable the
Allow creating emails under Service Zone
option for a particular service domain:
Then, if you search by domain name in the
Search
menu, affected third-level domains will have the domain type Third level domain (Mail Under Host Domain) .
C H A P T E R 8
Control Panel Web Interface
In this chapter:
102 Control Panel Web Interface
Regional Settings
This document explains how to change the default currency settings and date representation. The defaults are set when you change the default language (on page
111). Custom settings are kept until you switch to another default language.
To set custom regional settings:
1. Select Regional Options in Look and Feel under the Settings menu.
2. On the page that appears, enter preferred locale settings:
Currency symbol used in your country that you want to show in prices, invoices etc.
Corresponding International currency symbol which is an international string denoting the local currency.
Decimal Monetary Separator , a character used to format decimal numbers.
Grouping Separator
, a grouping character used to separate thousands, e.g:
100,000,000.
Note: It's commonly used for thousands, but in some countries it separates tenthousands.
Control Panel Web Interface 103
Currency pattern that shows how your monetary amount will look like. Refer to
Comments regarding currency pattern
for details. For example, the European currency pattern will look as follows: # ¤,##0.00;-# ¤,##0.00 (in some countries negative subpatterns are put into brackets: # ¤,##0.00;(# ¤,##0.00)) Another example for pattern: #,##0.##: for 3456.00 -> 3,456 although #,0#0.00: for
3,456.00 -> 3,456.00.
Appearance Samples
displays monetary amounts the way they will show in the system after you change the pattern.
Short, medium, long and full date formats represent dates in your control panel.
This feature is not yet implemented, though reserved for future versions.
Regional options
page has also information about
Day and Time Patterns
:
Pattern letters are usually repeated, as their number determines the exact
Presentation :
Text : For formatting, if the number of pattern letters is 4 or more, the full form is used. Otherwise a short or abbreviated form is used if available. For parsing, both forms are accepted, independent of the number of pattern letters.
Number
: For formatting, the number of pattern letters is the minimum number of digits, and shorter numbers are zero-padded to this amount. For parsing, the number of pattern letters is ignored unless it's needed to separate two adjacent fields.
104 Control Panel Web Interface
Year: For formatting, if the number of pattern letters is 2, the year is truncated to
2 digits; otherwise it is interpreted as a number.
Month: If the number of pattern letters is 3 or more, the month is interpreted as text; otherwise, it is interpreted as a number.
General time zone:
Time zones are interpreted as text if they have names.
RFC 822 time zone:
For formatting, the RFC 822 4-digit time zone format is used.
3. Click
Submit
and take a look at the values in the
Appearance samples
box to see how your changes will affect monetary amounts throughout the control panel.
Your regional settings will affect control panels of your direct end users. Resellers can set their own currency in their admin control panels.
Images and Icons
Here you will learn how to change logo images and icons and control images in your control panel. These settings will affect control panels of your direct end users and resellers. Resellers' admin control panels and the control panels of resellers' end users won't be affected; their look and feel must be configured from the reseller admin control panels.
Logo Images
Logo images are the images that reflect your corporate identity. To go to the logo images page, select Corporate Logo in Look And Feel under the Settings menu.
Control Panel Web Interface 105
Where:
Control Panel Agent
: enter the name you want to see as page title of the Control
Panel interface instead of H-SPHERE.
This feature can be unavailable if you modify login.html, top.html or other service templates.
Show Copyright : toggle the button to show/hide the copyright notice in the top left corner of the window above the logo both in admin and user control panels.
Banner HTML Code
: enter the HTML code for the banner you want to show up both in admin and your users control panels.
E.g.: <a href="http://www.destination_company.com/cgi-bin/blahblah.cgi" target="blah-bhlah"> <img src="http://www.domain.com/images//banner.gif" width=468 height=60></a>
Tip: it might be just an image, for example, your logo.
Logo Image URL
: enter the URL address of the image to show up in the top left corner of the window.
E.g.: http://www.domain.com/images/logo.gif
Signup Image URL : enter the URL address of the image to show up in the left top corner of the windows for plan signup forms.
E.g.: http://www.domain.com/images/signup.gif
Login Image URL
: enter the URL address of the image to show up on the logging page on the right.
E.g.: http://www.domain.com/images/login.gif
Important: Your own custom images added to the Parallels H-Sphere interface can be lost with the new release update even if you put them into the
/hsphere/local/home/cpanel/shiva/shiva-templates/IMAGES/ directory.
We recommend you to back up your custom images before each Parallels H-Sphere upgrade.
Icons And Control Images
Icons are the images that take you to certain sections of Parallels H-Sphere interface.
They can be found on the home page of the
No Menu
skin and on the
Quick Access
page of the Left Menu skin.
Control Images are the images that you click to perform certain actions, for example
Add , Edit , Delete .
To change default icons and control images:
1. Select
Design Settings
in the
Look and Feel
menu.
2. Log into the CP server as cpanel and copy IMAGES/ directory
(/hsphere/local/home/cpanel/shiva/shiva-templates/IMAGES/) to a custom location.
To implement customization correctly, all template files and directories should have cpanel:cpanel ownership.
106 Control Panel Web Interface
3. Replace the images you want to change. New images must have the same sizes as the defaults.
4. Go to
Look and Feel
->
Design Settings
and click
Change
at the bottom of page.
5. In the
Base Image Directory
field, enter the path to the IMAGES directory:
This must be either a fully qualified URL of your host, for example http://cp.mydomain.com:8080/BASE_IMAGE_DIRECTORY/ or a directory path relative to the CP Web Server Document Root
( /hsphere/local/home/cpanel/shiva/shiva-templates/ ) if your parent host put your images there.
The path must not include the IMAGES directory. For instance, if your images sit in http://www.example.com/hsphere/IMAGES/ , enter the path http://www.example.com/hsphere/ . Image directory path configuration is explained in the Skin and Icon Set Customization document in Customization
Guide.
Note: The custom image directory is provided,
/hsphere/local/home/cpanel/shiva/shiva-templates/CUSTOM_IMAGES. Type
/CUSTOM_IMAGES to the
Base Image Directory
field to make it your image location.
Mind however that custom images from the Parallels H-Sphere packages are installed into this directory and may overwrite your images.
If you made a mistake and your images do not show, just clear the Base Image Directory field, and click Submit . The original path will be restored.
Control Panel Web Interface 107
Interface Texts
Here you will learn how to edit interface texts including:
L OGIN TEXTS : the texts that show on the Parallels H-Sphere login page
S IGNUP TEXTS : the texts that show in the signup wizard
M ISCELLANEOUS TEXTS : Checks info, customer support info, and other texts
To edit interface texts, select
Look and Feel
under the
Settings
menu.
Login Texts
You can change the following texts displayed on the Parallels H-Sphere login page:
Welcome message
: the message on the top of the page. You can enter it in text or
HTML format.
Welcome text:
the text under the welcome message also can be entered in text or
HTML format.
Welcome Services
: describe the services provided by Parallels H-Sphere or enter any other welcome text.
To change interface login texts, enter your own text into the input box and click Save .
Signup Texts
Texts that appear on every page of the signup wizard and describe Parallels H-Sphere features and benefits. The title of the input box shows as the title of the signup text on the signup pages. If you leave the boxes empty, the system will use the default
Parallels H-Sphere signup texts.
To change signup texts, enter your own text into the input box and click Save .
Miscellaneous Texts
Customer Support info shows in the tooltip area when an action fails to execute with an error message written to the log and e-mailed to the support e-mail address.
Also, this text shows in some customer email notifications after the sentence "If you have any questions, please contact us at:"
Checks Info
is very important for check users and if not entered, your check users won't be able to pay for the resources.
It appears:
- in signup wizard ("Send your checks to"),
- in check invoice notifications,
- in check approaching resources limit notifications, etc.
Privacy Statement
is reserved for future implementation.
Sales Info
shows on the signup pages.
108 Control Panel Web Interface
To change these texts, enter your own text into the input box and click
Save
.
Skins and Colors
This document explains how to configure default design settings such as skins and color schemes for admin and users' control panels. Changing Look& Feel in your admin control panel will affect all end users in your Parallels H-Sphere system.
To change the Look& Feel of the control panel:
1. Select
Design Settings
from
Look and Feel
under the
Settings
menu.
2. On the page that appears select the default skin from the
Choose Design box.
3. Click the
Modify
button.
4. On the page that appears, change the design settings:
Users can choose this design: this option determines whether this design becomes available to your end users.
If none of the designs is enabled, Parallels H-Sphere sets Left Menu design as default.
New users will get this design as default:
enabling this option will change default design for your end-users and switch it off for all other designs;
Choose another design
: select another design to modify.
Note: XPressia Lite is specially designed to be used if your browser works slowly with XPressia.
5. Change control panel color and image set in the
Color Scheme Setting section.
Control Panel Web Interface 109
Important : You can change the color scheme, image set and icon set for Left
Menu skin, whereas for Text Based and No Menu skins only Icon Set can be changed.
Color Scheme:
select a color scheme and click
Apply
.
Image Set:
select another image set and click
Set
. Image Set standards can't be customized.
Default Icon Set for User:
select the icon set that will be default for your end users and click
Set
.
6. Create your own custom color scheme by changing default color schemes.
110 Control Panel Web Interface
Click Preview Window to see how your settings will effect users' control panel.
Click
Reset
to return to default color scheme.
Click Save to save your custom color scheme settings. It will appear in the Color
Scheme
drop-down box.
If you don't save
Custom Color Settings
and return to one of the four standard, all your custom configuration will be lost.
Note : these settings will affect control panels of your direct end users and resellers.
Resellers' admin control panels and the control panels of resellers' end users won't be affected; their look and feel must be configured from the reseller admin control panels.
Disabling CP Skins
If you don't want some skins to be supported by Parallels H-Sphere, you need to exclude them for the entire hosting system so they become unavailable for end users and resellers.
You can disable skins globally or for particular reseller plan.
Disabling CP Skins globally
To disable globally:
1. Log into your admin control panel
2. Select
Globals
in the
Plans
menu
3. In the
CP Designs
section of the page that shows, uncheck the skins you want to be entirely disabled
Disabling CP Skins for reseller plans
To disable CP skins for a particular reseller plan:
1. Log into your admin control panel
2. Select
Create
in the
Plans
menu
3. Choose reseller plan to start
Plan creation wizard
4. On the Step 1, uncheck the skins you don't want to be supported by this particular plan.
Control Panel Web Interface 111
Setting Interface Language
You can set both default system language and admin interface language.
Setting Default System Language
Default language is the language of newly created accounts, including navigation menu, form and control labels, context help, and system messages. However, every user can override the default language with one of those available in the user control panel.
Currently Parallels H-Sphere comes with the following languages: English, Russian,
Italian, French, Spanish, Dutch, German and Portuguese. You can also add new languages by installing language packages from http://download.hsphere.parallels.com/downloads/index.html#languages , compiling new language bundles, or bulding new language packages. See Customization Guide for the info.
Default language affects the default regional settings (on page 102). You can set
custom currency or currency pattern, but mind that they will be lost once you change to another language.
To change the default language:
1. Go to
Default Language
in
Look and Feel
under the
Settings
menu.
2. Select language from the drop-down box.
3. Click
Submit
to save changes.
4.
Proceed to Regional Settings (on page 102) configuration.
Changes of the interface language will affect control panels of your direct end users and resellers. In their turn, resellers can make their own changes that will take effect in all the resellers' end users control panels.
Setting Admin Interface Language
Unlike the language described above, which by default is set in all resellers' and users' cp, the language configured from
Admin User
menu relates only to your admin control panel, including reseller and user accounts which you access from it.
To change admin interface language:
1. Go to
Language
in the
Admin User
menu.
2. Select language from the drop-down box.
3. Click Submit to save changes.
112 Control Panel Web Interface
Important:
Now, when you visit accounts of your resellers and end users from your cp browser, they will appear for you in the language you just set. However, original language chosen by owners of these accounts will remain unchanged.
C H A P T E R 9
E-Mail Notifications
Parallels H-Sphere provides E-Mail Notifications feature. Please see this chapter for details.
In this chapter:
114 E-Mail Notifications
Setting E-Mail Notification Recipients
Parallels H-Sphere allows you to configure e-mail addresses where copies (the BCC:
field) of e-mail notifications (on page 115) - such as, welcome messages to customers
upon their signup, billing letters, confirmations of domain registration - will be sent to.
Also, you can add e-mail addresses to receive copies of trouble tickets and system notifications about critical errors, etc. Mostly, this option is provided to enable various departments of your company to track and resolve specific issues.
To subscribe e-mail addresses to receive notification copies:
1. Go to the
Settings
menu - >
Notifications
- >
Notification Recipients
.
2. On the page that appears add subscribers to mailing lists you choose.
System e-mail messages are grouped according to their specific tasks. These messages are configured in the
Settings
->
Notifications
->
E-Mail Notifications
menu.
Please refer to Editing E-Mail Notifications (on page 115) for details.
E-Mail Notifications 115
Editing E-Mail Notifications
Master admin and resellers can edit e-mail notifications directly from Parallels H-
Sphere control panel.
In previous versions, system emails were stored ONLY in system e-mail templates and could be edited only by master admin. Now system emails are stored in the Parallels H-
Sphere database and can be modified in the admin CP for each of interface languages provided in Parallels H-Sphere.
To customize system emails in CP:
1. In the admin interface, choose
E-Mail Notifications
under the
Settings
menu:
You will see the list of system e-mail notifications sent from the address entered as
your company information (on page 124). These notifications are grouped by
categories:
116 E-Mail Notifications
2. You can enable or disable sending copies (the BCC: field) of particular notifications to e-mail addresses in e-mail notification groups (on page
Settings
->
Notification Recipients
menu. Sending copies is by default enabled for all notifications within a group.
Checkboxes in the CC column to the left of the notification name indicate if sending
BCCs is enabled or disabled. You cannot enable or disable sending BCCs directly in the list of notifications. To do this, you should open a notification for edition and check/uncheck this option at the bottom of the page that appears:
After that, the CC indicator will be changed in the list:
E-Mail Notifications 117
3. To edit a custom email message, click on the notification name in the list or on the Configure icon to the right of the notification name. You will see the page containing two parts:
1) Preview: message preview as generated from the message template code:
NOTE: Variable message fields such as user's first and last name or user login are replaced in Preview by the Parallels H-Sphere intuitively understandable "pseudo texts": FirstName, LastName, USER.LOGIN, and the like.
118 E-Mail Notifications
2) Edit Form: contains the subject title and the dynamically generated message body :
Send the message as: setting the message's content type, the format in which the message would be sent (in plain text or in HTML format).
Default message for all languages:
this allows to make a custom email message default for those of the languages listed below that have this option ticked. If you do not want this message to be default for any of the languages, uncheck this option for that specific language.
Send CC:
check/uncheck this box to enable/disable sending copies (BCC:) of this particular message to e-mail addresses specified for this notification group (on
Settings
->
Notification Recipients
menu. This box is checked by default.
On the bottom of the form there is the language panel
with all interface languages available in Parallels H-Sphere. Click to choose the language you wish to modify the message for.
4. Click Save to apply changes.
If you change the message code correctly, you will get the note that changes have been successfully saved (in the Parallels H-Sphere database), and you may see these changes in the
Preview Message
.
E-Mail Notifications 119
Otherwise, you will receive an error, and changes won't apply:
IMPORTANT:
1. System email messages are generated from Freemarker code. To correctly customize the code, you should be familiar with Freemarker commands and with
Parallels H-Sphere advanced customization and resources.
2. There is no need to customize lang texts represented in the code as
${lang.text_name} and set in the bundle files in the
/hsphere/local/home/cpanel/shiva//psoft/hsphere/lang/ default bundle directory or in custom bundles directory . Instead, you could set the text directly for each interface language here in the given form. For this, please make sure you uncheck the
The default message for all languages
box when editing the message for each language.
3. Changes applied to the system emails through the given form are stored in the system database and do not affect the .txt system email notification templates that are located in the /hsphere/local/home/cpanel/shiva/shivatemplates/common/mail . Moreover, you can restore
the hardcoded system notification from the template by pressing the
Restore From Template
button at the bottom of the form.
We don't recommend customizing the default templates!
120 E-Mail Notifications
Configuring User Notification Rules
When customers approach their traffic (on page 279), summary disk usage limit (on
page 289) or disk quota (on page 289), They get respective e-mail warnings. To
choose how closely to the limit these warnings will be issued:
1. Select
User Warnings
in the
Settings
->
Notifications
menu.
2. Specify when users will be e-mailed. Choose if the accounts will be suspended:
E-Mail Notifications
Online Invoices
When creating plans with plan wizards, you choose whether you want Parallels H-
Sphere to e-mail order confirmations to users right after they buy resources. If you enable sending order confirmations, customers will receive them for every single bill entry, e.g. overlimit traffic. Order confirmations are sent from the e-mail address specified in the Look and Feel menu -> Company Info. If this feature is off, customers will get no order confirmations, even at the end of the billing period.
121
To turn sending order confirmations on or off:
1. Start a plan edit wizard.
2. On the first step scroll down to the
Settings
section.
3. Check the
E-mail order confirmation
box.
4. Complete the wizard.
After signup, users can change this option in their accounts.
To turn sending order confirmations ON or OFF for all your customers regardless of their current settings:
1. Select
Other
in the
E.Manager
menu.
2. Click ON or OFF in the
E-mail order confirmations
section:
Forcing sending order confirmations on or off overrides current user settings. However it doesn't prevent customers from switching this option back afterwards for their own accounts.
"No Charge" Notifications
You can configure the system to send clients automatic "No Charges Made for Your
Account" notifications at the end of each billing period or month. To choose the rule, select
Billing Settings
in the
Settings
menu:
122 E-Mail Notifications
For credit limit based billing, customers are notified if their balance does not exceed credit limit. For anniversary based billing, they are notified if during given billing period or month there were no billing operations (charges for purchases or exceeded monthly resource limits).
C H A P T E R 1 0
Control Panel Configuration
This chapter discusses the configuration steps required to set up and manage your
Parallels H-Sphere Control Panel.
In this chapter:
Disabling Global Resources, Hosting Platforms And Reseller CP SSL .............. 125
124 Control Panel Configuration
Entering Company Information
The system holds your company's name, mailing address and other details that are used across the control panel, including the letters e-mailed to the user. It's especially important for Enom and OpenSRS - incorrect or no info may decline domain registration.
To enter your company info:
1. Select
Company Info
in
Look and Feel
under the
Settings
menu.
2. Enter your corporate details:
Control Panel Configuration 125
Owner's first and last name : enter your name.
Company, Adress, City, State, Country and Postal Code
: enter your company's postal address information.
Phone, Fax
numbers of your company.
e-mail:
Parallels H-Sphere will use this address to send user notifications, mass mails, etc.
Hostmaster E-mail:
your sysadmin e-mail address. Use a dot "." instead of "@" in the e-mail address.
Website:
enter your company website if any.
3. Click
Save
to preserve changes.
Don't forget to configure Misc. Texts (on page 107) as well.
Resellers' admin control panels won't be affected by these settings. Their company info should be configured from the reseller admin control panels.
Disabling Global Resources, Hosting
Platforms And Reseller CP SSL
Global resources are those that have effect on the ENTIRE system. By default, they are all enabled in the system. Disabling global resources will make them unavailable for use by all new customers under all your plans, including your first hand customers, resellers and their end users. However, it won't affect existing users who have been using these resources.
If you are looking to restrict resources only for a particular plan , use Plan Wizards (on
To disable global resources:
1. Log into your Admin CP.
2. Go to
Plans
->
Globals
.
3. On the page that shows, uncheck the resources you want to be entirely disabled:
Note : These resources will appear as disabled in resellers Plan Creation Wizards and will be unavailable for activation.
126 Control Panel Configuration
Control Panel Configuration 127
4. In the same way disable hosting platforms, enable dedicated servers,
disable reseller CP SSL (on page 381) and CP designs, as well as
choose the type of IPs for reseller DNS servers:
- Enable Dedicated DNS Reseller IP to allow both service and dedicated IPs for reseller
DNS;
- Use the service IP for Reseller DNS servers to disable dedicated IPs and host all resellers on one IP only.
You can't disable service IP hosting for the entire system.
5. Click
Submit Query
.
128 Control Panel Configuration
Using Background Job Manager
Background Job Manager
is a utility that allows enabling, starting and disabling selected cron jobs from the admin control panel only.
This document will tell you how to manipulate cron jobs, see cron job details and view currently running jobs.
To manipulate cron jobs via Parallels H-Sphere interface:
1. Go to
E.Manager
- >
Background Jobs
- >
Background Job Manager
.
2. On the page that shows, check necessary jobs:
Control Panel Configuration 129
The listed cron jobs will do the following:
ASYNC_MAN : checks if asynchronous domain was created
BalanceExhaustionDateEstimator
: estimates the period of time before the user balance will be exhausted
130 Control Panel Configuration
BoxesInfo
: retrieves info from web/mail/etc boxes
CleanMailRelaysForMailServer
: removes all mail relays from the mail server with none of mail domains
ComodoSSLRenewal : performs renewal for Comodo SSL certificates
DedicatedServerCancellation : cancels dedicated servers
DomainRegistrationRenewal : performs renewal for domains registered via domain registrar (i.e: OpenSRS)
ExpDateSynchronization
: corrects expiration dates by requesting domain status from the registrar
MIGRATION : launches migration from other control panels
MSExchangeStats : collects MS Exchange mailbox usage statistics.
ResellerSupportBilling : bills resellers for the users' trouble tickets solved by admin.
Suspend : suspends debtors, finalizes incompletely suspended accounts and suspends users of suspended resellers
TTMailClient : gets mails using Settings -> Tech Support pop3 access.
If pop3 access is wrong, Parallels H-Sphere creates TT for current admin, sets the value TT_POP3_ACCESS in Postgres table settings to 0. Next time the Cron is started, it will skip getting mails for admin with TT_POP3_ACCESS set to "0". To take emails for this admin next time, re-submit the admin Settings->Tech Support settings, and then set TT_POP3_ACCESS to 1.
accounting
: performs recurrent billing for end users
contentMoving
: completes the process of moving user content
escallation
: sets higher priority to the tickets that are not answered for a long time
extcharge : processes the external_credits table and adds payments performed within an external payment system outside Parallels H-Sphere to this table as the account credits, thus integrating external payments into Parallels H- Sphere. Read more about external credits configuration in Parallels H-Sphere Developer Guide .
fSignups
: sends emails about failed signups (every 5 minutes)
mailSRS
: monthly regenerates secret key used in the SRS address cipher
overlimit
: checks that the account is not going over the limit
reseller
: does billing for resellers
revenue
: calculates summary billing info
transfer
: moves accounts between boxes
trial
: suspends expired trial accounts
ttAutoClose
: closes trouble tickets answered certain time ago
vps
: queries the status of creating virtual servers (every 4 minutes)
vpsReconfig
: reposts net configuration for future VPS servers on each physical VPS box.
vps_templates
: checks the status of vps templates
1. Choose an action: enable, start or disable jobs. The chosen action will be perfomed for all selected jobs.
2. Click the
Apply
button. The action will reflect in the job
Status
.
Control Panel Configuration 131
To view details of the specific job:
Click the Job name . The page that appears will show the job to be executed:
Detailed description of cron jobs is listed in CP Cron Jobs in System Administrator
Guide.
Group name
shows the group the job belongs to;
Status
shows what action has been performed.
Priority
ranges from 1 to 10. By default, priority is set as 5 (normal);
Start at
is a time when the job is to be started next time;
Period
is a time interval between the cron job launches, in minutes;
Before start, min
: time left before cron job starts;
Launch count
shows how many times the job was started since Job Manager was initialized (or since CP was started).
To view the jobs that are currently running:
Choose Current Jobs in the administrator control panel.
This page will show detailed information about the current jobs:
132 Control Panel Configuration
Id, Job name, Group name
,
Priority
,
Current status
and job
Progress
in percents.
Depending on the current status of a job, you can restart, interrupt, suspend or resume specific jobs. To do it, check necessary jobs, select an action and click
Apply
.
Supported TLD's
This document outlines the Top Level Domains (TLD's) supported by domain registrars in Parallels H-Sphere.
Domain Registrar
OpenSRS (on
Enom (on page
TLD
.com, .net, .org, .name, .info, .biz, .ca, .tv, .us, .co.uk, .de
.com, .net, .org, .us, .info, .biz, .tv, .ws, .nu, .bz, .cc, .ca, .cn, .com.cn,
.net.cn, .org.cn, .br.com, .cn.com, .de.com, .eu.com, .hu.com, .no.com,
.qc.com, .ru.com, .sa.com, .se.com, .uk.com, .us.com, .uy.com, .za.com,
.de, .in, .jp, .uk.net, .se.net, .tw, .co.uk, .org.uk
.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, .us OnlineNIC (on
RRPproxy (on
Ascionic (on
.com, .net, .org, .info, .biz, .ws, .cc, .bz, .nu, .ag, .tv, .us, .fm, .name, .la,
.cn, .tk, .tc, .vg, .ms, .gs, .pl, .jp, .sg, .tw, .ac, .am, .be
.co.hu, .co.pn, .com.my, .com.pa, .com.pe, .de, .dk, .hu, .in, .pn, .tm
Control Panel Configuration 133
Installing Shared SSL Certificates
Shared SSL certificates, also known as wildcard or server-wide certificates, are used to service multiple third level domains.
Thawte determines a wildcard certificate as "a single certificate, with a wildcard character in the domain name field. This allows the certificate to secure multiple hosts within the same domain. For example, a certificate for ' *.domain.com ', could be used for www.domain.com
, www1.domain.com
, www2.domain.com
, in fact, any host in the domain.com
domain. When a client checks the host name in this certificate it uses a shell expansion procedure to see if it matches."
According to VeriSign, a shared SSL certificate "enables Internet Service Providers
(ISPs) to provide SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption and business authentication to Web business customers, but without the need to issue unique digital certificates to each hosted customer. The service offers ISPs the convenience and streamlined management of a single specially licensed SSL digital certificate to share among multiple hosted web sites".
Shared SSL certificates work only within one domain level. For example, if you get a domain name for * .domain.com
, it will work for www.domain.com
and subdomain.domain.com
. But it won't work for www.subdomain.domain.com
or http://domain.com
, and visitors' browsers will show a warning message: "The name on the security certificate does not match the name of the site".
Parallels H-Sphere Shared SSL is based on shared IPs and wildcard SSL certificates and is bound to a particular service DNS zone. Since different servers use different shared IPs, Shared SSL is associated with a certain shared IP tag, which identifies these IPs on each server. When you install a wildcard certificate, it is set up on all web servers. Just make sure that shared IPs on the web servers have the same shared IP tag.
The cost of a shared SSL certificate usually depends on the number of subdomains that it covers and varies depending on the certificate authority.
Important: when obtaining SSL certificate, make sure it is generated for Apache regardless of whether you inted to install it on windows or unix box.
To install a shared SSL certificate:
1. Select
Shared SSL Manager
in the
E.Manager
menu:
134 Control Panel Configuration
2. Turn
Shared SSL Support
on for the DNS zone domain you would like to secure:
Note: you can dedicate a DNS zone for secure third level hosting of your direct end users as well as end users of your resellers. With this utility, resellers can offer your secure DNS zone for secured third level hosting without having to purchase their own shared SSL certificate.
To let your resellers provide their end users with secure hosting on your 'dedicated'
DNS zone, install shared SSL on it as described below and when you are through turn
Share SSL with resellers
on.
Shared SSL installation wizard
1. The window that appears on enabling Shared SSL support will give you two options:
Control Panel Configuration 135
Generate a temporary wildcard certificate by clicking the link at the top of the window;
Enter your existent wildcard certificate by entering it in the form. When you click the
Submit button, the certificate will be installed.
If you have created a temporary wildcard certificate, you can request a permanent wildcard certificate in the future from a trusted certificate authority. To install the
SSL certificate, click the
Edit
icon next to the domain name and enter the certificate key and certificate file. Then click the
Upload
button.
136 Control Panel Configuration
Sometimes, you may have to use a Certificate Authority File provided with the
Certificate by your Certificate Authority (e.g. Comodo Ca, Geotrust, Equifax, etc.).
To use the Certificate Authority File, you have to add a line to the apache config of each virtual host that uses shared SSL. Parallels H-Sphere can do this for you: enter the file in the Certificate Authority File text box and click the Upload button.
Note: If you are using more than one shared IP, each of them must have a unique shared IP tag. You can't create more than one certificate on one shared IP tag.
Control Panel Configuration 137
2. Go to Plan Edit Wizard and enable
Shared SSL
. By doing this, you will also automatically enable
Third Level Domain Alias
,
Third Level DNS Zone
,
Domain Alias A DNS Record
.
3. If you have added a new web server and want it to be serviced with the shared SSL certificate, click the Edit icon next to the domain name and enter the certificate key and certificate file in the
Install completely new certificate key and file pair
boxes. Then click the
Upload
button. This will update the shared SSL certificate installation on all servers, including the newly installed one.
Besides, you can create 'reseller dedicated' DNS zone domain, secure it with your shared SSL and allow resellers to secure their end user third-level domains (registered on this domain) with your own shared SSL.
Managing Mail SSL
Mail SSL is enabled globally in the system for all end users, including those under resellers. It is available only to master admin. Once it is enabled, it secures all mail sent and received by mail clients (such as Outlook Express).
You can install a certificate on one service DNS zone, which defines logical mail servers names. For instance, if your mail server is mail.example.com
, you will install the certificate on the example.com
zone.
Private key is stored on mail servers and in the system database without encryption. It is in our plans to implement certificate encryption in the forthcoming versions.
Mail SSL supports all mail protocols and listens on the following ports:
SMTPs - 465/tcp
POP3s - 995/tcp
IMAPs - 993/tcp
Enabling Mail SSL
To enable Mail SSL:
1. Log into the admin control panel.
2. Select
Mail Servers
in the
E.Manager
->
Servers
menu.
3. Turn on
Mail SSL Support
:
138 Control Panel Configuration
4. On the page that appears, select the service DNS zone:
5. On The next page, post private key and certificate:
Control Panel Configuration
If you don't have a certificate, click
Generate a temporary SSL certificate and certificate request . Parallels H-Sphere will generate you a fully-functional, but untrusted certificate.
6. The key and cert are validated and published to all logical mail servers to the file /hsphere/local/var/vpopmail/etc/mail.pem
. Then all mail servers are restarted. Parallels H-Sphere will display report messages at the top of the
Mail Servers
page.
Editing Mail SSL
You may need to edit Mail SSL in order to:
Install new certificate for an existent private key.
Install new key and certificate.
Install a chain file.
Install a revocation file.
Install a certificate authority file.
139
140 Control Panel Configuration
Newly installed files are validated on the CP server and published to all mail servers to the file /hsphere/local/var/vpopmail/etc/ca-mail.pem
and the mail servers are restarted. New keys and certificates are also written to the system database.
Control Panel Configuration 141
Reposting Certificates
Use this action to re-publish keys and certificates from the DB to all mail servers in the system. After the repost, mail servers are automatically restarted:
Disabling Mail SSL
If you disable Mail SSL, mail.pem
files are permanently deleted from all mail servers, and related data (key, cert, zone, etc.) is removed from the system database. Then mail servers are restarted.
Using Credit Card Encryption
Normally, credit card numbers are stored in clear text in the Parallels H-Sphere database.
The credit card encryption feature will allow you to add security by encrypting all the credit card numbers and to control when the credit card numbers are accessible by the
Control Panel. This feature uses Public/Private key encryption technology (RSA Block
Asymmetric Algorithm with a 1024bit key). All credit cards will be encrypted with a public key . The public key is always stored in a file on the Control Panel Server. The private key, which will be used to decrypt credit card numbers, will be downloaded by the administrator as a part of the encryption wizard.
WARNING:
1. The private key; is stored in RAM (NOT ON THE DISK!) and must be uploaded every time the control panel is resarted!
2. The permanent copy of the private key should be stored on a secure and safe medium by the administrator. It should not be on any of the Parallels H-Sphere servers!
3. If the private key is lost, there is no way for anyone (even for the support staff or programmers) to recover credit card numbers that have been encrypted!
142 Control Panel Configuration
Turning On
To turn on credit card encryption:
1. Log into your admin control panel.
2. Select
CC encryption
in the
Settings
->
Payment Settings
menu:
3. Click the
OFF
button to start encryption wizard.
4. Proceed to Step 2 of the wizard to get the form with your private key:
Copy the private key to your clipboard and also to a file stored in a safe location.
5. On the wizard's Step 3, enter the private key from the clipboard to the form, and proceed to get your credit cards encrypted:
Control Panel Configuration 143
Note: The encryption procedure may take a long time, up to an hour or even more, depending on the number of credit cards processed and the server physical configuration.
6. Now, CC encryption is complete:
Once the credit cards are encrypted, the private key will be stored in RAM until the
Control Panel is restarted or until the key is manually unloaded.
Note: If you restart Parallels H-Sphere during the encryption procedure, it would automatically continue after the restart.
Loading Private Key
If you have restarted Parallels H-Sphere, you need to load your private key, in order to be able to access encrypted data, or in case you need to complete CC decryption.
You would see the following form in the Settings -> Payment Settings -> CC Encryption menu:
144 Control Panel Configuration
To load your private key, insert to the form and enter Submit.
Turning Off
To turn off credit card encryption:
1. Log into your admin control panel.
2. Choose the
Settings
->
Payment Settings
->
CC Encryption
menu and click the
ON button to start decryption wizard.
3. After you choose to decrypt, you would get:
Control Panel Configuration 145
4. After the decryption process is finished, the CC Encryption menu would look like:
Click the Unload button to complete disabling CC Encryption.
Important: If you restart Parallels H-Sphere during decryption, you would not be able to proceed until you load your private key!
If You Lose Your Private Key
If the Private key fails to load, the following issues will arise with users who pay with credit cards:
Accounts under plans without credit limit will not be able to add paid resources.
If the accounting cron runs when the Private Key is not loaded, accounts whose billing period has ended will be debited regardless of their credit limit. This may put some users over their credit limit.
Users who are over their credit limit will not be able to add any resources (including free resources) until the encryption key is loaded.
146 Control Panel Configuration
Adding Credit Card Brands
To add support for a credit card brand (vendor) that is not provided with
Parallels H-Sphere:
1. Find a credit card processing center that automatically processes payments with this credit card brand.
2. Go to your admin control panel and select
CC Brands
in the
Settings
-
>
Payment Settings
menu.
3. On the page that opens, enter the full name and the short name of the custom credit card brand:
Now you can associate your credit card with this merchant gateway in the merchant
gateway manager (on page 171).
C H A P T E R 1 1
Domain Registrars
Parallels H-Sphere comes with support of several Domain Registrars. You can find more info in this chapter.
In this chapter:
Domain Registrar Manager
Parallels H-Sphere comes with Domain Registrar Manager. It supports automatic domain registration services with multiple domain registration providers.
In this section:
148 Domain Registrars
Configuring Domain Registration Settings
IMPORTANT:
1. Before you start, make sure to have your company info
carefully entered, as it will be used as Billing and Tech info for registered domains. With your company info incorrect or incomplete, end users may start encountering problems with domain registration.
Company Info is set on the
Look&Feel
->
Company Info
page.
2. TLDs with asynchronous registration, such as .co.uk or .org.uk, .de, etc. can be
handled by admin only by OpenSRS (on page 154).
3. TLDs that are not registered with supported registrars, such as .pt, or .jp should be
handled by admin with Email Domain Registrar (on page 166).
4. Parallels H-Sphere supports .US, .CA, .INFO, and .BIZ domains. Supported domain registration providers require that registrant phone and fax numbers be entered in a special format. Users registering .US and .CA domains are also asked for additional information.
Phone/fax format depending on the country of residence:
- North America: NXX-NXX-XXXX/YYYY ;
- Other countries: +CCC.ZZZZZZZZZZ/YYYY .
Here:
N is a digit from 2 to 9,
X any digit,
YYYY optional extension,
CCC country code,
ZZZZZZZZZZ phone/fax number inside the country.
Administrators/resellers should also change the format of phone and fax numbers in their Company Info pages.
Step 1. Creating Connections with Domain Registrars
1. Log into your admin CP.
2. Select
Domain Registrar
in the
Settings
menu.
3.
Create connections for Enom (on page 152), OpenSRS (on page 154),
OnlineNIC (on page 158), RRPproxy (on page 160), Ascionic (on page
162) or Email Domain Registrar (on page 166).
Domain Registrars 149
Step 2. Associating Top Level Domains with Domain
Registrars
Now that you have created connections with domain registrars, you need to associate it with each TLD (top level domain). If you have registered connections with both registrars, you can have some TLD's registered with one and others with another. For example, you can configure Parallels H-Sphere to register .com and .net domains with
OpenSRS, and others - with Enom. To set the associations:
1. In the Set Active field, choose the TLD and the registrar it will be registered with.
2. Click the
Activate
button to create the association. Now your Domain
Registrar Manager form should look similar to this:
150 Domain Registrars
Make sure to create associations for each TLD you would like to support. Users won't be able to register domains with inactive TLDs from their control panels.
Step 3. Setting Default Domain Registration Prices
Requirements
: Enom (on page 152) and/or OpenSRS (on page 154) configured.
You can set different domain registration prices in different plans. However, you first need to set default domain registration prices to be applied every time a plan-specific price hasn't been specified.
1. Log into your admin CP.
2. Select
Domain Registrar
in the
Settings
menu.
3. In the
Active
box, choose the top level domain ( .net, .com, etc.
) and click the
Define Terms/Prices
link next to it.
Set the default prices for various periods:
These are actual prices for the billing periods, they are not prorated to one year.
This means, you need to enter "15 30 45 60 75 90 105 120 135 150", not "15 15 15
15 15 15 15 15 15 15".
4. Repeat steps 3-4 for each TLD.
5. Now that you have entered default prices, set domain registration prices for individual plans.
Warning:
If you don't set default or plan-specific prices, end users won't be able to register domains from their control panels.
Step 4. Configuring Registrar Connections for Resellers
Resellers offer domain registration services using your registrar connections. In other words, once you have correctly completed the above steps, your registrar connections will become available in the resellers' admin control panels. Also, please:
Ask your resellers to check that their company info is correctly entered (no fields should be left empty), as it will be used as Billing and Tech info for registered domains. With reseller company info incorrect or incomplete, resellers' end users may start encountering problems with domain registration. Company Info is set in the reseller admin CP on the Look&Feel -> Company info page.
Domain Registrars 151
Make sure to enter prices for TLDs and year periods you would like to offer through resellers. These could be either default prices (see the previous step) or planspecific prices (see Plan Wizards, step 2, or both).
Editing Registrar Connection Settings
Requirement
: domain registrar accounts configured (on page 148)
1. Log into your admin CP.
2. Go to
Settings
->
Domain Registrar
.
3. Choose domain registrar account from the
Edit Registrar
drop-down box and click the
Edit button.
Removing TLD Associations
When you remove a TLD association, the TLD becomes unavailable for end users' domain registration. This, however, doesn't remove the registrar account. To remove a
TLD association:
1. Log into your admin CP.
2. Go to
Settings
->
Domain Registrar
.
3. Click the
Deactivate
link for the TLD association.
Deleting Registrar Connections
1. Log into your admin CP.
2. Go to
Settings
->
Domain Registrar
.
3. In the
Delete Registrar
drop-down box, choose the domain name registrar and click the
Delete
button.
152 Domain Registrars
Enom Configuration
Create a reseller account with Enom (http://www.enom.com). When prompted, enter the IP of your CP server and control panel DNS server names.
Note: DNS server names should be registered and propagated with ICANN accredited domain registrar.
In your Enom account allow using other name servers for domain registration.
Otherwise your resellers offering their end users domain registration won't be able to use nameserver aliases which will disclose parent host transparency.
With Enom registrar you can register
, renew
,
lookup
, and transfer
domains.
Setting Up Enom Connection
Requirement : agreement with Enom signed
To set up your connection with Enom:
1. Log into your admin CP.
2. Select
Domain Registrar
in the
Settings
menu.
3. In the
Add New Registrar
box, choose
Enom
and click the
Add
button:
4. You'll need to enter your Enom connection data:
Domain Registrars 153
Title : the name of your account. You can have more than one connection with
Enom.
Server : Enom server (provided by Enom), e.g.: reseller.enom.com
Port : the port used for connecting to the Enom server (provided by Enom), e.g.:
80.
Protocol : the protocol required by Enom.com to connect to the server, e.g.: http.
Path
: the path to the domain registration software (provided by Enom), e.g.:
/interface.asp.
Login
: the login to the server (provided by Enom).
Password
: the password to login to the Enom.com's server (provided by Enom).
License Agreement
: the text and/or the path to the license agreement obtained from Enom that explains the Enom's obligations to your customers, their obligations to Enom and proves you are a lawful registration service provider.
This will be shown to your end-customers on the signup forms and when they decide to create a new domain through their CP.
154 Domain Registrars
Warn users about domain expiration this many days in advance : the domains are bought from Enom for a certain period of time (one or more years). When this time expires the domain is suspended, and if the term of domain name registration is not renewed, the domain is canceled and becomes available for sale to other buyers. Here you can set the number of days before the domain expiration date to remind the user about approaching domain cancelation.
Renew domains this many days before domain expiration
: number of days before domain expiration to automatically renew the domain registration (as opposed to manual domain name registration renewal).
5. Click
Submit Query
. Now your Enom connection is created and you can proceed to configuring other registrar connections or associating top
level domains with domain registrars (on page 147).
To test Enom without registering domains, you need to create a test account using
Enom web interface.
OpenSRS Configuration
To prepare for the OpenSRS Configuration:
1. Create a reseller account with OpenSRS
(http://resellers.tucows.com/opensrs/). When prompted, enter the IP of your CP server and control panel DNS server names.
Note: DNS server names should be registered and propagated with ICANN accredited domain registrar.
In your OpenSRS account allow to use other name servers for domain registration.
Otherwise your resellers offering their end users domain registration won't be able to use nameserver aliases which will disclose parent host transparency.
2. Complete the Full Access (Fully Qualified Reseller) test on the
OpenSRS site to get the
Reseller
status. This requirement is set by
OpenSRS (not PSoft) to make sure you are familiar with their system and procedures and qualify to resell their services.
With OpenSRS registrar you can REGISTER , RENEW , LOOKUP , TRANSFER and LOOKUP TRANSFER domains.
Setting Up OpenSRS Connection
1. Log into your admin control panel.
2. Select
Domain Registrar
in the
Settings
menu.
3. In the
Add New Registrar
box, choose OpenSRS and click the
Add
button:
Domain Registrars 155
4. Now enter your OpenSRS connection settings:
156 Domain Registrars
Title : the name of your account. You can have more than one connection with
OpenSRS.
Server : OpenSRS server (provided by OpenSRS), e.g.: rr-n1-tor.opensrs.net
Port
: the port used for connecting to the OpenSRS server (provided by
OpenSRS), e.g.: 55000.
IP
: your CP server IP that OpenSRS has been notified about and approved for connection to their servers.
Login
: the login to the server (provided by OpenSRS).
Key
: the password to login to the OpenSRS' server (provided by OpenSRS).
License Agreement
: the text and/or the path to the license agreement obtained from OpenSRS that explains their obligations to your customers, explains their obligations to OpenSRS and proves you are a lawful registration service provider. This will be shown to your end customers on the signup forms and when they decide to create a new domain through their CP.
Warn users about domain expiration this many days in advance
: the domains are bought from OpenSRS for a certain period of time (one or more years). When this time expires the domain is suspended, and if the term of domain name registration is not renewed, the domain is canceled and becomes available for sale to other buyers. Here you can set the number of days before the domain expiration date to remind the user about approaching domain cancelation.
Renew domains this many days before domain expiration
: the number of days before domain expiration to renew the domain registration (as opposed to manual domain name registration renewal).
5. Click
Submit Query
. Now your OpenSRS connection is created and you can proceed to configuring other registrar connections or associating
top level domains with domain registrars (on page 147).
To improve your OpenSRS experience, write an e-mail to OpenSRS giving your company name and your e-mail address, and you will be personally contacted.
OpenSRS Testing Mode
To test OpenSRS without registering domains, use OpenSRS test server in OpenSRS settings in Parallels H-Sphere:
Title
: OpenSRS Test Server
Server
: horizon.opensrs.net
Port
: 55000
IP : IP address of your Parallels H-Sphere CP
Login
: OpenSRS account login
Key : Generated by OpenSRS when you login to https://horizon.opensrs.net
Domain Registrars 157
Asynchronous Response Management
Even though OpenSRS declares it can register .co.uk
, org.uk
, .de
, and .ca
regional domains in real time, it sometimes fails to give a success or failure response immediately and returns an "unknown status" response. When Parallels H-Sphere gets this response, it:
1. adds the domain in a regular way
2. charges the domain registration fee
3. creates an entry in the list of pending registrations in
Background Job
System
->
Async. Manager
:
4. creates a background job which polls OpenSRS for a response every hour.
Success: Once Parallels H-Sphere gets a confirmation about successful domain registration, it notifies the user, removes the domain from
Async. Manager
, and sends the administrator an email with the list of all completed registrations.
Failure: If Parallels H-Sphere doesn't get a successful response within the allowed period of time, it shows this domain registration as timed out and refunds the domain registration fee.
Async. Manager offers the following controls:
cancel - remove domain from Parallels H-Sphere and refund transfer fee to the account balance. Use this option if the customer still wants to be hosted, but decided not to register domain due to the difficulties with registration.
reset
- reset waiting time for a response from OpenSRS.
check
- poll
Async. Manager
to get most up to date registration status.
158 Domain Registrars
OnlineNIC Configuration
Getting Prepared
In order to configure OnlineNIC domain registrar, download and install OnlineNIC.hsp package (for Java 1.4 and up).
This package can be installed on Parallels H-Sphere as suggested in our instruction on
Installing Parallels H-Sphere packages in Customization Guide.
With OnlineNIC registrar you can register
, renew
,
lookup
domains.
Setting Up OnlineNIC Connection
Requirement : agreement with OnlineNIC signed
To set up your connection with OnlineNIC:
1. Log into your admin CP.
2. Select
Domain Registrar in the
Settings
menu.
3. In the
Add New Registrar
box, choose
OnlineNIC
and click the
Add
button:
4. You'll need to enter your OnlineNIC connection data:
Domain Registrars 159
Title
: the name of your account. You can have more than one connection with
OnlineNIC.
Server
: OnlineNIC server (provided by OnlineNIC).
Login : the login to the server (provided by OnlineNIC).
Port
: the port used for connecting to the OnlineNIC server (provided by
OnlineNIC)
Password
: the password to login to the OnlineNIC.com's server (provided by
OnlineNIC).
License Agreement
: the text and/or the path to the license agreement obtained from OnlineNIC that explains the OnlineNIC's obligations to your customers, their obligations to OnlineNIC and proves you are a lawful registration service provider. This will be shown to your end-customers on the signup forms and when they decide to create a new domain through their CP.
160 Domain Registrars
Warn users about domain expiration this many days in advance : the domains are bought from OnlineNIC for a certain period of time (one or more years). When this time expires the domain is suspended, and if the term of domain name registration is not renewed, the domain is canceled and becomes available for sale to other buyers. Here you can set the number of days before the domain expiration date to remind the user about approaching domain cancelation.
Renew domains this many days before domain expiration
: number of days before domain expiration to automatically renew the domain registration (as opposed to manual domain name registration renewal).
Initial renew mode
: choose default domain registration renew mode. User can change it afterwards.
5. Click Submit Query . Now your OnlineNIC connection is created and you can proceed to configuring other registrar connections or associating
top level domains with domain registrars (on page 147).
To test OnlineNIC without registering domains, you need to create a test account using
OnlineNIC web interface.
RRPproxy Configuration
In order to configure RRPproxy domain registrar, download and install the latest
RRPproxy .hsp package (for Java 1.4 and up).
This package can be installed on Parallels H-Sphere as suggested in our instruction on
Installing Parallels H-Sphere packages in Customization Guide..
With RRPProxy registrar you can register, renew, lookup
domains.
Setting Up RRPproxy Connection
Requirement : agreement with RRPproxy signed
To set up your connection with RRPproxy:
1. Log into your admin CP.
2. Select
Domain Registrar
in the
Settings
menu.
3. In the
Add New Registrar
box, choose
RRPproxy
and click the
Add
button:
4. You'll need to enter your RRPproxy connection data:
Domain Registrars 161
Title : the name of your account. You can have more than one connection with
RRPproxy.
Server : RRPproxy server (provided by RRPproxy).
Port
: the port used for connecting to the RRPproxy server (provided by
RRPproxy).
Path
: the path to the domain registration software (provided by RRPproxy).
Password : the password to login to the RRPproxy.com's server (provided by
RRPproxy).
License Agreement
: the text and/or the path to the license agreement obtained from RRPproxy that explains the RRPproxy's obligations to your customers, their obligations to RRPproxy and proves you are a lawful registration service provider. This will be shown to your end-customers on the signup forms and when they decide to create a new domain through their CP.
Warn users about domain expiration this many days in advance
: the domains are bought from RRPproxy for a certain period of time (one or more years). When this time expires the domain is suspended, and if the term of domain name registration is not renewed, the domain is canceled and becomes available for sale to other buyers. Here you can set the number of days before the domain expiration date to remind the user about approaching domain cancelation.
162 Domain Registrars
Renew domains this many days before domain expiration : number of days before domain expiration to automatically renew the domain registration (as opposed to manual domain name registration renewal).
5. Click
Submit Query
. Now your RRPproxy connection is created and you can proceed to configuring other registrar connections or associating
top level domains with domain registrars (on page 147).
To test RRPproxy without registering domains, you need to create a test account using
RRPproxy web interface.
Ascionic Configuration
In order to configure Ascionic domain registrar, download and install Ascionic .hsp package (for Java 1.4 and up).
This package can be installed on Parallels H-Sphere as suggested in our instruction on
Installing Parallels H-Sphere packages in Customization Guide.
With Ascionic registrar you can register
,
renew
,
lookup
domains.
Setting Up Ascionic Connection
Requirement : agreement with Ascionic signed
To set up your connection with Ascionic:
1. Log into your admin CP.
2. Select
Domain Registrar
in the
Settings
menu.
3. In the
Add New Registrar
box, choose
Ascionic
and click the
Add
button.
4. You'll need to enter your Ascionic connection data:
Domain Registrars 163
Title : the name of your account. You can have more than one connection with
Ascionic.
Server : Ascionic server (provided by Ascionic).
Port
: the port used for connecting to the Ascionic server (provided by Ascionic).
Login : the login to the server (provided by Ascionic).
Password : the password to login to the Ascionic.com's server (provided by
Ascionic).
Name Server handle
: nameserver ID. This handle is generated when Ascionic account owner registers nameserver in the Ascionic database.
License Agreement
: the text and/or the path to the license agreement obtained from Ascionic that explains the Ascionic's obligations to your customers, their obligations to Ascionic and proves you are a lawful registration service provider.
This will be shown to your end-customers on the signup forms and when they decide to create a new domain through their CP.
164 Domain Registrars
Warn users about domain expiration this many days in advance : the domains are bought from Ascionic for a certain period of time (one or more years). When this time expires the domain is suspended, and if the term of domain name registration is not renewed, the domain is canceled and becomes available for sale to other buyers. Here you can set the number of days before the domain expiration date to remind the user about approaching domain cancelation.
Request renewal domains this many days before domain expiration
: number of days before domain expiration to automatically renew the domain registration (as opposed to manual domain name registration renewal).
5. Click
Submit Query
. Now your Ascionic connection is created and you can proceed to configuring other registrar connections or associating top
level domains with domain registrars (on page 147).
To test Ascionic without registering domains, you need to create a test account using
Ascionic web interface.
TPPInternet Configuration
In order to configure TPPInternet (http://www.tppinternet.com/pub/php/home.php) domain registrar, download and install the latest TppInternet .hsp package.
This package can be installed as suggested in our instruction on Installing Parallels H-
Sphere packages in Customization Guide.
With TPPInternet registrar you can register, renew, lookup
domains.
Setting Up TPPInternet Connection
Requirement : agreement with TPPInternet signed
To set up your connection with TPPInternet:
1. Log into your admin CP.
2. Select
Domain Registrar
in the
Settings
menu.
3. In the
Add New Registrar
box, choose
TPPInternet
and click the
Add
button:
Domain Registrars 165
4. You'll need to enter your TPPInternet connection data:
166 Domain Registrars
Title : the name of your account. You can have more than one connection with
TPPInternet.
Server : TPPInternet server (provided by TPPInternet).
Port
: the port used for connecting to the TPPInternet server (provided by
TPPInternet).
Path
: the path to the domain registration software (provided by TPPInternet).
Client ID
: client ID provided by TPPInternet.
Password
: the password to login to the TPPInternet.com's server (provided by
TPPInternet).
License Agreement
: the text and/or the path to the license agreement obtained from TPPInternet that explains the TPPInternet's obligations to your customers, their obligations to TPPInternet and proves you are a lawful registration service provider. This will be shown to your end-customers on the signup forms and when they decide to create a new domain through their CP.
Warn users about domain expiration this many days in advance
: the domains are bought from TPPInternet for a certain period of time (one or more years). When this time expires the domain is suspended, and if the term of domain name registration is not renewed, the domain is canceled and becomes available for sale to other buyers. Here you can set the number of days before the domain expiration date to remind the user about approaching domain cancelation.
Request renewal of domains this many days before domain expiration
: number of days before domain expiration to automatically renew the domain registration (as opposed to manual domain name registration renewal).
5. Click
Submit Query
. Now your TPPInternet connection is created and you can proceed to configuring other registrar connections or associating
top level domains with domain registrars (on page 147).
To test TPPInternet without registering domains, you need to create a test account using TPPInternet web interface.
Email Domain Registration
Email Domain Registration vs. Real Time Domain Registration
Real time domain registration means that domain is registered immediately after the customer places a domain registration request from the control panel. Parallels H-
Sphere immediately gets a confirmation about successful or failed registration and either charges the user or notifies him with an error message. Real time domain
registration is supported by Enom (on page 152), OpenSRS (on page 154), and a few
other registrars.
Many domain names, including most regional domains, (e.g. .jp and .pt) can't be registered automatically, and you need to contact a registrar by email or otherwise.
Domain Registrars 167
Email domain registration was introduced for users to request non-automated domain registration right from their control panels. You can also use email domain registration if you want to use your preferred unsupported registrar. When you configure Email
Registrar and associate TLDs with it, they will appear among supported TLDs in the user control panels.
When a user selects a TLD associated with the Email Registrar, he is asked to fill out a form with his registration data. On submit, the domain is registered with Parallels H-
Sphere, the FTP directory is created in the user home on the web server, and a request notification is generated.
When configuring Email Registrar, you can choose to receive requests as trouble tickets and/or specify an email address to send them to. When you get a request, you will have to contact the registrar to register the domain. If you have an agreement with a domain registrar, you can enter their email address so they receive the requests without your mediation.
Configuring Email Registrar
To configure Email Registrar:
1. Log into your admin CP.
2. Select
Domain Registrar
in the
Settings
menu.
3. In the
Add New Registrar
box, choose
Custom Registrar
and click the
Add button:
168 Domain Registrars
4. Enter registrar settings:
Title
: the name of your account. You can have more than one connection with the preferred domain registrar.
Path to scirpt for lookup : path to the scirpt that checks if the domain name user is adding hasn't been taken.
The script must treat parameter that Parallels H-Sphere passes to it as a domain name and stdout "0", if domain is available or "1" if it is already in use
The path must start with slash "/" and should be absolute to
/hsphere/shared/scripts.
Send notification to: check this option if you want to be notified of the domain registration with custom registrar.
- send it to the Trouble Ticket System and/or other email address entered into the empty field.
- you can CC the mail notification to a number of email addresses. To do it, enter email into the Email field and click Add .
Domain Registrars 169
Supported tld : enter all TLDs you would like to provide domain registration for with your preferred domain registrar.
License Agreement : the text and/or the path to the license that:
- lists your and registrar's obligations to customers, their obligations to you and the registrar;
- proves you are a lawful registration service provider.
This will be shown on the signup forms and domain registration page in the user
CP.
Warn users about domain expiration this many days in advance
: the domains are usually bought for a certain period of time (one or more years). When this time expires the domain is suspended, and if the term of domain name registration is not renewed, the domain is canceled and becomes available for sale to other buyers. Here you can set the number of days before the domain expiration date to remind the user about approaching domain cancelation.
Renew domains this many days before domain expiration
: number of days before domain expiration to remind the administrator that the domain needs to be renewed.
5. Click
Submit Query
. Now the domain registrar connection is created and you can proceed to configuring other registrar connections or
associating top level domains with domain registrars (on page 147).
C H A P T E R 1 2
Merchant Gateways
This chapter provides information on how to configure Merchant Gateways in Parallels
H-Sphere.
In this chapter:
Protx (VSP Direct Protocol 2.22) Configuration ................................................. 209
VeriSign PayFlow Pro With SSL Support .......................................................... 223
Merchant Gateways 171
Merchant Gateway Manager
Merchant Gateway Manager is a configurable Parallels H-Sphere add-on that allows you to set up and alter merchant gateways, the media for conducting transactions with online credit card processing centers. The software tracks gateway usage and provides statistical information on the number of transactions and total charges for every particular gateway.
Merchant Gateway Manager allows you to setup different merchant gateway accounts for different types of credit cards (like VISA, MasterCard, Discover, American Express).
In this way you can maximize your profits by processing every type of credit card with the gateway that offers the lowest rate for this type of card.
Before configuring a merchant gateway, register an account with a supported merchant gateway.
Resellers can't use admin merchant gateway settings. They should register their own accounts with chosen Merchant Gateways.
IMPORTANT!
New merchant gateways are integrated to Parallels H-Sphere by means of packages.
You can:
- download merchant gateway packages compiled by Positive Software
- build your own packages using Merchant Gateway SDK.
In this section:
Associating Merchant Gateways with Credit Card Vendors ............................... 173
Editing Description for User Credit Card Statements ......................................... 173
172 Merchant Gateways
Setting Up Merchant Gateway
Once you have registered an account with a credit card processing center, you can set up a merchant gateway to your Parallels H-Sphere configuration:
1. Go
Settings
->
Payment Settings
->
Merchant Gateway
.
2. The following page will appear:
3. If you need to test Parallels H-Sphere billing without making real charges, select
Dummy Gateway
in the
Add new gateway
box and use it in the subsequent configuration steps. To configure real gateways, see the box
Configuring Specific Gateways
on the right for links to instructions.
Editing Merchant Gateway Settings
To edit the configuration of the merchant gateway:
1. In the
Edit Gateway
box choose necessary merchant gateway from the drop-down box.
2. Click the
Edit
button. On the form that appears you can make necessary changes.
3. Click the
Submit Query
button to save changes.
Merchant Gateways 173
Associating Merchant Gateways with Credit Card
Vendors
Now that you have configured one or more merchant gateways, you need to associate them with credit card vendors. You can have different credit card brands processed with different processing centers. For example, you can configure Parallels H-Sphere to process VISA and MASTERCARD with AuthorizeNet, and AMERICAN EXPRESS - with CyberCash.
To set the associations:
1. In the
Set Active
field, choose the credit card brand and the processing center it will be charged through.
2. Click the Activate button to create the association. Now your Merchant
Gateway Manager form should look similar to this:
Make sure to create associations for each credit card brand you would like to support.
Users won't be able to pay with the credit cards that haven't been associated with any processing center.
Editing Description for User Credit Card Statements
Use this feature to let your customers know from their credit card statements what charges are related to hosting with Parallels H-Sphere.
1. Select
Merchant Gateway
in the
Settings
menu.
2. Enter the description text in the
Edit Description
text box.
3. Click
Submit Query
.
174 Merchant Gateways
Handling CC Charge Request Failures
Parallels H-Sphere handles rejected credit card transactions by setting the maximum failed charge attempts and the retry interval. If a processing center rejects a CC charge request, Parallels H-Sphere will:
1. debit the account;
2. notify the administrator by e-mail (end user isn't notified);
3. send this CC request again in the defined period of time;
4. disable any other paid operations with this CC until this period elapses.
With the first successful credit card transaction, the charge failure counter is reset.
To configure this behavior:
1. Select
Merchant Gateway
in the
Settings
menu.
2. Fill out the last two fields on the Merchant Gateway Manager page:
- Maximum allowed failed charge attempts for credit cards: restrict the number of CC charge request failures.
- Retry interval after failed attempt to process CC (min): set the period (in minutes) to elapse before the system resends the charge request. Until then, the system will disable any transactions with this CC.
If charge failures reach the maximum number allowed, Parallels H-Sphere will mark such credit card as nonchargeable until you reset the charge failure counter:
1. Select
CC processing errors
in the
Reports
menu;
2. Retrieve the needed account;
3. In the
Controls
column of the
Search Results
page, click the
Reset
icon for this account.
Merchant Gateways 175
One Step Gateways
To offer completely automated credit card processing, a merchant gateway must support the following 4 types of transactions:
AUTHORIZE specifies that a transaction authorizes the credit card.
CHARGE specifies that a transaction charges amount without prior authorization.
CAPTURE specifies that a transaction is completed.
VOID specifies that a transaction cancells an amount.
Most credit card charges involve only the CHARGE transaction. An exception is domain registration, which involves two steps:
1. Lock required amount on the credit card (AUTHORIZE) before domain registration
2.a. If domain registration succeeds, debit the locked amount to the credit card
(CAPTURE)
2.b. If domain registration fails, unlock the amount and cancel the initiated transaction
(VOID)
Some merchant gateways don't support CAPTURE or VOID transactions, requiring that they be performed manually through a web interface. In case of domain registration, you will receive email notifications requesting to complete or cancel a transaction every time a user registers a domain name.
AssureBuy Configuration
Preparation
No preparation is needed before configuration.
Configuration
1. Select
AssureBuy
in the
Add New Gateway
box.
2. Click the
Add
button.
3. Fill out the form that appears:
176 Merchant Gateways
Title
: give a name to this AssureBuy connection
Server
: the name of the AssureBuy server
Port
: the port of the AssureBuy server
Path
: the path to the server side handler file. This can be a script or a binary file that is launched with an http request.
User ID
: your AssureBuy User ID
AssureBuy Password
: the password which comes with User ID
Currency
: the currency in which your end users will be charged
AVS
: AVS stands for Address Verification Service. It can be used as an additional layer of protection for merchants who wish to verify that the purchaser knows the billing address of the cardholder (in case these are two different people). This is not a very serious form of risk mitigation or fraud prevention, and yet it does give some assurance that a hacker isn't simply generating a list of valid credit card numbers and purchasing product at will. AVS simply matches the numeric portion of the cardholder's street billing address and the 5 or 9-digit zip code of the cardholder's billing address. The AVS request parameters are
STREET and ZIP. The processing network verifies the AVS information, comparing a portion of the billing address from the request message with address data on file at the VIC or the issuer's center. Based on the comparison, a response will be returned which confirms whether the information matches or not. Banks do not decline transactions based on the AVS check. The AVS response is returned as two single tab-delimited characters: YY, NN, YN, NY (Y-
'matches', N for 'does not match'). This information is just an advice. However, the Parallels H-Sphere system will either allow or decline the transaction depending on the selected AVS status. AVS is available only for US cardholders.
Important: To provide non US cardholders CC processing, disable AVS checkup in the merchant gateway configuration.
Merchant Gateways 177
Test Mode box : with Test Mode checked, all transactions appear to be processed as real transactions. The gateway accepts the transactions, but does not pass them on to the financial institutions. Accordingly, all transactions will be approved by the gateway when Test Mode is turned on.
4. Click
Submit Query
CVV (Card Verification Value).
To enable fraud protection using CVV, enable and configure CVV support in your AssureBuy account. More on CVV credit card verification.
AuthorizeNet (Sim Protocol) Configuration
Preparation
AuthorizeNet certificate is trusted by VeriSign Trust Network. In Java 1.3.x and older the standard java cartcerts file doesn't include VeriSign Trust Network public certificate and therefore Parallels H-Sphere returns 'Connect error, untrusted server cert chain' when trying to connect ito the merchant gateway. That's why VeriSign Trust Network certificates should be imported into cacerts file.
So, if you have Java 1.3 and older, you have the following solutions:
A. If you have got the default java cacerts file and you have never changed it, you can simply replace it with the cacerts file offered by Parallels
(http://download.hsphere.parallels.com/cacerts):
/usr/java/<java home>/jre/lib/security/cacerts
B. You can update your cacerts file using the keytool feature available in the standard
Java installation.
C. Upgrade Java to 1.4 by following our documentation in System Administrator Guide.
Note: If your certificate is already imported into cacerts, but Java still generates
'Connect error, untrusted server cert chain' , please check the connection to your payment server from your control panel server by running the following command from the control panel server console to check connection: telnet [server.name] [port]
Configuration
1. Select
AuthorizeNet (Sim Protocol)
in the
Add New Gateway
box.
2. Click the
Add
button.
3. Fill out the form that appears:
178 Merchant Gateways
Title
: give a name to this AuthorizeNet connection
Server
: the name of the AuthorizeNet server
Port
: the port of the AuthorizeNet server
Path
: the path to the server side handler file. This can be a script or a binary file that is launched with an http request.
Login
: your AuthorizeNet login
Transaction Key : a unique gateway-generated alphanumeric string that is used by the gateway to authenticate the fingerprint and the transaction as originating from an authorized merchant
Referrer URL
: the URL of the page that requests the payment. It's required as in some cases requests can be canceled without this information. Referrer URL can be your control panel URL, e.g: http://cp.your_domain
( http://cp.example.com
). Make sure to enter the same Referrer URL in settings -> response/receipt URLs in your AuthorizeNet interface, otherwise the request will be denied.
Test Mode :
- FALSE : credit card transactions will be completed and credit cards will be charged;
- TRUE : authorization requests will be sent for verification without settlement requests and credit cards won't be charged.
* In Test Mode, all transactions appear to be processed as real transactions.
The gateway accepts the transactions, but does not pass them on to the financial institutions. Accordingly, all transactions will be approved by the gateway when Test Mode is turned on.
4. Click
Submit Query
To obtain the Transaction Key from the Merchant Interface:
1. Log into the Merchant Interface;
Merchant Gateways 179
2. Select
Settings
from the Main Menu;
3. Click
Obtain Transaction Key
in the
Security
section;
4. Type in the answer to your secret question (The secret question and answer are setup during account activation. It is required to authenticate the merchant before the transaction key is generated.)
5. Click
Submit
;
6. The transaction key is returned by the Merchant Interface.
Note: Please make sure the time on your control panel server is precisely synchronized, or else transaction requests will be declined by AuthorizeNet.
AVS (Address Verification Service). To enable fraud protection using AVS, enable and configure AVS support in your AuthorizeNet account. To provide non US cardholders
CC processing, AVS check-up in the merchant gateway configuration must be disabled.
CVV (Card Verification Value).
To enable fraud protection using CVV, enable and configure CVV support in your AuthorizeNet account. More on CVV credit card verification.
Bibit Configuration
Preparation
No preparation is needed before configuration.
Configuration
1. Select
Bibit
in the
Add New Gateway
box.
2. Click the Add button.
3. Fill out the form that appears:
180 Merchant Gateways
Title : give a name to this Bibit connection
Server
: the name of the Bibit server
Port : the port of the Bibit server
Path
: the path to the server side handler file. This can be a script or a binary file that is launched with an http request.
Login
: your Bibit login
Password
: the password which comes with login/username
Merchant Code
: your Bibit account ID
Currency
: the currency in which your end users will be charged
4. Click
Submit Query
Merchant Gateways 181
Cardia Services Configuration
Preparation
To configure Cardia Services, download and install Cardia Services .hsp package from http://download.hsphere.parallels.com/downloads/index.html#merchant_gateways (for
Java 1.4 and up).
This package can be installed on Parallels H-Sphere 2.4.x and higher as suggested in
Installing Parallels H-Sphere packages in Customization Guide..
Configuration
1. Select
Cardia Services
in the
Add New Gateway
box.
2. Click the
Add
button.
3. Fill out the form that appears:
Title
: give a name to this Cardia Services connection
Merchant Token
: your Cardia Services account ID
Store
: Your Cardia Services unique ID, sometimes also referred to as Config File
Currency
: the currency in which your end users will be charged
4. Click
Submit Query
182 Merchant Gateways
ECHO Configuration
Preparation
No preparation is needed before configuration.
Configuration
1. Select
Echo
in the
Add New Gateway
box.
2. Click the
Add
button.
3. Fill out the form that appears:
Title : give a name to this Echo connection
Login : your Echo login
Pin : once you register an account with Echo, you are given this to verify charge requests
E-mail : the email address you provided on signing up with Echo
4. Click
Submit Query
Merchant Gateways 183
ePDQ Configuration
Preparation
Make sure that the CcxClientApi.jar
file is present in the
/hsphere/local/home/cpanel/java_rt/ directory.
If it's not there:
1. Contact ePDQ and obtain the CcxClientApi.jar file.
2. Put the lib file into in the directory ~cpanel/java_rt/.
When restarting the Control Panel, make sure that you are logged in to the CP server as root.
For Linux:
/etc/rc.d/init.d/httpdcp stop killall -9 java sleep 10
/etc/rc.d/init.d/httpdcp start
For FreeBSD:
1. /usr/local/etc/rc.d/apachecp.sh stop killall -9 java sleep 10
/usr/local/etc/rc.d/apachecp.sh start.
Configuration
1. Select ePDQ
in the
Add New Gateway
box.
2. Click the
Add
button.
3. Fill out the form that appears:
184 Merchant Gateways
Title : give a name to this ePDQ connection
Server : the name of the ePDQ server
Port : the port of the ePDQ server
IP Address : your external control panel IP address
Login : your ePDQ login
Password : the password which comes with login/username
Client ID : the unique client ID code you get from ePDQ
Currency : the currency in which your end users will be charged
Test Mode :
- FALSE : credit card transactions will be completed and credit cards will be charged;
- TRUE : authorization requests will be sent for verification without settlement requests and credit cards won't be charged.
* In Test Mode, all transactions appear to be processed as real transactions.
The gateway accepts the transactions, but does not pass them on to the financial institutions. Accordingly, all transactions will be approved by the gateway when Test Mode is turned on.
4. Click
Submit Query
eWay Configuration
Preparation
No preparation is needed before configuration.
Configuration
1. Select eWay
in the
Add New Gateway
box.
2. Click the
Add
button.
3. Fill out the form that appears:
Merchant Gateways 185
Title : give a name to this eWay connection eWay Customer ID : your unique eWAY customer ID assigned to you when you join eWAY, e.g.: 11438715
Server : the name of the eWay server
Port : the port of the eWay server
Path : the path to the server side handler file. This can be a script or a binary file that is launched with an http request.
Notification Email for VOID and CAPTURE Transactions : eWay doesn't support VOID and
CAPTURE transactions. Instead, Parallels H-Sphere sends a notification to this address that the transaction needs to be canceled or completed manually through eWay web interface.
4. Click
Submit Query
186 Merchant Gateways
HSBC Configuration
Preparation
In order to configure HSBC merchant gateway, download and install HSBC .hsp package
( http://download.hsphere.parallels.com/downloads/index.html#merchant_gateways ).
This package can be installed on Parallels H-Sphere as suggested in our instruction on
Installing Parallels H-Sphere packages in Customization Guide.
Configuration
1. Select
HSBC
in the
Add New Gateway
box.
2. Click the
Add
button.
3. Fill out the form that appears:
Title : give a name to this HSBC connection
Server : the name of the HSBC server
Port : the port of the HSBC server
Client ID : the unique client ID code you get from HSBC
Username : enter the name given to you by HSBC provider
Password : the password which comes with login/username
Currency : the currency in which your end users will be charged
Merchant Gateways 187
Test Mode box : with Test Mode checked, all transactions appear to be processed as real transactions. The gateway accepts the transactions, but does not pass them on to the financial institutions. Accordingly, all transactions will be approved by the gateway when Test Mode is turned on.
4. Click
Submit Query
188 Merchant Gateways
Innovative Gateway Configuration
Preparation
No preparation is needed before configuration.
Configuration
1. Select
InnovativeGateway
in the
Add New Gateway
box.
2. Click the
Add
button.
3. Fill out the form that appears:
Title
: give a name to this InnovativeGateway connection
Server
: the name of the InnovativeGateway server
Port
: the port of the InnovativeGateway server
Path
: the path to the server side handler file. This can be a script or a binary file that is launched with an http request.
Login
: your InnovativeGateway login
Password
: the password which comes with login/username
Test Mode
:
- FALSE : credit card transactions will be completed and credit cards will be charged;
- TRUE : authorization requests will be sent for verification without settlement requests and credit cards won't be charged.
* In Test Mode, all transactions appear to be processed as real transactions.
The gateway accepts the transactions, but does not pass them on to the financial institutions. Accordingly, all transactions will be approved by the gateway when Test Mode is turned on.
Merchant Gateways 189
4. Click
Submit Query
CVV (Card Verification Value).
To enable fraud protection using CVV, enable and configure CVV support in your InnovativeGateway account. More on CVV credit card verification.
LinkPoint (API v3.01) Configuration
LinkPoint deprecated support for its old API. It may cause problems with signup and billing. To update API to v3.01, users should convert the certificate from PEM to P12 format (see below)
Preparation
Make sure that the JLinkPointTxn.jar
file is present in the
/hsphere/local/home/cpanel/java_rt/ directory.
If it's not there:
1. Contact LinkPoint (API) and obtain the JLinkPointTxn.jar file.
2. Put the lib file into in the directory ~cpanel/java_rt/.
When restarting the Control Panel, make sure that you are logged in to the CP server as root.
For Linux:
/etc/rc.d/init.d/httpdcp stop killall -9 java sleep 10
/etc/rc.d/init.d/httpdcp start
For FreeBSD:
1. /usr/local/etc/rc.d/apachecp.sh stop killall -9 java sleep 10
/usr/local/etc/rc.d/apachecp.sh start.
When your linkpoint account is created you receive linkpoint welcome email which contains username, password and the certificate in the PEM format. You need to convert this certificate from PEM to P12 format. One way to do this is to run the following from a command prompt: openssl pkcs12 -export -in YOURPEM.pem -inkey YOURPEM.pem out YOURPEM.p12 -passout pass:YOURPASS -name "YOURNAME"
Where:
q YOURPEM - the name of your PEM file;
q YOURPASS - your merchant password (the password you specified in merchant gateway settings);
190 Merchant Gateways
q YOURNAME - any arbitrary name.
For example: openssl pkcs12 -export -in cert.pem -inkey key.pem -out
1234567.p12 -passout pass:987654321 -name "LinkPoint"
PEM files example: key.pem:
-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
MIICXAIBAAKBgQC6gLgc6I+vcvoSkJHFZfzt/sJRy6rBwAtf8AUMguAqgCq8sz2H tIYHeng/71Z0uuPXUQY7veFUXDAXFvn4SLCresf5cHl9hxlqNITRY2MhTn92TLlV lmfzCZtBdhshncWydpQ6HcHOwRYUL8Ure1yw6iOlk7Q8ja6GstqiKbTWDQIDAQAB
AoGAWv8C1dgCgzAuI3EL2APa7KQoW5BrfDzjXYUNNNgggejexeoOU3AZFP0EPu2f
2UR2dk/qIqv6jRaNwDZNsH6G8831PyTmUJoMZB+vuAeYFyEV6uWyzBFYJohubB2g
V+fxq8wSalKKvmuyoUqr2TKexweumppUMCK+pruxfqeXuWECQQDtfpdiohLeTDaQ
Q84yIHABD1H80r9KLfdc77R0f5Y5BL+Obh+p/5T&bdue7HBB673QzNB0CrHOJJQi xNiPYrJ/AkEAyQj5UX8dSVR8Xhcw/gVoqaB3WnyzmT4VSf8Y2tKlRETLNxIBTkAC
6BV9jkllOIIojFOl9kkj9OaMlF/fTm/ZcwJAPzihyAnpB/A13jWOoF1uM3oGk0zu yyptXPoaiaClNsyCycGbAEAfM32ax2ceqEL9JqY/H4TxTDUEkjTgiVr2tQJABrlW
HXOy9xDsV/lOmj8V9P9P9P96HUoKTD9MBYWmIXJrmZvwjz101qzpV534Yi+xOpc/
Zd+HahmL+ip6vZTgIQJBANfO45PBiDZV71kHCmVDKnMUtR7FsJ7yKfZ2i/P8+23I k7GP9lp/fj7MkLLjdui8hdjkdoiZ5ylCYXgIvbE=
-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY----- cert.pem
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIICZDCCAc2gAwIBAgIBADANBUndj8JJkoIUUTDClLIJNQswCQYDVQQIEwJOWTER kNNgTfDhBgFYGvNHGIUy8YHKjUY98ojHL9hkjH987YTIJXJlIGRldmVsb3BlcjEY
MBYGA1UEAxMPTWF4aW0gS2FCMGDhhNSHYDJLLLSALLLCIvcNAQkBFhBta2FudHNA cHNvZnQubBSGDUuNHYiMMMUjhjhBKuuKLLLllHHUUJKHIjE1MzIzMVoweDELMAkG
A1UECBMCTlkxETAPBgNVBAcTCE5ldyBZb3JrMRswGQYDVQQKExJILVNwaGVyZSBk
ZXZlbG9wZXIxGDAW8jGFUUJ7B577b6655HGFHHHG5DSGHjEfMB0GCSqGSIb3DQEJ
ARYQbWthbnRzQHBzb2Z0Lm5ld0UYGD7SH389SUNWFA8HXQEFAAOBjQAwgYkCgYEA uoC4HOiPr3L6EpFBVmX87f7CUcuqwcALX/AFDILgKoAqvLIIUDSUYID8732UJjjh
SDIUDSTYR478745KWOS89SF7TL3I7RFHJDFPWP09866UJFO99SPWQQ2O9D99W4LJ ghdjuKKuhhkktgjyr3tcsOojpZO0PI2uhrLaoim01g0CAwEAATANBgkqhkiG9w0B
AQQFAAOBgQBNm1GvV+jrioeiortu+etikugOIUOULLKOFLHJIOijglkr94mjosij
Ommdsktuier/wUUYTUGDJKHGASDIUYODIYF/589739IDJLCKJI48kudow9JKHIOJ
BUokxewLJHK/l1fJQbEr90SJK59DK409SL3Zn0r4sQVTTTQWDTdXjMVYA6A==
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
Configuration
1. Select
Link Point (API v3.01)
in the
Add New Gateway
box.
2. Click the
Add
button.
3. Fill out the form that appears:
Merchant Gateways 191
Title
: give a name to this LinkPoint (API) connection
Store Name : Your LinkPoint (API) unique ID, sometimes also referred to as Config
File
Server : the name of the LinkPoint (API) server
Port
: the port of the LinkPoint (API) server
Password
: the password which comes with login/username
AVS
: AVS stands for Address Verification Service. It can be used as an additional layer of protection for merchants who wish to verify that the purchaser knows the billing address of the cardholder (in case these are two different people). This is not a very serious form of risk mitigation or fraud prevention, and yet it does give some assurance that a hacker isn't simply generating a list of valid credit card numbers and purchasing product at will. AVS simply matches the numeric portion of the cardholder's street billing address and the 5 or 9-digit zip code of the cardholder's billing address. The AVS request parameters are
STREET and ZIP. The processing network verifies the AVS information, comparing a portion of the billing address from the request message with address data on file at the VIC or the issuer's center. Based on the comparison, a response will be returned which confirms whether the information matches or not. Banks do not decline transactions based on the AVS check. The AVS response is returned as two single tab-delimited characters: YY, NN, YN, NY (Y-
'matches', N for 'does not match'). This information is just an advice. However, the Parallels H-Sphere system will either allow or decline the transaction depending on the selected AVS status. AVS is available only for US cardholders.
Important: To provide non US cardholders CC processing, disable AVS checkup in the merchant gateway configuration.
192 Merchant Gateways
Test Mode :
- FALSE : credit card transactions will be completed and credit cards will be charged;
- TRUE : authorization requests will be sent for verification without settlement requests and credit cards won't be charged.
* In Test Mode, all transactions appear to be processed as real transactions.
The gateway accepts the transactions, but does not pass them on to the financial institutions. Accordingly, all transactions will be approved by the gateway when Test Mode is turned on.
1. Click
Submit Query
2. In
Edit Gateway
, select the newly created connection and press
Edit
.
3. Note the two new parameters that appeared on the gateway configuration page,
Key File
, and
Certificate File
. Put the key and certificate files on the control panel server to the locations suggested here.
Merchant Gateways 193
Moneris Configuration
Preparation
In order to configure Moneris merchant gateway, download and install Moneris .hsp package from http://download.hsphere.parallels.com/downloads/index.html#merchant_gateways (for
Java 1.5.x only).
This package can be installed as suggested in our instruction on Installing Parallels H-
Sphere packages in Customization Guide.
Configuration
1. Select
Moneris
in the
Add New Gateway
box.
2. Click the
Add
button.
3. Fill out the form that appears:
Title
: give a name to this Moneris connection
Server
: the name of the Moneris server
StoreID
: your unique ID received from Moneris
API Token
: your Moneris account ID
4. Click
Submit Query
194 Merchant Gateways
NetBilling Configuration
Preparation
NetBilling certificate is trusted by Equifax and provided by GeoTrust. In Java 1.3.x and older the standard java cartcerts file doesn't include GeoTrust root Certificates and therefore Parallels H-Sphere returns 'Connect error, untrusted server cert chain' when trying to connect to the merchant gateway. That's why GeoTrust Root certificates should be imported into cacerts file.
So, if you have Java 1.3 and older, you have the following solutions:
A. If you have got the default java cacerts file and you have never changed it, you can simply replace it with the cacerts file offered by Parallels
(http://download.hsphere.parallels.com/cacerts):
/usr/java/<java home>/jre/lib/security/cacerts
B. Upgrade Java to 1.4 by following our documentation in System Administrator Guide.
Note: If your certificate is already imported into cacerts, but Java still generates
'Connect error, untrusted server cert chain' , please check the connection to your payment server from your control panel server by running the following command from the control panel server console to check connection: telnet [server.name] [port]
Make sure that the direct-java-2.3.3.jar
file is present in the
/hsphere/local/home/cpanel/java_rt/ directory.
If it's not there:
1. Contact NetBilling and obtain the direct-java-2.3.3.jar file.
2. Put the lib file into in the directory ~cpanel/java_rt/.
When restarting the Control Panel, make sure that you are logged in to the CP server as root.
For Linux:
/etc/rc.d/init.d/httpdcp stop killall -9 java sleep 10
/etc/rc.d/init.d/httpdcp start
For FreeBSD:
1. /usr/local/etc/rc.d/apachecp.sh stop killall -9 java sleep 10
/usr/local/etc/rc.d/apachecp.sh start.
Configuration
1. Select
NetBilling
in the
Add New Gateway
box.
2. Click the
Add
button.
Fill out the form that appears:
Merchant Gateways 195
Title
: give a name to this NetBilling connection
Protocol : http or https protocol to connect to the gateway server
Server
: the name of the NetBilling server
Account : your NetBilling account ID
Site Tag : your brief site nickname
Notification Email for VOID transactions : NetBilling doesn't support VOID transactions. Instead, Parallels H-Sphere sends a notification to this address that the transaction needs to be canceled manually through NetBilling web interface.
3. Click
Submit Query
CVV (Card Verification Value).
To enable fraud protection using CVV, enable and configure
CVV support in your NetBilling account.
NTPNow Configuration
Preparation
No preparation is needed before configuration.
196 Merchant Gateways
Configuration
1. Select
NTPNow
in the
Add New Gateway
box.
2. Click the
Add
button.
3. Fill out the form that appears:
Title
: give a name to this NTPNow connection
Server
: the name of the NTPNow server
Port
: the port of the NTPNow server
Path
: the path to the server side handler file. This can be a script or a binary file that is launched with an http request.
Login ID
: your NTPNow login ID
Notification Email for VOID transactions
: NTPNow doesn't support VOID transactions. Instead, Parallels H-Sphere sends a notification to this address that the transaction needs to be canceled manually through NTPNow web interface.
Currency
: the currency in which your end users will be charged
Merchant Gateways 197
AVS checkbox : AVS stands for Address Verification Service. It can be used as an additional layer of protection for merchants who wish to verify that the purchaser knows the billing address of the cardholder (in case these are two different people). This is not a very serious form of risk mitigation or fraud prevention, and yet it does give some assurance that a hacker isn't simply generating a list of valid credit card numbers and purchasing product at will. AVS simply matches the numeric portion of the cardholder's street billing address and the 5 or 9-digit zip code of the cardholder's billing address. The AVS request parameters are
STREET and ZIP. The processing network verifies the AVS information, comparing a portion of the billing address from the request message with address data on file at the VIC or the issuer's center. Based on the comparison, a response will be returned which confirms whether the information matches or not. Unchecking the AVS box you configure Parallels H- Sphere to allow the transaction regardless of the response. AVS is available only for US cardholders. To provide non US cardholders CC processing, disable AVS check-up in the merchant gateway configuration.
4. Click
Submit Query
198 Merchant Gateways
Paradata Configuration
Preparation
Make sure that the trans_client_jsse.jar
file is present in the
/hsphere/local/home/cpanel/java_rt/ directory.
If it's not there:
1. Contact Paradata and obtain the trans_client_jsse.jar file.
2. Put the lib file into in the directory ~cpanel/java_rt/.
When restarting the Control Panel, make sure that you are logged in to the CP server as root.
For Linux:
/etc/rc.d/init.d/httpdcp stop killall -9 java sleep 10
/etc/rc.d/init.d/httpdcp start
For FreeBSD:
1. /usr/local/etc/rc.d/apachecp.sh stop killall -9 java sleep 10
/usr/local/etc/rc.d/apachecp.sh start.
Make sure to include trans_client_jsse.jar
after the rt.jar
string but before the jce1_2_1.jar
string (java cryptography extension).
Configuration
1. Select
Paradata
in the
Add New Gateway
box.
2. Click the
Add
button.
3. Fill out the form that appears:
Merchant Gateways 199
Title : give a name to this Paradata connection
Account Token
: the unique code generated on the basis of your login and password that you get when opening the Paradata account.
Adding TEST before the token will set the account to test mode
4. Click
Submit Query
200 Merchant Gateways
PayGate Configuration
Preparation
No preparation is needed before configuration.
Configuration
1. Select
PayGate
in the
Add New Gateway
box.
2. Click the
Add
button.
3. Fill out the form that appears:
Title : give a name to this PayGate connection
Server
: the name of the PayGate server
Port : the port of the PayGate server
Path : the path to the server side handler file. This can be a script or a binary file that is launched with an http request.
Path for Capture transaction : path to the script that does the Capture transaction
Merchant Id : your PayGate account ID. This is NOT the merchant number supplied by your bank
Password : the password which comes with login/username
Currency : the currency in which your end users will be charged
Merchant Gateways 201
Notification Email for VOID transactions : PayGate doesn't support VOID transactions. Instead, Parallels H-Sphere sends a notification to this address that the transaction needs to be canceled manually through PayGate web interface.
4. Click
Submit Query
202 Merchant Gateways
PayJunction Configuration
Preparation
In order to configure PayJunction merchant gateway, download and install PayJunction
.hsp package from http://download.hsphere.parallels.com/downloads/index.html#merchant_gateways (for
Java 1.4 and up).
This package can be installed as suggested in our instruction on Installing Parallels H-
Sphere packages in Customization Guide.
Configuration
1. Select
PayJunction
in the
Add New Gateway
box.
2. Click the
Add
button.
3. Fill out the form that appears:
Title : give a name to this PayJunction connection
Server : the name of the PayJunction server
Port : the port of the PayJunction server
Path : the path to the server side handler file. This can be a script or a binary file that is launched with an http request.
Login : your PayJunction login
Password : the password which comes with login/username
Merchant Gateways 203
Test Mode box : with Test Mode checked, all transactions appear to be processed as real transactions. The gateway accepts the transactions, but does not pass them on to the financial institutions. Accordingly, all transactions will be approved by the gateway when Test Mode is turned on.
4. Click
Submit Query
204 Merchant Gateways
Plug'n Pay Configuration
Preparation
Make sure that the pnpapi.jar
file is present in the
/hsphere/local/home/cpanel/java_rt/ directory.
If it's not there:
1. Contact Plug'n Pay and obtain the pnpapi.jar file.
2. Put the lib file into in the directory ~cpanel/java_rt/.
When restarting the Control Panel, make sure that you are logged in to the CP server as root.
For Linux:
/etc/rc.d/init.d/httpdcp stop killall -9 java sleep 10
/etc/rc.d/init.d/httpdcp start
For FreeBSD:
1. /usr/local/etc/rc.d/apachecp.sh stop killall -9 java sleep 10
/usr/local/etc/rc.d/apachecp.sh start.
Once you have registered with Plug'n Pay:
1. Download the certificate file archive from the Plug'n Pay site: https://pay1.plugnpay.com/admin/download/files/certs.zip
2. Unzip the archive into a directory on the Control Panel server, for example, /hsphere/local/home/cpanel/shiva/pnp-certs/. This directory and files therein must have cpanel:cpanel permissions
3. Later on you specify this directory in the
Certificate Dir
field in Plug'n Pay configuration form (see below).
Configuration
1. Select
Plug'n Pay
in the
Add New Gateway
box.
2. Click the
Add
button.
3. Fill out the form that appears:
Merchant Gateways 205
Title : give a name to this Plug'n Pay connection
Login
: your Plug'n Pay login
Password : the password which comes with login/username
: the email address you provided on signing up with Plug'n Pay
Send E-mail to Client
: check this box to have your customers notified when they are charged. The addresses are taken from their contact info
Certificate Dir
: the directory on the Parallels H-Sphere control panel server where you have put the certificate file
4. Click
Submit Query
206 Merchant Gateways
Pay-Me-Now Configuration
Preparation
No preparation is needed before configuration.
Configuration
1. Select
Pay-Me-Now
in the
Add New Gateway
box.
2. Click the
Add
button.
3. Fill out the form that appears:
Title : give a name to this Pay-Me-Now connection
Server : the name of the Pay-Me-Now server
Port
: the port of the Pay-Me-Now server
Path : the path to the server side handler file. This can be a script or a binary file that is launched with an http request.
Login ID : your Pay-Me-Now login ID
4. Click
Submit Query
CVV (Card Verification Value).
To enable fraud protection using CVV, enable and configure
CVV support in your Pay-Me-Now account. More on CVV credit card verification.
Merchant Gateways 207
PosNet Configuration
Preparation
In order to configure Posnet merchant gateway, download and install PosNet .hsp package from http://download.hsphere.parallels.com/downloads/index.html#merchant_gateways (for
Java 1.4 and up).
This package can be installed as suggested in our instruction on Installing Parallels H-
Sphere packages in Customization Guide.
Configuration
1. Select
PosNet
in the
Add New Gateway
box.
2. Click the
Add
button.
3. Fill out the form that appears:
Title
: give a name to this PosNet connection
Server
: the name of the PosNet server
Username, Password and Encryption Key
: these parameters are generated in
PosNet control panel by Generate Key menu option.
Currency
: the currency in which your end users will be charged
IP Address
: your external control panel IP address
Merchant ID, Terminal ID : enter, accordingly, 10-digit and 8-digit code given to you by PosNet
208 Merchant Gateways
4. Click
Submit Query
Protx (VSP Direct Protocol 2.22)
Configuration
Preparation
No preparation is needed before configuration.
Configuration
1. Select
Protx
in the
Add New Gateway
box.
2. Click the
Add
button.
3. Fill out the form that appears:
Merchant Gateways 209
Title
: give a name to this Protx connection
Server : the name of the Protx server
Port
: the port of the Protx server
Sale and Auth transactions Path : the path to the server side handler file. This can be a script or a binary file that is launched with an http request
Repeat transactions Path
: the path to the server side handler file. This can be a script or a binary file that is launched with an http request
Login
: your Protx login
Notification Email for VOID transactions
: Protx doesn't support VOID transactions.
Instead, Parallels H-Sphere sends a notification to this address that the transaction needs to be canceled manually through Protx web interface.
Currency
: the currency in which your end users will be charged
4. Click Submit Query
210 Merchant Gateways
Note: To work with the Parallels H-Sphere correctly, configure your Protx account to support the following transactions: PREAUTH, PAYMENT, REPEAT .
In terms of transaction types supported by Parallels H-Sphere (on page 171), it's
AUTHORIZE, CHARGE, and CAPTURE correspondingly.
CVV (Card Verification Value).
To enable fraud protection using CVV, enable and configure
CVV support in your Protx account. More on CVV credit card verification.
PSiGate (XML API) Configuration
Preparation
PSiGate does not allow auth transactions by default. In order to enable auth transactions, log into PSiGate control panel, go to Fraud Settings and set the 'allowed' menu for both PreAuth and PostAuth to 'YES'.
Configuration
1. Select
PSiGate
in the
Add New Gateway
box.
2. Click the
Add
button.
3. Fill out the form that appears:
Merchant Gateways 211
Title : give a name to this PSiGate connection
Server
: the name of the PSiGate server
Port : the port of the PSiGate server
Path
: the path to the server side handler file. This can be a script or a binary file that is launched with an http request.
StoreID
: your unique ID received from PSiGate
Passphrase
: PSiGate provides the Passphrase within the PSiGate Welcome
Test Mode box
: with Test Mode checked, all transactions appear to be processed as real transactions. The gateway accepts the transactions, but does not pass them on to the financial institutions. Accordingly, all transactions will be approved by the gateway when Test Mode is turned on.
4. Click
Submit Query
Test Note: Do not use real credit card numbers within the testing environment. When you are ready to go live, send an email to [email protected]
to receive your production URL.
Send your test transactions to: https://dev.psigate.com:7989/Messenger/XMLMessenger . To process a transaction through the test account, pass the following:
StoreID: teststore
Passphrase: psigate1234
To review your test transactions, log into https://dev.psigate.com
with the following account information:
CID : 1000001
User: teststore pass: testpass
212 Merchant Gateways
SecurePay Configuration
Preparation
No preparation is needed before configuration.
Configuration
1. Select
SecurePay
in the
Add New Gateway
box.
2. Click the
Add
button.
3. Fill out the form that appears:
Title : give a name to this SecurePay connection
Server : the name of the SecurePay server
Port : the port of the SecurePay server
Path : the path to the server side handler file. This can be a script or a binary file that is launched with an http request.
Merchant Id : your SecurePay account ID. This is NOT the merchant number supplied by your bank
4. Click
Submit Query
Merchant Gateways 213
SkipJack Configuration
Preparation
SkipJack certificate is trusted by Equifax. In Java 1.3.x and older the standard java cartcerts file doesn't include Equifax public certificates and therefore Parallels H-
Sphere returns 'Connect error, untrusted server cert chain' when trying to connect to the merchant gateway. Therefore Equifax certificates should be imported into cacerts file.
So, if you have Java 1.3 and older, you have the following solutions:
A. If you have got the default java cacerts file and you have never changed it, you can simply replace it with the cacerts file offered by Parallels
(http://download.hsphere.parallels.com/cacerts):
/usr/java/<java home>/jre/lib/security/cacerts
B. If you need to keep your cacerts file, you can fix this problem using the keytool feature available in the standard Java installation:
1. Download equifax.crt.cer file: wget http://download.hsphere.parallels.com/shiv/files/merchants/equifax.crt.
cer
2. Place equifax.crt.cer in the /usr/java/jdk1.3.1/jre/lib/security/ directory
3. As root, allow read/write access to the
/usr/java/jdk1.3.1/jre/lib/security/cacerts file chmod 666 /usr/java/jdk1.3.1/jre/lib/security/cacerts
4. Log in as the cpanel user: su -l cpanel
5. Go to the /usr/java/jdk1.3.1/jre/lib/security/ directory: cd /usr/java/jdk1.3.1/jre/lib/security/
6. Run the following command: keytool -import -alias equifax -file equifax.crt.cer -keystore cacerts
7. When prompted, enter the password (the default password is: changeit )
8. When asked to trust the certificate, enter: yes
9. As root, change permissions back on the
/usr/java/jdk1.3.1/jre/lib/security/cacerts file: chmod 444 /usr/java/jdk1.3.1/jre/lib/security/cacerts
C. Upgrade Java to 1.4 by following our documentation in System Administrator Guide.
214 Merchant Gateways
Note: If your certificate is already imported into cacerts, but Java still generates
'Connect error, untrusted server cert chain' , please check the connection to your payment server from your control panel server by running the following command from the control panel server console to check connection: telnet [server.name] [port]
Configuration
1. Select
SkipJack
in the
Add New Gateway
box.
2. Click the
Add
button.
3. Fill out the form that appears:
Title
: give a name to this SkipJack connection
Server
: the name of the SkipJack server
Port
: the port of the SkipJack server
Account ID : the HTML Serial Number you are given by SkipJack
Developer Account ID
: the ID you are given when you sign up for a trial SkipJack account
4. Click
Submit Query
Merchant Gateways 215
SecurePay.com.au Configuration
Preparation
In order to configure SecurePay.com.au merchant gateway, download and install
SecurePayComAu .hsp package
(http://download.hsphere.parallels.com/downloads/index.html#merchant_gateways) (for
Java 1.4 and up).
This package can be installed on Parallels H-Sphere as suggested in our instruction on
Installing Parallels H-Sphere packages in Customization Guide.
Configuration
1. Select
SecurePay.com.au
in the
Add New Gateway
box.
2. Click the
Add
button.
3. Fill out the form that appears:
Title
: give a name to this SecurePay.com.au connection
Server
: the name of the SecurePay.com.au server
Port
: the port of the SecurePay.com.au server
Path
: the path to the server side handler file. This can be a script or a binary file that is launched with an http request.
Merchant Id
: your SecurePay.com.au account ID. This is NOT the merchant number supplied by your bank
Password
: the password which comes with login/username
Currency
: the currency in which your end users will be charged
4. Click
Submit Query
216 Merchant Gateways
SecureTrading Configuration
Preparation
Download xpay.zip from SecureTrading and place its content into
/hsphere/local/home/cpanel/XPay directory on your control panel server:
1. Log into your control panel server and go to XPay directory: su - cd /hsphere/local/home/cpanel/XPay
2. Unpack xpay.zip: unzip xpay.zip
3. Copy XPay.jar file into /hsphere/local/home/cpanel/java_rt directory: cp XPay.jar /hsphere/local/home/cpanel/java_rt
4. Create the keystore file for XPay client: keytool -import -file securetradingxpay.cer -alias xpay -keystore xpay
5. Edit the examplepolicy file and set the correct path to your keystore file, e.g: keystore file: /hsphere/local/home/cpanel/XPay/xpay
6. Go to the startup directory and edit the xpay.sh file. Modify the variables: XPAYPOLICY, CLASSPATH and JAVAPATH. See configuration options:
1. Set the location of the policy file
XPAYPOLICY=/hsphere/local/home/cpanel/XPay/examplepolicy
2. Set the location of the XPay jar file:
CLASSPATH=/hsphere/local/home/cpanel/java_rt/XPay.jar
3. Set path to java executable:
JAVAPATH=/usr/java/jdk1.3.1/bin
7. Run the xpay.sh script to start XPay client.
For more information about XPay client configuration see Readme.txt in the xpay.zip bundle.
Configuration
1. Select
SecureTrading
in the
Add New Gateway
box.
2. Click the
Add
button.
3. Fill out the form that appears:
Merchant Gateways 217
Title : give a name to this SecureTrading connection
Currency : the currency in which your end users will be charged
Site Reference
: enter valid site reference sent to you by SecureTrading upon registration
Notification Email for VOID and CAPTURE Transactions
: SecureTrading doesn't support VOID and CAPTURE transactions. Instead, Parallels H-Sphere sends a notification to this address that the transaction needs to be canceled or completed manually through SecureTrading web interface.
4. Click
Submit Query
5. In the
Edit Gateway
box choose Secure Trading from the drop-down box.
6. Click the Edit button.
The page that appears shows the
Path and name for certificate file
. You need to place the certificate which you received from Secure Trading under that name on the Control Panel server.
7. Click Submit Query .
218 Merchant Gateways
ThePayDesk Configuration
Preparation
ThePayDesk certificate is trusted by Comodo Trusted Network. In Java 1.3.x and older the standard java cartcerts file doesn't include Comodo Trusted Network root certificates and therefore Parallels H-Sphere returns 'Connect error, untrusted server cert chain' when trying to connect to the merchant gateway. Therefore Comodo Trusted
Network certificates should be imported into cacerts file.
So, if you have Java 1.3 and older, you have the following solutions:
A. If you have got the default java cacerts file and you have never changed it, you can simply replace it with the cacerts file offered by Parallels
(http://download.hsphere.parallels.com/cacerts):
/usr/java/<java home>/jre/lib/security/cacerts
B. If you need to keep your cacerts file, you can fix this problem using the keytool feature available in the standard Java installation:
1. Download GTECyberTrustRoot.cer file: wget http://download.hsphere.parallels.com/shiv/files/merchants/GTECyberTrus tRoot.cer
2. Place GTECyberTrustRoot.cer in the /usr/java/jdk1.3.1/jre/lib/security/ directory
3. As root, allow read/write access to the
/usr/java/jdk1.3.1/jre/lib/security/cacerts file chmod 666 /usr/java/jdk1.3.1/jre/lib/security/cacerts
4. Log in as the cpanel user: su -l cpanel
5. Go to the /usr/java/jdk1.3.1/jre/lib/security/ directory: cd /usr/java/jdk1.3.1/jre/lib/security/
6. Run the following command: keytool -import -alias root -file GTECyberTrustRoot.cer -keystore cacerts
7. When prompted, enter the password (the default password is: changeit )
8. When asked to trust the certificate, enter: yes
9. As root, change permissions back on the
/usr/java/jdk1.3.1/jre/lib/security/cacerts file: chmod 444 /usr/java/jdk1.3.1/jre/lib/security/cacerts
C. Upgrade Java to 1.4 by following our documentation in System Administrator Guide.
Merchant Gateways 219
Note: If your certificate is already imported into cacerts, but Java still generates
'Connect error, untrusted server cert chain' , please check the connection to your payment server from your control panel server by running the following command from the control panel server console to check connection: telnet [server.name] [port]
Configuration
1. Select ThePayDesk in the Add New Gateway box.
2. Click the
Add
button.
3. Fill out the form that appears:
Title
: give a name to this ThePayDesk connection
Server
: the name of the ThePayDesk server
Port
: the port of the ThePayDesk server
Path
: the path to the server side handler file. This can be a script or a binary file that is launched with an http request.
Login
: your ThePayDesk login
Merchant Id
: your ThePayDesk account ID. This is NOT the merchant number supplied by your bank
Notification Email for VOID transactions
: ThePayDesk doesn't support VOID transactions. Instead, Parallels H-Sphere sends a notification to this address that the transaction needs to be canceled manually through ThePayDesk web interface.
4. Click
Submit Query
220 Merchant Gateways
Tucows Configuration
Preparation
Tucows certificate is trusted by GeoTrust. In Java 1.3.x and older the standard java cartcerts file doesn't include GeoTrust root certificates and therefore Parallels H-Sphere returns 'Connect error, untrusted server cert chain' when trying to connect to the merchant gateway. That's why GeoTrust certificates should be imported into cacerts file.
So, if you have Java 1.3 and older, you have the following solutions:
A. If you have got the default java cacerts file and you have never changed it, you can simply replace it with the cacerts file offered by Parallels
(http://download.hsphere.parallels.com/cacerts):
/usr/java/<java home>/jre/lib/security/cacerts
B. If you need to keep your cacerts file, use the keytool feature available in the standard Java installation in the Tucows manual (SSL notes).
C. Upgrade Java to 1.4 by following our documentation in System Administrator Guide.
Note: If your certificate is already imported into cacerts, but Java still generates
'Connect error, untrusted server cert chain' , please check the connection to your payment server from your control panel server by running the following command from the control panel server console to check connection: telnet [server.name] [port]
Configuration
1. Select
Tucows
in the
Add New Gateway
box.
2. Click the
Add
button.
3. Fill out the form that appears:
Merchant Gateways 221
Title : give a name to this Tucows connection
Username
: enter the name given to you by Tucows provider
Tucows Password : the password which comes with Tucows username
Tucows Notification Email for VOID transactions
: Tucows cannot cancel previously authorized transactions. Therefore Parallels H-Sphere sends a notification to this address notifying that the transaction needs to be canceled manually through Tucows web interface.
Currency
: the currency in which your end users will be charged
222 Merchant Gateways
AVS : AVS stands for Address Verification Service. It can be used as an additional layer of protection for merchants who wish to verify that the purchaser knows the billing address of the cardholder (in case these are two different people). This is not a very serious form of risk mitigation or fraud prevention, and yet it does give some assurance that a hacker isn't simply generating a list of valid credit card numbers and purchasing product at will. AVS simply matches the numeric portion of the cardholder's street billing address and the 5 or 9-digit zip code of the cardholder's billing address. The AVS request parameters are
STREET and ZIP. The processing network verifies the AVS information, comparing a portion of the billing address from the request message with address data on file at the VIC or the issuer's center. Based on the comparison, a response will be returned which confirms whether the information matches or not. Banks do not decline transactions based on the AVS check. The AVS response is returned as two single tab-delimited characters: YY, NN, YN, NY (Y-
'matches', N for 'does not match'). This information is just an advice. However, the Parallels H-Sphere system will either allow or decline the transaction depending on the selected AVS status. AVS is available only for US cardholders.
Important: To provide non US cardholders CC processing, disable AVS checkup in the merchant gateway configuration.
Test Mode box : with Test Mode checked, all transactions appear to be processed as real transactions. The gateway accepts the transactions, but does not pass them on to the financial institutions. Accordingly, all transactions will be approved by the gateway when Test Mode is turned on.
4. Click
Submit Query
CVV (Card Verification Value).
To enable fraud protection using CVV, enable and configure
CVV support in your Tucows account. More on CVV credit card verification.
Merchant Gateways 223
VeriSign PayFlow Pro With SSL Support
(SDK v4)
Important: PayPal announced EOL for v2 and v3
(https://www.paypal.com/IntegrationCenter/ic_downloads.html#PayflowPro). Support for a PayFlow Pro for SSL SDK v4 is implemented by a separate .hsp package.
Preparation
To configure PayFlow Pro merchant gateway with SSL support (SDK v4), download and install a respective .hsp package: http://download.hsphere.parallels.com/downloads/index.html#merchant_gateways .
This package can be installed on H-Sphere as suggested in our instruction on installing
H-Sphere packages in Parallels H-Sphere Customization Guide .
Configuration
1. Select
Payflow Pro with SSL support (SDK v4)
in the
Add New Gateway
box.
2. Click the
Add
button.
3. Fill out the form that appears:
224 Merchant Gateways
Title : give a name to this PayFlow Pro connection
Server
: the name of the PayFlow Pro server
Port : the port of the PayFlow Pro server
Partner
: your partner ID given to you by the authorized reseller who signed you up for the PayFlow Pro service
AVS
: AVS stands for Address Verification Service. It can be used as an additional layer of protection for merchants who wish to verify that the purchaser knows the billing address of the cardholder (in case these are two different people). This is not a very serious form of risk mitigation or fraud prevention, and yet it does give some assurance that a hacker isn't simply generating a list of valid credit card numbers and purchasing product at will. AVS simply matches the numeric portion of the cardholder's street billing address and the 5 or 9-digit zip code of the cardholder's billing address. The AVS request parameters are
STREET and ZIP. The processing network verifies the AVS information, comparing a portion of the billing address from the request message with address data on file at the VIC or the issuer's center. Based on the comparison, a response will be returned which confirms whether the information matches or not. Banks do not decline transactions based on the AVS check. The AVS response is returned as two single tab-delimited characters: YY, NN, YN, NY (Y-
'matches', N for 'does not match'). This information is just an advice. However, the Parallels H-Sphere system will either allow or decline the transaction depending on the selected AVS status. AVS is available only for US cardholders.
Important:
To provide non US cardholders CC processing, disable AVS check-up in the merchant gateway configuration.
Login
: your PayFlow Pro login
Vendor
: enter the name of the user associated with your PayFlow Pro Manager account
Password : the password which comes with login/username
4. Click
Submit
.
C H A P T E R 1 3
Web-based Payments
This chapter describes how to make payments through Web payments Systems in
Parallels H-Sphere.
In this chapter:
PayPal Merchant Gateway Configuration .......................................................... 234
226 Web-based Payments
Web Payment Systems Manager
Unlike Merchant Gateways (on page 171), Web Payment Systems require that users
make payments through their payment web page.
Work Principles
Once you have registered an account with such a gateway, you enter the account details in Parallels H-Sphere. When clients select a web payment system during signup, Parallels H-Sphere passes account ID, amount payable, and possibly other details to the gateway. The user is then taken to the gateway's web payment page to enter the credit card number and complete the transaction. When Parallels H-Sphere receives a payment notification, it creates the account.
Since Parallels H-Sphere doesn't store credit card numbers of customers using web payment systems, further payments are also made outside Parallels H-Sphere.
Configuration Procedure
To configure a web payment system with Parallels H-Sphere:
1. Register an online account with this web payment system.
2. In Parallels H-Sphere admin control panel, select
Merchant Gateways
in the
Settings
->
Payment Settings
menu:
3. Select the payment system from the drop-down menu and click Edit :
Web-based Payments 227
4. Enter your account settings (for instructions, follow links in the blue box on the right).
5. Once you enter correct settings, the web payment system will appear in the list as active:
Deactivating a payment system disables it for new signups and existing accounts.
Although the gateway settings will be preserved, users won't be able to make payments from Parallels H-Sphere. You can also deactivate payment systems from their configuration pages.
Setting Web Payment Instant Notification URL
Some Web payment systems, like PayPal, WorldPay (on page 238) and GestPay (on
page 232) require setting the so-called
instant notification URL used by your Web payment system to report Parallels H-Sphere about received customer payments.
Parallels H-Sphere instant notification URL has uniform format for all supported Web payment systems:
The URL structure is:
CP_PROTOCOL://CP_HOST:CP_PORT/psoft/servlet/psoft.hsphere.
Payment
ServletName .payment
Here:
CP_PROTOCOL: http or https
CP_HOST: domain name you host, e.g.: cp.example.com
CP_PORT: port of your CP, e.g.: 8080 ( it may have a different look if customized ) ,
PaymentServletName is set in the ~cpanel/shiva/psoft/hsphere/merchants.xml XML config file as the servlet attribute of the processor tag for a respective Web payment system.
For example, for PayPal instant notification URL will look like: http://cp.example.com:8080/psoft/servlet/psoft.hsphere.PayPal.payment
For WorldPay instant notification URL will look like: http://cp.example.com:8080/psoft/servlet/psoft.hsphere.WorldPay.payment
For GestPay instant notification URL will look like: http://cp.example.com:8080/psoft/servlet/psoft.hsphere.GestPay.payment
228 Web-based Payments
2CheckOut Configuration
Before proceeding, make sure to read about Web Payment Systems Manager (on page
Once you have registered a 2CheckOut account, enable 2CheckOut payments in the control panel:
1. Select
Merchant Gateways
in the
Settings
->
Payment Settings
menu.
2. On the
Merchant Configuration
page, choose
2CheckOut
from the drop-down menu.
3. Click the
Edit
button to activate it.
4. Enter the required parameters in the
2CheckOut
form:
2CheckOut Servers IP
where payment notification requests come from. Payment requests from other IPs will be rejected which helps to avoid fraud.
Note: You can enter IP mask instead of IP, for instance 127.0.0.* or 127.0.*.*
2CheckOut Merchant ID
: your ID provided to you by 2CheckOut.
Check the box if you want to
Use Authorize.Net WebLink parameter names
.
With
Test Mode
enabled you can test your online 2CheckOut transactions.
If
V2 System Support
is checked, the system will apply a new http routine used with the V2 2Checkout system.
Note: 2CheckOut is transferring all customers to V2 System. Therefore we recommend enabling this option.
Activate
: check it if you want to enable 2CheckOut for new signups and existing accounts.
5. Click
Submit
. 2CheckOut now must show as active.
Web-based Payments 229
Authorize.Net (Sim Protocol)
Configuration
Before proceeding, make sure to read about Web Payment Systems Manager (on page
In order to configure Authorize.Net, download and install the latest Authorize.Net.hsp
(http://hsphere.parallels.com/downloads/index.html#web_payment) package.
Setting Up Authorize.Net
Once you have registered an Authorize.Net business account, enable
Authorize.Net in your control panel:
1. Select
Merchant Gateways
in the
Settings
->
Payment Settings
menu.
2. On the Merchant Configuration page, choose Authorize.Net
from the dropdown menu.
3. Click the
Edit
button to activate it.
4. Enter the required parameters in the
Authorize.Net
form:
230 Web-based Payments
Payment Server Address : the name of the server you will be redirected to for payment operations
Payment Server Port of the Authorize.Net server
URL path
to the server side handler file which can be a script or a binary file.
Login
: API login ID for the payment gateway account obtained from the Merchant
Interface.
MD5 Hash Value
: this security feature enables merchants to verify that the results of a transaction received by their server were actually sent from the Payment
Gateway. This value should be configured in the Authorize.Net interface by the users with the appropriate permissions will be able to access this setting. To set the MD5 Hash Value in the Merchant Interface:
1. Select Settings from the Main Menu in the Merchant Interface
2. In the Security section click on MD5 Hash and enter the MD5 Hash Value
3. Confirm the MD5 Hash Value entered and click Submit to save changes
Transaction Key
obtained from the Merchant Interface by users with the appropriate permissions will be able to access this setting To obtain the transaction key from the Merchant Interface;
1. Select Settings from the Main Menu in the Merchant Interface
2. In the Security section click on API Login ID and Transaction Key
3. Type in the answer to the secret question configured on setup and click
Submit
Check
Activate
to enable Authorize.Net for new signups and existing accounts.
5. Click
Submit Query
. Authorize.Net now must show as active.
Web-based Payments 231
ChronoPay Configuration
Before proceeding, make sure to read about Web Payment Systems Manager (on page
In order to configure ChronoPay, download and install the latest ChronoPay .hsp package from http://download.hsphere.parallels.com/downloads/index.html#web_payment .
Setting Up ChronoPay
Once you have registered a ChronoPay business account, enable
ChronoPay in your control panel:
1. Select
Merchant Gateways
in the
Settings
->
Payment Settings
menu.
2. On the
Merchant Configuration
page, choose
ChronoPay
from the drop-down menu.
3. Click the
Edit
button to activate it.
4. Enter the required parameters in the
ChronoPay
form:
232 Web-based Payments
Server address or IP the payment request should be received from : set the IP where payment notification requests come from. Payment requests from other IPs will be rejected which helps to avoid fraud.
Note: You can enter IP mask instead of IP, for instance 127.0.0.* or 127.0.*.*.
Also you can specify the server name.
Payment Server Address
you will be redirected to for payment operations
Payment Server Port
: enter the port to be used
URL path
- the path to the server side handler file. This can be a script or a binary file that is launched with an http request.
Product ID
: the ID provided to you by ChronoPay system upon registration.
Interface Language
: choose the language from the drop-down box
Check
Activate
to enable ChronoPay for new signups and existing accounts.
5. Click
Submit Query
. ChronoPay now must show as active.
GestPay Configuration
Before proceeding, make sure to read about Web Payment Systems Manager (on page
Once you have registered a GestPay account, enable GestPay in the control panel:
1. Select
Merchant Gateways
in the
Settings
->
Payment Settings
menu.
2. On the
Merchant Configuration
page, choose GestPay from the drop-down menu.
3. Click the
Edit
button to activate it.
4. Enter the required parameters in the
GestPay
form:
Web-based Payments 233
Merchant Login: the ID you received from the payment provider.
Interface Language:
the language of GestPay website.
Currency: choose between Italian Lira and Euro.
Activate
GestPay for new signups and existing accounts.
5. Click
Submit Query
. GestPay now must show as active.
6.
Set Instant Notification URL (on page 226) to receive information about
payments made via GestdPay.
Notification URL works as follows:
Customer submits a payment form through GestdPay;
GestPay sends notification about payment made to the callback URL you specified.
PayNova Configuration
Before proceeding, make sure to read about Web Payment Systems Manager (on page
226). Once you have registered a PayNova account, enable PayNova payments in your
Parallels H-Sphere control panel:
1. Select
Merchant Gateways
in the
Settings
->
Payment Settings
menu.
2. On the
Merchant Configuration
page, choose
PayNova
from the drop-down menu.
3. Click the
Edit
button to activate it.
4. Enter the required parameters in the
PayNova
form:
Unique Merchant ID : this value is given to you by PayNova payment provider upon signup.
Currency : choose the currency you will be working with from the drop-down menu.
Secret Key generated by Paynova : this key is generated and provided to you by
PayNova. With invalid Secret Key transactions may be declined.
Test Mode : check this if you want to test your online PayNova transactions
Activate PayNova for new signups and existing accounts.
5. Click
Submit Query
. PayNova now must show as active.
234 Web-based Payments
PayPal Merchant Gateway Configuration
Note: PayPal service is also available via Web payment interface.
Preparation
No preparation is needed before configuration
Configuration
1. Select
PayPal
in the
Add New Gateway
box.
2. Click the
Add
button.
Fill out the form that appears:
Title
: give a name to this PayPal connection
Currency
: the currency in which your end users will be charged
Username
: enter the name given to you by PayPal provider
Password
: the password which comes with login/username
Certificate File
: the filename and location on the control panel server relative to
/hsphere/local/home/cpanel/shiva/ where you must put the *.der certificate file
Private Key Password
: Private key password for PayPal certificate.
Test Mode
: Check this box to enable PayPal merchant gateway's testing environment mode (off by default).
3. Click
Submit Query
Web-based Payments 235
Sentry Configuration
Sentry ( http://shop.privatbank.ua/about/sentry ) web payment system is developed by
Card Tech Ltd. In Parallels H-Sphere, Sentry is implemented for transactions in the
Ukrainian currency Hryvnia (UAH).
In terms of Parallels H-Sphere, payments via Sentry are similar to check payments (on
page 444), admin adds it to Parallels H-Sphere manually. If your customers choose to
pay via online payment providers, their credit card info won't be stored in their billing profiles and billing info won't show in the control panel.
Preparation
Prior to setting up a Sentry bank payment system in Parallels H-Sphere:
1. Register your Sentry merchant account http://shop.privatbank.ua/register
2. Secure your control panel with SSL (Please refer to User Guide for more info)
3. Download Sentry Parallels H-Sphere package from http://download.hsphere.parallels.com/downloads/index.html#web_pay ment
Contact Privatbank if you have questions to PrivatBank about Sentry or any other issues of registration process.
Setup Procedure
To enable Sentry in your control panel:
1. Go to
Settings
->
Payment Settings
->
Merchant Gateways
.
2. In the section
Web Payment Processor Configuration
choose
Sentry
from the drop-down menu.
3. Click the
Edit
button to activate it.
4. Enter the required parameters in the
Sentry
form:
236 Web-based Payments
Server:
the server used to run transactions.
Port:
enter the port to be used.
Path:
indicate the path. Note: Server, port and path should compose the URL where users are redirected for online payments, i.e: https://www.verification.privatbank.ua/SENTRY/PaymentGateway/Application/R edirectLink.aspx
Merchant ID:
given to you by PrivateBank upon registration.
Password:
provided by Sentry. You can change it afterwards
Test Mode:
check it if you want to test your online Sentry transactions. The amount of test transaction shouldn't exceed 1 UAH.
Activate:
enable Sentry for new signups and existing accounts.
Sentry's IPN system works as follows:
Customer submits a payment form and Sentry sends notifications about payments made to your notification URL.
On receiving the payment notification, your server will send the confirmation, including the encrypted code, back to a secure Sentry URL.
Sentry will authenticate the transaction and send your server a "VERIFIED" or
"INVALID" response.
If verified, the payment is regarded as successfully completed. If you receive an
"INVALID" response, it should be treated as suspicious and investigated.
Web-based Payments 237
Webmoney Configuration
Webmoney payments are similar to check payments (on page 444) in that they are
added to Parallels H-Sphere manually.
Before proceeding, make sure to read about Web Payment Systems Manager (on page
To enable Webmoney in Parallels H-Sphere:
1. Set your own purse
Visit http://merchant.wmtransfer.com
. Enter the following data:
Secret Key
: optional set of symbols. Store it as you'll have to enter it to Parallels
H-Sphere when activating Webmoney.
Result URL
: http://cp.url:8080/psoft/servlet/psoft.hsphere.payment.WebMoney.payment.
Success URL
: http://cp.url:8080/psoft/servlet/psoft.hsphere.payment.WebMoney.payment?acti
on=success; method of requesting Success URL: LINK.
Fail URL : http://cp.url:8080/psoft/servlet/psoft.hsphere.payment.WebMoney.payment?acti
on=error; method of requesting Fail URL: LINK.
Signature algorithm
: MD5.
As a result, you should be assigned a unique merchant's purse ID which consists of a letter and twelve digits. Store it for future use in Parallels H-Sphere. Presently, Z, R, E,
U, and D purses are in use.
2. Activate Webmoney payments in your Parallels H-
Sphere control panel
1. Select
Merchant Gateways
in the
Settings
->
Payment Settings
menu.
2. In the
Web Payment Processor Configuration
section, choose
Webmoney
from the drop-down menu.
3. Click the
Edit
button to activate it.
4. Enter the required parameters in the
Webmoney
form:
Merchant's purse
: your purse ID consisting of a letter and twelve digits (see above).
Payment Server
you will be redirected to for payment operations. You can choose between default webmoney.ru or wmtransfer.com.
238 Web-based Payments
Secret Key : optional set of symbols which you entered when setting your purse
(see above).
Test Mode : check it if you want to test your online Webmoney transactions.
Activate
: check it if you want to enable Webmoney for new signups and existing accounts.
5. Click
Submit Query
. Webmoney now must show as active.
If your customers choose to pay with Webmoney, their credit card info won't be stored in their billing profiles and billing info won't show in the control panel.
WorldPay Configuration
Before proceeding, make sure to read about Web Payment Systems Manager (on page
Setting Up WorldPay
Once you have registered a WorldPay business account, enable WorldPay in your control panel:
1. Select
Merchant Gateways
in the
Settings
->
Payment Settings
menu.
2. On the
Merchant Configuration
page, choose
WorldPay
from the drop-down menu.
3. Click the
Edit
button to activate it.
4. Enter the required parameters in the
WorldPay
form:
Web-based Payments 239
WorldPay Server IP
where payment notification requests come from. Payment requests from other IPs will be rejected which helps to avoid fraud.
Note: You can enter IP mask instead of IP, for instance 127.0.0.* or 127.0.*.*
Installation ID
, provided to you by WorldPay system upon registration.
WorldPay Account ID
, provided by WorldPay upon registration.
WorldPay currency
from the drop-down box.
Check
Use Custom Result Page
if you want your customers to receive your custom email payment notifications.
Request Only Authorizations
: enable AuthMode in WorldPay
Enter the
Custom Page
name which should be exactly the same as in the
WorldPay account.
Set a
Test Mode
variable for testing online transactions via WorldPay:
with variable set to 100, Parallels H-Sphere will consider all your transactions real. They will be approved that will reflect on user's billing.
with variable set to 101, Parallels H-Sphere will decline all your WorldPay transactions.
with variable set to 0, Parallels H-Sphere will perfom real transactions in a live mode.
Check
Activate
to enable WorldPay for new signups and existing accounts.
5. Click
Submit Query
. WorldPay now must show as active.
6. Set Instant notification URL to receive information about payments made via WorldPay:
1. Log into your WorldPay Business account
240 Web-based Payments
2. In the Installations section, click the Configuration Options icon;
3. Enter a callback URL (on page 226)
4. Check Callback enabled box.
Callback URL works as follows:
Customer submits a payment form through WorldPay;
WorldPay sends notification about payment made to the callback URL you specified.
C H A P T E R 1 4
Plans
In Parallels H-Sphere a hosting plan determines the account type (on page 274) or, in
other words, priveleges and hosting resources/services granted to an account owner.
Plans are created and edited with plan wizards and can be divided into three main categories:
Plan Category Used to create:
Administrati ve administrative and tech support accounts
Related docs
Admin Plans (on page
Providing Technical
Support
Reseller reseller accounts
Available to:
Master admin and resellers.
Resellers can create administrative plans at the level of their reseller control panel.
Master admin only Understanding
Resellers
Creating Resellers
End User system (service) and customer accounts
Hosting Your Own
Signing Up Users (on
Master admin and resellers
Reseller and User plans determine resource pricing if configured as pay plans.
User plans can differ by platform: Unix, Windows, Real Unix, Real Windows, etc.
You can also create Demo plans (on page 258) that demonstrate the capabilities of
Parallels H-Sphere without having to use real resources.
Customers can change their hosting plans. You can configure which plans customers can upgrade from and to as suggested in Compatible Plans.
In this chapter:
242 Plans
Creating and Editing Plans (Plan Wizards)
This chapter explains how to create and edit plan settings using plan creation and edit wizards.
In this section:
Plans 243
Starting Plan Creation Wizards
In Parallels H-Sphere, plans are created with Plan Creation Wizards.
To start a plan creation wizard:
1. Go to
Plans
->
Create
menu.
2. On the page that appears, choose the type of the plan.
See the next sections for explanations on each plan type. If a plan is
marked Not Configured, check if you have a logical server (on page 38)
where its accounts will be hosted.
3. Go through the wizard following the instructions in a A Typical Plan
Wizard section.
Newly created plans are disabled by default. Toggling the ON/OFF button in the Signup column next to the hosting plan, you allow or prohibit signups under this plan.
Starting Plan Edit Wizards
Plans are edited with Plan Edit Wizards.
To start a plan edit wizard:
1. Go to
Plans
->
Manage
menu.
2. In the list of plans that appears, click the name of the plan you would like to edit.
3.
Go through the wizard following the instructions i (on page 348)n the
next sections.
244 Plans
Simplified Plan Wizards
Starting with version 3.1 Beta 1, Parallels H-Sphere allows shortening the subsequent
steps (on page 348) of Plan Wizards where you set the prices for the billing period. To
remove the fields for the resources not to be charged for, uncheck the boxes for these resources. For this:
1. Go to
Plans
->
Simplified Plan Wizards
2. Uncheck the boxes next to the resources or the group of resources you are not going to charge for:
Plans 245
3. Submit query
As a result, the Step 2 of Plan Creation Wizard and Steps 2 and 3 of Plan Edit Wizards will include the fields for the checked in Simplified plan wizards menu resources only:
246 Plans
Note: if you have already set the price for a resource or the resource has a free value
(e.g. disk quota, traffic etc.), the records on it will be represented in the subsequent steps regardless of your settings in
Simplified Plan Wizard
.
A Typical Web Hosting Plan Wizard
Most plan wizards (except for reseller plans) follow the same pattern and guide you through two or more steps:
step 1:
- including or excluding particular resources;
- making them active by default;
- configuring settings such as duration of the trial period, credit limit, money-back period, default type of IP, etc.
subsequent steps:
- setting custom prices for domain registration services in this specific plan;
- setting free amounts and prices for each resource type for the default
(1 month) and actual
billing periods.
* The number of subsequent steps depends on the actual billing periods (on page
In this section:
Step 1. Selecting Resources and Configuring Plan Settings ............................. 247
Plans 247
Step 1. Selecting Resources and Configuring Plan
Settings
On the first step, select which resources will be available and active in the plan.
Note that Plan Wizards display only those resources that are enabled globally in the
system. Read about Global Resources (on page 274) for more info.
Include: check the box to have the resource available for users subscribing for the plan. If you leave this box unchecked, users of this plan will be unable to take advantage of this resource. Checking Include alone doesn't activate this resource by default; in newly created accounts it will be off.
Activated: determines whether the resource should be enabled immediately at signup (checked) or activated later by the user (unchecked). If a pay resource has
Activated unchecked, it won't be included in the signup bill, but users will be able to turn it on when necessary and will be charged for it at the moment of activation. But if a pay resource has Activated checked, it will be included in the signup bill, and will be charged for when users enable it in their control panel. If the activated resource has some pay child resources also activated in the plan wizard, they will be included in the signup bill and user will be charged for them at the moment of activating the parent resource.
Some of the plan's resources are integral to the system and cannot be excluded from the plan. They are not available on this page.
Note: If you exclude resources that are in use by some users, they'll remain functional but become inaccessible from the user control panel.
First, you enter
Plan name
for the plan you are creating. Later you can change the plan
name in the Plan Settings (on page 266).
Step 1 allows you to configure the following hosting resources:
Quotas
Summary Disk Usage: unchecking this box will stop the system from billing end users
Domain Resources
Host Existing Site : allows to host domains registered outside Parallels H-Sphere without transfering them into supported registrars.
Domain registration:
allow users to create new standard domains through domain
registration services (on page 147) supported in Parallels H-Sphere.
Leave registrar prices as they are
: Check this box to skip the second step of the wizard
and use the default prices (on page 147). To enter custom domain registration
prices, don't check this box.
Domain Transfer
: allows users to transfer domains already registered outside
Parallels H-Sphere with any registar to OpenSRS or Enom.
Leave domain transfer prices as they are
: Check this box to skip the second step of the
wizard and use the default prices (on page 147). To enter custom domain transfer
prices, don't check this box.
248 Plans
Other Domain Resources
SubDomain
: allow users to create subdomains. Subdomains have the same functionalities as regular domains.
Stopgap Domain
: allow your customers to use hosting services without a real domain.
Stopgap domains don't have DNS zones, and don't allow e-mail service. Still, users
can access their sites using their instant domain aliases (on page 89). Stopgap
domains support web site management and FTP services. Also, IP-only access is possible with a dedicated IP.
Third level domain : allow your customers to create third level domains based on the domain names you offer. E.g. if your domain name is example.com, a user can have a domain like thirdlevel.example.com. Third level domains have the same functionalities as second level domains, i.e. regular domains.
Domain alias (old scheme) : a resource deprecated since version 3.1 with the Hosting
Domain Alias resource under Web Options. Provided for backward compatibility.
Please refer to domain aliasing in version earlier than 3.1 in User Guide .
Parked domain : allow your customers to use Parallels H-Sphere DNS server for designating IPs to domain names serviced and hosted on other servers (not those of Parallels H-Sphere).
Service Domain : should be included only for the administrative plans (like System plan) to host and manage your corporate web- site. To enable users register third level domains with the second level domain name of your corporate site, register it as a service domain. For example, the company offers third level domains at example.com, such as thirdlevel.example.com or userdomain.example.com.
Naturally, the site of the hosting company should be available at example.com or www.example.com.
Web Services
Hosting Domain Alias: Also referred to as stack domain. An extra domain name that points to a 'primary' domain. For example, the owner of the domain name example.com can register another domain name, for example, example.net and have it point to the location of example.com
. This means that every Internet user who goes to example.net will land in example.com
. Domain alias can have its own DNS zone, custom DNS records and their own mail service. Refer to domain aliasing in
3.1+ in User Guide .
CGI Resource
: allow your customers to map file extensions as CGI executables.
cgi-bin Resource
: allow your customers to create cgi-bin directory, so all the cgi-bin directory's content is treated as cgi executables which the server tries to run.
Front Page
: allow your customers to use FrontPage extensions on their web sites.
Server Side Include
: allow your customers to use interactive real-time features such as echoing current time, conditional execution based on logical comparisons, querying or updating a database, sending an e-mail etc., with no programming or
CGI scripts.
PHP Module : allow your customers to create dynamic web pages with PHP.
Advanced PHP Module
: allow your customers to choose various PHP 4 and 5 modes.
Read about advanced PHP modes in User Guide .
Redirect URL
: allow your customers to redirect visitors from one URL to another.
When an Internet user tries to connect to a URL that is redirected, he is taken to the address this URL is mapped to.
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Directory Index
: allow your customers to set their custom directory indexes
Server Side Imagemap
: allow your customers to have files with a specific extension regarded as map files
Throttle Resource
: allow your customers 'throttle' the use of traffic in their accounts by delaying or refusing requests to their sites.
mnogoSearch
: allow your customers to use Parallels H-Sphere integrated search engine that searches their sites by keywords.
php BB : allow your customers to use php BB, Parallels H-Sphere integrated, high powered, fully scalable, and highly customizable bulletin board package.
Error Document : allow your customers to configure their own error pages that are shown when the requested pages fail to open.
Ruby on Rails Module : allow your customers to create dynamic content with Ruby on
Rails.
Web Access Control : allow your customers to add and configure access rules to their domains from different locations.
Logical Server Group : appropriate resources under this plan will be created on a particular logical server group.
Statistics
Referrer Log : check the box to have separate referrer logs written into user directories. Referrer logs contain the URLs from which visitors were referred to your customer's site.
Agent Log : check the box to have separate agent logs written into user directories.
Agent logs contain data about visitors' browsers or any other Internet-based software, and related data.
Error Log
: check the box to have separate error logs written into user directories.
Error logs store data about errors generated by the server (e.g. Page Not Found error) or by their cgi scripts.
Webalizer Resource
and
Modlogan Resource
: Check the boxes to install Webalizer and
Modlogan into user directories. These freeware tools parse the transfer log and produce statistics reports in readable HTML format to be viewed through a browser.
Urchin3
and
Urchin4
: Make sure to have Urchin installed and configured before enabling it in the plan. Check the sysadmin guide for Urchin installation and configuration.
AWStats
: another free tool that generates advanced graphical web server statistics
reports. AWStats (on page 538) is set up on each Unix/Linux and Windows web
server with Parallels H-Sphere installation or upgrade.
Transfer Log
: check the boxes to have transfer logs written into user directories.
Transfer logs include combined data about every visit to your customer's site, including:
Remote host IP (i.e. visitor's IP)
Time of request (i.e. when visitor requested the page)
First line of request
Error generated by request, if any
Size of message sent in response to the request
Referrer (i.e. from which page visitor was directed)
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Agent ID (i.e. type of browser or another agent and related information, such as user's OS, etc.)
Web Stats Password Protection
, if enabled, will allow your users to password protect their sites' statistics compiled by Webalizer, AWStats and Modlogan.
Mail Services
Email Auto Responder : to automatically reply to senders with a uniform response when mail arrives in a mailbox.
Mail Box Alias : to have an alternative address to an existing mailbox.
Mail Forward : to automatically forward all incoming mail to a list of remote addresses.
Mailing List : to send mail to multiple recipients.
Mail Service Alias:
to have an alternative domain name to a mail domain. This is an obligatory resource for Email only plans, and therefore it's not listed as an option in their wizards. Refer to domain aliasing in 3.1+ in User Guide.
Mail Domain Alias (old scheme) : a resource deprecated since version 3.1 with the Mail
Domain Alias resource. Provided for backward compatibility. Please refer to domain aliasing in version earlier than 3.1 in User Guide . Mail Relay : enable this option to ensure incoming mail is kept on the mail relay server, if your primary mail server goes down.
AntiSpam : to set spam filtering for user mail domains.
AntiVirus
: to set virus filtering for user mailboxes.
Logical Server Group (Mail Servers) : appropriate mail resources under this plan will be created on the particular logical server group
E-Commerce Options
SSL Module: enable your customers to use SSL (Secure Sockets Layer protocol) - a standard for transmitting confidential data such as credit card numbers over the
Internet.
Comodo SSL:
allow buying and installing Comodo SSL directly from user CP.
Shared SSL:
provide SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption and business authentication to Web business customers.
Miva Resource:
allow your users to create online stores with Miva Merchant. For more information visit www.miva.com/products/merchant/
osCommerce:
allow your users to create online stores using an open source ecommerce solution (osCommerce 2.1 release). For more information visit www.oscommerce.com
.
Other
Sub-account : (FTP Sub-account) allow or disallow your customer to create additional logins and passwords to his directory so his friends or colleagues can independently use it without having to create virtual FTP server and own a dedicated IP. There is a difference between sub-account and Win FTP sub-account. Win sub-account is just a windows user without any rights permissions and privileges for customer content.
Also sub-account is a parent for the Sharepoint user.
Virtual FTP Server: allow or disallow your customers to let their friends and colleagues download, upload or view files in the dedicated directories.
Anonymous FTP Server:
allow or disallow your customers to let anybody else download, upload or view files in the dedicated directories.
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Custom DNS Record: allow your customers to create new custom DNS records.
Shell Access: allow your customers to access and operate their accounts through
Shell.
Crontab:
enable your customers to clock and run their own Unix shell scripts automatically.
Kanoodle: enable your customers to promote their website.
RLimitCPU: checking the box will restrict the CPU usage by users' cgi scripts.
RLimitCPU Min - set the soft resource limit in seconds per process.
RLimitCPU Max - set the maximum resource limit in seconds per process.
RLimitMEM: checking the box will restrict the memory usage by user' cgi scripts.
RLimitMEM Min - set the soft resource limit in bytes per process.
RLimitMEM Max - set the maximum resource limit in bytes per process.
RLimitNPROC: checking the box will restrict the number of simultaneous processes per user.
RLimitNPROC Min - set the minimum number of processes.
RLimitNPROC Max - set the maximum number of processes.
Site Studio : allow your customers to use a powerful site construction tool enabling them to create a professional-looking site in a matter of minutes.
MySQL, MS SQL, PGSQL : allow or disallow your customers to create and use their own databases.
Settings
Money Back Guarantee : the period in days after pay registration when users can claim back the recurrent fees they have paid if they decide to quit hosting services. The
Money Back amount does not include the Setup Fees and is not affected by the refund percentage. The blank field sets it to zero, which disables the feature.
Immediately takes effect and influences existent accounts. Recommended Value: less than 1 billing period.
E-mail Order Confirmation
: set the system to send e-mail copies of order confirmations to users registered under the plan. Note:
e-mail invoices are sent to the e-mail address user provides in his billing info or contact info (in the absence of the first)
the default can be overridden by individual user settings
toggling the option doesn't affect settings of the existing users
Billing Type
:
Paid: no trial period available.
Note: don't switch to without billing.
Trial:
paid plan with trial period available. Check the box to enable trial registration for this plan. If the box is checked, you will have to fill in the following fields too:
Duration:
enter the duration of the trial period in days. Usually trial period does not exceed one month.
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Credit Limit: maximum amount of credit a trial user can run up acquiring paid resources. If you set Trial Credit Limit to zero, trial users will be able to acquire only free resources. Usually this amount either equals the initial registration payment plus the recurrent fee for one payment period, or exceeds it a bit to enable trial users to buy some extra resources. After this amount has been reached, the user cannot purchase any more resources.
Note: decreasing the trial period affects already signed up trial users so their trial time is 'cut'. Their accounts can be suspended if they have had their accounts more than the trial period is set to.
Zero out the balance before changing payment type from Trial to Paid:
checking this option will prevent clients from charging for the resources used during the trial period. It will be reflected in their billing statement.
Without billing: a totally free plan. Accounts registered without filling in the billing forms. Note: don't switch to paid.
Credit Limit
: amount of account's 'expenses' to be accumulated until it is charged.
Default IP type
: define the kind of IP user domains will get at signup (shared or dedicated). Each new user to signup for this plan will be given this kind of IP.
Recommended value
Shared
. Note that:
In the case of dedicated IPs, when you run out of dedicated IPs, newcomers won't be able to signup.
Changing this parameter doesn't affect existent domains. Only new domains created under reconfigured plan will get the defined IP type. This is done either at signup or in the existent account.
Shared IP Tag
: a digital "mark" that is assigned to all accounts created under this plan. All sites located on the same logical host are usually assigned the same shared IP. Shared IP Tags allow dedicating a different shared IP to a group of sites.
Possible uses:
hosting sites in different plans on different shared IPs;
hosting resellers' end customers on different shared IPs;
using different wildcard certificates for resellers and the parent host;
hosting sites of explicit nature on a different shared IP. This may become necessary as some corporate firewalls filter sites by their IPs, not domain names, which may block other sites with the same IP.
To use this feature, you must already have this tag (or tags) defined for all logical
hosts (see also Instant Alias Templates (on page 89)). Recommended value 2.
Note: don't change the shared IP tag in Windows based plans if they have live accounts.
In Unix based plans changed shared IP tag immediately shows up in the system control panel interface, however it actually takes effect only when the changes to the server configuration are applied.
Instant alias appearance for given shared IP tag
: select a template to create user instant aliases. Instant aliases are based on your domain names and allow users to view their sites without using their own domains. The example of an instant alias appearance is username.kNNN.example.com, where kNNN is the name of the logical server, on which user's account is located. Changes to this parameter will apply only to new domains, while the existent domains will retain the 'old' shared IP tag.
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Stopgap domain appearance for given share IP tag
: select a representation for user stopgap domains. Stopgap domains will allow users to maintain their sites and access them using instant domain aliases. Stopgap domain is not a real domain and does not allow the user to have any domain name, DNS zone, and e-mail service. However, stopgap domain users can have IP-only access if they purchase a dedicated IP. Changes to this parameter will apply only to new domains, while the existent domains will retain the 'old' shared IP tag.
Demo only mode allow creating demo end user accounts to demonstrate the capabilities of Parallels H-Sphere without having to use real resources. In demo mode, resources and services aren't created or used, but their creation and usage is simulated in the user control panel. For instance, users can create mailboxes, and the control panel will behave as if the mailboxes have been created, but in fact they haven't.
Subsequent Steps. Setting Prices
On subsequent steps, set prices and quotas for this plan. To enter the price configuration pages, don't check the
Leave registrar prices as they are
on step 1.
To limit amounts of resources users can obtain, set the
Max values in plan wizard:
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MySQL Plan Wizard
The plans created with this wizard allow customers only to create and use MySQL online databases. The customer can authorize individual Internet users to connect to the MySQL database and use it from any remote location.
Windows Plan Wizard
Windows plans are created similarly to Unix plans (see Unix Plan Wizard). The only difference is that you can include:
MS Sharepoint to allow your clients install Windows SharePoint Services on their domains
MS Sharepoint User
to allow your clients create users within their Windows
SharePoint Services
Dedicated Application Pool to enable your clients create dedicated application pools introduced by IIS 6.0 right from their user cp
Web Directory
to enable your clients create web directories with two authentication levels and different sets of permission right from their user cp
Web Application
to enable your clients assign web applications to web directories, in the same time choosing a shared or a dedicated pool for each application
Virtual Directory
to enable your users create virtual directories and reorganize data
ColdFusion Module
to enable your users to maintain sites created by ColdFusion
(Third party commercial products such as ColdFusion, MS SQL server, Real Server, and Miva are purchased separately and should be installed prior to Parallels H-
Sphere)
ASP resource to enable your users maintain sites created by means of ASP
ASPSecured
to enable your users to manage access to their site resources creating their own groups and users
ASPSecuredLicense
to enable your customers to use ASPSecuredLicense for multiple sites
ASP.NET
to enable your customers to use .NET applications
MS SQL Manager to enable your customers to manage their MS SQL databases through a web-interface with ASP Enterprise Manager
ODBC Service
: allow your customers to use ODBC resource and manage databases by means of its drivers.
ODBC DSN Record : allow your customers to have system DSN records based on
ODBC drivers.
CF DSN Record : allow your customers to have system DSN records registred in
ColdFusion.
Note: you can't create Windows plans, unless you have 'Windows' physical servers. Not configured means that your system lacks servers pertaining to the services to be run under the plan.
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Windows RealMedia Plan Wizard
You can't create Windows RealMedia plans unless you have a winbox with properly configured RealServer.
E-mail Plan Wizard
E-mail plans are created similarly to Unix plans (see Unix Plan Wizard). The only difference is that they don't include any resources other than domain, mail and Custom
DNS record. Stopgap domains are not supported.
To set the maximum number of resource units a user can buy under this plan, go to
INFO
->
Plans
->
Resource
->
Edit
(next to the selected resource) -> the
Max
field
Markup Plan Wizard
Markup plans are created on the base of other hosting plans configured to allow reselling.
1. To allow reselling of a plan, go to
Plans
->
Manage
, click the
Settings
icon in the Advanced column next to the plan you would like to configure as available for reselling and turn on the option
"This plan can be resold"
.
Otherwise when creating a markup plan it won't list this plan as available for reselling.
2. Go to Plans -> Create and choose Create a markup plan at the bottom of the form.
3. On the form you will be taken to, pick a base plan for your markup plan.
4. On the first wizard step can change only Settings options (on page
348). You cannot exclude predefined resources.
5. On subsequent wizard steps set retail prices. Base plan prices are displayed in square brackets.
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Admin Plans
This document explains how to create and edit administrator plans. Administrator plan wizards allow creating Tech Support, Billing and other admin plans.
Creating Admin Plans
To create an admin plan:
1. Select
Create
in the
Plans
menu.
2. Select
Administrator plan wizard
. Allow admins to do the following:
Plan name: enter admin plan name.
Signup Admin:
sign up new users (on page 445).
Compatible Plan Groups: arrange compatible plans in groups.
Login as user:
log into users' accounts.
TroubleTicket Admin:
answer users' trouble tickets.
Allow assignment of trouble tickets:
assign users' trouble tickets to other tech support members.
Account Preview:
view users' contact and billing info and other account details (on
Merchant Gateway Manager:
configure merchant gateways (on page 171).
Admin Billing Manager: administer users' billing: debit and credit users' accounts, view reports.
Daily Financial Report:
create daily user reports (on page 418).
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Domain Registrar Manager: set connection and prices for Enom&OpenSRS (on page
Miva Merchant License Manager:
add Miva Merchant licenses (on page 532).
Urchin License Manager: add Urchin licenses.
Kanoodle Manager:
sign up as a Kanoodle.com Referral Partner (on page 537) from
Parallels H-Sphere.
Site Toolbox: configure and enable Site Toolbox utility
SpamAssassin Manager:
configure SpamAssassin (on page 540).
Admin DNS manager: manage DNS settings.
Enterprise Manager: manage logical and physical servers.
Recreation Tool:
recreate user resources (on page 292).
Shell Requests Manager:
acknowledge users' shell access (on page 448) requests.
Dedicated Server Manager: manage Dedicated Servers.
3. Click
Next
to complete plan creation.
4. Once the plan is created, turn this plan ON in the
Signup Access
section on the plans page in order to allow signups.
Use this plan to create administrative plans for all purposes.
Editing Admin Plans
To edit admin plan:
1. Go to the
Plans
->
Manage
page and select necessary plan.
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2. On the
Plan Edit Wizard
, make necessary changes by checking/uncheking resources.
3. Click
Next
to confirm changes.
Demo Plans
This section explains how to create demo plans using plan creation wizards. Demo plans allow creating demo end user accounts to demonstrate the capabilities of
Parallels H-Sphere without having to use real resources. In demo mode, resources and services aren't created or used, but their creation and usage is simulated in the user control panel. For instance, users can create mailboxes, and the control panel will behave as if the mailboxes have been created, but in fact they haven't.
You can apply demo mode only to end user plans. You can't have reseller demo plans.
Demo plans, similarly to regular plans, are created with Plan Creation Wizards:
1. Select
Create
in the
Plans
menu.
2. In the list of plans select the plan.
3. On Step 1 of the wizard, enter a name for the plan and choose the resources you want to demonstrate in the user demo control panel.
Note: In user control panels, many resources will show as disabled even if you include them into the plan. See below for their list.
4. Scroll down to the
Settings
section and check the
Demo Only Mode
box.
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Important : You won't be able to turn this option off in the plan editor later.
5. Click
Next
to proceed. Skip domain registration page if it appears.
6. Step 2 shows the fields to enter free amount of resources necessary for the system to operate.
Note : You don't need to enter prices or free units.
7. Click
Next
to complete plan creation.
8. Once the Demo plan is created, go back to
Manage
in the
Plans
menu and turn the newly created plan ON for user signups.
9. If you want to create more payment periods for the plan, go to
Plans
->
Manage
->
Settings
and add as many payment periods as you need.
Now that the plan is created and enabled, users can sign up for it and navigate their control panels. If they like the system and want to go ahead and buy it, they will have to sign up again under a paid plan. Demo Mode doesn't allow switching plans.
Remember that a demo account takes a user license like any other Parallels H-Sphere user account.
Demo plans demonstrate how to:
Transfer domains previously created
Add subdomains
Add Stopgap domains
Create
Third level domains
Add domain aliases
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Create
Parked domains
Use Trouble Ticket support system
Add Front Page extensions
Change disk quota and traffic usage
Change billing period
Create MySQL, MS SQL and PgSQL databases
Set Summary Disk Usage
Create FTP sub-account - additional logins and passwords to main directory
View Error, Transfer, and Agent logs Demo plans don't allow to:
Have a home directory on the web server
Have mailboxes and other mail resources
Have MySQL / PGSQL / MS SQL databases
Register domains through the domain registrars
Create Service Domains
Use Site Studio site construction tool
Use third party products such as Miva, osCommerce, Modlogan, Webalizer, cgi scripts, etc.
Changing Account's Plan (Plan Groups)
In this section:
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Understanding Plan Groups
Users can change between plans only within the same group. If plans in the group are different by nature (Unix and Windows), such changes cause losses in user data. To minimize such losses, plans of different nature are either put into different groups or left outside any group. Each plan can be only in one group. Each group should consist of two and more plans. It makes little sense to put one plan to a separate group. You should always group plans based on their compatibility. You must always stick to the following rules:
Don't group plans with different platforms (for example Windows and Linux hosting), or this will lead to unexpected results. A very common mistake is to put trial plans,
Unix and Windows2000, into a separate group. This will not allow trial users to switch to pay plans, as they are in a different group, and if users switch from
Windows2000 Trial to Unix trial, they will lose the settings that are unavailable under Unix plan, including ASP and ODBC service.
Don't group E-mail Only plans with other plan types. Users can't switch from E-mail
Only to, say, Unix plans, and if they attempt to do so, they will get an error. Instead, users need to create a new Unix account and delete the e-mail only account.
Don't group Reseller plans with any other plan types. Users can't switch from, say,
Unix plan to Reseller plan. Instead, users need to create a new Reseller account and delete the Unix account.
Don't group plans if they are bound to different servers. Compatible plans keep data on the same box and don't require any reconfiguration.
Users can switch between paid and no billing plans.
Note: After your users having Summary Disk Usage turned off switched to the plan that had it turned on, make sure to enable Summary Disk Usage manually.
Grouping Plans
To group plans:
1. Select Group in the Plans menu:
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2. You will be presented with a screen with unassigned plans on the left and groups of compatible plans on the right:
3. Check the plans you would like to put into one group.
4. Enter group name.
5. Click Submit Query. The plans will be moved from the list of Available plans into the Plan groups list.
More about plan groups management:
To ungroup plans in a group, click the DELETE button next to the group you want to delete.
To add a plan to the group, delete the group first and then create a new one, with the plan you wanted to add.
To regroup plans, you must ungroup them first, and then group them the way you want.
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Access to Plans
This section explains how to set permissions to plans, i.e. who can create accounts under given plans.
Accounts can be created from outside the control panel ("from the street") or from existing accounts in Parallels H-Sphere. An account can be created "from the street" if it has unrestricted access. You can also restrict plan access to users of selected plans or only to administrators.
To set up plan access:
1. Select
Manage
in the
Plans
menu.
2. Click
Access
for the plan to restrict access to.
3. Check authorized plans:
Admin only:
To make this plan available only to the administrator, check only
Admin
. For example, all Admin level plans should be unavailable to other users other than administrators.
Registered Users: To make this plan available only to registered users under specific plans, check these plans in the list.
Full access: To make this plan available "from the street", uncheck all plans in the list.
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Plan Controls
This section describes the advanced plan controls. However it is recommended to avoid using them, if the same task can be done with the plan edit wizard.
To access plan controls, enter the administrator Control Panel and go to
Plans
menu ->
Manage
. Here you can see a list of available plans and multiple control options to handle the plans:
Clicking the lens icon near the plan will start the signup wizard (on page 445).
ON/OFF icon : turn the plan ON to enable signup under the plan for all users including admin. Turning it OFF will disable signup and with it all plan settings will be preserved.
Access (on page 263) - set permissions to create accounts under a plan for the
users of other plans. FULL against the plan identifies that full access to this plan is granted.
Show: select resources that will show on signup pages for the plan.
Settings (on page 266) - configure template locations. This page is partly reserved
for Parallels H-Sphere development and should not be used in production control panels.
Edit
in the
Action
section - click to open the Edit Plan wizard.
Copy: create a copy of this plan. You may need this option to create a new plan based on the selected plan.
Delete: delete a plan.
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Show
This pages shows all resources included into the plan in the Plan Creation Wizard.
Here you can select resources that will show to users on signup wizard pages.
Simply check all necessary resources and click Change .
Copy
Alternatively to the Plan Creation Wizard, you can use this feature to create custom plans based on the predefined plan samples. To create a new plan, click
Copy for the selected plan sample. The newly created copy will appear in the plan list. You can now modify it according to your needs via Plan Edit Wizard or above discussed configuration tools.
Delete
Although deleting plans is quite a rare procedure (as plans are essential part of the whole system), you may want to delete needless or harshly created plans.
To delete a plan, click the
Trash icon in the selected plan entry.
Warning : Deleted plans cannot be restored by any means! Do not delete any of the system default plans because they serve to create custom plans!
It is impossible to delete a plan if there is at least one account created under it. In other words, you can delete only the plans without any accounts.
To see your deleted plans list, click the
Deleted Plans
link under the
System Plans
chart on the
Plans
page,
Info
menu.
266 Plans
Plan Settings
Plan settings on the
Plans
page allow to configure template locations, payment intervals and promotions.
To access plan settings:
1. Enter the administrator Control Panel and select
Manage
in the
Plans menu.
2. Click the
Settings
icon in the
Advanced
section for the target plan.
3. On the page that shows you can manage the following options:
This page is reserved for Parallels H-Sphere development and debugging and should not be used in production control panels.
Plan Name : this is the only place where you can edit the name of the plan.
Default Template
defines the page that opens when a user logs into the control panel.
To specify a custom page, enter the file name and the path relative to the template directory. If your template works incorrectly, you can remove it to return to the system defaults.
Template Directory
specifies the name of the directory with templates used by this specific plan. If a template is not found in this directory, the system takes generic
Parallels H-Sphere template with the same filename.
For example, you have a plan called 'SPECIAL', where the Template Directory parameter is set to special/ and the current skin is set to 'No Menu'. When the system tries to find, for instance, the design/login.html template, it will first scan the
~cpanel/shiva/shivatemplates/nomenu/replacements/special/design/ directory, and if fails, it moves on to the ~cpanel/shiva/shiva- templates/nomenu/design/ directory in search of this template.
As seen from the above, the Template Directory parameter is NOT used for creating custom templates. Instead, when a new plan is added to the system, plan-specific templates are placed in this directory. Besides that, when you customize Parallels
H-Sphere templates, you should check the replacements/ directory of each design location for plan-specific templates and customize them if necessary.
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Contact info: it's highly recommended to use this feature only for admin plans!
With this feature turned OFF, user contact info will be unavailable which will disable billing for all accounts under this plan and sending system email notifications.
Credit limit
: enter a credit limit for the plan. Read more in Credit Limit (on page 308)
documentation.
Payment Interval
: enter how far in advance recurrent fees for billing period resources
are prepaid. Read more about Creating Billing Periods (on page 311).
Promotions management
: assign flexible discounts to the particular plan. One plan can
have several associated promotions (on page 331).
Custom Values: menuId
: in Parallels H-Sphere, each plan type has its own corresponding menu configuration. These menu types are configured in the
/hsphere/local/home/cpanel/shiva/psoft/hsphere/menu.xml
file. We use the menuId variable to specify the menu type. These are the standard menu types for the corresponding Parallels H-Sphere plan types:
268 Plans unix - Unix plan; admin - Admin plan; ttadmin - Trouble Ticket Admin plan; bill - Billing plan; reseller - Reseller plan; winduz - Windows plan; real - Real Server plan; mysql - MySQL Only plan; email_only - E-Mail Only plan; vps - VPS plan.
You can add your custom menu to menu.xml and specify the custom menuId in the form to assign it to the plan. In menu.xml, you should add the new menudef tag:
<menudef id="custom_menuId">
...
</menudef>
Note:
Menu customization should be done very carefully, according to the Menu
Customization Documentation (Customization Guide).
WARNING: If you set an incorrect value to menuId or leave this field empty in the form, the left menu in your Control Panel won't show up!
Add custom value:
don't add them unless you definitely know how to use them.
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Controlling RAM And CPU Usage
To prevent overconsumption of your server's resources by users' cgi scripts, you can use Resource Limit Controls. It allows you to control the usage of the CPU, memory and server processes on the box with the web server.
* RLimit Controls use directives of Apache 1.2.X modules and, therefore, are not applicable for Windows hosting.
Enable RLimit in Plans
To apply RLimit to user scripts under a certain plan, scroll down to the
Other
section of the Plan Edit Wizard Step 1. It lists the following resources:
RLimitCPU -
restrict the strain of CPU usage.
RLimitCPU Min
- set the soft resource limit in seconds per process.
RLimitCPU Max
- set the maximum resource limit in seconds per process.
RLimitMEM - restrict the memory used by processes run on the server.
RLimitMEM Min - set the soft resource limit in bytes per process.
RLimitMEM Max
- set the maximum resource limit in bytes per process.
RLimitNPROC restrict the number of the processes run simultaneously.
RLimitNPROC Min - set the minimum number of processes.
RLimitNPROC Max - set the maximum number of processes.
270 Plans
Configure RLimit Values
In most cases the default values are the best to prevent overconsumption of system resources on the one hand and allow correct performance of cgi scripts on the other.
To set custom values for these resources, select Manage in the Plans menu. Then, click the resources link next to the plan you would like to edit. On the page that appears, find:
RLimitCPU The Min parameter sets the soft resource limit for all processes and the
Max
parameter sets the maximum resource limit.
CPU resource limits are expressed in seconds per process.
RLimitMEM
The
Min
parameter sets the soft resource limit for all processes and the
Max
parameter sets the maximum resource limit.
Memory resource limits are expressed in bytes per process.
RLimitNPROC
The
Min
parameter sets the soft resource limit for all processes and the
Max
parameter sets the maximum resource limit.
Process limits control the number of processes per user.
Don't change any parameters other than
Min
and
Max
.
WARNING:
Enabled RLimitMEM may affect the performance of certain CGI scripts and may result in FrontPage, Miva, and AWStats failures. Users may get the "premature end of script headers" message. Therefore, you should disable RLimitMEM if your customers use
FrontPage, Miva, and AWStats, because these products use a lot of RAM.
For more info, please refer to Apache Documentation: What does it mean when my
CGIs fail with "Premature end of script headers"?
( http://httpd.apache.org/docs/misc/FAQ-F.html#premature-script-headers )
The above changes will be applied only to accounts created thereafter. If you need to apply these changes to a specific existing account, enter this account's control panel, go to the
Web Options
page, and click
Apply Changes
.
Limiting Resource Use For Individual Accounts
To switch RLimitMEM OFF for one account in a plan where RLimitMEM is
ON:
1. Switch RLimitMEM OFF for the whole plan
2. Enter this accounts' control panel
3. Go to the
Web Options
page
4. Click
Apply Changes
5. Go back to your administrator control panel
6. Switch RLimitMEM back ON for the whole plan
Plans 271
The reverse procedure can be used to switch RLimitMEM ON for one account in a plan where RLimitMEM is OFF.
Placing Plans on Particular Boxes
To associate a particular plan with a particular box:
Step 1: Go to E.Manager
-> Servers -> Server Groups . Create groups of servers for each type (web, mail, Real, MS SQL etc.) of servers 'in charge' of the services that you intend to include in the plan:
When added, they will show up in the numbered list.
Step 2: Go to
E.Manager
->
Servers
->
P.Servers
. Click the name of this physical server.
At the bottom of the page that appears, select a group you have created:
272 Plans and click the Submit button. The name of the group will appear in the Group field. This means that this group will now be located on this physical server. Perform this procedure for each of the created server groups to get all of them assigned to appropriate servers.
Step 3: On the Logical Servers page, click the Add Logical Server link. On the page that appears, enter its name (e.g. gold.web.mycompany) select the group and this particular physical server which you assigned it to on the previous step, define server type and choose from the physical servers that have the same group. Finally, you should get the form filled out in a similar way:
Plans 273
* File Server and File Path fields are reserved for future implementations.
Submit the form.
Step 4:
On the Logical Server settings page, add the IPs (on page 45) that you want to
use for accounts registered at this logical server. Define their type. Set shared IP tag.
Step 5: In the upper part of the same Logical Server settings page toggle the
Available for signup button to ON.
Step 6: The same way create and configure new logical servers for each type (web, mail, Real, MS SQL etc.) of servers 'in charge' of the services that you intend to include in the plan, in case you want the appropriate resources, that your users will enable, to be created on different boxes.
Step 7: Launch Edit/Creation Wizard for the plan that you intend to place on particular servers. In each section you will be prompted to select Logical Server Group where you want to create the included type of resources. Select the one assigned to that particular physical server:
Mind, these settings will not affect existing accounts. Only new accounts will be created on the designated server.
C H A P T E R 1 5
Resources
In this section we consider types of resources provided in Parallels H-Sphere.
In this chapter:
Users, Accounts, Domains
On the user side, Parallels H-Sphere operates with three tiers:
- users
- accounts
- domains
In this section:
Resources 275
Users
A user is, for the most part, nothing but a login and password to enter Parallels H-
Sphere control panel. One user can have many accounts created under different plans and platforms, and switch between them without having to log in every time. For example, a user can have an account under a Unix plan for SSH access and an account under a Windows plan for ODBC and ColdFusion hosting.
Parallels H-Sphere has a service user (wwwuser) that owns the service account for hosting the service domain. See next section for more details.
Accounts
Parallels H-Sphere primarily operates with accounts, not users. One account, also referred to as CP account , can be defined as an instance of a plan. One account regardless of its type (admininstrative, reseller, reseller administrative or user), requires one license. Once an account is deleted, the license gets released and can be taken by new accounts.
One user can have many accounts created under different plans and platforms, and switch between them without having to log in every time. For example, an owner of a
Unix account and a Windows account under the same username will use two Parallels
H-Sphere licenses. The unique thing about each account is not username, but a numeric account ID .
The four account types are:
Account Type Variations
Administrati ve main admin tech support
Main Functions Created
- allows Parallels H-Sphere owner to administer the entire hosting system
- allows Parallels H-Sphere owner's support staff to manage/answer trouble tickets from customers with administrative plan
FTP home directory
N/A
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Reseller N/A
Reseller
Administrati ve admin tech support
- represents reseller as a user to the system and distributor of parent host resources
- allows reseller to create reseller administrative account with reseller plan
- represents reseller as an administrator to their customers
- allows reseller to distribute parent host resources grouped into plans to their customers at retail prices from reseller account CP
- allows reseller's support staff to manage/answer trouble tickets from customers from reseller administrative CP with administrative plan
N/A
N/A
N/A
User customer - provides Parallels H-
Sphere owner and resellers with a 'medium' to distribute hosting services to customers
- allows customers to manage their sites service - allows Parallels H-Sphere owner and resellers to manage their promotional corporate sites with user plans
YES
Resources
Multiple Accounts
Depending on account's plan permissions (on page 263) its owner can create other
accounts of the following types under the same login:
277
User's Original Account Type administrative reseller reseller administrative
Accounts that User Can Add Under the Same Login
- administrative
- user
- user
- admininstrative
- reseller administrative
- user user - administrative (valid only for parent host's users)
- reseller (valid only for parent host's users)
- reseller adminintrative (valid only for reseller's users)
- user
Generally, a user with several accounts can:
* login to different accounts with one login/password
* switch between accounts without logging in every time
* have accounts under different plans and platforms
* use the same billing and contact information for different accounts (optional)
To create a new account under the same user:
1. Select
Add Account
in the
Admin User
menu. You will be taken to the signup page.
2. Follow the signup process. Note that the system suggests the contact information previously entered for the first account created under this user.
To switch between accounts within the same user:
1. Select
Choose Account
in the
Admin User
menu.
2. Click the
Select
icon to log into the selected account.
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Domains
Domains represent the third tier in the end-user side hierarchy. Your customers can have as many domains as they want under their one control panel license, unless you limit the domains they can have. In terms of a web server, a domain is little more than a correspondence to a web-site. Domains within one account share one control panel
(one menu tree with the same look and feel), and, having no traffic usage or disk quota of their own, are billed in bulk with the same invoices.
It is not recommended to run more than thirty or forty domains on one account, because some pages of the user control panel may become very slow or even time out when displaying the entire list of domains.
To provide registration and maintenance of the following domain types from user
accounts make sure service DNS zone (on page 87) is registered, instant alias
template (on page 89) is created , and there is shared or free dedicated IP on the web
Domain Type Explanation second- level new standard domains registered with a domain registrar
Important: In addition to the above requirements, make
sure domain registrar (on page 147) is configured.
transfered third-level existing domains transfered onto one of your Parallels
H-Sphere's IP new domains created based on the hosting company's service domain, e.g.user-domain.service- domain.com stopgap not an actual domain, just FTP service; the site can be accessed from the Internet by an instant domain alias
parked domain hosted elsewhere; a DNS zone mapping this domain to the IP of the server where your site is hosted. service domain to:
host your promotional site (on page 97)
provide third level domain hosting (on page 100)
provide shared SSL (on page 133)
provide instant access to the site through domain
To offer registration and maintenance of any of the above domain types, include the corresponding resource in the account's plan creation/edit wizard.
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To delete domains of a user:
1.
Find the account by domain name (on page 399)
2. Click the
Trash
icon next to the domain you want to delete
3. On the page that appears, chose the
Delete domain
option
Traffic
This document explains how Parallels H-Sphere handles traffic and covers the following issues.
In this section:
280 Resources
Traffic Calculation
Parallels H-Sphere Control Panel calculates traffic per server, e.g. web server, mail server, Windows server, etc. with its own built-in utility that collects data from: mail traffic logs with /hsphere/shared/scripts/cron/mail_anlz.pl
ftp traffic logs with /hsphere/shared/scripts/cron/ftp_anlz.pl
http traffic logs with /hsphere/shared/scripts/cron/cron_analyze.pl
, parses them every 24 hours with java psoft.hsphere.TrafficLoader
and then adds up to make up Summary Traffic . Summary Traffic statistics is updated every 24 hours and is shown to end users in their Control Panels. Because of that, Summary traffic doesn't include the current day's traffic consumption.
Traffic Reset. Calculation of Traffic Overlimit Usage
Regardless of account's billing period (on page 311), charges for exceeding traffic limit
(on page 311) are calculated and traffic run up is reset at the end of each month. No
user side account activities (changing billing period or switching to another plan) force traffic month closure. For example, if a customer signs up on March 7 for a billing period of 6 months, traffic month will always close on the 7 th
of each month.
Types of Traffic
Summary Traffic is not broken up into incoming or outgoing. Nor is it differentiated by the platform (operating system), however users can see
Traffic Details
for specific kinds of traffic consumption such as FTP User, Mail, HTTP, Real Server FTP traffic, etc.
Third Party Tools
Third party tools like ModLogAn, Webalizer, etc. can also be used to calculate the
HTTP traffic statistics on users' domains. Since these tools generate statistics only for
HTTP traffic, it will always differ from control panel Summary Traffic readings.
Traffic Limit
Traffic Limit
defines how much traffic users can run up for one traffic month without being charged usage fee. Initially traffic limit equals free set for the plan. If users have or expect high hit rates, to prevent overlimit charges, they can reserve more traffic. With their traffic limit increased, each traffic month users will be accrued recurrent fee for the whole booked amount, which is usually lower than the usage (overlimit) payments.
Traffic Pricing
Traffic prices are set with plan edit wizards.
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Free*:
GB of traffic you allow your users to run up during one traffic month free of charge.
Free makes up initial traffic limit.
Note: free GB of traffic set explicitly for two and more month billing period are not divided by the duration of the billing period in months.
E.g.: setting 10GB free for two month billing period, you allow your customers to run each month 10GB (not 5GB) without being charged.
Recurrent:
payment accrued each traffic month for each GB of difference between the traffic limit and free units. If the traffic limit is the same as free units, no recurrent fee is charged.
If users increase their traffic limit in the middle of a traffic month, they are accrued absolute
(not prorated) recurrent fee for the whole traffic month.
E.g.: increasing traffic limit by 5GB on the 15 th
day of the traffic month means that the user will be immediately charged the recurrent fee for the 5GB for the whole traffic month.
Recurrent payments are non-refundable if users fail to use the reserved traffic.
Extra or Usage:
overlimit payment accrued at the end of each traffic month for each
GB consumed over traffic limit.
The pricing for extra traffic is fractional, per KB. So if you set the price of $1/GB, and the user consumes only 10MB overlimit, he will be charged $0.01.
* When increasing plan's free traffic, use mass mail (on page 512) to let the customers
under this plan know they need to increase their traffic limit to new free in their user CP without any charges.
* When decreasing plan's free traffic, use mass mail (on page 512) to let the customers
under this plan know they need to decrease their traffic limit to new free, otherwise they will be charged recurrent fee.
Restricting Traffic Usage and Traffic Limit
Traffic usage can be restricted, which means when end users run up a certain amount of traffic, their sites will get suspended, and visitors won't be able to see the pages, and mailboxes and virtual ftp accounts will stop working. To configure the system to suspend user accounts when their traffic limit is exceed by certain percentage:
1. Select
User Warnings
in the
Settings
->
Notifications
menu.
2. Check the
Suspend account if traffic limit exceeded
box.
3. Enter percentage of the traffic limit usage, exceeding which user accounts will be suspended.
Also, you can restrict the maximum possible traffic limit end users can set. To set the
Max value:
1. Select
Manage
in the
Plans
menu.
2. Click
Resource
for the selected plan.
3. Click
Edit
for the
Summary Traffic
resource.
4. In the
Max
field, enter the maximum allowed traffic limit value (in GB).
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Charging for Traffic
Examples below, starting with easy further to more difficult, illustrate how end customers are charged for using traffic.
Staying within traffic limit doesn't cause any overlimit charges:
Plan & Account Settings: Traffic consumption: System Behavior:
Free = 10GB;
Recurrent = $2;
Usage = $4;
Traffic limit = Free
By the end of the traffic month user runs up 9GB.
- Traffic month closes.
- Traffic usage is calculated, but as user stays within traffic limit, he doesn't pay anything.
- A new traffic month opens and traffic is reset to 0.
Exceeding traffic limit
brings overlimit (or usage) charges (on page 311):
Plan & Account Settings:
Free = 10GB;
Recurrent = $2;
Usage = $4;
Traffic limit = Free
Traffic consumption:
By the end of the traffic month user runs up 15GB.
System Behavior:
- Traffic month closes.
- Traffic usage is calculated and user is accrued usage fee for 5GB overlimit (= 15GB run up - 10GB of traffic limit).
- Usage fee accrued makes
$20 (= 5GB overlimit x $4 usage price).
- A new traffic month opens and traffic is reset to 0.
Changing traffic limit neither closes traffic month nor resets traffic already run up.
Because of that:
when reserving more traffic than plan's free GB in the middle of the traffic month , users are immediately accrued absolute (not prorated) recurrent fee for the whole traffic month.
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Plan & Account Settings:
1 month billing period starts Jan 1;
Free = 10GB;
Recurrent = $2;
Usage = $4;
Traffic limit = 10GB
Traffic Consumption:
By January 15, the user runs up 9GB and increases traffic limit to
12GB.
By January 30, the user runs up 13GB.
System Behavior:
- Traffic month doesn't close on January 15.
- User is accrued absolute recurrent fee for 2GB over free (=12GB of new traffic limit - 10GB free).
- Recurrent fee accrued makes $4 (= 2GB over free x
$2 recurrent price).
- On January 31 traffic month closes.
- Traffic usage is calculated, and user is accrued usage fee for 1GB (= 13GB run up -
12GB traffic limit).
- Usage fee accrued makes
$4 (= 1GB x $4 usage price).
- A new traffic month opens, traffic is reset to 0 and user is accrued recurrent fee for
2GB over free (= 12GB of traffic limit - 10GB free).
- Recurrent fee accrued makes $4 (= 2GB over free x
$2 recurrent price).
when downgrading account traffic limit to plan's free in the middle of the traffic month , users are refunded absolute (not prorated) recurrent fee already prepaid at the beginning of the traffic month.
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Plan & Account Settings:
1 month billing period starts Jan 1;
Free = 10GB;
Recurrent = $2;
Usage = $4;
Traffic limit = 12GB
Traffic Consumption:
By January 15, the user runs up 4GB and decreases his traffic limit to 10GB.
By January 30 the user runs up 9GB.
System Behavior:
- On January 1 user is accrued absolute recurrent fee for 2GB over free (=
12GB of traffic limit - 10GB free).
- Recurrent fee accrued makes $4 (= 2GB over free x
$2 recurrent price).
- Traffic month doesn't close on January 15 and 4GB of traffic already run up aren't reset. User is refunded absolute recurrent fee for
2GB of downgraded traffic limit.
- Refund of recurrent fee makes $4 (= 2GB over free x
$2 recurrent price).
- On January 30 traffic month closes.
- Traffic usage is calculated, but as the user stays within his traffic limit, he pays nothing.
- A new traffic month opens, traffic is reset to 0.
Changing billing period or switching to another plan neither closes traffic month nor resets traffic already run up.
At such occasions the system checks account traffic limit and if:
traffic limit = current plan/billing period free GB , updates it to new plan/billing period free GB:
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Plan & Account Settings: Traffic Limit and Traffic
Consumption:
Source plan :
Free = 10GB;
Recurrent = $2;
Usage = $4;
Traffic limit = 10GB;
Traffic month starts
January 1.
Target plan :
Free = 50GB
By the time the user switches to a new plan, he runs up
14GB.
System Behavior:
- Changing plans doesn't close traffic month.
- Traffic charge calculations don't take place.
- Traffic already run up isn't reset.
- Traffic run up for the rest of the traffic month under a new plan is added to 14GB run up under the former plan.
- Traffic limit is upgraded to new plan's free 50GB.
- If by the end of the traffic month user exceeds 50GB traffic limit, he is charged at the new usage price.
- On January 31 a new traffic month opens and traffic is reset to 0.
traffic limit > new plan/billing period free GB > current plan/billing period free GB , updates it to new plan/billing period free GB. Users are refunded the absolute recurrent fee already prepaid at the beginning of the traffic month:
Traffic Configuration for 1 and 2
Month Billing Periods:
Traffic Limit and Traffic
Consumption:
System Behavior:
286 Resources
Traffic limit = 6GB
1 month billing period
Free = 5GB
Recurrent = $2
2 month billing period
* set explicitly:
Free = 12GB
By the time a user on
1 month billing period switches to a 2 month billing period, he runs up 10GB.
- At the beginning of the traffic month user is accrued recurrent fee for 1GB over free.
- Recurrent fee accrual makes
$2 (= 1GB over free x $2 recurrent price).
- At the billing period change, traffic month isn't closed.
- Traffic already run up isn't reset.
- Traffic run up for the rest of the traffic month is added to
10GB run up before changing to a 2 month billing period.
- Traffic limit is updated to
12GB free.
- User is refunded absolute recurrent fee prepaid at the beginning of the traffic month.
- Refund accrual makes $2 (=
1GB over free x $2 recurrent price).
- If by the end of traffic month user exceeds 12GB traffic limit, he is charged at a new usage price.
traffic limit > current and new plan/billing period free GB , leaves it as it is. If the absolute recurrent fee calculated based on new plan/billing period free and the new recurrent price is bigger than the recurrent fee already prepaid, the user is accrued the difference. If it is smaller, the user is refunded the difference:
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Traffic Configuration for 1 and 2
Month Billing Periods:
1 month billing period
Free: 5GB
Recurrent: $2
2 month billing period
* set explicitly:
Free = 12GB
Recurrent = $3
Traffic Limit and Traffic
Consumption:
System Behavior:
By the time user on 2 month billing period with 14GB traffic limit switches to a 1 month billing period he runs up 15GB.
- At the beginning of the traffic month user is accrued recurrent fee for 2GB over free (= 14GB of traffic limit - 12GB free).
- Recurrent fee accrual makes $6
(= 2GB over free x $3 recurrent price).
- At the billing period change, traffic month isn't closed.
- Traffic already run up isn't reset.
- Traffic run up for the rest of the traffic month is added to 15GB run up before changing to a 1 month billing period.
- Traffic limit remains 14GB.
- As recurrent fee calculated based on 1 month billing period free ($18 = 9GB over free x $2 recurrent price) is bigger than recurrent fee already prepaid
($6), the user is charged the difference of $12.
- If by the end of the traffic month user exceeds 14GB traffic limit, he is charged at the new usage price.
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Traffic Configuration Changes
This example shows how changes to traffic configuration in plan edit wizard affect end user charges for traffic consumption:
Plan and account settings:
Free: 2GB
Traffic Limit: 4GB
Recurrent: $3
Extra (usage): $5
Billing period: 2 months
At the beginning of the traffic month the user is accrued recurrent fee for 2GB over free
(= 4GB traffic limit - 2GB free).
Recurrent fee accrual makes $6 (= 2GB over free x $3 recurrent price).
In the middle of the first traffic month traffic configuration is changed from the plan edit wizard:
Increasing Prices
Free
Monthly
(recurrent)
Extra (usage)
2GB -> 5GB
$3 -> $4
Decreasing Prices
Free
Monthly (recurrent)
2GB -> 1GB
$3 -> $1
$5 -> $6 Extra (overlimit) $5 -> $2
By the end of the traffic month the customer runs up 8GB.
Traffic limit remains 4GB.
Recurrent fee isn't recalculated.
No refunds.
Usage calculations are based on new Free as they cover traffic limit and new Extra price:
8GB run up - free 5GB = 3GB overlimit
3GB x Extra $6 = $18 usage fee.
Traffic limit remains 4GB.
Recurrent fee isn't recalculated.
Usage calculations are based on traffic limit and new Extra price:
8GB run up - 4GB of traffic limit = 4GB overlimit
4GB overlimit x Extra $2 = $8 usage fee.
The traffic month is closed. User traffic is reset. A new traffic month is open.
Traffic limit remains 4GB.
User isn't accrued any recurrent fee as now his 4GB of traffic limit are covered with free 5GB. If by the end of the traffic month user exceeds his free units, he is charged for excess at new Extra price.
Traffic limit remains 4GB.
User is accrued $3 recurrent fee:
4GB of traffic limit - free 1GB = 3GB;
3GB x $1 recurrent = $3.
If by the end of the traffic month user exceeds his 4GB traffic limit, he is charged for excess at new Extra price.
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Tip:
when decreasing plan's free traffic, use mass mail feature available at the bottom of the search result page to let your customers know they will be charged recurrent fee unless they decrease their traffic limit to new free. when increasing plan's free traffic, use mass mail to let your customers know they can increase their traffic limit to new free without being charged.
Tracking End User Traffic Consumption
To see how much traffic your customers consumed over a certain period, use Transfer
Disk Space
Disk space in Parallels H-Sphere is allocated to customers through quotas , which are set separately for:
user's home directory on the web server
each user mailbox
each user database
Quotas are obligatory plan resources and can't be disabled. Customers can't upload and store more MB than the resource quota allows (except for My/Pg SQL DBs) and will get an error message if they try to do so. If end users need to upload more MB than their resource quota allows, they can increase it. To keep users from increasing resource quota, it can be MAX restricted. This is done directly in plan edit wizards
All files with the owner's ID including those outside user's home directory (e.g. Transfer,
Referrer, Agent and Error logs that are used for user website statistics) are counted toward used disk space. That's why quota usage may be different from the size of the user home directory.
Important: when creating a plan for MS SQL DB's service, don't set MS SQL quota of
0MB, as just created MS SQL databases already contain system information of 2MB
(for MSSQ 2000) or 3MB (for MSSQ 2005) of disk space!
Summary Disk Usage
Every 24 hours a cron script scans end user's FTP home directory, all mailboxes, and
DBs to summarize the disk space and make up summary disk usage for the last day .
Summary readings of each daily scan are added up and divided by days elapsed from
the beginning of the billing month (on page 311). The resulting amount makes up user's
average summary disk usage .
In this section:
Enabling/Disabling Summary Disk Usage.......................................................... 291
290 Resources
Charging Users for Disk Space
There are two approaches to charge customers for disk space. To avoid double billing, don't use both of them in the same plan.
Charging for Increased Quotas
Set free units and recurrent prices (on page 311) for quotas. If end users need to
upload more MB than free quota allows, they have to increase it.
When they increase FTP, mailbox and MS SQL quotas they will be charged recurrent fee for billing period resources.
When they increase My/PG SQL DB quotas they will be they will be charged recurrent fee for monthly resources .
Important:
Unlike FTP/Mailbox/MS SQL db quotas, My/PG SQL db quotas can be exceeded.
If by the end of the month users exceed their My/PG SQL db quotas, they are
charged usage (overlimit) fees (on page 311).
Charging for Increased and/or Exceeded Summary Disk Usage Limit
Enable the summary disk usage resource and set free units, recurrent and extra prices for it. Summary disk usage free units make up user's initial summary disk usage limit . If by the end of billing month user's average summary disk usage exceeds it, they will be charged usage (overlimit) fees. To prevent it, users can increase their summary disk usage limit (unless it is MAX restricted) and be charged recurrent fee for monthly resources which is usually less than usage (overlimit) fees.
Customers are not refunded if they haven't used up all the reserved disk space.
If customers reduce prepaid quotas or summary disk usage limit , they are refunded as
described in Money Returns (on page 328).
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Enabling/Disabling Summary Disk Usage
Enabl e
In a Certain Plan
1. Include
Summary Disk Usage
in the plan.
In All User/Reseller Plans
1. Log into the CP server as the cpanel user.
Log into each existing user/reseller account under this plan and in the
Control Area
on the left (or
Quick
Access
page, the
Account
menu for the
Left Menu
design) press the
Add button next to
Disk Usage
.
2. Execute the SummaryQuotaUpdate class: java psoft.hsphere.converter.Summary
QuotasUpdate --enable
3. Restart Parallels H-Sphere.
Summary Disk Usage free units will be set to equal Free Disk Quota , its monthly and usage prices will be removed.
Disabl e
Exclude Summary Disk Usage from the plan.
1. Log into the CP server as the cpanel user.
2. Execute the SummaryQuotaUpdate class: java psoft.hsphere.converter.Summary
QuotasUpdate --disable
3. Restart Parallels H-Sphere.
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Recreating Resources
Some resources, if broken, can be recreated with the resource recreation manager.
They include:
Disk Space Quota for Unix and Windows platforms
DNS
Hosting The resources are recreated in three steps:
1. The configuration of the resource and dependent resources is gathered;
2. The resource and the dependent resources is deleted;
3. The resource is created anew and configured with the original settings.
To run the resource recreation manager:
1. Find the account using the Search utility.
2. Click the
Recreate
icon in the
Controls
column.
3. Click the
Process
button to start the recreation process.
Note : demo accounts don't have the
Recreate
feature enabled.
Blacklists in Parallels H-Sphere
Master administrator and resellers can create Black Lists directly from Parallels H-
Sphere control panel.
If you want to make some domains, domain aliases or emails unavailable for end users, you have to include the domains/emails into blacklist. So when users try to add a domain (domain alias, etc.) or email from the blacklist, they will get a failure message -
Domain {0} or it's pattern exists in black list (or Email {0} or it's pattern exists in black list).
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Domains in blacklist
Use blacklist controls in your CP to add/delete/edit a domain. For this, go to Settings -
>
Blacklists
->
Domains in Blacklist
, enter either the full domain name or a domain name with a wildcard (e.g. *.smth.com) into the text box, and click on the corresponding button:
View all domains in blacklist
text link allows you to see all the blacklisted domains of your resellers.
Emails in blacklist
Use blacklist controls in your CP to add/delete/edit an email. For this, go to
Settings
-
>
Blacklists
->
Emails in Blacklist
, enter either the full email or an email with a wildcard (e.g.
@smth.com) into the text box, and click on a corresponding button:
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View all emails in blacklist
text link allows you to see all the blacklisted emails of your resellers.
Uploading and Exporting Black Lists
Parallels H-Sphere allows uploading from a file or export to a file black lists of domains or emails.
To upload black lists from a file:
1. Create a file with a list of domains/emails. Download a predefined list from http://download.hsphere.parallels.com/downloads/blacklist.txt
2. Go to
Settings
->
Blacklists
->
Domains in Blacklist
(or
Emails in Blacklist
) and click on the
Upload
button to choose the file.
3.
Import
a selected file:
Resources 295
To export black lists to a file:
1. Go to
Settings
->
Blacklist
->
Domains in Blacklist
(or
Emails in Blacklist
)
2. Click on the
Export
button to save blacklisted domains or emails to a file.
C H A P T E R 1 6
Billing
One of Parallels H-Sphere's biggest assets is that it provides fully automated billing for credit card payment accounts. It also supports other types of payments including check payments, web payment systems, wire transfers, etc. This chapter provides an overview of all billing features in Parallels H-Sphere.
Plans
Hosting resources and services are sold in plans, each having its own price scheme. In plan settings, the administrator needs to set:
- which resources will be available in the plan;
- prices, free units, and max units for each resource;
- credit limit, moneyback period, billing type, etc. More >>
Billing Types
Plans in Parallels H-Sphere can be commercial and free. Free plans are typically used to host your corporate site, use an external billing system, or to disable billing for any other reasons. Commercial plans require payments by credit cards or checks.
Commercial plans can allow trial hosting for a limited period of time. More >> (on page
Trial Hosting
Trial hosting enables users to sign up for a plan and use it for a certain number of days without paying. If a trial user decides to continue and become a pay user, Parallels H-
Sphere charges (1) for the resources that were purchased/used during the trial period and (2) recurrent fees for the next billing period. If a user decides to quit, the account
gets suspended when the trial period ends. More >> (on page 459)
Billing Profiles
For the system to be able to charge customers for the resources and services, each pay user should enter the information about credit cards or check account. Such info is contained in user's billing profile. One billing profile can be used for several accounts.
At the same time customers can have multiple billing profiles, but only one active at a time. Trial and free accounts don't have billing profiles. More >>
Billing 297
Prices
The system charges users three types of fees:
Setup: only when a user purchases a resource.
Recurrent: at the beginning of the billing period or billing month.
Overlimit: for resources used beyond the pre-paid limit (e.g. summary disk space usage, traffic, etc.).
Fees are calculated based on prices and billing periods. More >> (on page 311)
Limiting Resources
You can include a certain amount of free resources in a plan. If need arises, users can get more, until they reach the maximum amount of resources you have allowed them to have. For instance, you can include 5 free mailboxes in the plan and allow users to have no more than 10 mailboxes. More >>
Usage of some resources, such as disk space and traffic, can be controlled additionally by resource limits. A user can exceed a resource limit, but every excess unit is charged at the overlimit price. You can configure Parallels H-Sphere to send warnings and suspend accounts when users approach or exceed traffic or disk usage limit. More >>
Billing Periods
You can create many billing periods within a plan for customers to choose from. Billing periods allow you to set discounts for each individual price type - setup, recurrent, and
overlimit. The bigger billing period, the bigger the discount. More >> (on page 311)
Crediting Accounts
You can manually credit (put money to) individual accounts. Do this when you receive check or other non-credit-card payments from customers or when you need to refund a payment. These amounts are credited to the account balance, not credit cards. More
Debiting Accounts
You can debit (take money from) individual accounts. Accounts are debited manually when you need to charge your customers extra amounts.
You can configure your system to debit accounts on regular basis for services offered
outside Parallels H-Sphere, for instance, antivirus protection. More >> (on page 410)
298 Billing
Billing Modes
Parallels H-Sphere allows you to switch between the two modes of charging: credit limit based and anniversary based. In credit limit based mode customers are charged every time their balance exceeds credit limit. In anniversary based mode charges are done at the end of each billing period or month, depending on type of the fee. More >>
Traffic
Actual use of traffic cannot be physically restricted, but can be regulated by charging higher prices for overlimit traffic consumption. At the beginning of the billing period customers pay for traffic they expect to run up. If they go over this pre-paid limit, they are charged for the excess gigabytes at the overlimit rate at the end of each billing
month regardless the duration of the billing period. More >> (on page 279)
Disk Space
Parallels H-Sphere offers two approaches to paying for disk space.
Disk Space Quota
is used to charge users for booked disk space. Web, mail, and database resources take separate quotas within the same account. Disk quota can't be exceeded, but users can raise it if they need more disk space.
Summary Disk Space
is used to charge users for actually used disk space. With summary disk space, users can exceed disk space limit, and pay for excess megabytes at the overlimit rate at the end of each billing month
regardless the duration of the billing period. More >> (on page 289)
E-mailing Invoices
When creating plans, you choose whether you want Parallels H-Sphere to e-mail invoices to users immediately after they buy resources. With e-mail invoicing on, customers will receive invoices for every single bill entry, e.g. overlimit traffic. With email invoicing off, customers will get no invoices, even at the end of the billing period.
After signup, users can change this option for their accounts. More >> (on page 120)
Taxes
Parallels H-Sphere allows you to apply taxes, such as VAT, to customer charges.
Taxes are added to the summary invoice amounts. More >> (on page 320)
You can wave individual users from paying taxes. At signup, users enter tax exemption
code, then you need to approve or reject it. More >> (on page 322)
Billing 299
Promotions
You can apply promotions to plans. You can give a promo code to eligible users to offer them a discount. Or you can create an unnamed promotion
that will apply to all accounts under this plan for a specified period of time, for instance the month before Christmas.
Billing Resellers
Resellers are charged for each individual unit of resources purchased or used by their customers. Every time the system creates a billing entry for a reseller's customer, it also creates a shadow billing entry for the reseller.
Managing Debtors
You can set how many days your customers can stay in debt before they receive a negative balance warning, or get their account suspended or deleted. More >> (on
Money Returns
On some account activities, such as quitting hosting, changing plans, or deleting paid resources, Parallels H-Sphere automatically returns recurrent charges by crediting customer's account balance. Refunds are calculated based on the moneyback period, refund percentage and the resource billing type. If a customer quits with positive balance, you need to send him the remaining amount by check. More >> (on page
Billing Statements
A billing statement is a detail cumulative record of paid activity reflecting all charges
and credits incurred during a billing period (on page 311). This means each billing
statement represents user's paid activity during the billing period.
Billing statements get sequential numbering
. In other words, each billing statement is identified by account id and statement id in the format account_id-statement_id. For example, account_id-1, account_id-2, ...
In this chapter:
300 Billing
Billing Consequences of Editing Prices and Free Units ..................................... 320
Warning of Immediate Charges in Case of Buying Additional Resources .......... 337
Charging Accounts Whose Plans Change ......................................................... 338
Billing 301
Billing Types
Billing types indicate whether and how users pay for hosting services.
Generally, hosting in Parallels H-Sphere can be commercial and free. Free plans are typically used to host the corporate site of the hosting provider or to disable billing for any other reasons. Commercial plans require payments by credit cards or checks.
Commercial plans can allow trial hosting for a limited period of time. Accounts in
Parallels H-Sphere can have the following billing types:
No Billing: To disable billing in a plan, select
Without Billing
in the
Billing Type
field on the first step of the Plan Wizard, and any references to billing information will disappear from the signup wizard. Billing profiles won't be created, and users won't be charged for any resources or services including those provided by third parties, such as domain registration by Enom or OpenSRS. To collect payments only for Enom or OpenSRS services, create a paid plan and enter prices only on the second page of the wizard.
Credit Cards: Parallels H-Sphere begins to accept credit cards signups after you have
added and configured at least one Merchant Gateway (on page 171). Removing all
merchant gateways will remove the credit card option from the signup wizard.
Credit card numbers can be encrypted (on page 141) (normally they are kept in clear
text in the Parallels H-Sphere database) and are checked for cc verification number.
But unlike CC numbers, it's not stored in Parallels H-Sphere DB upon the check-up to comply with legislation in force.
See also adding custom credit card brands (on page 146) and activating credit card
Checks: users send checks to the location you have specified. After you have received a payment, you should process it as suggested in Processing Check Payments (on
page 444). You can also enable or disable check payments:
1. Select
Merchant Gateway
in the
Settings
->
Payment Settings
menu.
2. Turn
Accept Checks
on or off.
Turning off check payments will affect the whole system, not individual plans. After you have disabled check payments, existing check payment users will still be able to use this form of payment, but new customers won't see this option in the signup forms.
Online Payment Systems: You can also collect payments with WorldPay (on page
238), PayPal, 2CheckOut (on page 228), and GestPay (on page 232). If your
customers choose to pay with one of these systems, their credit card info won't be stored in their billing profiles and billing info won't show in the control panel.
Trial: Commercial plans can allow trial hosting for a limited period of time. Trial users are not charged for the resources they use, unless they decide to stay with you upon trial period expiration and become pay users. In this case they are charged for the
also Providing Trial Hosting (on page 459).
302 Billing
Billing Profiles
A billing profile is a set of billing details such as customer's credit card information and/or billing info (first and last name, company, address, phone, e-mail, etc.) It is required to collect payments from a customer.
One customer can have multiple billing profiles, but only ONE ACTIVE AT A TIME. For instance, a user can have two credit cards, VISA and MASTERCARD, and a check account. This user can have three billing profiles, two for credit cards and one for checks. If the VISA billing profile is set active, the MASTERCARD won't be charged and no check payments will be necessary.
One billing profile can be used for multiple accounts. This means a user with several accounts can pay with one card or receive all bills at one mailing address.
Trial users don't have billing profiles until they choose to become pay users. The system, however, tracks all trial user's purchases and includes them into the first bill.
When edited, the billing profile is not actually modified. Rather, a new version of billing profile is created, and the old version is preserved to allow tracking payments.
Billing Periods and Discounts
Billing period determines how far in advance recurrent fees for billing period resources are prepaid.
In addition to a 1 month billing period coming with each new hosting plan, you can create multiple billing periods of different length for your customers/resellers to choose from at signup or switch between later. This allows you to configure pricing individually for each billing period.
Default and Actual Billing Periods. Base Prices
When you create a new hosting plan, you can set prices and free units for the one month default billing period . These are the base prices and free units used in the calculation of actual prices and free units. When you have created a plan, you can go ahead and create actual billing periods for it. Unlike the default billing period, actual billing periods can be chosen by users. If you don't set a price or free units for an actual billing period, it will be calculated according to the corresponding base prices/free units and discounts.
Billing 303
Monthly and Billing Period Resources
Accounting for such resources as traffic, disk usage, MySQL and PGSQL quotas is determined not by billing periods as it is for the rest resources, but by a billing month .
Billing month equals the number of days in the billing period divided by billing period duration in months. That's why these resources are referred to as monthly resources as opposed to billing period resources .
Opening a New Billing Period/Month
A new billing period/month opens:
- when a new account is activated upon signup or moderation, which makes it start differently for each individual account
- when the billing period closes
- on resuming suspended account after the end of the billing period
- on changing account's billing period
- on changing start billing date
On other events, the billing period doesn't close.
Creating and Configuring Actual Billing Periods
Each new hosting plan comes with 1 month billing period, but you can create multiple actual billing periods.
To create or edit a billing period:
1. Select
Manage
in the
Plans
menu.
2. On the page that appears, click
Settings
for the hosting plan to edit.
3. Make sure
Billing
is ON.
4. In
Payment Intervals
, the
Billing Configuration
section, click the
Add
icon if you want to create a new billing period, or
Edit
icon next to the existing billing period if you want to change its duration or discounts:
5.
Interval
: the time unit used to measure billing period duration.
304 Billing
6.
Size
: the number of such time units in this billing period.
Make sure it is set to a positive value, otherwise it will mess up billing for accounts on this billing period.
7.
Setup D, Usage D
,
Recurrent D
: discounts for different types of fees.
In Parallels H-Sphere billing periods cannot be deleted, but you can change their duration. For instance, if you decide you don't need your yearly billing period, you can change its duration to two months.
Warning: Don't change the duration of a billing period if it has live accounts, as this will mess up billing for them. Instead you can create an identical plan with the same set of resources but different billing periods and move accounts to this plan. Once you know you have no accounts under this billing period, you can safely change its duration.
Billing 305
Changing Account's Billing Period
If there are more than one actual billing periods, users can switch between them:
When switching to a billing period
longer shorter than the time elapsed from the beginning of the current billing period, the user is transferred to a new billing period with the start date the same as of the one the he switches from.
For example, a 1 month billing period starts on September 1. On September 15 a user switches to a 2 month billing period. He is then transferred to a 2 month billing period with the start date of September 1 and closure date of October 31.
of the day he switches to a new billing period on.
For example, a 2 month billing period starts on September 1. On October 5 a user switches to a 1 month billing period. The current 2 month billing period is interrupted, closed and a new billing period is open with the start date of October 5 and closure date of November 5.
Refunds for the interrupted billing period are calculated as described in refund formulas and subtracted from new recurrent fees for a new billing period. new recurrent fees prorated to the time remaining to a new billing billing period closure.
If the resulting amount is:
negative , the account balance is credited the difference;
positive , the difference is charged as additional recurrent fee.
Important: New billing period start date is set to the current date on any billing period change for accounts whose start billing period date was moved to the past and the open billing period closes earlier than the current date. In such cases no refunds are issued for the interrupted billing period.
306 Billing
Changing Billing Period Start Date
It is strongly recommended to avoid changing start billing date whenever possible, as it greatly affects customer billing.
If you set the same billing date for many customers, the system may become overloaded on this billing day.
Changing the billing period start day doesn't change the length of the billing period. To change the billing period length, refer to Creating and Editing Billing Periods (on page
To change billing period start date:
1.
2. Click the
Date
icon in the
Billing
column for this user.
3. Enter the date you want this user billing period to start on.
4. Click
Submit
.
When you shift the start billing date to the past:
1. Current billing period and billing month are interrupted and forced to close.
2.
Usage fees (on page 311) (if any) are charged.
3.
Refunds (on page 328) (if any) are issued.
4. A new billing period and billing month open.
5. Recurrent fees for an open billing period and billing month are charged.
Thus, most likely, you will want to credit (on page 409) the extra
charged amount back to user's account.
* The recurrent charges for traffic and summary disk usage are prorated to the period from the date the interrupted billing period should have normally closed to the closure date of an open billing period.
Running into a negative balance upon opening a new billing period may result in suspending or even deleting the account, because by this date, the account is likely to
have been in debt for more days than allowed in the managing debtors (on page 329)
control. If you don't want the account to be automatically suspended, do either of the following:
(a) prior to moving start billing date back, credit the amount that is going to put the account into a negative balance
(b) set the Outstanding balance date, User's Billing Info, (available by clicking the User name in the Search result page) to the current date.
Billing 307
When you shift the start billing date forward:
1. Current billing period and disk usage/traffic month are interrupted and forced to close.
2. Recurrent fees prepaid at the beginning of the interrupted billing period for billing period resources are refunded.
* The refunds are prorated to the days remaining to the end of the interrupted billing period and adjusted to the refund percentage.
Note: Recurrent fees prepaid at the beginning of the interrupted disk usage/traffic month for monthly resources are not refunded.
3. Usage fees for traffic/disk overlimit usage are accrued if any.
* Usage fees are calculated as follows:
Disk/traffic usage minus disk space/traffic free units prorated to the days elapsed from the resource month start date multiply by usage price.
4. Traffic and average summary disk usage are reset.
5. A new billing period and disk usage/traffic month open .
6. Absolute recurrent fees for billing period resources are accrued.
7. If a start billing date is set further than the date the interrupted billing period should have normally closed on, the user is accrued absolute recurrent fee for disk usage/traffic. If not, the user is accrued the recurrent fee prorated to the period from the date the interrupted billing period should have normally closed on to the closure date of the open billing period.
Shifting the start billing date forward, you create a gap between the billing periods. The system does not charge the customer recurrent fees for the time gap. Traffic and disk space used during this gap are tracked and taken into consideration when usage is calculated at the end of the billing period. If a user purchases some resources during the gap period, the system will charge the recurrent fee for these resources. However, it will calculate the price from the moment of purchase till the end of the new billing period. Say, you close the current billing period on November 11 and set the new starting date to December 1 (with a one month billing period. This way, the user doesn't pay recurrent fees for the remaining days of November. Still, if a user buys a resource on November 20, he/she will be charged the recurrent fee for the interval of 40 days
(November 20 - January 1).
308 Billing
Credit Limit
Credit limit is the maximum negative balance that can be reached before the customer is charged or treated as a debtor.
In Parallels H-Sphere credit limit serves two purposes:
- cumulative: This is applicable only to credit cards. All setup, recurrent and usage fees are accrued until their cumulative amount reaches or exceeds the credit limit. Only then is this amount charged. This approach minimizes referrals to credit card processing centers.
- restrictive: This is pertinent to check payments and invalid/expired credit cards.
When the negative balance exceeds the credit limit, the account owner is considered to run into debts and is blocked from buying any resources, paid or free. Except for this, the functionality of the debtor's account isn't affected, unless you configure the system
to suspend debtors (on page 329). Recurrent and usage fees will be still accrued, and
the debt will grow with every new billing period (on page 311).
Mind that although a reseller in debt can't buy any more resources provided with the reseller account (traffic and disk space in particular), Parallels H-Sphere neither forbids his end user signups nor bars his existing users from acquiring more resources.
Example: If you set the credit limit to $10, a user with a $0 balance purchasing $5 resource won't be charged, even though his balance will become -$5. This is also true of invalid credit card or check payments.
Further, if this user decides to buy another $10 worth of resources, he will get charged
$15, and his balance will become zero. But in case of an invalid credit card or a check payment, this user won't be able to buy these extra $10 of resources, and his balance will remain -$5. If this is the case, and if his usage fee equals $20, at the end of the payment interval his debt will increase to ( $5 + $ 20 = ) $25.
In this section:
Billing 309
Setting Credit Limit in a Plan
To set plan's default credit limit:
1. Launch plan edit wizard
2. On the first step at the bottom of the form you'll find the Credit Limit entry.
If you leave the field empty, credit limit is set to 0. This results in immediate credit card account charges and doesn't allow check paid accounts acquire resources with no money on their balance.
Plan's default credit limit is the same for all accounts in this plan. However, you can increase or reduce credit limit for particular accounts by following the instruction below.
Increasing Credit Limit for Individual Accounts
To increase or reduce credit limit for a particular account by a fixed amount:
1.
Find the account (on page 399) using the
Search
utility.
2. Click the credit limit value in the
Credit
column.
3. On the page that appears, enter the amount above plan's credit limit value. For example, the Credit Limit for the plan is $10. To make it $12 for a specific account, enter 2.
4. Click
Increase
. The search results page will now show the difference from the default, not the absolute credit limit.
310 Billing
Resetting Credit Limit For All Users
Sometimes you need to reset credit limit for all accounts to the plan's default value. To do it in one go, do the following:
1. Select
Other
in the
E. Manager
menu.
2. Click
Reset Credit Limit
to eliminate credit limit increases in all accounts of your direct end users. This won't affect your resellers' end users.
3. Click
Reset Credit Limit for all accounts in the system (resellers inclusive)
to eliminate credit limit increases in all accounts of your direct end users and resellers' end users:
Note: Remember that resetting credit limit for all accounts will set all increased credit limits, if any, to the plan defaults. They will show as zero on the Search result page in the
Credit Limit
section, where zero is the difference from the default plan value.
Billing 311
Fees Collected From Customers
In Parallels H-Sphere customers can be charged:
- plan fees
- custom debit fees ( separate document )
- custom job fees ( separate document )
Plan Fees
Plan fees are the fees for user account services provided with its hosting plan. Plan fees, except for domain registration fee are charged for resources acquired beyond free units and are calculated based on prices set for the actual billing period. If a price or free units in the formulas below aren't set for the actual billing period, corresponding base price or free units are then used instead. Fees calculated on base prices are discounted.
Setup fee : single time fee charged at the moment a unit of specific resource is acquired over free units.
= Setup price for this specific resource
Recurrent fee for billing period resources: service fee for resource maintenance during the whole billing period; charged in advance the moment it is acquired and since then at the beginning of each billing period.
= Monthly price for the resource x
units over free (for quotas) x
days left to the end of the billing period / billing period duration in days
* if the base price is used, the fee is multiplied by billing period duration in months
Recurrent fee for monthly resources: fee for each GB of traffic or MB of disk space reserved over free units; charged inprorated for the whole billing month in advance at the moment of purchase and since then at the beginning of each billing month.
= Monthly price for a monthly resource x
units over Free
/
billing period duration in months
* if the base price is used, it's not divided by billing period duration in months
Usage fee: fee for each excessive GB of traffic or MB of disk space consumed over the user reserved limit; charged at the end of each billing month
= Extra price for a monthly resource x
units over the user reserved limit
/
billing period duration in months
* if the base price is used, it's not divided by billing period duration in months
Domain registration fee: single time setup fee charged at the moment of
OpenSRS or Enom domain registration / renewal performed through Parallels H-
Sphere CP
= Custom price for the term the domain is registered / renewed for
* if a custom price isn't set for a certain term, the fee equals then the default price set for a corresponding term.
312 Billing
Free Units
When we talk about free units, we actually mean free gigabytes of traffic, free megabytes of disk space, free subdomains and mailboxes, etc. customers get with the
user account (on page 274) and can use them free of charge within one billing period
(on page 311) or billing month when we talk about monthly resources. For example:
Resource Free units set for default one month billing period
10 actual 2 month billing period
User gets
Traffic
10
-
12
10 GB to use over one month for free
12 GB to use over one month for free
Mailbox 10
10
-
12
10 free mailboxes
12 free mailboxes
Free isn't applicable to resources that can't be measured in units, such as Directory
Index or SSH Access .
Billing 313
Setting Prices and Free Units
This section explains how to set prices used to calculate plan fees (on page 311).
Important: Don't separate thousands with commas when setting any prices or free units. Comma "
,
" is treated as a decimal separator, not thousand separator, to support international standards (e.g. $2,95).
To set base prices and free units:
1. Launch plan creation/edit wizard
2. On step 1 of the wizard check the
Leave registrar prices as they are
box in the
Domain types section and uncheck the Do not change resource prices one in the Settings section.
3. At the bottom of the same form click the
Next
button and the wizard will take you to the base price and free units configuration page.
To set prices and free units for actual billing periods:
1. Go through steps 1-3 of setting base prices and free units.
* Prices and free units for billing periods, on the contrary to base ones, can be set only with plan edit wizard.
2. At the bottom of the base price and free units configuration page click
Next
and the wizard will take you to the forms where you can set prices and free units for actual
billing periods (on page 311). The number of subsequent steps depends on the number
of billing periods available for the plan.
To set default prices for OpenSRS or Enom domain registration/renewal:
Follow the Enom (on page 152) and OpenSRS (on page 154) Configuration
instructions.
Important: if the default prices aren't set, the domain registration option won't be available to customers!
To set custom prices for OpenSRS or Enom domain registration/renewal:
1. Make sure default prices for OpenSRS / Enom domain registration / renewal are set in domain registration manager.
2. Launch plan creation/edit wizard
3. On step 1 of the wizard uncheck the Leave registrar prices as they are box in the Domain types section.
4. At the bottom of the same page click the Next button and the wizard will take you to the form where you can set custom prices for OpenSRS/Enom domain registration / renewal.
314 Billing
Comments on Resources
Don't get confused with setting prices for the following resources:
CP Account:
See Understanding Accounts, Domains, and Users (on page 274).
Summary Traffic: See Traffic (on page 279)
Disk Space Quota: See Individual Disk Space Quotas (on page 289)
Domain: any domain transfered or registered through Parallels H-Sphere control panel.
Mailbox: Each new customer domain is created with a webmaster mailbox. If a user runs out of free mailboxes, adding a new domain - even a free domain - will trigger charges for a webmaster mailbox. Hense, it is a good idea to provide at least several free mailboxes.
Mailbox quota: initial quota on one user mailbox.
MySQL/PGSQL database quota: initial quota on one database calculated as the total size of all files in the database directory.
MS SQL Quota: Quota on one database calculated as the total size of all files in the database directory.
IP Address: any dedicated IP taken by domains maintained through customer control panel.
Real User: number of simultaneous connections, i.e. how many visitors can simultaneously access customer's RealServer account.
Setting prices for the following resources often confuses Parallels H-Sphere administrators:
Resource Explanation Plan Wizard Price Fields
Free Setup Monthly Extra
Billing 315
CP
Account
A user/administrative account in H-
Sphere. One CP account equals one control panel and takes one license
N/A Charged when the user creates a new account
Used to calculate recurrent fee for one account. If a user has two accounts (e.g.
Unix and
Windows), he will be charged ( recurrent fee (on
N/A
Summary
Traffic
Disk
Space
Quota
Domain
User data transferred to/from web, mail, and other servers
User FTP quota on the web / windows server
Includes transferred domains and newly registered
OpenSRS/Enom domains. Prices for this resource don't replace
GB of traffic which users can use over the month for free
MB of disk space that you grant users for free
N/A
N/A
Used to calculate recurrent fee (on
reserving GB of traffic over initial user free traffic quota. Charged once at the beginning of the billing month for the difference between the limit customer sets and the free units.
Charged at the end of each month of the billing period for each GB used beyond the limit.
Billing
Consequences of Editing Prices and Free Units<
Applied only if users change their default disk space quota.
Charged once at the beginning of the billing period for the difference between the quota and the free units
N/A
Number of domains a user can transfer or register without being charged,
Charged when the user transfers/re gisters a domain beyond free units
Charged at the beginning of the billing period for each registered or transferred domain beyond free units
N/A
316 Billing
Mailbox
Mailbox quota domain registration prices you entered on the previous page.
Prices here are set for your services and are collected based on user's billing period, whereas prices on the previous page are collected on yearly basis for the services offered by
Enom/OpenSRS.
Note: service domain isn't counted as payable resource let alone yearly domain registratio n fees
Each new customer domain is created with a webmaster mailbox. If a user runs out of free mailboxes, adding a new domain - even a free domain - will trigger charges for a webmaster mailbox. Hense, it is a good idea to provide at least several free mailboxes.
Charged when the user purchases a new mailbox beyond free
Charged at the beginning of the billing period for each mailbox beyond free
N/A
Quota on one user mailbox
The default mailbox size user can use for this mailbox free of charge
N/A Applies only when users increase their mailbox quota.
Charged once at the beginning of the billing period for the difference between the quota and the free units.
N/A
MySQL/PG
SQL database quota
Quota on one database calculated as the total size of all files in the database directory
MB of free disk space that you give out for each new database
N/A
MS SQL
Quota
Quota on one database calculated as the total size of all files in the database directory.
MB of free disk space that you allocate for each new database
N/A
Billing 317
Applies only when users increase their database quota.
Charged once at the beginning of the billing period for the difference between the quota and the free units
Charged for the disk space
(prorated to the billing month duration) used in excess of the database quota as of the last day of the billing month. For example, you host a user with the billing period of 6 months, 0 free units, and the database size quota of 60MB.
By the end of the first month, the size of the database makes
65MB, and the 5 MB overlimit is charged as the usage
(excess) fee
Applies only when users increase their database quota.
Charged once at the beginning of the billing period for the difference between the limit and the free units.
N/A
318 Billing
IP Address
A dedicated
Address
IP Number of dedicated
IPs that you grant users for free
Charged when the user purchases a new dedicated
IP beyond free units
Charged at the beginning of each billing period for each dedicated IP beyond free units
Real User the maximum number of simultaneous connections, i.e. how many visitors can simultaneously access user's
RealServer account.
Number of simultane ous connectio ns to
RealServe r that you grant users for free.
N/A Charged once at the beginning of the billing period for the difference between the limit and the free units.
N/A
N/A
Billing 319
Discounts
Only plan fees calculated on base prices can be adjusted to discounts set for the actual billing periods.
Discounted fee = absolute fee x ( ( 100% discount set for the type of price used to calculate absolute fee ) / 100% )
As a rule, the bigger billing period, the bigger the discount.
Discounts are configured individually for each billing period and can be set for each type of price:
1. Select
Manage
in the
Plans
menu.
2. On the page that appears, click
Settings
for the plan to edit.
3. Make sure
Billing
is ON. In the
Billing Configuration
section, click the
Edit icon for the selected billing period.
On the page that appears, enter discounts for each price type:
4. Click
Submit Query
.
The following table explains how a 10% recurrent discount for a 2 month billing period
effects calculation of the recurrent fee (on page 311) for additional mail box:
Recurrent Fee Monthly Price for Mailbox default one month billing period
2 month billing period
320 Billing
$10
$10
-
$17
18 ( = $10 x 2 month x ( ( 100%
-
10% recurrent discount ) / 100% )
$17
Billing Consequences of Editing Prices and Free Units
New free units are applied in subsequent setup and recurrent fee calculations.
New monthly price are applied in subsequent recurrent fee calculations.
New usage price are applied in subsequent usage fee calculations.
Taxes
Prices in your plans are net of any taxes. Parallels H-Sphere further calculates the amount to be added to the SUBTOTAL of the user invoice based on the tax value.
To adjust prices for taxes:
1. Select
Taxes
in the
Settings
menu.
2. On the page that appears, click the
Add
icon.
3. Fill the form that appears:
Billing 321
Description: enter the name of the tax that will show in user invoices.
Country
: choose a country this tax applies to and choose where this tax will take effect - inside or outside the country.
State
: choose the state from the drop-down box if the tax applies to USA or
Canada. If other, enter the one of your own. Choose where this tax will take effect - inside or outside this state.
Per cent
: enter the tax amount. For instance, to apply a 12% VAT to your prices, enter 12.
4. Click
Submit
.
To delete a tax, click the Trash icon next to the tax:
Customer's online invoices will show taxes like this:
322 Billing
Parallels H-Sphere provides detailed tax figures in majority of receipts. When there are several taxes, total tax amount is calculated in one line based on subtotal as in the following example:
The subtotal is $36.45, 15% XYZ and 20% VAT make up 35% which constitutes
$12.76. $36.45 subtotal and $12.76 taxes result in $49.21 total.
Tax Exemption
Your users can sign up for tax-free accounts. The mode where taxes are not calculated for an account is called tax exemption . This feature is available for users from all countries, but particularly supported by European Union members due to certain peculiarities of EEC taxation.
To exempt users from taxes in Parallels H-Sphere, administrator should:
1. Enable tax exemption in Admin Control Panel;
2. Set tax exemption mode during user signup;
Activate user accounts with tax exemption code entered.
In this section:
Activating User Accounts with Tax Exemption Code Entered ............................ 324
Billing 323
Enabling Tax Exemption
Tax exemption option cannot be configured individually for each plan. You can either enable or disable it globally for all your plans. To do this:
1. Select
Taxes
in the
Settings
menu.
2. Check or uncheck the
Allow Tax Exemption
box in the
Optional Parameters table below the list of taxes:
You can also choose whether to display customer's VAT number on a user's invoice. If the
Display it as VAT Number
option is checked, VAT Number will be displayed as a label, instead of Tax Exemption code; If the
Always reject, store only option is checked, VAT number/exemption code will be stored, but marked as rejected (though rejection signs in UI are suppressed), taxes will be collected - but
VAT Number will be recorded.
3. Click
Submit
.
324 Billing
Setting Tax Exemption Mode at Signup
To set exemption from taxes for individual user at signup:
1. Go the the
Signup
menu and click the plan to signup.
2. In the Signup wizard get to the
Payment Information
signup page.
3. Enter user's own valid individual
Tax Exemption Code
in the corresponding field of the signup page.
4.
Proceed with usual signup procedure (on page 445).
After signup, the created account is put into the list of accounts awaiting moderation (on
page 452), regardless of the type of payment.
Activating User Accounts with Tax Exemption Code
Entered
To activate the account with tax exemption option enabled:
1. Go to the
Moderate
submenu of the
Signup
menu.
2. Choose the account to be moderated.
3. In the billing section of the table that appears, find the
Tax Exemption Code line:
Billing 325
4. Call the corresponding tax office to verify the tax exemption code entered by the customer.
5. According to the result of the validation, approve or reject the tax exemption code by clicking the respective link. The customer would be immediately notified by email.
Note: If the customer has entered his or her tax exemption code incorrectly, you may edit that code by clicking the
Edit
icon.
6. Activate the account by clicking the
Create
link at the bottom of the form.
Note
:
You would not be able to activate the account until the tax exemption code is approved or rejected.
You may also approve or reject the customer's tax exemption code in the account profile:
1. Search for the account in the
Search
menu.
2. Click on the account's id link in the
Account ID
column.
3. In the form that appears in the upper frame of the new page, click
VIEW in the
Contact&Billing Email
section. Scroll down to the
Tax Exemption Code line:
4. Approve or Reject the tax exemption code by clicking the corresponding link.
For an account where tax exemption is enabled, online invoice will look like this:
326 Billing
Money Returns
The money in Parallels H-Sphere is returned either by check or by crediting the account balance, but can't be issued to credit cards!
This document focuses on the automatic account balance crediting which in the Parallels H- Sphere terms is called refunding.
Only the latest billing period/month (on page 311) recurrent (on page 311) charges can
be refunded. Other charges can be returned by crediting accounts (on page 409)
manually. Refunds are listed in the user online invoice
(../user/billing.html#onlineinvoice). The "Full refund" message in the account Online
Invoice implies that it isn't adjusted to the refund percentage.
In this section:
Events that Trigger Refunds
Refunds are issued on:
quitting hosting during and after the moneyback period (on page 328)
changing account's plan
changing account's billing period (on page 311)
changing account's start billing period date (on page 311)
reducing quotas and limits (on page 328)
deleting prepaid billing period resources (on page 311)
* Recurrent fees prepaid for monthly resources are not refunded on monthly
resource removal. See also reducing quotas and limits (on page 328).
Important :
- No refunds are issued for the removal of the resource units acquired for free.
- No refunds are issued for prepaid resource units that become free upon the removal of the resource units acquired for free.
Example: A customer uses 2 dedicated IPs. As a customer's account offers only one dedicated IP for free, he pays for the extra one. Removing one of them the user will be refunded only if it is the IP that he prepaid for. If the removed IP was
acquired for free, no recurrent fees (on page 311) are returned for the prepaid IP
that appears to be free now. The system will treat this resource as free starting from
the next billing period (on page 311).
In such cases users are advised to remove the resouce to get the refunds and then add it again as free.
Billing 327
Refund Formulas
Refunds for monthly resources, unlike billing period resources, are never prorated to the days remaining till the billing month closure. When refunded, recurrent charges for all resources are adjusted to refund percentage except for when users quit hosting during the Moneyback Period.
Refunds for billing period resources
= ( recurrent fee charged over the current billing period x days remaining to its closure x refund percentage ) / ( billing period duration in days x 100% )
Refunds for monthly resources
= ( recurrent fee charged over the current billing month x refund percentage ) /
100%
If recurrent price for resource was changed, the refund will be calcuated based on prices used to calcuate the latest recurrent fees prepaid.
Moneyback Period
If users quit hosting during the Moneyback Period, they are refunded all recurrent
charges that are neither adjusted to refund percentage (on page 311) nor prorated to
the days remaining to the billing period closure. If users quit hosting after the
MoneybackPeriod, refunds are calculated as described above.
To set the moneyback period:
1. Select
Manage
in the
Plans
menu.
2. Click the name of the plan to start the wizard.
3. Scroll down to the
Settings
section and check
Enable
in the
Money Back
Guarantee
field. Enter the duration of the Money Back period in days.
4. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and check Don't change resources prices.
5. Complete the wizard.
328 Billing
Reducing Quotas and Limits
Refunds for decreased:
FTP/Mail Box/MS SQL DB Quota
= ( decreased MB of prepaid quota x recurrent price they were bought at x days remaining to the billing period closure x refund percentage
billing period duration in days x 100% )
PG/My SQL DB Quota, Summary Disk Usage or Traffic Limit
= ( decreased MB/GB of prepaid quota/traffic limit x recurrent price they were bought at x
refund percentage (on page 328)
) / 100%
Refund Percentage
The refund percentage defines how much of the recurrent charge will be returned to the user.
To set the refund percentage:
1. Select
Manage
in the
Plans
menu.
2. Click
Resources
for the plan.
3. On the page that appears, click
Price
next to the resource that you are setting refund percentage for.
4. In the
Refund Percentage
field, enter how much of the recurrent charge will be returned to the user
Notes:
- if no refund percentage is set for actual billing periods, refunds will be calculated based on refund percentage set for default billing period;
- leaving the refund percentage field empty sets it to 100%;
- if it is set to 0, no refunds will be issued.
Billing 329
Managing Debtors
In Parallels H-Sphere terms a user runs into debt when their account negative balance
exceeds credit limit (on page 308).
Punitive Measures
When users run into debts, they are automatically blocked from buying more resources.
Except for this, the functionality of the debtor's account isn't affected. If you find this
insufficient, use billing balance report (on page 418) to track down debtors and warn
them with mass mail (on page 512) of expected punitive measures if they fail to pay off
the debt. When the period to pay off the debts expires, you can suspend their account
(on page 414). This will close access to their control panel and display a
Suspended page to their site visitors. If the debt is paid by check, you credit the paid amount and resume the account. If the debt is paid by credit card, the account will be resumed
automatically. If the debtor fails to pay the debt, you can delete (on page 413) their
account along with user's home directory content.
Punitive Measures Automation
You can configure Parallels H-Sphere to apply punitive measures (on page 413) to
debtors automatically:
1. Select
Managing Debtors
in the
Settings
menu.
2. You'll be taken to the
Managing Debtors
form:
330 Billing
3. Check the boxes next to the measures you'd like to apply to debtors.
4. Enter the number of days to pass since the last measure taken before the enabled option is applied. The notifications and warnings are sent to the customer's e-mail when a cron runs accounting for the user.
Notes: leave the days
box empty, to apply enabled measure immediately without any prolongation periods.
5.
Edit debtors warnings and notifications (on page 509).
6. Click the
Save
button at the bottom of the form.
Start Date of Time in Debt
If you want to change the date since when the system starts treating user as a debtor to apply punitive measures to:
1.
2. Click the username link on the search result page.
3. In the
Outstanding balance date
field enter the new date.
4. Click the
Set
button.
Billing 331
Promotions
You can offer promotions (flexible discount or promotion plans) based on the default
Constant Percent Discount calculator or on custom calculators. Promotions apply to entire accounts, not individual resources or domains.
Promotion Types
Promotion Codes.
At signup, a customer enters a promotion code, the system verifies it, and if it proves valid for the chosen plan, the user is billed with the discount. These promotions apply only to new signups; you can't apply them to existing accounts. An example of this promotion is the Constant Percent Discount that comes with Parallels
H-Sphere by default. One account can use only one promo code.
Unnamed Promotions.
You can create promotions that don't require promo codes. For instance, you can create a calculator that will apply Christmas discounts to all accounts under the given plan. One account can use multiple unnamed promotions.
Calculating Promotion Discounts
If an account is affected by two or more promotions, each of the promotion discounts is calculated based on the full amount of charge.
Example: An account is affected by two promotions, each offering 20% off. When the user buys $1 worth of resources, the first promotion takes 20 cents off the full amount making it 80 cents. The second promotion will apply to the full amount again, not to the remaining 80 cents, which means the final discounted charge will be 60 cents.
Promotion discounts are rounded to 3 digits after the decimal point, then added, and the final amount is rounded to 2 digits after the decimal point.
Creating Promotions
This procedure explains how to create a promotion based on the default Constant
Percent Discount calculator. Promotions based on other (custom) calculators may take a different set of forms.
To create a promotion, you need to have an administrative account with billing management permissions.
1. Select
Promo Management
in the
Settings
menu:
332 Billing
2. On the page that appears, click
Add new promotion
.
3. Enter promotion settings and click
Next
:
Promotion validator
- determines if the promo applies to a given account at the given moment in time
Promotion calculator
- calculates the amount of the discount for the given account
Promotion name
- this will appear throughout the control panel
Billing description
- this will appear in invoices/bills and price estimators
Promotion code - string of alphanumeric characters, analogous to a password
4. On the next page, enter discount percentage and click
Next
:
Billing
5. Your discount now appears in the list of promotions. Now you need to associate the promotion with target plans.
Calculators shipped with H-Sphere
Fixed percent discount . Applies fixed discount given in percents.
333
Validators shipped with H-Sphere
Contunuous . Promotion is valid all the time.
Finite . Promotion is valid for specified number of billing periods from user sign up date.
Associating Promotions With Plans
To take effect, promotions should be assigned to particular plans. One plan can have several associated promotions.
To associate a promotion with a plan:
1. In the list of plans, click
Settings
for the target plan.
2. On the page that appears, scroll down to the
Promotions Management
, select a promotion, and click
Add
.
3. If the promotion requires a code, make sure to communicate it to the potential customers. They will be able to enter it on the
Payment
Information
page of the signup wizard
Extra Packages
The
Extra Packages
function enables you to sell users the sets of predefined resources for which you can assign prices and bill users in the gross.
Creating Extra Packs
Extra Packs are assigned for group of plans. Prior to creating an Extra Package, make sure there is at least one plan group.
To create an Extra Package:
1. Go to
Plans
->
Extra Packages
->
Add New Extra Package
.
2. Configure Extra pack:
334 Billing
Set
Name
to the package
Assign pack to necessary
Plan Group
Set
Setup
and
Recurrent
prices
Select resources
and set
Included
values for them
3. Click
Submit
.
The package will appear available for users signed up for the plans of this group.
If user wants to buy more resources than the package includes, the prices of the plan he signed up for will be in effect.
Managing Extra Packs
Now, that a package is created, you can edit package name, prices and resources for the whole plan and set specific package prices for each plan under group.
Go to
Plans
->
Extra Packages
->
Available Extra Packages
.
Billing 335
Click
Edit
next to the chosen package to change Extra Pack name, prices and add/remove resources that will affect the whole plan group
Click
Set Prices For Each Plan
if you want to set different Extra Pack prices for different plans under the plan group
Click Trash to delete package.
Important: extra package used by at least one account cannot be deleted.
Anniversary Based Billing
In addition to traditional credit limit (on page 308) based charge scheme a new billing
mode is introduced in Parallels H-Sphere, namely anniversary based. This new charge scheme is designed and makes sense exclusively for accounts with credit cards. In all
Parallels H-Sphere installations and newly created reseller accounts anniversary billing is enabled by default.
In this billing mode, credit limit is ignored when charging customers for regular fees.
Their credit cards are charged at the end of every billing month for monthly resources and at the end of every billing period for other resources, even if the cumulative fee is less than the credit limit. Credit limit only matters when customers decide to buy
additional resources (on page 308).
Anniversary billing option is implemented to make billing operations more transparent for clients. Choose it if your clients prefer to be billed regularly, and if occasional charges of their credit cards, that occur usually in credit limit based scheme, worry them.
336 Billing
Switching Between Billing Modes
If credit limit based billing seems to be more preferable to you, you can always switch to this mode without any interruptions in billing.
To switch between billing modes, select
Billing Settings
in the
Settings
menu, choose the needed under the
Billing Settings
section and press
Submit Query
:
Billing 337
Sending "No charge" Notifications
If there are no charges at the end of the billing circle, some clients wish to know that this happens because there is nothing to charge them for, not because something is wrong with the system. To make them feel comfortable and sleep well, configure
sending "No Charges Made for Your Account" (on page 120) notifications.
Sending such notification can be enabled both for anniversary and credit limit based modes of billing.
Warning of Immediate Charges in Case of
Buying Additional Resources
Both in anniversary and in credit limit based billing modes, when clients with credit cards buy additional resources, their credit cards are charged at the moment of purchase only if the resource fees exceed credit limit. In this case, the user is presented with online invoice where the amount due is stated (balance plus charge for the resource). The user is also asked to confirm/decline the purchase:
In case the user decides to decline, resources are not added.
If the resource fee is less than the credit limit, the client is to pay for this resouce at the end of the billing circle in anniversary billing mode or when the credit limit has been exceeded in the other mode.
338 Billing
If recurrent fee calculated based on target plan prices and free units is:
> < refund for the resource unused on the source plan, users switching to a new plan are: charged refunded the difference.
Example 1:
A customer is using 3 dedicated IPs one of which is over free in his plan and each billing period he pays
$2 of recurrent fee for it. In the middle of one month billing period the user swithches to a plan that charges $4 of recurrent fee for each IP over 1 free.
On a new plan the user appears to be using 2 dedicated IPs that he must pay for. The recurrent fee of $4 (= 2 IPs over free x $4 x 15 days / 30 days) to be paid for the rest of the billing period is subtracted from the refund of $0.5 (= $2 x 15 days x 50% of refund percentage/ (30 days x 100%)). As the resulting amount is negative, the user is charged the difference of $3.5 as the recurrent fee.
Example 2:
One-month billing period starts on November 1 and a user with 3 dedicated IPs on a plan allowing only 2 for free is charged $4 recurrent fee for the 3 rd
one.
Refund percentage for dedicated IP is 100%. A plan that the user swithces to on November 15 allows 1 free dedicated IP and charges $1 as recurrent fee for each one over free. Thus on a new plan the user appears to be using 2 dedicated IPs that he must pay for. The recurrent fee of $1 (= 2 IPs over free x $1 x
15 days / 30 days) to be paid for the rest of the billing period is subtracted from the refund of $2 (= $4 x 15 days x 100% / (30 days x 100%)). As the resulting amount is positive, the user is credited the difference of $1 as a refund.
Charging Accounts Whose Plans Change
In this section:
Charging End User Accounts
If changes to the billing period are not involved, changing plans does not close the current billing period.
Billing 339
Charging Reseller Accounts
The positive difference between recurrent fees for reseller account resources calculated using target plan prices and refunds for these resources unused on the source plan is charged off resellers when they change their account's plan. The negative difference is refunded.
For example,
Reseller prepays $4 for any reseller account services. On the 15 th
day of 1 month billing period he switches to a plan providing this service for free. Reseller then is refunded $2 recurrent fee prorated to the period remaining to the current billing period closure.
No refunds are issued for recurrent fees prepaid for resources distributed with end user accounts. If needed, you should prorate the refund and credit the reseller account.
For example,
Reseller prepays $8 for maintenance of his end user domain. On the 15 th
day of 1 month billing period he switches to a plan providing it for free. The reseller isn't automatically issued any refunds for this recurrent fee.
If free resources distributed with end user accounts on the target plan are paid, reseller won't be charged recurrent fees for them until a new billing period opens for reseller's end user account. If needed, you should prorate the recurrent fee based on target plan prices to the period remaining to the end user current billing period closure and debit the reseller account.
For example,
On the 15 th
day of 1 month billing period reseller switches from a plan providing free maintenance of end user domains to a plan providing no free maintenance of end user domains. Reseller isn't charged recurrent fees for maintenance of existing end user domains until a new billing period opens for reseller's end user account.
C H A P T E R 1 7
Dedicated Servers
Dedicated servers feature automates your leasing entire servers with full control over the server to first-hand and reseller end users.
Parallels H-Sphere performs complex billing procedures for dedicated hosting.
However, it is not designed for physical administration of dedicated servers. Before adding a server to the system, prepare it according to your clients' preference: provide hardware, install operating system and software to ensure their web presence. If you apply any changes to dedicated servers via the interface, you have to effect them manually on the physical level. This means that if, for instance, extra IPs are added via the interface, the same physical actions have to be done. Or if a dedicated server was withheld from an account, you also need to block access to the server for the client who had been owing it and manually clean up the server to prepare it for future use.
In this chapter:
Adding MRTG Logical Servers and Network Switches ...................................... 341
Creating/Managing Dedicated Server Templates .............................................. 344
Dedicated Servers 341
Enabling Dedicated Servers in Globals
To be able to lease dedicated servers via Parallels H-Sphere, first of all you need to make sure that they are enabled in globals. In all Parallels H-Sphere installations dedicated servers are disabled by default.
To enable dedicated servers in Globals:
1. Go Info -> Globals .
2. Include the needed resources in the
Dedicated Servers
section:
3. Press
Submit Query
.
This enables the
Dedicated Servers
menu, as well as the
Dedicated Server plan wizard
on the
Plan creation wizards
page.
Adding MRTG Logical Servers and
Network Switches
Network switches are used in Parallels H-Sphere to monitor the traffic load on dedicated servers and provide data to calculate bandwidth charges. They send traffic data to MRTG (http://oss.oetiker.ch/mrtg/) (The Multi Router Traffic Grapher) logical
servers that display bandwidth (on page 359) graphs. The Round Robin Database Tool
is used to store data on each network switch port in a separate RRD.
In this section:
342 Dedicated Servers
Adding MRTG Logical Servers
Add MRTG service when installing Parallels H-Sphere. If you haven't done it with the installation , you need to add this service later. For the instructions, refer to System
Administrator Guide. This procedure will result in installing the hsphere-mrtg-rrd system package on a target Parallels H-Sphere box, and MRTG logical server will appear in the Parallels H- Sphere interface (in the E. Manager -> L. Servers menu). If you plan that your resellers lease their own dedicated servers, besides the ones that belong to you, and that servers' traffic data is displayed properly to their end users, make sure to add
a Service IP (on page 45) to this server.
Adding Network Switches
Make sure switch is connected to network, prior to adding it via the interface. Parallels
H-Sphere will operate with network interfaces (not physical network switches polled by
MRTG servers) to collect statistics from all used ports: which ports are used by which particular dedicated servers.
To add a network switch:
1. Go to
Dedicated Servers
->
Network switches
2. On the
Managing Network Switches
page click
Add new switch
:
Fill in the following data:
Device (IP or host name): network switch IP or host name.
Community Name: enter the community name which was physically assigned to it.
If other than 'public', it's displayed as ****. You can see this info only when editing the switch data.
Switch Description: field for additional info.
Web URL:
implemented to let you access the switch from the interface by clicking the URL icon on the Managing Nework Switches page.
Mrtg logical server:
choose from available logical servers.
Dedicated Servers 343
3. Click
Submit
. The newly-added switch should appear on the
Managing
Nework Switches
page:
On this page, you can edit your switches data (click
Edit
in the
Controls
column).
Only unused switches can be deleted. Click numbers in the Ports In Use column to see dedicated servers connected to switches.
When you add dedicated server (on page 351) to the system, choose the network
switch and its port assigned to the server. If you've done everything correctly, users of dedicated servers should be able to view traffic graphs from their control panels.
Viewing MRTG Server Info
To view your MRTG logical server info, use E.Manager
-> L. Servers menu. After you choose its name, a page similar to this appears:
344 Dedicated Servers
Here you can see how many switches send data to this MRTG server, both the ones that belong to you and to your resellers.
Creating/Managing Dedicated Server
Templates
Before adding dedicated servers to the system, you have to create dedicated server templates. They simplify managing and billing servers of the same type. When creating
a dedicated server plan (on page 346), you can choose server template(s) for it. This
way you can create, for instance, Windows, Linux, FreeBSD etc. dedicated server plans. Custom-bult servers, on the other hand, are added to Parallels H-Sphere in one step and assigned to users directly (not distributed via plans). That is why you need to determine setup and monthly fee when creating a non-templated server.
To add a template:
1. Go to
Dedicated Servers
->
Manage Templates
2. Click Add server template .
3. Fill in the form you will be taken to and click
Submit
You can allow this template in plans right away or later using the
Manage Templates menu. When you add a dedicated server template, it appears in the dedicated server templates list (the
Manage Templates
menu). Check boxes near templates which you are going to use in plans:
Dedicated Servers 345
To edit a template , click the
Edit
icon in the template entry (the
Manage Templates menu).
* You can't edit a template if at least one server added from that template was taken by a user.
To remove a template, click the Trashcan icon in the template entry.
* You can't remove a template if at least one server was added from that template.
To be able to use a template in plans , check the box in the template entry. Such
templates will show in Dedicated Server Plan Edit Wizard (on page 346).
In this section:
Custom-built Dedicated Servers
If enabled in Globals, clients can request custom-built dedicated servers by simply clicking a link. When they do so, a trouble ticket is generated:
When you receive such requests, add non-templated servers (on page 351) and assign
them to users by changing server's status (on page 353) to
In use
.
346 Dedicated Servers
Dedicated Server Plans
In this section we describe features specific to dedicated server plans. If any additional info on plans in Parallels H-Sphere is needed, please refer to Plans section of the
Administrative Guide. Note that in our case there is only 1 month billing period (on page
After a plan has been created, don't forget to enable signup access for it using the
On/Off icon on the Plans (on page 264) page.
In this section:
User Plans
To create a dedicated server plan:
1. Launch plan edit wizard using
Plans
->
Create
menu and choose
Dedicated
Server Plan Wizard
.
2. On the first step of the wizard, include the necessary resources:
Backup resource
provides users with a possibility to request regular backups (on
page 362) for their dedicated servers.
DNS PTR-records resource allows users to create reverse DNS records (on page
355) for IPs used on thier servers.
Choose Bandwidth Billing Type (on page 359).
Dedicated Servers 347
Note: Think twice choosing the type as you won't be able to change it later, when there are customers under this plan.
3. Choose dedicated servers templates to be available in the plan and define their prices:
4. On the step 2 of the wizard, define fees for dedicated server related resources, and set free units:
Dedicated Server IP Range:
set number of IPs to acquire for free, and monthly fee per one IP.
Backup:
set fees for clients' regular backups (on page 362). Set monthly fee per a
planned backup task and extra fee per a custom one.
Set quotas:
Summary traffic:
traffic to/from client server(s) via the provider's mail system.
DS Bandwidth:
all incoming/outgoing traffic for client server(s) excluding the above summary traffic.
5. Step 3 of the wizard is the same as for regular plans.
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User's Choosing a Server at Signup
When user signs up to a dedicated server plan, he can pick up one dedicated server from templates which you enabled in the plan:
By clicking compare / view details
, user can compare parameters of available servers as well as their prices:
When user who chose a dedicated server at signup first enters his account, he finds that server in his cp and can use it. After the signup, you can notice this server status automatically changed from
Available
to
In use
.
Also user can choose to sign up without a dedicated server. In his cp, he can always add a templated server or send a request for a custom-built server. In this case you can create a non-templated server and assign it to the user's account by
changing the server status (on page 353) to
In use .
Reseller Plans
You can allow clients who sign up under such plans to resell your dedicated servers and/or sell their own dedicated servers.
To create a reseller dedicated server plan:
1. Launch plan edit wizard using
Info
->
Plan creation wizards
menu and choose
Reseller Plan Wizard
2. On the first step of the wizard, make sure to include
MRTG Servers
under
Logical Server Groups . Such servers are needed to monitor the traffic load on client dedicated servers of a reseller:
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Allow resellers to provide dedicated servers related resources, resell your servers and/or sell their own dedicated servers:
Choose Bandwidth Billing Type (on page 359) for reseler's clients who use your
dedicated servers. Include Reseller DS Bandwidth and Reseller backup resource , and define prices for them:
This is what resellers will have to pay if their clients who rent dedicated servers from you use these resources. Set monthly fee per a planned backup task and extra fee per a custom one.
3. Choose dedicated server templates available to resellers setting prices for them:
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4. On the second step of the wizard, define prices to charge reseller for:
Dedicated Server IP Range resource - each time his clients who rent your dedicated servers buy extra IPs:
DNS PTR-records resource
- each time they create records of this kind for these
IPs:
Managing Dedicated Servers
This section provides information on how you can manage dedicated servers.
In this section:
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Adding Dedicated Servers
To add templated and non-templated (custom-built) servers:
1. Go
Dedicated Servers
->
Manage Servers
and click
Add new Dedicated Server
. If there are no dedicated server templates in the form that appears, you'll be able to add only non-templated servers.
2. Click the Choose icon next to the type of server you are adding.
Adding Templated Servers
Name:
this name will be used to identify the server in the system, both by you and your users.
Main IP address:
when adding a dedicated server, you can assign only one IP to it.
Read how to add extra IPs (on page 355).
Network switch interface
- choose a network switch (on page 341) from available in
the system and its port assigned to the server.
Remote reboot url - url for online rebooting (reserved for future implementation).
Internal server ID
- "secret" name you give to the server; it will be known only to you.
Superuser login Superuser password
- superuser login and password that will be provided to a customer. This information is needed for you to support this server.
Adding Non-templated Servers
Enter the same parameters as for templated servers and define setup and monthly fee.
When you've added a server, it becomes available which means it can be assigned (on
page 353) to users under dedicated server plans. Templated servers can also be
picked up by users from their control panels.
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Editing Dedicated Servers
Regardless of dedicated server status, you can edit the following settings using the
Dedicated Servers
->
Manage Servers
menu. Don't forget to change the edited parameters physically. After you edit a taken server, make sure to inform its owner about the new server parameters.
Dedicated Servers 353
Deleting Dedicated Servers
Only dedicated servers of Disabled and Clean up
status (on page 353) can be deleted
from the system.
Dedicated Server Status
Dedicated servers in the system may be successively assigned the five states that are seen under
Status
on the
Manage Servers
page:
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To change server status, go
Dedicated Servers
->
Manage Servers
and click the
Change status
control against the server. Make the necessary changes and click
Submit
.
When setting
In use
and
On hold
, you will be taken to search accounts by dedicated
server (on page 399) form. Find the account to assign the server to and click
Select
in its entry:
After you've assigned a server, the user will receive an email message with login, password, URL and IP of the server. Both In use and On hold indicate that the dedicated server belongs to account (is taken) and is billed.
There is a set sequence of changing dedicated server states. For instance, you can't change
In use
to
Available
in one click. First you need to Clean up the server as an intermediate step.
Available -> In use is set automatically for dedicated server picked up at signup after the account it belongs to has been moderated. Set it manually for non-templated servers. Before assigning a templated server to an account, make sure that its template is enabled in the plan the account is created under. This is necessary if you want this server to be billed properly.
Available -> Oh hold is set manually if you want to reserve a server.
Available -> Disabled is set manually if you want the server to be unavailable to users and still remain in the system.
On hold -> In use
is set automatically when account the server belongs to gets resumed. Set it manually if you want to pass a reserved server to a user.
On hold -> Clean up is set manually if you need to clean a used server, for instance, when upgrading the server.
In use -> On hold is set automatically for dedicated servers if the account they belong to becomes suspended. If user requestes upgrade for his server, keep on hold
(assign this status manually) both the upgraded server and the new one until the latter is ready for use.
In use -> Clean up
is set manually when user wants to cancel the server.
Clean up -> Available
is set manually after you've cleaned up the server and it is ready to be used again.
Clean up -> Disabled
is set manually if you want the server to be unavailable to users and still remain in the system.
Disabled -> Available
is set manually.
Dedicated Servers 355
Important:
1. Parallels H-Sphere won't block access to dedicated servers after it cancels them or after you unassign them. Do it manually if you don't want your clients to use them anymore. The same relates to servers that go
On hold
after the system suspends accounts they belong to.
2. Change dedicated server status with caution. Don't practise on taken servers, even for a short time. If you make a taken server available, this can cause disclosure of private information and even its loss. If you assign a server to an account, the latter will be charged a non-refundable setup fee.
Assigning Additional IP Ranges
When a client signs up to a dedicated server plan, he receives a server with only one IP address. If allowed by the plan, he can always request additional IPs from his control panel. Clients' requests for additional IPs are received by the trouble ticket system.
IP ranges can be assigned only to dedicated servers which are
In use
. To assign/unassign IP ranges, perform the following steps:
1. Set Prices for Extra IPs in Plans
Set prices for Dedicated Server IP Range resource in your dedicated server plans. Allow number of free IPs and set monthly fee per one IP.
2. Add IP Subnet
1. Go
Dedicated Servers
->
IP Pool
. The page similar to this appears:
2. Click
Add new IP subnet
, enter subnet data and click
Submit
:
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Start IP
- the IP next to the subnet broadcast address
End IP - the IP preceding the subnet gateway address
Network mask
- a 32-bit number (e.g. 255.255.255.0) or a slash standard number
(e.g. 24).
Parallels H-Sphere will define for you the IP range available for assignment setting the first IP in the subnet as the Gateway address , the last IP - the Broadcast address . If a case, it also defines unusable IPs which don't fit the mask. Click
Submit
:
The newly added IP subnet appears on the Dedicated servers IP pool page (see above).
3. Split IP Subnet to Smaller IP Ranges
1. Go
Dedicated Servers
->
IP Pool
and click the
Edit
icon opposite the needed range:
2. Click the
Split
icon on the
Defined IP ranges
page:
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3. Enter the last IP in future range, depending on the number of IPs requested by user (10 in our case). Click submit:
You come back to the Defined IP ranges page where you can further split the ranges by clicking red arrows (the Split icon). You can also merge the corresponding ranges by clicking green arrows (the Merge icon):
4. Create PTR zone for Reverse DNS Records
PTR zone is needed to store future reverse DNS records
(http://www.simpledns.com/help/index.html?df_reverse.htm) users will create for their
IPs.
To create PTR zone, go Dedicated Servers -> IP Pool and click the Edit icon opposite the needed subnet and then click
Create PTR DNS zone
:
Now it should appear on this IP subnet page:
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This will allow owner of dedicated server to which IP range from this subnet will be assigned to create PTR record for each IP from this range.
Important: Setting up reverse DNS records is implemented only for class C network
IPs.
5. Assign IP Range to Dedicated Server
From the IP Pool page
1. Go
Dedicated Servers
->
IP Pool
. Click
Edit
against the needed IP subnet.
On the page that appears click Assign opposite to the IP range to be assigned:
2. On the Quick Search page choose the server to assign the range to:
3. Add your comment on the IPs usage and click
Submit
:
4. After that, the IPs are added to the server, and the IP range appears in the
Defined IP ranges
section as
Assigned
:
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Click
Assigned
to edit the dedicated server of the newly assigned range. By clicking the
Lens
icon, you can see the server info and the comment you've just added:
From the Manage Servers page
1. Go
Dedicated Servers
->
Manage Servers
and click
Edit
for the server to add
IPs to:
2. On the
Dedicated Server
page click
Assign IP
in the section:
Select an IP subnet. A page similar to the following appears with IP ranges available for assignment. Choose one of them:
3. Repeat steps 3 and 4 above.
6. Unassign IP Range
1. Go
Dedicated Servers
->
Manage Servers
and click
Edit
for the server to remove IPs from
On the Dedicated Server page click Assign IP in the section:
Important: When assigning/unassigning IP ranges from the control panel, don't forget to effect these changes on the physical level.
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Billing Dedicated Servers
Dedicated servers' billing is implemented within the unified Parallels H-Sphere billing scheme. Similarly to all other resources, dedicated servers are sold by means of plans in which you can choose resources to be available to clients and determine their prices.
The exception is custom-built servers (on page 344) which are assigned directly to
clients who ordered them.
In this section:
Dedicated Servers 361
Bandwidth Billing Types
By bandwidth we mean both the amount of data that can be transmitted in a fixed amount of time (measured in megabits per second) and the traffic - the amount of data transferred to/from the server for the given billing period (measured in gigabytes).
Dedicated server plan wizard (on page 346) allows you to choose between two basic
approaches to bandwidth calculation:
Average is calculated as the sum of all samples for a period devided on the number of the samples;
95 th percentile
which is basically the upper-range value resulting from sorting all samples for a time period, and then truncating (dropping out) the 5-percent maximums. A customer may want using this type of billing if only his dedicated server traffic is quite even (flat).
According to http://webdesign.about.com/od/colocation/a/aa012405.htm
, "small servers with low bandwidth usage will typically use the average bandwidth billing while larger servers tend to use the 95 th
percentile.
The average bandwidth billing is quite simple to determine. The total amount of traffic inbound and outbound over the billing period is added up and then billed to the customer. This means that if the net link to a collocation server transfers 20GB of data, this is what the customer will be charged at. This is very simple and straightforward that most customers don't have a problem with this. The important thing to know is it looks at total data traffic to and from the server.
The
95 th percentile
calculation is a bit hard formula to explain. The easiest way to explain it is to give an example of how the calculation might be computed after a bit of explanation.
In order to determine the amount of data transferred to a server, the provider will monitor the network port that a server is attached to. Every 3 to 5 minutes, they will get a reading for the data transfer rate recorded over that time period. These are then stored in a database. At the end of the billing period, the database is queried for the entry that is the 95 th
percentile in overall size. This number is then put into the formula, i.e:
(95 th Percentile rate) x (billing period length) = Bandwidth usage
Now, this in general will benefit most individuals since most network connections are idle for the majority of the time they are idle. However, if a site has a high sustained data transfer rate that is used for more than 5% of the time the link is up, it can be very expensive. Let's look at two examples using a shorter time span of 1 day to make it simple.
Example 1: Over a 30 day period, a webserver gets about 30GB of traffic. For 28 of these days, the traffic consists of only 0.5GB/day. The last two days has
8GB/day of traffic. In this case of bursting traffic, the 95 th
percentile would be around 0.5GB/day. Using the 95 th
percentile calculation, the bandwidth charge would be: (0.5GB/day) * (30days) = 15GB
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Example 2: Over a 30 day period, a webserver gets about 30GB of total traffic. For
20 of these 30 days, there is only a small amount of traffic that doesn't add up at a single GB. The remaining 10 days sees traffic of 3GB/day.
The 95ht percentile in this case would be 3GB. Using the 95 th
percentile calculation, the bandwidth charge would be: (3GB/day) * (30days) =
90GB
As you can see, the consistent traffic with several days of busting traffic in the first example actually is more beneficial to the customer compared to the second example with its traffic that bursted for more than 5% of the time. The majority of servers on the
Internet are going to be similar to Example 1 and not Example 2".
Bandwidth Billing Types Options
For each of the above schemes, you can choose either to calculate only outgoing or incoming traffic as well. There are two measure unit types: mbps (megabits per second) and GB.
To summarize, there are the following bandwidth billing types options:
Bandwidth, 95 th
percentile (in + out), mbps;
Bandwidth, Average (in + out), mbps;
Bandwidth, 95 th
percentile (in + out), GB;
Bandwidth, Average (in + out), GB;
Bandwidth, 95 th
percentile (out), mbps;
Bandwidth, Average (out), mbps;
Bandwidth, 95 th
percentile (out), GB;
Bandwidth, Average (out), GB.
Dedicated Servers' Maintenance
Dedicated hosting is usually accompanied by a range of managed services, such as system administration, firewalls, backups, remote reboots etc. Parallels H-Sphere facilitates providing some of such services. The backup scheduling manager receives backup requests from client control panels and is ready to display them to you in a convenient manner. Attending to other user requests, such as remote reboots, adding extra IPs and server upgrades, is assisted by the trouble ticket system.
If you want your clients to be able to send requests for remote reboot and backup of
their servers, make sure to enable these resources in globals (on page 341).
In this section:
Dedicated Servers 363
Regular Backups
Parallels H-Sphere implements backup scheduling manager for client dedicated servers.
To check backup schedule, go to Backup Maintenance in the Dedicated servers menu. After you choose search criteria, a page similar to this appears:
After a user has filled out regular backup request form, his record appears in this form.
When you perform the backup manually, click the ( Mark as complete ) icon, and the user will be notified that this task has been completed.
If you wish to cancel the user's backup request, click ( Cancel the task ) icon, and the user will be notified that this task has been cancelled.
Maintenance Requests
Besides regular backups, clients can request the following services from their interface:
server upgrade
extra IPs
remote reboot
server cancellation (other than automatic)
Such requests are received by the trouble ticket system:
364 Dedicated Servers
Add you comments to confirm or reject providing such services, or to specify the necessary details:
When you open ticket thread, you can see the server name and id by which to easily find it on the
Manage Servers
page.
Automatic Cancellation Settings
Automatic cancellation of a dedicated server can be set both by you and by the client who has been using it. While the client can schedule cancellation only for the end of the billing period, you are empowered to perform the following:
appoint any date for automatic cancellation
Go Dedicated Servers -> Manage Servers and click Edit for the server you'd like to cancel and then click in the
Status
field. Set cancellation date:
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Now, on the
Manage Servers
page, you will see this server having specific sign to show you the cancellation date:
If the server is due to be automatically canceled within the billing period, refunds will
be issued according to your refund formulars (on page 328).
update cancellation settings
You can update both your own and your user's cancellation settings. To discard cancellation, click choose the new date.
and confirm your intention. To reschdedule, click and
enable sending cancellation warnings
To enable sending e-mail notifications about automatic server cancellation, go
Dedicated Servers
>
Cancellation Settings
. On the
Dedicated Server Cancellation Settings page check the smaller box and in the bigger box, type the number of days in advance to warn your customers:
Read how to edit e-mail notifications (on page 115).
C H A P T E R 1 8
Resellers
Resellers in Parallels H-Sphere have virtually independent hosting systems to resell hosting resources and services. Resellers can't have resellers of their own.
This document explains the main aspects of resellers in Parallels H-Sphere.
Plans
Unlike in other control panels, resellers in Parallels H-Sphere don't resell your plans .
Rather, they sell your hosting resources such as disk space, traffic, mailboxes, etc. at retail prices, and are charged for them at wholesale prices. In other words, you set wholesale prices and allow your resellers to group your resources into their own plans and define their own retail prices for them. Resellers aren't charged for any resource until their end-users come and buy them at retail price. This makes resellers full-featured hosting providers with complete freedom in developing their own sales policies and creating hosting plans that are totally different from yours by prices and combination of resources.
Dual Nature of Resellers
A reseller in Parallels H-Sphere has a dual nature, which is incorporated in two control panels and, respectively, two Parallels H-Sphere accounts. On the one hand, a reseller is a user to the system and has a reseller account holding reseller's contact info, billing info, and online invoices. On the other hand, as administrator to their customers and distributor of hosting services, a reseller has a reseller administrative account, which is created from inside the reseller account. Reseller
Admin CP is created automatically when reseller signs up for a plan. It doesn't show up in search results which prevents this account from unintentional deletion.
Private Label
With the reseller administrator CP, each reseller gets a private label hosting system, which makes admin completely invisible to the end customer including at signup and domain registration. Resellers can have their own independent control panel URL, DNS server names, host names for mail, web, sql, and other servers, company information, and all other properties that make them look as totally independent hosting companies.
Furthermore, reseller control panels are inaccessible by IP, which excludes the possibility of accidental or intentional visits to your control panel.
Resellers 367
Look and Feel and Regional Settings
With their admin control panels, resellers can customize the default look and feel of their users' control panels. They can change colors, replace all control panel images with those of their own, edit many texts, change the default control panel language and the currency of end user payments, enable and disable skins, set default skins for new accounts, etc.
With their reseller control panels, resellers can change the skin and language of their reseller control panels only.
Merchant Gateways
Resellers are independent in configuring credit card processors and web payment systems. To accept credit cards, resellers must register their own accounts at the credit card processing centers and configure their merchant gateways, just like it is done by master admin.
Domain Registration
For resellers to offer domain registration services, master admin needs to set up a connection with a supported domain registration provider and set wholesale domain registration prices for supported TLDs in the reseller plan. Resellers can't create their own registrar connections. They can only set retail domain registration prices for the
TLDs configured by master admin.
Providing Support
Resellers in Parallels H-Sphere have their own independent support centers.
Ticket Center.
Each reseller has a fully-featured ticket center to answer trouble tickets from end customers. The administrator receives only internal system error notifications that are related to the server configuration. If necessary, the administrator can provide
support to resellers' end users (on page 394).
Knowledge Base.
Knowledge bases owned by resellers are separate from those owned by master admin.
Control Panel
Resellers acquire almost all administrative features offered by Parallels H-Sphere, except Logical/Physical Server management and related reports, Miva and Urchin
License Management, creating sub-resellers, and viewing summary info for the whole hosting system.
368 Resellers
Web, Mail, and SQL Resources
Resellers don't have web, mail, and SQL resources. Both reseller and reseller admin accounts are only logical entities of the control panel and DNS, and don't have corresponding accounts on web, mail, or SQL servers. To set up a website, a mailbox, or a database, a reseller Starting from Parallels H-Sphere 3.0 reseller administrative
CP is created authomatically when reseller sign's up for a plan. It doesn't show up in search results which prevents this account from inententional deletion. Reseller now won't be able to login to his resller administrative account from the login page and will have to first login to his top reseller account.
Servers
Resellers' customers are automatically distributed across web, mail, and SQL servers, and their home directories are created next to the directories of admin's direct end
users. If necessary, resellers can be placed on separate boxes (on page 390).
SSL
CP SSL.
Parallels H-Sphere offers SSL protection for reseller control panels based on service IPs or ports.
Shared SSL.
Resellers can install wildcard ssl certificates to protect their customers' websites running on third level domains.
Inherited SSL.
Resellers can offer SSL protection using admin's wildcard certificates.
Billing
Every time the system creates a billing log entry for a reseller's customer, it also creates a shadow billing log entry for the reseller. The two entries show two different amounts, because they use retail and wholesale prices respectively. When reseller's customers acquire resources over free quotas allocated to the reseller, the reseller is charged the wholesale amount. When reseller's customers are refunded, the corresponding wholesale refund amount is credited to the reseller's account.
At the end of each day, the wholesale charges are summarized by type, and a separate bill is created for each type of resources. As the result, resellers don't see these
charges until the next day. More on billing resellers (on page 379).
Markup plans
Markup plans are plans with pre-defined set of resources created based on other hosting plans to be resold by resellers or main host administrator. Billing for markup plans works the same way as for other plans. If a markup plan is resold by reseller, fees are
collected from reseller as described in Billing Resellers (on page 379).
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To create a markup plan, see Creating and Editing Plans (on page 348).
In this chapter:
370 Resellers
Reseller DNS
This document explains what you need to do in the administrator control panel before you can start creating reseller plans and reseller accounts.
Step 1. Adding Reseller CP Alias Template
Note: Properly configured admin control panels would already have a reseller cp alias template created during Parallels H-Sphere installation or post-install configuration. If you find out that you have a reseller cp alias template added, simply proceed to the next section of this document.
Reseller CP Alias Template is used to generate
Reseller CP Aliases
, temporary addresses that are used to access reseller control panels until they are changed to resellers' own URLs. Reseller CP Alias Template is one for all resellers.
To create the Reseller CP Alias Template:
1. Select
DNS Manager
in the
E.Manager
menu:
2. Click the
Edit
icon next to the DNS zone:
3. On the page that appears, click
Add reseller cp alias
:
Resellers 371
4. Enter a new prefix, for instance w.
This prefix will help you distinguish which DNS zone will service the temporary reseller cp alias when you proceed to creating reseller plans.
Note: There is no need to create more than one reseller cp alias template in this DNS zone.
Step 2. Configuring Reseller DNS Servers
Resellers can use their own names for your logical servers, which improves the transparency of your hosting company.
To enable this possibility for resellers, you need to allocate several additional IPs:
1. Select L.Servers in the E.Manager menu.
2. Click on your ns1 server.
3. On the page that opens, add a range of IPs. As the type of IP, select
DNS Reseller IP. Shared IP tag field is usually left empty. Ideally, the number of IP's should correspond to the number of resellers.
4. Repeat the previous step for all other name servers. Make sur e to add a different set of IP addresses to each of your logical DNS servers, even if they are on the same box. The number of IP's must be the same for each logical DNS server. For example, if you have two DNS servers, ns1.provider.com, and ns2.provider.com, you need to add, say 10 DNS
Reseller IPs to ns1.provider.com and another 10 DNS Reseller IPs to ns2.provider.com. One common mistake is to add reseller DNS IPs to the CP logical server. In this case you will get the following message:
The dns record "*.zxcv.web-hosting-service.com" already exists. You can use a duplicate DNS record name only for MX records.
If you get this message, delete the range of IPs you have added and then add it again to the DNS logical server.
372 Resellers
5. Enable dedicated IPs for Reseller DNS servers by checking a box in
Globals
.
Reseller DNS server IPs are treated as free. If you want to charge your resellers for using them, please include their cost into reseller account maintenance recurrent fee.
If your DNS servers run out of available IPs, the system will return the following message: no Reseller DNS IP is available for host ...
In this case, you need to add several more DNS Reseller IPs to each of your DNS servers.
Now that you have performed the above two steps, you can proceed to creating reseller plans. After that you'll be able to sign up reseller accounts using the
SIGNUP
utility in your admin control panel, and the newly created resellers will be able to enter and configure their accounts according to the Getting Started section of the reseller guide.
Creating And Editing Reseller Plans
To create reseller plan:
1. Launch reseller plan creation wizard (on page 348)
2. Fill in the wizard forms (see below)
3. Follow-up (optional)
- Grant access to the newly created plan (on page 263)
- Enable/disable the newly created plan for signup
- Create actual billing periods (on page 311)
- Edit the newly created plan (see below)
Plan creation wizard forms are arranged into the following steps:
Step 1. Configuring The Plan
Plan name
: give a name to this plan. Later you can change this name on the
Settings page,
Manage
, the
Plans
menu.
Hosting Platform
: hosting platforms available for all users under this plan are enabled by default.
Note: unchecking any of hosting platforms will not just disable them for all users under this plan, but also will disable all relevant server groups to be available at signup.
Allow server groups
: groups of logical servers enabled for the entire system for users after signup.
Note that unchecking either win server or web server group will disable the corresponding hosting platform for all users under this plan.
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Global Resources
: resources that are included into Parallels H-Sphere but may not be offered by the administrator. They can be disabled for all users under this plan by unchecking the box next to the resource.
Dedicated Servers
: allow Dedicated Servers hosting and its features including custom built dedicated servers, remote reboot, and backup.
Note: platforms, logical servers, global resources, and dedicated servers are enabled in Reseller Plans by default. Unchecking either of them will disable them for all resellers under this plan and their end users as well.
Reseller CP SSL
: enable securing reseller complete control panel with IP-based or port-based SSL or disable it for all accounts under this reseller plan.
Note that if the reseller CP SSL is disabled in the
Global Resources
menu, it will appear entirely disabled in the Plan Wizard. More about Reseller CP SSL. (on page
IPs Of Reseller DNS Servers
: choose whether resellers on this plan will host their DNS server aliases on a shared IP (Service IP) or will be able to use dedicated IPs for this purpose. In latter case you'll have to add a pool of free DNS IPs for resellers on
your DNS logical servers. More about Reseller DNS IPs. (on page 370)
E-mail Invoice Notification
: set the system to send e-mail invoices to resellers registered under the plan.
- e-mail invoices are sent to the e-mail address that reseller provides in his billing info or contact info (in the absence of the first);
- the default can be overridden by individual reseller settings;
- toggling the option doesn't affect settings of the existing resellers.
Leave registrar prices as they are : checking this box will fix prices for domain registration for all account under this plan that are set in the Domain registrar of the
Settings menu and omit Step Prices for Registrar of plan wizard.
Leave domain transfer prices as they are : check the box if you want to charge resellers the default fees for registering domain names by his end-customers. This will omit
Step Domain Transfer Prices of plan wizard.
Leave SSL Certificate and Logo prices as they are : checking this box will leave prices for
SSL Certificates and TrustLogos as set in the ComodoSSL of the Settings menu and omit Step
Define Terms/Prices
of plan wizard.
Credit Limit: the amount of negative balance you allow your resellers to run into
before they are charged. More about Credit Limit (on page 308).
Control panel alias: alias template (mask) used to generate URL at which reseller and his users will be able to log into the control panel until the reseller changes it to his own control panel URL.
* In case the Control panel alias field is blank, check if you have created Control
panel alias template (on page 370) in your DNS zone.
Reseller Account, Reseller Traffic, Summary Disk Usage:
set prices and free units for
default 1 month billing period or base prices to calculate fees (on page 379)
collected from resellers for services provided with reseller account if they are not specified for the actual billing period on the fourth or any subsequent steps of reseller plan edit wizard.
Important: If you have changed Reseller Traffic or Summary disk usage values while editing reseller plan, make sure not to check Do not change resource prices , otherwise the wizard won't remember the changes.
374 Resellers
Setting Custom Prices for Registrar
Set custom fees to charge resellers for domains registered with Enom or OpenSRS by their end users. To get to this page, make sure to uncheck the
'Leave registrar prices as they are'
box while configuring plan wizard.
The custom fees you enter override the default domain registration fees set in the
Domain Registration Manager (on page 147). If you don't enter a price, a
corresponding default price will be used in its place.
Important: To allow your resellers to sell your domain registration services, make sure to set default domain registration prices in the Domain Registration Manager (on page
147). Otherwise, resellers under this plan won't be able to offer domain registration to
their end users.
Setting Custom Domain Transfer Prices
Set custom fees to charge resellers for domain transfer performed by their end users.
To get to this page, make sure to uncheck the
'Leave domain transfer prices as they are'
box while configuring plan wizard. The custom fees you enter override the default domain transfer fees. If you don't enter a price, a corresponding default price will be used in its place.
Resellers 375
Setting Custom SSL Certificate and Logo Prices
Starting with Parallels H-Sphere 3.0, prices for various types of certificates and trustlogo & cardpayment logo, when bundled with that certificate, can be customized in the plans, provided you didn't check the
Leave SSL Certificate and Logo prices as they are box while configuring plan Wizard.
The price for logos is dynamically updated based on the certificate selected in the select box. If you specify the price 0 for the logo, the logo will be available for a user, but the user will not be charged for it. But if you specify no price for the logo, a user will not be able to check this logo, and the price for the logo will be displayed as NA.
Step 2
Set prices to calculate fees collected from resellers for hosting services they distribute
with user accounts (on page 274) over free quotas set herein.
Price Parameters
Parameter Meaning Example Entering 0 (zero) Leaving Empty
376 Resellers
Free
Units of each resource resellers can offer to their customers without being charged. Free units make sense only for pay resources.
If you set 10 Free units for Mailboxes, each reseller will get
10 mailboxes to be spread among all his customers. If he runs out of these 10 free mailboxes, reseller will be charged for each extra mailbox acquired by his end users.
Reseller gets no free units. Better leave the field empty instead.
Reseller gets no free units. If you want to set free units to unlimited, better don't set any prices for this resource.
Setup
Recurrent Monthly price to calculate recurrent fees resellers are charged ahead when their end users acquire resources over free units that resellers are allocated with.
Reseller on a plan that allows 3 free user accounts and $1 of recurrent for each user account over free, signing up the 4 th account on a 2 month billing period will be charged $2.
Resellers won't be charged any recurrent fees for resources his end users acquire over free.
Usage - - not implemented yet leave the field empty
Max
Single-time fee resellers are charged, if their end users acquire resources over free units you allocate resellers with.
Reseller on a plan with 10 free domains and $1 for domain setup, signs up the
11 th
user on a 2 month billing period.
Provided each of the reseller's first 10 users has registered one domain, the reseller will be charged $2, because the 11 th domain is registered over 10 free domains used up by existing accounts.
Reseller won't be charged for resources his end users acquire over free.
Units of this resource that can be distributed among all customers of
Reseller won't be charged for resources his end users acquire over free.
Resellers won't be charged any recurrent fees in the documentation for resources his end users acquire over free.
-
Reseller on a plan with 100 MB Max set for disk quota, won't be able to sign up more than 5 accounts under a plan allowing
Reseller won't be able to offer any units of this resource or create accounts under plans with this resource included.
Reseller will be able to offer unlimited units of this resource.
Resellers 377 one reseller.
Reseller's customers can't create resources beyond the reseller's Max.
20 MB of FTP quota for each new account.
Keep in mind that end users can increase their initial FTP quota which may leave insufficient MB to create new accounts.
Refund
The part of the prepaid recurrent fee returned to the reseller if the resource is canceled by the end customer.
You are setting prices for a 2 month billing period. Your wholesale recurrent price for a domain is
$4. You set resellers refund to 50%.
An end user signs up on 1 January. On 1
February he cancels the account, which means the February half of the recurrent fee is due back. The reseller will get in the documentation a refund of ($4 X
50%refund X 50% billing period =) $1.
Reseller won't be refunded.
Comments on Resources
Reseller will be refunded 100%.
Don't enter 100%, leave the field empty instead.
Don't get confused with setting prices for the following resources:
CP Account: Parallels H-Sphere account with a unique account ID.
Domain: any domain transferred or registered through Parallels H-Sphere under reseller.
Note : service DNS zone domain isn't counted as a payable resource.
Web Server User: an FTP user on a web or win server.
IP Address:
any dedicated IP taken by domains under reseller. Note that reseller
DNS server IPs are treated as free. If you allow resellers to host their DNS server aliases on dedicated IPs you might want to include their cost into recurrent fee for reseller account maintenance.
Summary Traffic: appears only if you choose to bill reseller for traffic allocation.
Disk Space Quota: refers to web FTP disk space only and doesn't include disk space for mail resources and DBs.
378 Resellers
To edit reseller plan:
1.
Launch reseller plan edit wizard (on page 348).
2. Fill in the wizard forms arranged into four or more steps:
Step 1 - 2 (including sub-steps): the same as in plan creation wizard.
Subsequent steps: set actual billing period prices and free units for
services provided with reseller account (on page 274) (
Reseller account
,
Reseller traffic
and
Summary Disk Usage
). If you leave the fields empty, fees for the respective services will be calculated based on prices and free units set on the first step of the reseller plan wizard.
* The number of subsequent steps depends on the number of actual
billing periods (on page 311) for this plan.
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Billing Resellers
Fees Collected From Resellers
Due to the dual nature of resellers in Parallels H-Sphere they are charged:
for services provided with reseller account
for services distributed with user accounts
Fees for services provided with reseller account
Fees for services provided with reseller account are calculated based on actual billing period prices and free units set on the fourth or any subsequent steps of reseller plan edit wizard. If prices or free units for actual billing period aren't set, corresponding base prices and free units set on the first step of reseller plan wizard are used instead. In this
case the fee is adjusted to respective discount (on page 311).
Setup fee for reseller account : single time fee charged at the moment the reseller account is created.
= Setup price for a CP account
Recurrent fee for reseller account : service fee for maintaining of reseller account during the whole billing period; charged in advance the moment reseller account is created and since then at the beginning of each billing period.
= Monthly price for a CP account
* if the base price is used, it is multiplied by billing period duration in months.
Recurrent fee for additional traffic or disk space: fee for each GB of traffic or MB of disk space that reseller reserves to distribute between his end users over free units you allocate to resellers; charged inprorated for the whole billing month in advance at the moment of purchase and since then at the beginning of each billing month.
= Monthly price for Reseller traffic or Summary Disk Usage x
units over Free quota
/ billing period duration in months
* if the base price (on page 379) is used, it's not divided by billing period duration in
months
Usage fee for exceeding traffic or disk space quotas: fee for each GB of traffic or MB of disk space consumed by reseller's end users over the quota reserved by reseller; charged at the end of each billing month
= Extra price for Reseller traffic or Summary Disk Usage x
units over
Traffic/Summary Disk Usage quota reserved by reseller
/
billing period duration in months
* if the base price is used, it's not divided by billing period duration in months
Fees for services distributed with user accounts
Resellers are charged fees for services distributed with user accounts when their customers acquire resources over free quotas allocated to resellers. The fees are calculated based on prices and free units set on the third step of reseller plan wizard.
380 Resellers
Setup fee:
single time fee for creating a unit of specific resource by reseller's end users over free units you allocate to reseller; charged the day after it is acquired.
= Setup price for specific resource
Recurrent fee:
service fee for maintaining of resource acquired by reseller's end users over free units you allocate to reseller; charged in advance for the whole end user's billing period the day after it is acquired and since then at the beginning of each end user's billing period.
= Monthly price for specific resource x end user's billing period duration in months
* Mind that if the resource is acquired in the middle of the end user's billing period, the recurrent fee is prorated to the days remaining to the closure of the end user's billing period:
= recurrent fee x days remaining to the billing period closure / billing period duration in days
Charging Resellers for Traffic
The table below explains the difference between two alternative approaches in charging resellers for traffic.
Traffic Usage
- charge resellers for the traffic that their end users have run up during a month period (either from the beginning of the billing period or from the time when the traffic limit was changed).
* the traffic run up during the last day of the month is transferred to the next month charges
Traffic Allocation
- charge resellers for traffic that their end users have requested
Configuration of Traffic Charge Billing Schemes through Plan Edit Wizard
Resellers 381
On the first step set:
Free
: GBs of traffic that you allow your reseller to provide to his end customers for month. If traffic run up during the month keeps within this amount, you don't charge reseller anything. Free makes up initial traffic quota.
Extra
: reseller payment per each GB that is run up over traffic quota*.
'Extra' is charged at the end of each month.
Monthly
: fee that reseller pays per each GB bought to increase his 'free'.
This way reseller increases his traffic quota. This is usual when reseller constantly overpays for exceeding the 'free' limit. Monthly is charged at the beginning of each month.
* traffic quota = free GBs + additional
GBs
On the first step leave all the fields referring to traffic empty.
On the second step set:
Free
: GBs of traffic for billing period a reseller can provide to all his end customers without being charged.
Setup : N/A
Recurrent
: reseller month payment per each GB reseller's end customers have requested by setting Summary Traffic limit for their accounts in excess to free you set for this reseller's plan.
Usage
: Money paid by reseller per each GB of traffic his end customers run over traffic limit they set for their accounts.
Refund
: % of recurrent fee that is refunded to the reseller for the unused GBs of booked traffic when the end user quits hosting or otherwise closes the billing period.
1. To set traffic usage scheme working, you have to log into each reseller account registered with that kind of plan and change their summary traffic limit (
Info
->
Account Settings
) to either plan's free traffic amount or zero.
If you decide on enabling traffic usage scheme for all your reseller plans,
To log in as the
cpanel
user:
1. Log in as root first:
$ su -l
2. Log in as the cpanel user:
3. # su -l cpanel and run the following command: java psoft.hsphere.converter.ResellerTrafficUpdate
Reseller Control Panel SSL
Parallels H-Sphere allows securing reseller control panels with SSL by allocating either spare IPs or open ports to the control panel server. It is available only for Apache installations of Parallels H-Sphere because it uses virtual hosts in the Apache configuration file.
382 Resellers
In one reseller plan, you can use either IP-based or Port-based reseller SSL, not both.
Although you can set different types of CP SSL protection for different reseller plans, it's highly recommended to use IP- based Reseller CP SSL in contrast to port-based .
The reason for this is that Internet is widely accessed from behind firewalls and proxy servers that don't allow using random ports.
In this section:
Enabling Reseller Control Panel SSL Protection ............................................... 383
Disabling Reseller Control Panel SSL Protection ............................................... 386
Resellers 383
Enabling Reseller Control Panel SSL Protection
Step 1: Add and register index.conf file.
1. Log into your control panel server as root.
2. Make sure you have the following line in the
/hsphere/local/home/cpanel/apache/etc/httpd.conf file: include /hsphere/local/home/cpanel/apache/conf/sites/index.conf
3. Open file ~cpanel/shiva/psoft_config/hsphere.properties
4. Make sure the following variables are there and uncommented:
Note: If you don't add these variables, Reseller CP SSL won't be working. So make sure to do it.
For IP-based SSL:
RESELLER_SSL_SEC_PORT = 8443
RESELLER_SSL_INSEC_PORT = 8080
You may need the ports changed, e.g. to 443 and 80 correspondingly.
For port-based SSL:
RESELLER_SSL_PORT_RANGE = 8440, 8444 - 8449, 8451, 8453-8468
It's a possible range of ports for port-based CP SSL to be created on. Make sure that ports are open.
5. Check if you have the sites directory in the
/hsphere/local/home/cpanel/apache/conf/ dir. If you don't, create it: mkdir /hsphere/local/home/cpanel/apache/conf/sites and make file index.conf inside it: touch /hsphere/local/home/cpanel/apache/conf/sites/index.conf
6. Restart Parallels H-Sphere
Step 2: Check
Global Resources
for Reseller CP SSL in your administrator CP.
1. Log into your admin control panel.
2. Select
Globals
in the
Plans
menu. The following page appears:
Make sure that Reseller CP SSL is checked i.e. enabled entirely for the whole system.
- If they are checked, leave as they are.
- If they are unchecked, check them and click
Submit
.
Note: be careful because unchecking the boxes will disable Reseller CP SSL entirely.
384 Resellers
Step 3: Include Reseller CP SSL in Reseller Plan Wizards
This step is most important for resellers. For the resellers to be able to secure their control panel, Reseller CP SSL needs to be included in the plan settings:
1. Select
Manage
in the
Plans
menu.
2. Click the name of the reseller plan to start the wizard.
3. On the first step of the wizard, scroll down to the
Reseller CP SSL
section and select the type of CP SSL you want to be enabled in this plan.
Note: If you select
Disabled
, reseller CP SSL will be disabled for all accounts under this plan.
4. Confirm changes in the Plan Wizard by clicking
Submit
through all steps.
Step 4: Add spare IPs to the control panel server.
Note: Port-based CP SSL uses CP IP, so skip this step if you are setting port-based
SSL .
1. Log into your admin control panel.
2. In
E.Manager
, select the cp logical server and add Reseller SSL IPs (on
Step 5: Install SSL certificate.
1. Log into reseller control panel.
Resellers 385
2. Select
DNS Manager
in the
E.Manager
menu and create a DNS Zone (on
page 87) if it has not been created before.
3. Select
Server Aliases
in the DNS zone settings.
4. Add
CP Alias
that points to the control panel logical server:
5. The CP alias name should coincide with the domain name you are going to secure.
6. Select
CP SSL Manager
in the
E.Manager
menu.
7. On the page that shows, turn on
CP Alias
to enable it in the system:
386 Resellers
On the page that appears, you have two choices:
Generate a temporary wildcard certificate by clicking the link at the top of the window;
Enter your existent wildcard certificate by entering it in the form.
8. Click the
Submit
button to install the certificate.
9. On the page that shows,
CP alias
turns on. In the
Action
section you can:
Click the
Edit
icon against the alias to edit certificate data or to enter new keys .
Click the
Change
icon to change current reseller CP URL to the secured URL you have bought SSL certificate for.
Note: Select
DNS Manager
in the
E.Manager
menu. If you have set IP-based CP SSL, cp server alias becomes an A DNS record .
Step 6: restart Parallels H-Sphere
Resellers 387
Disabling Reseller Control Panel SSL Protection
1. Go to
CP SSL Manager
in the
E.Manager menu
.
2. Turn off Reseller CP alias in the
Action
entry.
3. Go to
Server Aliases
in the
E.Manager menu
.
4. Remove server alias for the cp logical server and add it again.
Reseller Shared SSL
This document explains how to configure your hosting system so your resellers can offer their own wildcard SSL certificates or your wildcard SSL certificate.
In this section:
Sharing Your Wildcard Certificates with Resellers ............................................. 389
388 Resellers
Resellers' Own Wildcard Certificates
In order to allow a reseller set up a shared SSL certificate, you need to give this reseller a unique IP address. This can be done by means of shared IP tags. A shared IP tag is a one or two digit 'mark' that is assigned to customer accounts so accounts with different shared IP tags can be hosted on different shared IPs. In the plan settings, you or your resellers will select out of available shared IP tags, after which new accounts will be created on this new shared IP address. Existing accounts won't be affected, meaning their old IP address will remain the same.
To create a new IP with a shared IP tag:
1. Select
L.Servers
in the
E.Manager
->
Servers
menu.
2. Click the first web (or win2000) server.
3. On the page that appears, enter a new IP address and net mask, in the
Type
box select
Shared IP
, and in the
Shared IP Tag
field enter a value from
10 to 99. Click
Submit
.
4. Repeat the previous step for all web and win servers, using a different
(unique) IP addresses for each server, but the same shared IP tag.
5. Tell your reseller which shared IP tag he can use. For instance, if you have two resellers willing to install shared SSL certificates, you need to create two shared IP tags, e.g. 10 and 11. Then you tell one reseller that he can use tag 10, and the other, that he can use tag 11. It's a good idea to check each reseller's plan settings to make sure they are using correct shared IP tags.
Resellers 389
Sharing Your Wildcard Certificates with Resellers
Since a wildcard SSL certificate can secure only third level domains of one base domain (e.g. *.example.com), you need to dedicate one domain name that will be available both to your direct end users and to end users of your resellers. Normally, this would be a neutral domain name unrelated to the name of your hosting business. Even though end users will still be hosted on their resellers' domains and will use these domains for http access (http://user1.resellerdomain.com), they will also get secure access based on the domain you offer for shared reseller ssl
(https://user1.sharedresellerssldomain.com).
To enable Shared SSL for resellers:
1. Select
DNS Manager
in the
E.Manager
menu and add a DNS zone you'd like to secure for shared use:
The DNS zone must appear in the list of available DNS zones. If you are going to use this zone only to offer shared SSL, you don't need to enable third level hosting, nor add instant alias or reseller cp alias.
2. Install a shared SSL certificate on this domain zone as instructed in the
Installing Shared SSL Certificates (on page 133) manual.
3. Once you have installed the shared SSL certificate, select
Shared SSL
Manager
in the
E.Manager
menu:
390 Resellers
4. Click to enable
Share SSL with resellers
for the domain zone you have added:
5. Now your resellers can enable this shared SSL certificate for use by their end users as instructed by the Offering Provider's Shared SSL in the Reseller's guide.
Note: If you are using different shared IP tags, make sure that your resellers use the same shared IP tag as in the main administrator control panel Shared SSL settings.
Placing Resellers on Separate Boxes
This document explains how to configure your control panel so user homes under one reseller are created on a separate physical server:
Step 1.
Go to E.Manager -> Servers -> Server Groups and create new server groups for each type that will be created on this reseller's box:
Resellers 391
Usually, this would be a web server, sometimes a MySQL, PostgreSQL, or
RealMedia server. Make sure not to create separate DNS server groups. When added, server groups will show up in the numbered list.
Step 2.
Go to E.Manager
-> Servers -> P.Servers
. Click the target physical server. At the bottom of the page that appears, select a group you have created to add to this physical server:
392 Resellers and click the
Submit
button. The name of the group will appear in the
Group
field.
Repeat this procedure for each of the new server groups.
Step 3. Go to E.Manager
-> Servers -> L.Servers
and click Add Logical Server . Fill out the form that appears to add a logical server to a new server group:
Step 4.
On the Logical Server settings page, add the IPs (on page 45) that you want to
use for accounts registered on this logical server.
Step 5.
In the upper part of the same Logical Server settings page, turn on
Available for signup .
Step 6.
Repeat steps 3, 4 and 5 to add one logical server to each new server group.
Step 7.
If the reseller plan hasn't been created yet, launch the Reseller Plan Wizard (on
page 372). Otherwise, launch the Plan Editor (on page 372). In the
Allow server groups section, check the server groups you would like the reseller to use:
Resellers 393
Mind, these settings will not affect existing end user accounts. Only new accounts will be created on the designated server.
Step 8.
If the reseller account hasn't been created yet, go to Plans -> Manage and enable signup for this plan. Then go to
Signup
and create the reseller account.
Step 9. Go to Plans -> Manage and turn this reseller plan OFF for other signups.
Allocating Physical Servers to Resellers
Parallels H-Sphere introduces Allocated Servers which allow assigning *nix physical servers to resellers so their end users' homes are created on it (to allocate Windows
servers, refer to Placing Resellers on Separate Boxes (on page 390)). Physical servers
are assigned to reseller plan, so every reseller signing up for it obtains one of them. In case there are no allocated servers available for the plan, reseller signing up with it, will
be moderated (on page 452) and you will be notified of it through trouble ticket system
To allocate a physical server to a reseller:
1. Make sure it meets all of the following requirements:
physical server is assigned all of and only these
WEB, MAIL and MySQL
* if any of these server groups isn't assigned or the physical server is assigned another type of server group, E.Manager
-> Servers -> Allocated servers won't list it as an allocated server.
physical server is associated with all three logical servers (on page 38): Web,
Mail and MySQL
the logical servers assigned must not be used by any accounts
none of the associated logical servers is involved in a content move (on page
2. Go to
E.Manager
->
Servers
->
Allocated Servers
. You will be taken to the list of physical servers meeting the above requirements in the Search Results section:
394 Resellers
3. Click
Assign Server to Plan
(the
Controls
section) for the physical server you are allocating.
4. On the next page, choose the reseller plan you want to add this server to:
The allocated server's state in the Search Results table will change from Unassiged to
Available . This means the server is ready to be taken by a reseller.
5. To allow resellers to obtain an allocated server, include
Allocated physical server resource
in the reseller plan wizard (on page 372)
6.
Sign up (on page 445) a reseller for this plan, and he will automatically
get the physical server. The server's state in the
Search Results table will change from
Available
to
Taken
.
Supporting Resellers' Customers
To help your resellers answer their incoming trouble tickets:
1. Select In Resellers in the Support Center menu.
2. Select reseller account in the
Reseller
dropdown box and enter other search criteria. Click
Submit
.
3. Select the ticket you would like to answer.
4. In the
Assign To
drop-down box, select
Admin
or any other technical support staff and click
Change
.
5. Click the title of the ticket to open it and answer the question.
Resellers 395
Deleting Resellers
To delete a reseller account:
1. Enter the reseller's administrator panel.
2. From the search menu retrieve all user accounts of this reseller.
3. Delete all these accounts, one by one, except the admin account.
4. Go to the moderation section and delete all the accounts pending for moderation, if any.
5. Delete reseller's admin account.
6. Go back your admin panel and delete the reseller account.
396 Resellers
Suspending And Resuming Resellers
Suspending a reseller would immediately disable reseller's control panel URL, including
Admin control panel. Moreover, within the subsequent 24 hours all reseller's end user accounts will be suspended . Billing is also stopped for suspended resellers.
To suspend a reseller's account:
1. Enter your Admin CP.
2. Use the
Search
utility to find this resellers account.
3. Click
Suspend
for this account.
Resuming a reseller doesn't resume end users. After the reseller's account has been resumed, the reseller needs to log into the Admin CP and resume suspended customers' accounts one by one. This is done to avoid resuming accounts that were suspended for other reasons.
To resume a reseller's account:
1. Enter your Admin CP.
2. Use the
Search
utility to find this resellers account.
3. Click
Resume
for this account.
4. Log into the reseller's account.
5. Click
Fix
next to the
Login
icon.
6. Make sure that the reseller logs into the administrator control panel and resumes end users' accounts. You can also do this yourself by logging into the reseller's admin cp.
Moving Accounts Between Resellers
You can move accounts between resellers if they belong to one of the following plan types:
Unix
Windows
MySQL
Unix RealServer
Windows RealServer
Administrator
You can't move accounts that to other plans types, such as e-mail only.
Resellers 397
To move an end user account to a different reseller:
1.
Find the account (on page 399) using the
Search -> In Resellers utility.
2. Click the
Move
icon in the
Controls
column:
3. Proceed with the wizard following the instructions on screen.
You can't move a reseller's service account (on page 274) to another reseller.
Note: Even though resellers use different nameservers, you don't need to add them to the control panel.
C H A P T E R 1 9
Account Management
In this chapter you will find information on how you can manage accounts in Parallels
H-Sphere.
In this chapter:
Account Management 399
Finding User Accounts
To perform any operations with an individual account, you need to find it in the system.
You can search users and accounts:
by generic criteria
by domain name
by contact info
in resellers
among suspended
among deleted
by dedicated servers (version 2.5 and higher)
by VPS hostname (version 2.5 and higher)
Also, you can generate reports to find users and accounts:
by account balance
by estimated balance exhaustion date
by merchant gateway transactions
by invoice/balance entries
by credit card charges
by transfer traffic
by disk usage
by CC failed processing attempts
by logical and physical servers
by resellers transfer traffic
by reseller disk usage
On the reports pages, however, you can't perform most operations, so once you know the username or account ID, retrieve the account using the Search utility.
In this section:
Search by Merchant Gateway Transactions ...................................................... 405
400 Account Management
Generic Search
Use generic search to find your direct customers, not customers of your resellers.
To run generic search:
1. Click the
Search
menu.
2. Enter search criteria and click
Search
:
Account Management 401
Search by Domain Name
To find an owner of a domain name:
1. Select
By Domain
in the
Search
menu.
2. In the
Domain Name
field, enter a search string. For instance, typing music
, you retrieve all accounts with domain names containing 'music': music.funhosting, musicians.funhosting, instruments.music.funhosting, instruments.musical.funhosting, music.insturments.funhosting, musical.instruments.funhosting
Search by Contact Info
To find an account by user's Contact Info:
1. Select
By Contact Info
in the
Search
menu.
2. Enter search criteria and click
Search
.
402 Account Management
Search in Resellers
To find an account under a specific reseller:
1. Select
In Resellers
in the
Search
menu.
2. Enter search criteria and click
Search
.
Search Suspended Accounts
To find a suspended account:
1. Select
Suspended
in the
Search
menu.
2. Enter search criteria and click
Search
.
Account Management 403
404 Account Management
Search Deleted Accounts
To find a deleted account:
1. Select
Deleted
in the
Search
menu.
2. Enter search criteria and click
Search
.
Account Management 405
Search Dedicated Server Accounts
To find dedicated server accounts, go to Search -> By D. Serevers , and enter search criteria.
Search by VPS Hostname
To find VPS hostnames, go to Search -> by VPS Hostname , and enter search criteria.
You can recreate resources (../admin/recreating_resources.html) of VPS accounts from the Generic search result page.
Search by Account Balance
To find an account by current balance:
1. Select
Billing Balances
in the
Reports
menu.
2. Enter search criteria. In the
Balance
field select the minimum balance value. For instance, to list users that owe you more than $15, select
Debt
and enter 15.
3. Click
Search
.
Search by Merchant Gateway Transactions
To find accounts by de facto transactions with the processing center in a given time period:
1. Select
Charge Log
in the
Reports
menu.
2. Enter search criteria and click
Search
.
Search by Invoice/Balance Entries
To find accounts by individual debits and credits to account balance, such as fees and refunds:
1. Select
Billing Entries
in the
Reports
menu.
2. Enter search criteria and click
Search
.
406 Account Management
Search by Credit Card Charges
To find accounts by summarized debits and credits for each credit card charge:
1. Select
Monetary Transactions
in the
Reports
menu.
2. Enter search criteria and click
Search
.
Search by Transfer Traffic
To find accounts by overall traffic generated over the specified period of time:
1. Select
Transfer Traffic
in the
Reports
menu.
2. Enter search criteria and click
Search
.
Traffic readings in this report is different from the Summary Traffic in the user control panel, as it shows traffic for the period defined in the search criteria, whereas the user control panel shows traffic generated during the current billing period.
Search by Disk Usage
To find accounts by disk usage consumed by customers over a specified period of time, do the following:
1. Select
Disk Usage
in the
Reports
menu in your administrator control panel.
2. Enter search criteria and click
Search
.
Note: in the list of accounts that shows, click the
Edit
icon in the
Controls
section. On a page that appears you will be able to login into the accounts.
Search by CC Processing Errors
To find accounts with credit cards that failed to be connected or charged by credit card processing centers:
1. Select
CC Processing Errors
in the
Reports
menu in your administrator control panel.
2. Enter search criteria and click
Submit
.
Account Management
Note: to login into the accounts that show in search result, click the
Edit
icon in the
Controls section.
Search by Logical and Physical Servers
407
To find accounts by logical or physical servers and to generate a report by accounts located on these servers:
1. Select Users in the Search menu.
2. Choose search criteria and click
Search
.
Search by Reseller Traffic
This feature allows you to retrieve data on transfer traffic consumed by resellers and/or users of the reseller. This report is available only to admins. To do this:
1. Select
Reseller Traffic
in the
Reports
menu.
2. Enter search criteria and click Search .
Note: checking the " Show user details " box will show reseller's users accounts directly. Leaving this box unchecked will show resellers accounts only.
Search by Resellers Disk Usage
To find reseller accounts by the amount of disk space that resellers or reseller's users consumed over a specified period of time:
1. Select
In Resellers Disk Usage
in the
Reports
menu in your administrator control panel.
2. Enter search criteria and click
Search.
Note: checking the " Show user details " box will show reseller's users accounts directly. Leaving this box unchecked will show resellers accounts.
408 Account Management
User Details
To view details of a particular user or account:
1.
Find the account (on page 399) using the
Search
utility.
2. Click the username to view contact info and billing info.
3. Click the account ID to view account details, custom jobs and administrator notes.
4. Click the
View
icon in the
Balance
column to view balance details.
Admin Notes
Admins can make and view notes to particular user accounts. These notes will not be visible to users.
To make an administrator note for specific account:
1.
Find the account (on page 399) using the
Search
utility.
2. Click the
Account ID
to go to the account details:
You will see all information about the user: contact&billing e-mail, billing information,
FTP login, used disk quota and traffic, mail and domains information.
3. To view/post admin notes for this account, click the
Notes
link in the
Control Panel User
section.
Account Management 409
4. On the page that appears, enter a note in the text box and click the add a note
button. You will also see the notes added before.
Crediting Accounts
Credited amounts are never added to credit card balances. Parallels H-Sphere can't put money on credit cards. Instead, credited amounts are put on the account balance.
To credit a fixed amount to an account:
1.
Find the account (on page 399) using the
Search
utility.
2. Click the
Credit
icon in the
Billing
column.
3. Enter the amount:
Amount
: don't enter negative amounts; instead, debit the account (on page 410).
Description : the reason for crediting the account. It can be Check, Manual CC
Charge, Promotion and Other.
ID String : the explanation to the transaction that will show up in the invoice and the balance statement.
Comment : any comment.
410 Account Management
Debiting Accounts
When you debit a check payment user, the amount is subtracted from the account balance. When you debit a credit card payment user, the amount is first subtracted from the account balance, and when the credit limit is reached, all the negative balance is charged to the credit card. Once you have debited an account, you can't put the money back to the credit card, you can only credit the account balance or send this amount by check.
To debit an account once or periodically:
1.
Find the account (on page 399) using the
Search
utility.
2. Click the
Service+
icon in the
Billing
column next to the necessary user.
3. Fill out the selected debit option and click
Add
:
- One-time debit
- Month based debit
- Billing period based debit
Later on you can also view existing custom debits.
One-time debit
With this type of debit an account will be debited once.
Description: the title of the charge displayed in user' billing and balance statements.
Note: the comment displayed in small font in user' invoice and balance statement.
Price: debit amount.
E-mail order confirmations: email a separate billing statement for this debit.
Include taxes: apply taxes to this debit.
Account Management
Month based debit
In this case accounts will be debited every month for regular premium services.
411
Description:
the title of the charge displayed in user's billing and balance statementS.
Duration: when this period expires, debit charges are discontinued.
Frequency:
the charge cycle; leave 1 to charge the account every month.
Start: choose one of three options when to start debiting the account:
on the first day of the month, pro-rated:
account is debited on the 1 st
of each charge cycle, except for the first time. The first debit charge is conformed with the time left to the end of the charge cycle.
Example: enabled - 20 April; frequency - 2 months; price - $6
On 20 April the first debit charge will be applied. Account will be charged $4 ($3 for May + $1 for ten days of April). The next debit charge ($6) will be applied on
1 June.
on the first day of the month:
account is debited on the 1 st
of each charge cycle.
The whole debit amount is charged without being pro-rated.
Example: enabled - 20 April; frequency - 2 months; price - $6
On 20 April the first debit charge will be applied. Account will be charged $6.
Next $6 charge will occur on 1 June.
right now:
account is debited on the day you enabled it each charge cycle.
Example: enabled - 20 April; frequency - 2 months; price - $6
On 20 April the account will be debited $6. Next $6 charge will occur on 20
June, then on 20 August, and so on.
Note:
the comment displayed in small font in user' invoice and balance statement
Admin note:
this note won't be visible to the user, for administrator's use
Price
: debit amount
E-mail order confirmations:
email a separate billing statement
412 Account Management
Billing period based debit
In this case accounts will be debited at the beginning of each billing period for regular premium services.
Description:
the title of the charge displayed in user' billing and balance statement.
Note: the comment displayed in small font in user's billing and balance statement.
Admin note:
this note won't show to the user, for admin's use.
Price: debit amount.
View debits
Now you can views all debits you have added. Active debiting rules are listed at the top of the page:
You can remove debits by clicking the TRASH icon.
Account Management 413
Deleting Accounts
To delete an individual account permanently:
1.
Find the account (on page 399) using the
Search
utility.
2. Click the
Delete
icon in the
Controls
column. You will be taken to the
Remove Account Option
form:
Without billing actions : no billing implied.
Perform billing (refund/usage) without charging
: refunds (on page 328) and usage
fees (on page 311) are accrued, however account isn't charged.
Perform billing (refund/usage) with charging end balance amount (applied to CC
accounts only): refunds (on page 328) and usage fees (on page 311) are
accrued first. If the resulting balance is negative and it has reached the
account's credit limit (on page 308), it is charged off the account.
Charging end balance amount (applied to CC accounts only): any negative balance,
if it reached the account's credit limit (on page 308), is charged off the account.
Even after account is deleted, contact and billing information about this user still remains in Parallels H-Sphere database and so sometimes will appear in reports.
Warning: When deleting a reseller account, make sure to delete this reseller's customers first.
414 Account Management
Suspending and Resuming Accounts
Account suspension closes user access to their control panel, but on the contrary to
removing account (on page 413), preserves its content and configuration. Visitors to
suspended sites are redirected to the predefined
Suspended account
page in the
/hsphere/shared/skel/suspended/ directory. If you edit this page, back it up as it is overwritten with system updates .
An account suspension doesn't close billing period (on page 311). As a result:
- recurrent fees (on page 311) are not refunded (on page 328).
- user files remain on disk. This may lead to average summary disk usage (on page
289) exceed its limit and user be charged usage fees (on page 311) for exsessive MB.
Owners of suspended accounts get e-mail notifications, and can view their invoices
(../user/billing.html#onlineinvoice) and billing profiles (on page 302).
Note: owners of suspended accounts get e-mail notifications only at the e-mail specified in the "Billing info" in their user control panel.
The suspended account mail system is restricted by:
-d (sets no password changing flag)
-p (sets no pop access flag)
-w (sets no web mail access flag)
-i (sets no imap access flag)
-b (sets bounce mail flag)
-r (sets no external relay flag)
Parallels H-Sphere tracks the account suspension process to keep the history of the suspension agents (doers) and the reasons for it. According to the information collected, the resumption of suspended accounts can be performed automatically by a respective system cron, or manually by Admin or Reseller. The dependencies between the suspenders and resumers are shown in the following chart:
Resumers Suspenders
Admin Reselle r
Overlimi t Cron
Suspend
Cron
(account of a suspended reseller)
Suspend
Cron
(account in debt)
Admin
Reseller
Overlimit
Cron
Trial
Cron
MoneyBack
Request
ExemptionC ode Request
Suspend
Cron
(account of a suspende d reseller)
Suspend
Cron
(account in debt)
Trial Cron
MoneyBa ck
Request
Trtoin
(account moved from trial payment to instant)
Exemptio nCode
Approve
Exemptio nCode
Reject
Account Management 415
416 Account Management
Legend:
+ resumer can resume account
- resumer can't resume account
Parallels H-Sphere implements Auto Resuming that allows or disallows Suspend cron
(../admin/background_job_manager.html#manipulate) to resume accounts.
To allow/disallow:
1. Go to
Settings
->
Auto Resuming
2. Click the
On/Off
icon to allow/disallow:
Note: After the Parallels H-Sphere installation, Auto Resuming is enabled by default.
Upon the Parallels H-Sphere update, it is disabled.
To view the history of the suspension process:
1. Find the account using the
Search
utility
2. Click the account ID
3. Click the
Suspend History
link in the
Account Status
field
4. On the page that appears, you will see the info on suspender/resumer, the reason for suspension/resumption, and other related info.
In this section:
Suspending Accounts
To suspend any individual account:
1.
Find the account (on page 399).
2. Click the
Suspend
icon in the
Controls
column.
You can, also, configure your system to suspend debtors automatically (on page 329)
in case of trial hosting (on page 459) and exceeding resource limit (on page 279).
Account Management 417
Resuming Accounts
Resuming suspended accounts "unlocks" the Control Panel and stops redirecting site visitors to
Suspended account
page.
To resume suspended account:
1.
Find the suspended account (on page 399).
2. Click the
Resume
icon in the
Controls
column.
There are several billing cases caused by resuming account: before the billing month ends
You will be charged according to your Billing
Statement
(../user/billing.html#onlinein voice) prior to suspension. after the billing month ends
You are charged overusage fees of the previous and monthly fees
billing month
(../admin/billing_periods.ht
ml#month), for monthly resources (e.g. quota and traffic). after the biling period ends
A new billing period starts and the start billing period date is set to the current one. You are charged overusage fees (for quota and traffic) of the previous and recurrent fees (on
billing period.
Resuming expired
trial account (on page 459) will automatically suspend it again within
24 hours. To activate this account, you should pay for hosting by creating a valid billing profile (../user/billing.html#billingprofiles)
Restoring Accounts
In Parallels H-Sphere deleted accounts are not completely erased from Parallels H-
Sphere. Information about deleted accounts and their resources is stored in the deleted_account_xmls of the system database.
To restore accounts:
1. Go the
Search
menu and choose
Deleted Accounts
:
418 Account Management
You will see the list of deleted accounts.
2. Click the
Restore account
icon in front of an account to be restored. This will create a new account with a new account id
(not with the deleted account id) but of the same structure that the deleted account. Note that deleted account data does not include the account's Web/mail/database content, so you need to manually copy the content from the backup once the account is restored.
Note: Account can be restored only if exists more than 10 minutes. Parallels H-Sphere considers an account as created if it's more than 10 minutes old.
Reports
Reports help you monitor accounts in the system, find necessary accounts by specific parameters, and view details on these accounts. Most of reports can be exported and viewed as a spreadsheet on your computer. Parallels H-Sphere suggests several search methods, each serving its purposes.
To access reports, select
Reports
in the navigation menu:
In Parallels H-Sphere seven additional reports can be installed as a package (on page
437). It adds the following reports:
Account Management 419
In this section:
420 Account Management
Exporting Reports
Most of the reports (billing balances, estimated balance exhaustion date, charge log, billing entries and monetary transactions) allow saving the results in the *.txt format and exporting them to other applications.
To export necessary report results:
1. Click the
Export
link at the bottom of the results page.
2. Follow the standard download procedure using the dialog window.
Parallels H-Sphere saves report results in the *csv format that is supported by numerous spreadsheet and database programs. Commas are used as delimiter separators.
Billing Balance
The Billing Balance feature enables you to keep track of users' balances. You can customize your search by the following criteria:
Plan
: the plan under which the accounts were created.
Payment Type
: the type of payment for the services provided.
Balance :
Debt : defines users with debt.
Important: Parallels H-Sphere regards debt as negative balance exceeding credit limit.
Deposit
: defines users with positive balance.
>Value
: the balance threshold. For example, if you select Debt and set >Value to
$10, the search will retrieve only the accounts with the debt of $10 or more.
Days in Debt
: days in debt that exceeds the credit limit. If you enter 7, the search will retrieve only accounts with the debt that appeared 7 or more days ago.
Entries Per Page : set the number of matching accounts to be listed at a time on the
Search Results page.
The results of the search are organized as follows:
Account Management 421
Username : the user's login. Click it to view user's Contact Info.
Account Id : the system ID of the account. Click it to view the account properties.
Plan : the plan this account was created under.
B.Period
: the frequency of payments for hosting services of this account.
Days in Debt : days in debt over the credit limit. If you enter 7,, the search would only show the accounts with the debt that appeared 7 or more days ago. The empty cell means that the debt hasn't reached the Credit Limit yet.
Type
: the type of payment.
Balance : positive balance shows how much the user has paid in advance (usually when paying by check or canceling some resources). Negative balance shows how much the user owes you and is displayed in brackets, e.g. ($104).
Suspended : the day and the time when this accountr was suspended. All account settings are saved, but the access to these accounts is disabled. '
Active
' means the account is not suspended. More on suspending and resuming accounts (on page
You can sort search results by clicking underlined column captions.
The
Export link enables you to save the chart data in *csv format that is supported by numerous spreadsheet and database programs. Commas are used as delimiter separators.
422 Account Management
Estimated balance exhaustion date
From time to time you might need to inform your check users about when their account balances are likely to become negative. In other words, let them know when approximately they will run out of their balance money, in case they will pay off their outstanding debts and won't purchase any more paid resources. Use this report tool for these purposes:
From/To: the search will retrieve all the accounts with estimated exhaustion balance date within the time frame set.
The results of the search are organised in the following way:
Username
: the user's login. Click it to view user's Contact Info.
Account Id
: the system ID of the account. Click it to view the account properties.
Plan
: the plan this account was created under.
Billing Period
: the frequency of payments for hosting services of this account.
: the contact info account's e-mail address.
Balance: the current agriniamount of money on user's balance.
Exhaustion date: approximate time when the user's balance indicated on the left runs out and becomes zero. This is only true if that user won't buy any more paid resources.
Controls:
Click the
Edit
icon to Credit (on page 409) / Debit (on page 410) / Increase
Credit Limit (on page 308) / Change Billing Period Start Date (on page 311) /Login /
Suspend (Resume) (on page 414) / Delete (on page 413) the account.
Upon getting the search results, you can send a mass email to all users in the report.
To do this, click the
Mass Mail
link at the bottom of the report page.
Daily Report
The Daily Report feature allows you to keep track of subscribed users and total signup payments, as well as users that have canceled their hosting and total refunds.
Account Management 423
To keep track of accounts created during a certain period of time, select
Daily Report
in the
Reports
menu.
Set the
From/To
period and the search will retrieve all the newly created, canceled and failed accounts grouped by plans and billing periods:
Report for new hosting shows:
Plan : the plan under which retrieved accounts were created or canceled.
Period(month) : the duration of the billing period in months.
Signup pays the total amount of recurrent payments
1 year pays: expected annual income from new hosting Report for canceled and failed hosting also shows:
number of accounts in the system both under this plan and with this billing period created or canceled between the requested dates.
Refunded: refunds for these accounts.
1 year losses: deficiency from canceled hosting.
424 Account Management
Web Payments Log
You can perform search in your WebPayment transactions logs:
Charge Log
To view the messages that Parallels H-Sphere exchanged with the Credit Card Online
Processing Center, select Charge Log in the Reports menu.
Enter Account ID, User name, Plan, Transaction result, Performed on date and run this report.
The retrieved information is organized in the chart with the following columns:
Account Management
Username
: user login. Click the link to view user's contact info.
Account ID
: account's system Id.
Plan : account's plan.
Period : account's billing period.
E-mail : account's contact e-mail address.
Performed on : the time and the date when the transaction was executed.
Amount : transaction fee.
Transaction Type :
Charge - pay transaction.
Authorize - request for transaction approval.
Void - canceled authorize transaction.
Details : merchant gateway the transaction was processed by.
Result : transacion confimation / errors for failed transations.
Registrar Log
This report will show all the requests to domain registrars and responses from them.
Select
Registrar Log
in the
Reports
menu, enter search criteria and click
Submit
.
Enter
Domain
,
Account ID
,
User
,
Plan
,
Transaction result
,
Performed on
date and run this report.
Note: Check the
Only Live Users
box to exclude canceled accounts from the search.
425
The retrieved information is organized in the chart with the following columns:
426 Account Management
Domain
: the domain name of the site.
Account ID
: account's system ID.
User : the name of the user who owns the domain
Transaction Type :
Register
: domain registration
Renew
: renewing the existing domain registration
Lookup
: checking if the domain name the user has chosen already exists
Change contacts
: changing domain name contact info
Change password
: changing user access info
Change nameservers
: changing nameservers
Date : account's billing date
Period : domain registration period in years
Details : the domain registrar of the domain involved
Error message : an error message returned by the domain registrar
Transaction Result : confirmation of successful or failed transaction
Credit Card Charge
Use
Credit Card Charge
report to find all, successful or failed credit card transactions by specified period, credit card type or user.
Enter
Account ID
,
User name
,
Credit Card Type
,
Transaction result
,
Performed on
date and run this report.
Account Management 427
Billing Entries
The Billing Entries feature allows you to find accounts by several criteria. Select Billing
Entries
in the
Reports
menu and then enter the search parameters in the form that appears.
Check the Only Live Users box to exclude canceled accounts from the search.
When you submit your query, the billing entries will be shown in the following chart:
Username : the user's login. Click it to view the Contact Info.
Account ID : the system ID of the account. Click it to view the account properties.
Description : billing entry description.
Domain : the domain name of the site.
Plan : the plan under which this account was created.
Billing Period : the frequency of payments for hosting services for this account.
Performed on : the date and the time when the transaction was performed.
Type : the type of transaction
Amount : the amount of transaction. Outflow transactions are displayed in brackets.
Start indicates according to the type of transaction
Setup
- the beginning of the billing period. In this case it coincides with the
Performed
.
Recurrent
- the beginning of the billing period.
Usage
- the beginning of the billing period. It coincides with the
Performed
.
Refund
- the beginning of the billing period.
Charge
- the beginning of the billing period.
Credit
- the beginning of the billing period.
Moneyback
- the beginning of the billing period.
Debit
- the beginning of the billing period.
End
indicates according to the type of transaction -
Setup
- not applicable.
428 Account Management
Recurrent - the time and the date of the end of the billing period.
Usage
- the time and the date of the end of the billing period. It coincides with the
Performed .
Refund
- the end of the billing period.
Charge
- not applicable.
Credit
- not applicable.
Moneyback
- not applicable.
Debit
- not applicable.Each transaction is represented in a separate billing entry.
You can sort them by clicking underlined column captions.
Signup/Go-away Statistics
This feature enables you to get month statistics for each specific plan. Open
Signup/Goaway rate in the
Reports
menu, then select the month and the year to view the statistics.
The first column presents plans grouped by their compatibility.
Initial amount : the number of accounts under this plan at the beginning of the month.
Signup accounts : the number of accounts under this plan registered during this month.
Go-away accounts : the number of accounts abandoned during this month.
Closing amount : the number of active accounts by the end of the month.
Account Management 429
Monthly Revenue
To view the financial report on each month, select Monthly Revenue in the Report menu.
The page that opens presents data in the following table:
the first column presents plans grouped by their compatibility.
Setup
: the total signup payments for the accounts registered under this plan during the selected month;
OpenSRS
: the gross amount received for domain name registration with OpenSRS.
For example, if you charged users the total of $300, while your payments to
OpenSRS were $280, the table will show $300.
Recurrent
: the total recurrent payments for this month. For example, if a user selected a 6 month billing period and was charged the recurrent fee at the beginning of the first month, all this amount will be included in the first month; the remaining five months will show zero recurrent payments.
Usage : the total usage payments for this month. For example, if a user selected a 6 month billing period, he would be charged at the end of the last month; all this amount will be included in the last month's usage fee, and the reaming five months will show zero usage payments.
Refund : the total amount of money refunded during this month.
Money back : the total amount of money returned to the users who claimed their money back during the Money Back period.
Total : overall money received for the month.
430 Account Management
Monetary Transactions
Choose Monetary Transaction from the Reports menu. Combine Account Id , Username , Plan and Created search criteria to retrieve monetary transaction statistics organized in chart which consists of the following columns:
Username
: user login.
Account Id
: account's unique system Id number.
Domain
: domain name.
B.Period
: account's billing period.
Charged on
: the time and the date the sum indicated in the
Charge
column was charged.
Setup
: setup fee accrued.
Domain reg.
: OpenSRS domain registration fee accrued.
Recurrent : recurrent fee accrued.
Usage : usage fee accrued.
Refund : refund accrued.
Charge
: final amount charged. This amount is the sum of all accrued fees and current negative balance less the refund.
Type : type of payment /*CC stands for credit cards/.
Each row in the chart represents an invoice for a separate payment. You can sort entries by clicking underlined column captions.
The Export link enables you to save monetary transaction statistics in the *.csv format that is supported by numerous spreadsheet and database programs. Commas are used as delimiters.
Account Management 431
Transfer Traffic Report
To generate report by overall traffic generated over the specified period of time:
1. Select
Transfer Traffic
in the
Reports
menu.
2. Enter
Search criteria
Traffic Type
: overall traffic or specific transferred (HTTP, FTP, mail, Real Server) traffic.
Plan, username , account ID and email are explained above.
3. Click
Search.
Report shows a list of users matching your search criteria, plan they are signed up under, email and transfer traffic consumed over the specified period.
By clicking the
Edit
icon in the
Controls
section, a login page shows and you will be able to login into this account.
Note: Upon retrieving a report, you can send a mass email to all users displayed in the report. To do this, click the Mass Mail link at the bottom of the report page and send a message.
Traffic reading in this report is different from the Summary Traffic in the user control panel, as it shows traffic for the period defined in the search criteria, whereas the user control panel shows traffic consumed during the current traffic cycle wich is one month.
432 Account Management
Transfer traffic report can also be used as a search utility to find accounts by overall
Disk Usage Report
This feature allows you to retrieve data about disk space consumed by users over a specified period of time. The obtained numbers don't reflect the state for this moment in time. They show disk space usage averaged for the selected time period. To get the latest registered disk usage, limit your search to one day only.
To generate a report, do the following:
1. Go to the
Reports menu in your admin control panel.
2. Select
Disk Usage
. The following page will show:
3. Enter
Search Criteria
:
Usage Type : overall disk usage or disk space consumed on specific (mail, web,
DB) server.
Plan , username , account ID and email are the same as for other reports.
4. Click
Search.
On the page that shows, you can see a list of users, their accounts that match your search criteria, plans they are signed up under, emails and disk usage consumed during the mentioned period.
Account Management 433
Clicking the Edit icon in the Controls section you are taken to the page from where you can login into selected account.You can also use this feature as a search utility to find account by disk space used for a period of time.
Note: Upon the search results, you can send a mass email to all users displayed in the report. To do this, click the Mass Mail link at the bottom of the report page.
Reseller Traffic Report
This feature allows you to retrieve data on transfer traffic consumed by resellers and/or users of the reseller. This report is available only to admins. To do this:
1. Select
Reseller Traffic
in the
Reports menu. The following page will appear:
2. Enter search criteria:
Traffic Type
: overall traffic or specific transferred (HTTP, FTP, mail, Real Server) traffic.
Reseller
: choose a name of the reseller.
Plan
, username
,
account ID
and email
are explained above.
3. Click
Search
.
With '
Show user details
' checked, the result page will show traffic used by the customers of the reseller. With this box unchecked, it will show report on traffic used by resellers only.
Note: Upon the search results, you can send a mass email to all users displayed in the report. To do this, click Mass Mail at the bottom of the report page.
434 Account Management
In Resellers Disk Usage Report
This feature allows you to generate a report by the amount of disk space that reseller's users consumed over a specified period of time. This report is available only to admins.
To generate a report:
1. Go to the
Reports
menu in your admin control panel.
2. Select
Reseller's User Disk Usage
. The following page will show:
3. Enter
Search Criteria
:
Usage Type : overall disk usage or disk space consumed by specific (mail, web,
DB) server.
Reseller : choose a name of the reseller.
Plan
, username
, account ID
and email
are explained above.
4. Click
Search
.
Note: if you check the "
Show user details
" box, the result page will show disk space used by customers of reseller. If you leave this box unchecked, you will get a report on disk space used by resellers in general.
Note: Upon the search results, you can send a mass email to all users displayed in the report. To do this, click the Mass Mail link at the bottom of the report page.
Account Management 435
IP Addresses Report
To find necessary IP addresses or have them sorted by different criteria:
1. Go to the
Reports
menu in your admin control panel.
2. Select
IP Addresses
3. Enter
Search Criteria
of IP addresses:
4. Click
Submit
5. The following results will show:
ID of logical server
Logical server host name
Host IP
IP Type
(Status)
Additional Info
Note: For Busy Dedicated IP info shows the domain name hosted on it, and for
Busy DNS Reseller IP also the name of the reseller.
CC Processing Errors Report
This feature allows you to generate a report on failed credit card attempts to be connected or charged by credit card processing center. This report is available only for credit pay users.
To generate a report:
1. Go to the
Reports menu in your admin control panel.
2. Select
CC Processing Errors
.
436 Account Management
3. Enter
Search Criteria
:
State of the account, plan, username and account ID are mentioned above.
Email type for Mass Mail: select whence in your control panel email address for mass mailing will be taken from - contact or billing info.
Account Management 437
4. Click
Submit
.
Note: Upon the search results, you can send a mass email to all users in the report. To do this, click the Mass Mail link at the bottom of the report page.
Account Check
This report allows to track corrupted resources per account and delete these resources to clean system DB.
1. In your Admin CP, go to Reports -> Account Check :
2. Enter Account ID and click
Search
:
3. On the result page, click
Remove resource
. It will remove it only from system DB :
Note: The removed resource may still exist physically.
Reports Installed in a Package
In H-Sphere seven additional reports can be installed as a package.
To use additional reports:
1. Download AccountingReports .hsp package from http://download.hsphere.parallels.com/downloads/index.html#billing (for
Java 1.4 and higher)
2. Install the package as suggested in our instruction on Installing
Parallels H-Sphere Packages in Developer Guide .
Note: Upon installing the package, the built-in Billing Entries report will be replaced with the one that comes with the package.
438 Account Management
In this section:
Suspended
This report shows info about suspended accounts by reason, date and user info.
Enter Payment type , Plan , User name , Account ID , Registration Date , Suspention date and run this report.
The search result will be similar to the following:
Account Management
Billing Statement History
This report shows account activity: billing statement totals, additionally grouped by billing statement ID and age in days.
Enter
Payment type
,
Plan
,
User name
,
Account ID
,
Registration Date
and run this report.
The search result will be similar to the following:
439
440 Account Management
Cash Receipts Reports
This report shows info about payments and credits by payment type, amount and date.
Enter
Payment type
,
Plan
,
User name
,
Account ID
,
Date
of payment and run this report.
The search result will be similar to the following:
Refunds
This report allows getting information on all refunds addressed to your users by refund description, billing profile, amount etc.
To run a report, enter parameters for
Payment type
,
Plan
,
User name
,
Account ID
,
Date
of refund.
The search result will be similar to the following:
Account Management 441
Billing Statements
This report shows billing statements ID, status, amount (of all billing entries in the billing statement) that includes refunds.
Enter
Payment type
,
Plan
,
User name
,
Account ID
,
Performed on
and
Registration Date
and run this report.
The search result will be similar to the following:
Balance History
This report shows what was the account balance for a certain user for a certain date.
Enter Payment type , Plan , User name , Account ID , Performed on date and run this report.
The search result will be similar to the following:
442 Account Management
Bill Entries
This report lists billing entries along with payment type, billing profile, billing statement
ID for all accounts.
Enter
Payment type
,
Plan
,
Transaction Type
,
User name
,
Account ID
,
Performed on
date and run this report.
The search result will be similar to the following:
Note: Upon installing the package, the built-in Billing Entries report will be replaced with the one that comes with the package.
Tax/Refund Report
This report can list either total tax or total refund (depending on search criteria) along with links to billing statements of the billing period they were accured over.
To run the report choose
Tax Report
in
Reports
, select either
Tax
or
Refund
and enter the period you want to search it for:
The search result will be similar to the following:
Account Management 443
* Billing statement ID is modified to indicate the order number of the billing statnment in the billing statement history.
444 Account Management
Processing Check Payments
This document discusses how to process payments by checks, wire transfers, and other methods that don't involve credit card processing and web payment systems.
If a user chooses to pay by check or wire transfer, the account registration and operation will include the following steps:
1. The user goes through the registration wizard.
2. Upon the completion of the wizard's last form, the account is not activated. An invoice is e-mailed to the user. A copy of this invoice is sent to your administrator address (see Setting E-mail below on how to specify this e-mail address). The invoice includes mailing address for check payments or bank details for wire transfers.
3. The user sends you a check or wires the amount specified in the invoice.
4. You receive user's check or wire and enter the received amount into the system.
5. Next you moderate the account, it becomes active, and the system sends user an e-mail notification that the account has been created.
6. User receives the notification e-mail and can log into the control panel.
7. Further, user sends checks or makes wire transfers to pay the bills.
Upon their receipt, you enter the payments (on page 409) into the
system.
8. When the billing period closes, the account is not suspended and continues to operate, and the payment owed becomes user's negative balance. When user's negative balance exceeds the credit limit, this user will become unable to purchase more resources, which does not allow the negative balance to grow too high over one billing period. See
also Suspending Debtors (on page 329).
9. When necessary, you can turn off check payments for the entire system.
In this section:
Turning Off Check Payments For the Entire System .......................................... 446
Account Management 445
Setting up the Check Mailing Address
Bank details or mailing address for checks is entered in the control panel under Settings
->
Look and Feel
->
Misc.Texts
in the
Checks Information
field. This text will show up in the
Welcome letter after the line: " Please print out this message and send it along with payment to: "
Setting E-mail
To receive notifications about the creation of new accounts, you have to specify your email address.
1. Select
Notification Recipients
from the
Settings
->
Notifications
menu:
2.
3. On the page that appears, specify the recipients of mail notifications (on
Moderating Accounts
'Moderate' means complete account registration and activate the account. Moderation is applicable to accounts that are paid for by checks, wire transfers, web payment systems, and, optionally, credit cards. You moderate an account when you receive the payment from the user.
To moderate an account:
1. Select
Moderate
in the
Signup
menu:
2. In the page that appears, click the name of the account moderated.
3. Check customer details in the signup info thoroughly.
4. Scroll down to the
Moderation actions
section and click
Create
at the bottom of the page:
446 Account Management
5. Once the account is created, an e-mail is sent to the user and you are brought to the
Credit
page.
In the
Amount
field, enter the paid amount and click
Submit
.
You will get the message informing you that the payment has been added to the system:
Turning Off Check Payments For the Entire System
If you want to disable check payments, it will affect the whole system, not individual plans.
To disable check payments:
1. Select
Merchant Gateway
in the
Settings
->
Payment Settings
menu.
2. Turn
Accept Checks
OFF.
Account Management 447
3. After you have disabled check payments, existing check payment users will still be able to use this form of payment, but new customers won't see this option in the signup forms.
Splitting Multiple Accounts
Multiple user accounts (on page 274) can be split and moved to new users. This option
is available if there is at least one reseller.
To split multiple accounts:
1.
Use Search in Reseller (on page 399) utility to find user's multiple
accounts.
2. Click the
Split
icon in the
Controls
section for the account you want to move to a new user:
3. You will be taken to the
Split Users by Accounts
page:
4. Fill in form to create a new user you will move this account to and click
Submit
.
448 Account Management
Granting SSH Access To Users
Sometimes you may need to allow selected customers SSH access to your server.
Such authorized users can run shell scripts, and have other extensive privileges. To allow your customers request shell access and, if granted, operate their accounts through shell, make sure to include it in plan wizard.
Please be careful with choosing who can be given SSH access permission to reduce the risk of system functionality and security problems.
Important: Resellers also can offer Shell access which can be included in plan wizard.
But they can't grant/deny user requests from the reseller administrator area. Instead, end-user requests are sent to the main admin. Once the request is granted or denied, the reseller and its users receive the corresponding email notification.
To view shell access requests from your customers:
1. Select
Shell Request Manager
in the
E. Manager
menu:
2. On the
Shell request manager
page you will see:
Account Management 449
Shell Access Notifications : turn it ON and your end-users will get notifications stating that shell access was granted or denied
Accounts with Shell Access Requested : it shows how many user requests you have recieved. You can allow or prohibit the access.
Accounts with Shell Access Enabled
: it shows the accounts that have been granted shell access
To allow shell access:
1. Go to
Shell Requests Manager
in the
E. Manager
menu.
2. Click
Allow
in the
Action
area. The account will appear in the
Accounts with
Shell Access Enabled
section and user will get the notification.
To prohibit shell access:
1. Click
Prohibit
in the
Action
area.
2. Enter the prohibit reason in the form that appears:
3. Click
Submit
. The account will disappear from
Shell Request Manager
and user will get the corresponding notification.
You can also disable shell access for the accounts with previously granted access. To do it, click Disable Access and account will disappear from Shell request manager .
C H A P T E R 2 0
Customer Signup
This chapter tells you how to manage customer signups.
In this chapter:
Signing Up Users
Requirements: Signups are possible only under plans available for signup!
This chapter introduces two ways of signing up users in Parallels H-Sphere:
- from the administrator control panel
- "from the street".
The registration "from the street" can be performed by the customer from your web site, without admin's interaction. The registration from the admin control panel goes through exactly the same steps, but can be performed only by the administrator.
In this section:
Signing Up Users from Admin Control Panel ..................................................... 451
Customer Signup 451
Signing Up Users from Admin Control Panel
Signup from the administrator control panel is also the one and only way to create accounts that are unavailable "from the street", regardless of whether they are tagged available or unavailable for signup, for instance admin and technical support accounts.
To sign up a new user from the admin control panel:
1. Select
Signup
in the
Signup
menu:
2. On the page that shows, click Select next to the plan for the new account:
If the list doesn't offer desirable plan, check if it is available for signup.
3. Signup Wizard page appears. Go through the
Signup Wizard
. Click arrows in the lower right corner of the page to proceed signup.
Enter your contact info in the form that shows (name, e-mail, address, etc.).
Select payment type in the drop-down box (credit card, check, online payments) or trial hosting.
If you have the Tax Exemption option (on page 320) enabled in the Taxes
submenu of the Settings menu, you may enter the valid VAT code to set tax exemption mode for your account.
Enter payment information: credit card numbers, expiry date and etc. - for credit cards; address where the bills will be sent - for checks.
Enter username and password for this account.
Choose the type of domain you want to sign up with (or sign up without domain).
Agree to charges if any and complete the creation of account.
When you are through with the Signup Wizard, account will be either created or
assigned for activation (on page 452).
If you want to replace signup forms with those of your own, read the User Signup
Customization guide.
452 Customer Signup
Signing Up Users from the Street
To allow users to sign up directly from your website, instead of entering your Parallels
H-Sphere start page, you should to put signup links on your own page.
To allow signing up users "from the street", make sure that:
- plan is available for signups;
- plan has full access (on page 263).
To find out what URL starts signup wizard for a particular plan:
1. Go to the list of your plans in the
Plans
menu ->
Manage
.
2. At the bottom of the page, click
Signup Links
and the list of links that launch signup "from the street" will appear.
Note: To retrieve a link to a specific plan, click the "lens" icon to the left of a plan's title and copy it from the address line.
3. Once you have signup links for plans, publish them on your website and allow users to go directly to the SignUp wizard of the chosen plan.
In case if any errors occur during user signup, Parallels H-Sphere places the account into the moderation section. Read about signup errors in the Moderating accounts (on
Moderating User Signups
Newly registered accounts do not get activated immediately. Some of them need to be activated manually by administrator. This procedure is called account moderation. This document explains how to moderate signed up users, activate their accounts from the admin control panel and more.
Moderated Signups
The following signups are moderated:
Check payment
signups regardless of Signup Guard or any other settings
Web payment
signups: WorldPay, PayPal, 2CheckOut, and GestPay networks
depending on the Signup Guard (on page 455) settings
Credit card payment
signups are moderated when Moderated CC Signup is enabled in
Settings
->
Payment Settings
->
Merchant Gateway
. If it is disabled, account
moderation is based on the Signup Guard (on page 455) rules
Failed signups that returned errors:
Signups that experienced Parallels H-Sphere system errors. Such accounts will be placed into the regular Moderated Signup section, so you can activate the account after the problem is fixed.
Customer Signup 453
Credit card signups that experienced errors with processing centers. Such accounts are placed into the "Signups failed for unknown reason" section in the
Moderated Signup submenu.
To see the error log, go to
Reports
->
Charge Log and from the drop-down box choose Failed transaction result.
Signups that failed due to other technical problems
Trial
signups are moderated if Signup Guard (on page 455) in the
Settings menu is configured to put trial signups on moderation
Even if a signup fails, the user is still allowed to complete the registration procedure.
The potential customer is notified of the temporary problems and the signup request lands in the moderate section.
Email Notifications
In case of moderation, account owners receive two email notifications:
1. the first one is sent at signup completion and states that account will soon be activated .
2. the second one is sent upon activation stating that the account has been registered and can be accessed by the user.
Activating Or Rejecting Signups
To activate or reject activation of an account:
1. Select
Moderate
in the
Signup
menu. The list of accounts awaiting moderation shows.
2. Click the name of the account and check customer details in the signup info thoroughly.
3. Scroll down to the Moderation actions section and click Create or Delete at the bottom of the page:
If you delete an account, it can't be restored. In some cases accounts won't activate even after clicking
Create
and system will show the reason why it happened.
Changing Details of Moderated Accounts
When an account gets to the
Moderate
signup section, you can change details of an account before it gets created, including:
Contact Info: click the Edit button in the Contact Info section.
454 Customer Signup
Billing Info: click the
Edit
button in the
Billing Info
section.
Domain name: click the
Edit
button in the
Other Signup Information
section.
Control Panel Password: click the
Change
button in the
Other Signup Information section.
Hosting plan within its compatibility group:
1. Scroll down to the
Plan name and billing period
section.
2. Click the
Edit
icon next to the plan name and the following page shows:
3. Chose a new plan from a drop-down box and click Save .
4. On the page that appears, chose a new billing period for this plan and click
Save
.
5. Make sure to click Save to save changes.
Moderated Credit Card Signup
When the attempts to use stolen credit cards become frequent, the online processing center may close or suspend your account. To prevent this, you can switch to the moderated credit card signup
mode and manually check each credit card, including its authenticity, address info, and other details, before allowing to create the account and charging the registration fee.
To enable moderated credit card signup, select Merchant Gateway in the
Settings
->
Payment Settings
menu. On the page that appears, switch on
Moderated CC signup
:
Customer Signup 455
Signup Guard Settings
In Parallels H-Sphere you can moderate signups using the
Signup Guard
feature. With
Signup guard you can create rules to moderate accounts matching specific criteria and/or blacklist certain parameters that will put the account into moderation.
Creating moderation rules
Once configured, this utility decides if the new account will be created right away or will be placed into the awaiting moderation list on the
SIGNUP
->
Moderate
page with appropriate comments/warnings.
To configure moderation rules, do the following:
1. Select
SignupGuard
in the
Settings
menu.
2. On the page that appears, select which accounts will be placed in the awaiting moderation list and click
Submit
.
Human Checker : enable the system to check if the signup is performed by human or by robot.
During signup (on page 445) user will be required to enter the validation letters:
456 Customer Signup
Max Amount : - accounts will be moderated if the total price for such signup is bigger than this amount.
3. Click
Submit Query
.
Setting Signup Guard Blacklist
You can blacklist accounts by certain parameters: account names, email addresses, domains, IPs, countries, etc., i.e., categories included into the BlackLists section of the
Signup Guard page. Accounts with parameters specified in these blacklists will be moderated after the signup.
To configure blacklists:
1. On the
Signup Guard
page, in the
Black Lists
section, choose the parameters (e.g:
Countries
) to be tracked during signup.
2. On the page that shows, enter the list of parameters delimited wih semicolons (;), commas (,), or line breaks:
Customer Signup
In the above example, all accounts from the countries specified in the blacklist
(Afghanistan, Iraq, Lybia) will be automatically moved to the awaiting moderation section upon their signup.
Note: You cannot set the range of IPs or use wildcard symbols for names!
3. Click
Submit Query
.
From now on, make sure to check the awaiting moderation list regularly. It is available on the
SIGNUP
->
Moderate
page.
Note: SignupGuard will never reject client signup, it will place all suspicious signups into the awaiting moderation list on the SIGNUP->Moderate page.
Country Codes for the Signup Guard Blacklist
Here is the list of country codes for the Signup Guard blacklist: http://www.iso.org/iso/english_country_names_and_code_elements .
457
Viewing Signup Info
This document shows how to track information about signups in your control panel including signup IPs (the IPs of the computers signups came from) and signup statistics.
Signup IPs
To prevent the use of fraudulent credit cards, check the IPs of the computers where signups came from against the country in the billing info.
To see the signup IP:
1. Go to
Moderate
in the
SIGNUP
menu.
2. Click the account to view account info.
In the
Other signup information
table
REMOTE_ADDR
entry shows this account signup IP:
458 Customer Signup
Note: The section
Other signup information
also shows Domain Registration Billing and
Owner Information. You can change it before account is created.
Signup Statistics
Signup statistics includes data about accounts created and deleted by each administrator. Signups "from the street" are not included into this statistics, they can be
viewed in Signup reports (on page 418).
To view signup statistics:
1. Choose Stats from the Signup menu. The following page will show:
2. Click the underlined number in the
Live accounts
column to display details on these accounts.
3. Click the underlined columns' captions to sort the entries.
The Export link under the chart enables you to save the chart data in *.csv format that is supported by numerous spreadsheet and database programs. Commas are used as delimiters.
Customer Signup 459
Trial Hosting
Introduction to Trial Hosting
Trial registration allows users to sign up (on page 445) and evaluate a full featured
account for a set number of days (trial period) without being charged the fees to be paid for account setup and activity during the trial period if they decide to continue hosting with you. Trial registration can be enabled in any pay plan. Upon trial period expiry, the
trial account automatically gets suspended (on page 414).
To continue hosting with your company, a trial account's owner needs to become a pay user. If a trial account's owner becomes a check-pay user by the time their trial account has been suspended, resume their account, because it doesn't get automatically resumed, as opposed to credit card paid accounts.
When a trial user enters valid credit card info, two things may happen:
by default, he will be immediately charged according to Billing Statement
(../user/billing.html##onlineinvoice).
if in Plan Wizard the option Zero out the balance before changing payment type from Trial to Paid is checked, it will prevent clients from charging for the resources used during the trial period, however will be reflected in their billing statement.
Managing Trial Accounts
You can configure your system to automatically:
- warn trial account owners of approaching trial period expiry and account suspension;
- warn owners of suspended trial accounts of probable account deletion;
- delete suspended trial account.
To enable any of the above options:
1. Go to
Settings
->
Managing Trials
.
2. Select the corresponding option checkbox:
460 Customer Signup
3. Set the option timing.
4. Click
Save
.
To edit the corresponding warning/notification message:
1. 1. Click the
Edit
icon next to the selected checkbox.
2. Follow instructions on how to edit mail messages to users (on page
Enabling Trial Registration
To enable trial hosting for an individual plan, do the following:
1. Select
Manage
in the
Plans
menu and click the plan name to start the plan edit wizard:
1. On the page that appears, scroll down to the last section and select
Trial as the Billing Type.
2. In the
Duration
field, enter the days of the trial period. If you leave the field empty, the duration of the trial period will be set to zero, and all accounts under trial registration will be suspended immediately after signup. Usually trial period does not exceed one month.
Customer Signup 461
3. In the
Credit Limit
field, enter the maximum negative balance you want to allow for one trial user. Trial Credit Limit is the maximum amount of credit a trial user can run up acquiring paid resources. If you leave the field empty, the Trial Credit Limit is set to zero, and users can acquire only free resources. For trial periods of up to one month, this amount is usually set to slightly exceed the initial registration payment plus the recurrent fee for one payment period to disallow free use of extra resources. If you set Trial Credit higher, trial users will be a ble to acquire more resources than it is offered with the standard plan configuration. For trial period of more than a month, you need to set a higher credit limit to ensure that the trial account has enough balance to pay subsequent recurrent fees.
4.
Zero out the balance before changing payment type from Trial to Paid:
checking this option will prevent clients from charging for the resources used during the trial period. It will be reflected in their billing statement.
5. Scroll down to the bottom of the form. Check the
Don't change resources prices
and click
Next
.
Grouping Trial Plans
To ensure correct transition from one plan to another, you should always group plans based on their compatibility, so plans with the same settings belong to the same group.
Don't group plans of different nature (for example Windows and Linux hosting), as this will lead to unexpected results. A very common mistake is to create dedicated Unix and
Win2000 trial plans and put them in a separate trial plans group. On the one hand, this will not allow trial users to switch to pay plans, as they are in a different group. On the other hand, when switching from Win2000 Trial to Unix trial, a user will lose the settings that are unavailable under Unix plan, such as ASP and ODBC service.
In this section:
462 Customer Signup
Managing Trial Accounts
You can configure your system to automatically:
- warn trial account owners of approaching trial period expiry and account suspension;
- warn owners of suspended trial accounts of probable account deletion;
- delete suspended trial account.
To enable any of the above options:
1. Go to
Settings
->
Managing Trials
.
2. Select the corresponding option checkbox:
3. Set the option timing.
4. Click
Save
.
To edit the corresponding warning/notification message:
1. Click the
Edit
icon next to the selected checkbox.
2. Follow instructions on how to edit mail messages to users (on page
Customer Signup 463
Enabling Trial Registration
To enable trial hosting for an individual plan:
1. Select
Manage
in the
Plans
menu and click the plan name to start the plan edit wizard:
2. On the page that appears, scroll down to the last section and select
Trial as the Billing Type.
3. In the
Duration
field, enter the days of the trial period. If you leave the field empty, the duration of the trial period will be set to zero, and all accounts under trial registration will be suspended immediately after signup. Usually trial period does not exceed one month.
4. In the
Credit Limit
field, enter the maximum negative balance you want to allow for one trial user. Trial Credit Limit is the maximum amount of credit a trial user can run up acquiring paid resources. If you leave the field empty, the Trial Credit Limit is set to zero, and users can acquire only free resources. For trial periods of up to one month, this amount is usually set to slightly exceed the initial registration payment plus the recurrent fee for one payment period to disallow free use of extra resources. If you set Trial Credit higher, trial users will be able to acquire more resources than it is offered with the standard plan configuration. For trial period of more than a month, you need to set a higher credit limit to ensure that the trial account has enough balance to pay subsequent recurrent fees.
5. Scroll down to the bottom of the form. Check the
Don't change resources prices
and click
Next
.
464 Customer Signup
Grouping Trial Plans
To ensure correct transition from one plan to another, you should always group plans based on their compatibility, so plans with the same settings belong to the same group.
Don't group plans of different nature (for example Windows and Linux hosting), as this will lead to unexpected results. A very common mistake is to create dedicated Unix and
Win2000 trial plans and put them in a separate trial plans group. On the one hand, this will not allow trial users to switch to pay plans, as they are in a different group. On the other hand, when switching from Win2000 Trial to Unix trial, a user will lose the settings that are unavailable under Unix plan, such as ASP and ODBC service.
C H A P T E R 2 1
Migration
In this section you will know how to move domains between accounts, accounts between servers, and how to migrate individual accounts from other Control Panels to
Parallels H-Sphere.
In this chapter:
Migrating Individual Cobalt RAQ4 Accounts to Parallels H-Sphere .................... 470
Migrating Individual cPanel Accounts to Parallels H-Sphere .............................. 475
Migrating Individual Ensim Accounts to Parallels H-Sphere ............................... 479
Migrating Mass Accounts to Parallels H-Sphere ................................................ 485
Moving Domains Between Accounts
This chapter explains how to move a domain with its content, subdomains, and site settings from one Unix account to another.
In this section:
Domain Move Requirements
The accounts must be located on the same server
The accounts must belong to compatible (on page 465) plans
Domain mover works only with Unix servers and doesn't support Windows accounts
Depending on the domain type, migrate it: with Domain Mover java tool second- and third-level domains
(on page 274)running on shared
IP manually
- second- and third-level domains running on dedicated IP
- other types of domains
466 Migration
Moving Domains with Domain Mover
1. Create the new account (you may already have it created).
2. Log into your corresponding web server as root: su -
3. As root, copy the domain directory with all its content to the home of the new account and change the ownership of the files to the new account.
Example: cp -r /hsphere/local/home/user1/xyz.com
/hsphere/local/home/userd2 chown -R userd2:userd2 /hsphere/local/home/userd2/xyz.com
4. Log into control panel server as the cpanel user: su -l cpanel
5. As cpanel, run DomainMover with the command: java psoft.hsphere.tools.DomainMover xyz.com userd2
Note: If you are moving domains between two accounts with the same name, you can run the following tool: java psoft.hsphere.tools.DomainMover xyz.com account_id
When restarting the Control Panel, make sure that you are logged in to the CP server as root.
For Linux:
/etc/rc.d/init.d/httpdcp stop killall -9 java sleep 10
/etc/rc.d/init.d/httpdcp start
For FreeBSD:
1. /usr/local/etc/rc.d/apachecp.sh stop killall -9 java sleep 10
/usr/local/etc/rc.d/apachecp.sh start
2. Log into the new account, go to WebServices , select the new domain if you don't get into it right away, and click
Apply Changes
.
3. If this domain uses SSL, go to the old account's home directory, enter ssl_conf, copy the keys (not the files), then log into the new account's control panel and enter the keys.
Note: As the result of domain migration, the log history of this domain will be lost.
Migration 467
Compatibility
It's very important that accounts belong to compatible plans. If the target plan doesn't have a resource used by the domain, the resource will be lost during the move. As a result, you may start getting java exceptions saying that the class is unknown. As a workaround, go to the plan editor and enable and then disable the resource to turn it off correctly. Note: avoid moving domains from accounts under the VE-Mail Only plans to accounts under Unix or Windows hosting plans.
Manual Domain Move
If the domain has a dedicated IP or you can't use the java class for any other reason, you can still migrate the domain, but the site settings will be lost:
1. Remove the domain (NOT the account) in the old user's CP. Make sure not to check the domain name at the 'Remove web content' step to keep the content.
2. Create exactly the same domain in the new user's CP.
3. Transfer all content from the old user's directory to that of the new one either by FTP or by using the mv command as root, in which case you need to change file ownership.
Note: If FrontPage was enabled in the original site, fix FrontPage from the user control panel to update the directory paths.
Moving Accounts Between Servers
This document describes how to move virtual hosting accounts between two Unix/Linux physical servers or between two Windows servers within the same Parallels H-Sphere cluster. It is not possible to move accounts between a Windows and a Unix/Linux servers.
Content move utility has a web interface in the control panel, doesn't require manual restart of Parallels H-Sphere, considers DNS synchronization issues, and resolves many other problems.
Account move implies:
1. transfer of
user account
all domains hosted under this account
home directory and its content
468 Migration
Note: no mail resources can be moved between Parallels H-Sphere servers.
2. IP and DNS data changes.
Account move doesn't involve user databases, as they are located on separate database servers. Once you have correctly moved the accounts to a different web server, user scripts will be able to work with MySQL databases from the new location.
Warning: As a result of the account move, Webalizer statistics will be reset. ModLogAn statistics won't be lost.
In this section:
Cautions
Check if any of the customer scripts use the server IP address and instant access domain alias. Note all uses to update them right after the move.
Check for absolute file paths in customer scripts if you are going to change the location of user homes. Note all uses to update them right after the move.
Make sure the server has no users that reached their disk quota.
Requirements
There should not be any users on the target server with the same username as on the source server.
You need to have SSL certificates for all accounts using SSL. Since account move doesn't work with accounts using SSL, you'll need to disable SSL for these accounts before the move, and reinstall the certificates after the move.
Port 873 (RSync) should be open
The target server should have:
shared IP with the same shared IP tag for migrated shared IP domains;
free dedicated IP for migrated dedicated IP domains.
Migration 469
Procedure
Before moving an account, make sure that the target server has a shared IP available with the same tag as the shared IP on the source server.
To move an account:
1. Disable SSL on all accounts where it is enabled.
2. Select
Start Account Move
in the
E.Manager
menu.
3. Select source and target servers. Enter account details. Click
Submit
.
4. Click
Move
for this account. The account will be scheduled for move. The system will check with the source and target servers for information about the resources to be moved.
5. Select
Start Move Processes
in the
E.Manager
menu.
6. Click
Launch
for this account.
The content move routine takes the following steps:
1.
Initialization:
collecting all necessary information for moving the account.
2. Checking if the move is possible: checking if the required resources can be created physically on the target server.
3. Physical creation of the resources on the target server.
4.
Content transfer:
transferring the user's directory to the target server.
5.
Switching DNS:
changing IPs, binding dedicated IPs to the target server's interface.
6.
Deleting resources on the source server:
this operation is performed with a 24 hour delay after switching IPs.
7. Reinstall SSL certificates on all accounts where they had been installed.
If at any stage an error occurs, the process gets suspended, and a trouble ticket is created and assigned to this specific transfer process, so administrator can identify and resolve the problems. Once the problem is resolved and the process resumed, account move continues from where it stopped.
470 Migration
Migrating Individual Cobalt RAQ4
Accounts to Parallels H-Sphere
You can migrate individual user Cobalt RAQ4 accounts into Parallels H-Sphere.
This document covers the procedure of migration and billing issues for migrated accounts.
Before exporting Cobalt RAQ4 accounts to Parallels H-Sphere:
Generate an archive using the cmuexport utility for each RAQ4 domain to be migrated.
Create MIGRATION_DIR in hsphere.properties. This directory is used to store a migration backup file from the ftp server during migration
In this section:
Migration 471
Migration Procedure
To migrate a RAQ4 account to Parallels H-Sphere:
1. Generate cmuexport archive and save it to Parallels H-Sphere ftp server.
2. Using Parallels H-Sphere Unix plan creation wizard, create a plan for migrated accounts with the following resources enabled:
domain
domain alias
mail domain aliases, mailbox alias, mail forward, autoresponder
SSL Module, Comodo SSL, Shared SSL
Front Page, CGI Resource, PHP Module
Referrer Log, Agent Log, Error Log, Transfer Log, Webalizer Resource,
Modlogan Resource
FTP sub-account
dedicated IP (make sure there is one)
3. Go to
Signup
->
Import Users
and click
Cobalt RAQ User Import Wizard
:
472 Migration
4. Fill in the form that appears:
FTP Server, Login, Password
- your FTP server data.
Path To CMU Export Archive - it's where you saved the archive (see above).
User name, password - give name and password to the new Parallels H-Sphere account.
Plan
- choose the Unix plan you have just created.
Billing Period
- choose from availabe in the plan.
Start Date
- initial billing date for the newly created account.
Balance
- credit the account.
Migration 473
Name
,
Company
,
Address
,
Phone
,
: enter contact info for the future Parallels
H-Sphere account.
5. Click
Submit
.
6. This initiates a new migration job which appears under
Current jobs
:
474 Migration
7. Click the job link to see its status:
When the job has been completed, you'll see whether Done or Error near its title.
If the migration is done successfully, you should be able to find the new account (on
page 399) under the chosen plan and manage it just like other Parallels H-Sphere
accounts.
Billing Issues
Once user is migrated, Parallels H-Sphere creates an account with check payment billing type enabled by default.
You can view user's Billing Statement to see the account balance. If you entered the necessary amount for Balance in the Genera l section during migration, account balance will show it.
If user wants to change his billing profile to, say, Credit Card , he can do it in his user
CP using our User Guide.
Migration 475
Migrating Individual cPanel Accounts to
Parallels H-Sphere
You can migrate individual user cPanel accounts into Parallels H-Sphere.
This document covers preparation for migration, procedure of migration and billing issues for migrated accounts.
In this section:
Preparing for Migration
Prior to importing a cPanel account (http://www.cpanel.net) into Parallels H-Sphere, prepare for migration.
1. Create an archive of this account using the cPanel backup utility
(http://www.cpanel.net/docs/cpanel/cPanel_User_Manual.htm#Backup.h
tm).
2. Save the archive to your ftp server.
3. If your user wants to have similar account options and prices that were available under cPanel, have your user choose what Parallels H-Sphere plan he wants to be signed up for.
If no plan meets the requirements, you may need to create a new plan
(on page 348) for this user with all options needed.
4. Create MIGRATION_DIR in hsphere.properties. This directory is used to store a migration backup file from the ftp server during migration
Important:
1. It is not possible to migrate parked domains!
2. If you migrate mailing list subscribers, make sure the mailman package must be installed on the CP server, because mailing list info is stored in binary mailman format.
If mailman isn't installed, mailing list subscribers will not be migrated.
476 Migration
Migration Procedure
To migrate a cPanel account into Parallels H-Sphere:
1. Go to
Import Users
in the
Signup
menu.
2. Click cPanel User Import Wizard
:
3. Fill in the page that appears:
FTP Server where account archive is stored
FTP Login and Password : your FTP server access data
Path to cPanel backup file : enter location of the archive
Migration 477
User name, password - give name and password to the new Parallels H-Sphere account
Plan : choose the Unix plan for signup
Billing Period
: choose from available in the plan
Start Date
: initial billing date for the newly created account.
Balance
: enter the amount paid by user prior to migartion or zero if no payments
were made. Read more about billing upon migration (on page 475).
Name, Company, Address, Phone, Email
: enter contact info for the future Parallels H-
Sphere account.
4. Click
Submit
.
This will initiate a new migration job which appears under
Current jobs
.
478 Migration
5. Click the job link to see its status. When the job has been completed, it will show
Done
or
Error
on top of page.
If the migration is done successfully, you should be able to find the new account (on
page 399) under the chosen plan and manage it just like other Parallels H-Sphere
accounts.
Billing Issues
Once user is migrated, Parallels H-Sphere creates an account with the check payment billing type enabled by default.
You can view user's Billing Statement to see the account balance. If you entered the necessary amount for
Balance
in the
General
section during migration, account balance will show it.
If user wants to change his billing profile to, say, Credit Card, he can do it in his user
CP using our User Guide.
Migration 479
Migrating Individual Ensim Accounts to
Parallels H-Sphere
You can migrate individual user Ensim accounts into Parallels H-Sphere.
In this section:
480 Migration
Preparing for Migration
Prior to importing an Ensim account into Parallels H-Sphere, prepare for migration.
1. Create an archive of this account using the original Ensim backup tool.
2. Save the archive to your ftp server.
3. If your user wants to have similar account options and prices that were available under Ensim, have your user choose what Parallels H -Sphere plan he wants to be signed up for.
If no plan meets the requirements, you may need to create a new plan
(on page 348) for this user with all options needed.
4. Create MIGRATION_DIR in hsphere.properties. It is used to store a migration backup file from the ftp server during migration. Make sure this directory is writable for cpanel user: chmod 777 dir or chown cpanel dir chmod 777 dir
5. Create ENSIM_TMP_DIR for recoded tmp files. This directory should be writable for cpanel user.
Following is the example of MIGRATION_DIR and ENSIM_TMP_DIR creation ( for your consideration ):
MIGRATION_DIR = /hsphere/local/home/cpanel/migration/
ENSIM_TMP_DIR = /hsphere/local/home/cpanel/migration/ensim_tmp_dir/
To create directories, run:
mkdir -p /hsphere/local/home/cpanel/migration/ensim_tmp_dir
To set correct ownership/permissions:
chown -R cpanel /hsphere/local/home/cpanel/migration chmod -R 750 /hsphere/local/home/cpanel/migration
Migration Procedure
To migrate a Ensim account into Parallels H-Sphere:
1. Go to
Import Users
in the
Signup
menu.
2. Click
Ensim User Import Wizard
:
Migration 481
3. Fill in the page that appears:
FTP Server
where account archive is stored
FTP Login and Password
: your FTP server access data
Path to Ensim backup file
: enter location of the archive
482 Migration
User name, password - give name and password to the new Parallels H-Sphere account
Plan : choose the Unix plan for signup
Billing Period : choose from available in the plan
Start Date : initial billing date for the newly created account.
Balance : enter the amount paid by user prior to migartion or zero if no payments were made.
Migration 483
Name, Company, Address, Phone, Email : enter contact info for the future Parallels H-
Sphere account.
4. Click
Submit
. This will initiate a new migration job which appears under
Current jobs .
5. Click the job link to see its status. When the job has been completed, it will show
Done
or
Error
on top of page.
If the migration is done successfully, you should be able to find the new account (on
page 399) under the chosen plan and manage it just like other Parallels H-Sphere
accounts.
484 Migration
Migration Notes
1. Custom DNS entries cannot be migrated.
2. By default, domains are created on default shared IP (or as it is defined in a plan) on your H-Sphere web boxes available for signup.
3. At domain content migration all target account default content is overwritten with user's original content of domain and subdomain directories.
4. Mailboxes and db users passwords cannot be migrated. By default passwords are equal to mailbox and db user names. After migration users must change them.
5. If a userweb (in Ensim terms) has a subdomain, such resources will be created for this user: subdomain user_name.domain_name.tld; ftp subuser username mailbox user_name@domain_name.tld and directory for such ftp sub user will be set to subdomain directory.
If an Ensim user doesn't have a subdomain, only a mailbox and an H-Sphere ftp sub user will be created and a home directory for this user in this case will be set to user's username
Migration 485
Billing Issues
Once user is migrated, Parallels H-Sphere creates an account with check payment billing type enabled by default.
You can view user's Billing Statement to see the account balance. If you entered the necessary amount for Balance in the General section during migration, account balance will show it.
If user wants to change his billing profile to, say, Credit Card , he can do it in his user CP using our User Guide.
Migrating Mass Accounts to Parallels H-
Sphere
In Parallels H-Sphere, you can migrate mass accounts from cPanel, Ensim and Cobalt
RAQ4 control panels into Parallels H-Sphere in bulk.
Preparing for Migration
Prior to importing mass accounts into Parallels H-Sphere, prepare for migration.
1. Create an archive of this account using the original Ensim backup tool.
2. Save the archive to your ftp server.
If your user wants to have similar account options and prices that were available under
Ensim, have your user choose what Parallels H-Sphere plan he wants to be signed up for.
If no plan meets the requirements, you may need to create a new plan (on page 348)
for this user with all options needed.
Migration Procedure
To migrate a mass accounts into Parallels H-Sphere:
1. Go to
User Imports
in the
Signup
menu.
486 Migration
2. Click
Mass action
link next to the chosen panel:
Fill in the form that appears:
3. Click
Submit Query
.
If the migration is done successfully, you should be able to find the new account (on
page 399) under the chosen plan and manage it just like other Parallels H-Sphere
accounts.
Migration 487
Billing Issues
Once user is migrated, Parallels H-Sphere creates an account with check payment billing type enabled by default. You can view user's Billing Statement to see the account balance. If you entered the necessary amount for Balance in the General section during migration, account balance will show it. If user wants to change his billing profile to, say, Credit Card, he can do it in his user CP using our User Guide.
C H A P T E R 2 2
Technical Support
Generally, customer support can be carried out from two kinds of accounts: the main administrator account that you use to configure and manage your hosting system and support account
created under administrative plans (on page 256).
Customer support is accomplished via trouble tickets or TTs, which are:
your customers' questions sent from their control panel support center
system error reports;
customer questions sent to support e-mail set in Settings - >Tech Support (on page
These are delivered to POP3 support mailbox ([email protected]) specified in
Settings - >Tech Support (on page 501) and then submitted to your Client Support
Web-based customer support has been profoundly improved. New Client Support
Center is now equipped with:
Security Administration (on page 490) allowing to set permissions per admin
Reseller Client Support (on page 490) allowing admin to process resellers end user
tickets and charge for it.
Task System (on page 490) which allows assigning tech admins tasks with due
date
Private Messaging System (on page 490) for better communication between Tech
Support Admins
Merging (on page 490) trouble tickets It also allows:
main admin to bill reseller per customer, per ticket and by reseller custom pricing
main admin to assign a ticket to a reseller account based on end user details
to assign new tickets to users based on history
to ignore pop3 errors when using TTMailClientCron
Client Support Center is intended to manage TTs and is integrated into main administrative control panel and support accounts provided the
TroubleTicket Admin resource is included into the plan they are registered under.
To configure Client Support Center , go to
Settings
menu ->
Tech Support
and follow
instructions of Configuring Your Support Center (on page 501).
To configure Reseller Client Support , go to
Settings
menu - >
Reseller Client Support
and
follow instructions of Client Support Center (on page 490).
To enter Client Support Center , go to
Support Center
menu - >
Client Support Center
:
Technical Support 489
You will be taken to a new window, separate from CP. On the Client Support Center you will see the top navigation menu and also several sections with
My Assigned Tickets
,
New Unassigned Tickets
,
Other Open Tickets
,
Quick ticket search
,
Private Messages
and
My
Assigned Tasks
In this chapter:
490 Technical Support
Client Support Center
When you enter TT system through
Support Center
menu - >
Client Support Center
, you will be taken to a separate window with the support dashboard.
In this section:
Configuring Administration Security
Technical Support 491
As a main administrator, you can set permissions for every admin in your Client
Support Center. You can allow or disallow your support admin to use or administrate task system, private messaging system, knowledgebase, assign tickets to other admins, etc.
To configure Administrator Security, go to
Settings
->
Administrator Security
. Check the security settings your admins can have and click
Save
. hese settings will be applied immediately in their admin accounts.
To answer and assign tickets, enter Tech Support Admin Info: go to
Settings
->
My Profile and fill in the form.
492 Technical Support
Managing Trouble Tickets
You, as main administrator, or your support technicians may need to create your own
TTs. For instance, if a customer TT contains several different questions and should be assigned to different support technicians, you can divide it and make each question go to a separate TT.
To create a new ticket, go to Support tickets - > Make a New Ticket . Fill in the form.
To view and process existing tickets, click the name in the list of My Assigned Tickets or
New Unassigned Tickets . The ticket will look as follows:
Editing ticket can be done in the Ticket Info section.
Assigned to : change Tech Support Assistant the ticket is assigned to. When assigned to "nobody", it means it's not picked up by any of tech support admins.
The Status of resolving the ticket. Setting "Resolved" or "Closed" states will remove the ticket from the list.
The
Queue
the ticket belongs to.
The
Priority
of resoving this ticket from '0' to 100% by entering new priority level.
The
Change User
icon allows to change the ticket owner: the account this ticket is tied to.
Simply find this user through search and click
Choose User
The
Edit Ticket Details
icon allows to change the ticket title and email.
To answer a ticket, it must be assigned or picked up and TT Admin Info must be entered in
Settings
->
My Profile
.
Technical Support 493
You can also add Attachment and a Note to your ticket
To spellcheck your answer, click the spellcheck link under the message field. Pop-up window shows with misspelled words, if any, being underlined:
Point your mouse to a misspelled word and a number of suggestions shows. Choose the correct variant and click Done .
To assign ticket , choose the TT Admin from the Assign To drop down box, change Priority and Status, if necessary and click the
Change
button.
Select the Sticky option if you want the ticket to remain assigned to the same tech support admin in case of client's reply. If
Sticky
is not set, the ticket with customer's reply appears as "not assigned".
To assign yourself a TT, click the
Pick Up
link on the right to the TT's title. Assigned TT moves to the
My Assigned Tickets
section.
Releasing TTs
in Parallels H-Sphere terms is removing your TT ownership. Released
TTs return to the
New Unassigned Tickets
section and can be picked up again. To release an assigned ticket back to a main queue, click the
Release
link in the rightside menu of the ticket.
Close a ticket
if you've answered it and don't need it any further. To do it, click the
Close button in the rightside menu.
494 Technical Support
Closed trouble tickets are regarded as deleted and are not available for your viewing, but remain in the TT database and remain open in the user's interface until the user closes it. In case the user decides to post a follow-up message on the same issue, the
TT will show up on the interface in the
Open Tickets
section. You may access closed TTs
through the Search (on page 490) option.
You can have your trouble tickets closed automatically after they have been answered.
You can choose whether you want them to close immediately after they are answered
(the default Parallels H-Sphere option) or close after a certain number of days after they are answered:
1. In TechSupport Admin CP, select
Tech Support
in the
Settings
menu.
2. Enter the number of days when your tickets are to be closed.
Tickets can also remain in open status. If you want all answered tickets to remain open in the system, enter -1 in the field, as shown on the image below:
Deleting trouble tickets will remove TT permanently, unlike with closing trouble tickets which remain in the database, and you can always retrieve them with the
Search Tickets utility.
To remove multiple TTs permanently:
1. Find necessary tickets with the
Search Tickets
utility.
2. Click
Mass Action
link at the bottom of the page.
3. In the Action field, select
Delete
from the drop-down box.
4. Click
Submit and tickets will be removed permanently.
Merging tickets is necessary when you get two and more tickets from the same customer on the same issue.
To merge tickets:
1. Click
Merge this Ticket
link in the rightside menu.
2. Find the ticket to be merged with via the
Search
utility.
3. On the result page that shows, against the target ticket click
Merge With
This Ticket
link:
Technical Support 495
Merging tickets will cause the original ticket to be deleted.
Task System
Task System allows main administrator to run more effective Client Support by assigning tasks to support technicians, determining Due Dates and adding notes to it. It helps to keep track of the supoprt process.
To create a new task, go to
Tasks
menu ->
Make New Task
Choose the task assignee from the drop-down box, set Due Date, task title and details and click
Create Task
.
To view assigned tasks, go to
Tasks
menu ->
My Assigned Tasks
.
To administer tasks, go to
Tasks
menu ->
Task Administration
:
496 Technical Support
To see the task details, click the task name. On the Task Info page, you can change
Due Date and add a note.
Searching Trouble Tickets
Among all trouble tickets received from users, you can select those that match your specified criteria.
Trouble Ticket system allows searching tickets via
Search Tickets
(advanced search) and
Quick Search
(directly from the dashboard) and In Resellers (tickets of your reseller) .
To perfom advanced search, select
Search Tickets
in the top menu. Enter or choose the search criteria and click
Submit
.
To search trouble tickets Via Quick Search, go to the dashboard and fill the
Quick Search section:
To quick search tickets, just enter its ID, title or email address and click Search.
To search trouble tickets In Resellers, select Search In Resellers in the top menu. The search page is the same as the common search form, except for the additional Reseller field at the top of the form:
To find reseller enduser tickets, you need to set necessayr reseller first: in the Reseller field, click the
Change
icon. Find the reseller in a separate form.
Once you've chosen reseller, you can find its end user tickets: enter ticket ID , Title or email address
into the corresponding field. Click
Submit.
On the search result page you can open, view, export, sort and also perform mass actions with reseller tickets.
Technical Support 497
Exchanging Private Messages
Communication between support technicians is carried out by Private Messages
System.
To create a private message, go to the dashboard and click Send a New Message :
Choose administrator to send the message to, enter subject and message text and click
Submit
. Important: The admin you sent the message to will receive email notification.
To view all sent or received messages, go to the
Private Messages
->
My Inbox
or to the dashboard.
498 Technical Support
You can delete received messages: check the box and click
Delete Selected
.
Managing KnowledgeBase
To create and manage Knowledgebase System, refer to our detailed manual on
Ticket Statistics
To view trouble ticket statistics for the chosen period of time, click the Ticket Stats option in the top menu and set the stats date range. Click Submit .
On the TT System Statistics page Per Admin Stats shows administrator's activity in the
Support System, Basic Stats shows general activity, Ticket System Averages shows average indicators and Reseller Support Stats shows reseller related activity.
Ticket Queues
If you have different support departments, for instance sales or billing, each with its own email address, you will probably want each department to receive only relevant tickets, but still have all tickets centralized in one support center. To ensure this, create a ticket queue for each department. For instance, the Sales queue for tickets sent to [email protected] or the Billing queue for tickets sent to [email protected].
Queues may serve one of search ticket criteria in the Search Tickets form.
A support administrator can see and answer tickets in the queue he is entitled to and also tickets in the default queue, or tickets that are assigned to him regardless of the queue.
Important: Messages sent to one of these queue email addresses will appear and be processed in your Trouble Ticket system only if these messages are redirected to the
main support e-mail address (on page 501) configured in the
Settings
->
Tech Support menu. Thus, queue e-mail addresses should be configured mail aliases/redirects to the main support address.
Technical Support 499
Note: We recommend using support e-mail addresses outside the Parallels H-Sphere cluster, so that you'll be able to receive tickets even if Parallels H-Sphere fails.
To create a ticket queue, go to the
Queue Administration
in the
Settings
menu and click
Create New Queue
on the page that appears:
Fill in the form that appears: enter Name of the queue, E-Mail , the mailbox to be polled for this queue and autoresponse messages that will be sent to customers: New ticket auto response and Resolved/closed ticket auto response
When you delete a queue, you will be prompted either to delete all its tickets, or move them to another queue. You can't delete the last queue remaining in the TT system.
500 Technical Support
Supporting Reseller End Users
Support Center allows main administrator to provide Reseller End User Support and to bill reseller per total customer count, per ticket and with custom pricing per reseller.
To allow Reseller Client Support, log into your Admin Control Panel and go to Settings menu - > Reseller Client Support
Click Offer End User Client Support To Resellers ON.
To be able to charge reseller for supporting his users, choose Pricing Structure from the drop-down box: Per ticket or Per customer and set Default price per unit . Click Save .
Custom Reseller Support Prices can be set for some specific reseller:
Choose reseller from the drop-down box, set unit of measure and enter price. Click
Save
.
Technical Support 501
Configuring Support Center
Parallels H-Sphere periodically polls the specified POP3 support mailbox (e.g. [email protected]) and extracts its content to generate Trouble Tickets and submit them to the Support Center. Then the messages are removed from the mailbox.
If any of the required parameters is not specified correctly or is missing, the mail will not be collected.
Since the trouble ticket system doesn't provide the functionality to view attachments and mail headers, it is also recommended to have support e-mail forwarded to another mailbox for archiving purposes.
To configure your Support Center:
1. Log into your Tech Support Admin account control panel
2. Select
Tech Support
in the
Settings
menu
3. On the page that shows, configure your Support Center:
502 Technical Support
Default Email From : This email address will be automatically filled in as the From
email for Mass Mail (on page 512). It can be changed if necessary.
Support Email
: Your primary support e-mail address (e.g. [email protected])
It is the address your customers write to, and replies are sent from.
POP3 Host : Name of the POP3 mail server
POP3 User : The login to the mailbox polled by the support center, e.g.: [email protected]. If it is different than the Support Email , make sure all mail is forwarded from Support Email to this address. Different email addresses are used to allow forwards of trouble tickets to multiple addresses.
POP3 Password : Password to the POP3 mailbox (POP3 User).
Automatically Close Answered Tickets After x Days
Enter days to keep answered trouble tickets open. Tickets will be closed after these many days once you answer them.
Leave this field empty if you want answered tickets to be closed immediately.
Enter -1 if you want all answered tickets to remain open in the Tickets
Center.
Ticket Center Settings : You can choose "Answered" and "On Hold" sections to show/hide in the Tickets Center.
Default KnowledgeBase
: This knowledge base will be available to your end users
as well as Tech Support admins and Tech Support assistants in the control panel from Support Center -> KnowledgeBase To make your knowledge base available to end users of your reseller, go to this reseller's administrator CP, select
Settings
->
TechSupport
, and specify the default knowledge base.
Technical Support 503
Default Support KnowledgeBase : This knowledge base will be used to suggest trouble ticket answers to all Tech Support admins and Tech Support assistants.
Max Suggestions : The maximum suggested trouble ticket answers from the
KnowledgeBase.
Don`t send confirmation emails for received Trouble Tickets
: With this box unchecked, the system will send receipt confirmations to e-mail senders. Please be careful with this option, because if the sender has an autoresponder enabled, you'll end up exchanging endless receipt confirmations with him.
Do not check e-mail address : When an e-mail message arrives to the support address, its from address and subject are checked to see if it's a follow up to an earlier response. If you enable Do not check e-mail address , incoming messages will be checked only by the subject. In this way, a reply from a different e-mail address won't be treated as a new support request if the subject remained unchanged.
Highlight E-mails : E-mails received from the domains you entered here will be highlighted with red in the main queue of trouble tickets. This is typically used for customers with priority support but can also be used for other purposes, for instance, to emphasize on brand new customers, etc.
Spam E-mails : E-mails received from the domains you entered here will be blocked as spamming emails. You can use it to stop spamming attempts.
PGP private key
,
PGP code phrase
: Enter the private key and code phrase generated with pgp encryption program you are using, so your trouble ticket system can decode customer messages encrypted with a publicly available pgp public key.
4. Now that your Support System is configured, click
Save
to apply settings.
504 Technical Support
Knowledge Base
Created as a combination of FAQ and search utility, the KnowledgeBase system helps to improve customer support.
Knowledge Base is implemented in the control panel TechSupport System. It helps
TechSupport admins and TechSupport assistants to compose answers to customer questions and problems. Technically, the KnowledgeBase system checks the trouble ticket against the knowledge base to find the most relevant suggested replies that appear on the trouble ticket page.
There are 2 knowledge base utilities in the
Support Center
menu:
Knowledge Base Admin allows creating, editing and removing knowledge bases.
This option is available under TechSupport Admin account only.
Search Knowledge Base option allows only viewing records and searching suggestions. This option is available under TechSupport and TechSupport Admin accounts.
Resellers can't use your knowledgebases. They need to create their own knowledgebases, or you can export your knowledgebase for resellers to import.
Knowledge base can be created only under Admin and Tech Support Admin plans. We presume you have already created Tech Support Admin account as a necessary step to create knowledge base and configure your technical support system.
In this section:
Editing and Removing Knowledge Bases .......................................................... 505
Technical Support 505
Creating Knowledge Bases
Knowledge base works as a standard search system. When creating knowledge base records, make sure to compose logical entries that contain important keywords and avoid wordiness.
To create a knowledge base:
1. In your administrator control panel, select
KnowledgeBase Admin
from the
Support Center
menu.
2. On the page that shows, enter the name of the knowledge base in the
Create Knowledge Base
section.
3. Click the
Create button. The newly created knowledge base appears in the
Existing Knowledge Bases section.
4. To create a category in this knowledge base, click the
Edit
link next to the new knowledge base.
5. On a page that shows, enter a category name in the
Add Category section.
6. Click
Create
. New category appears in the list of existing categories.
7. To create actual records in knowledge base categories, click
Add
in the necessary category.
8. Enter the problem in the
Question
field and a solution in the
Answer
field.
9. Click Submit Query.
Editing and Removing Knowledge Bases
You can edit existing knowledge bases, e.g: add and remove categories, edit and remove posted records, move records between categories. To edit a knowledge base, do the following:
1. In your Tech Support Admin account control panel, select
KnowledgeBase
Admin
from the
Support Center
menu;
2. Click the
Edit
link next to the knowledge base. On the page that shows, you can:
506 Technical Support
Delete categories by clicking the Delete link next to it
Edit records by clicking
Edit
next to it, and, when done, clicking
Submit Query
.
Remove records by clicking Delete next to it
Switch records between categories:
1. Click
Edit
against the necessary record;
2. In the drop-down box, select the category;
3. Click the
Change
button. The record moves to the selected category.
Note: think twice before removing categories and records, they won't be restored.
Important: after you made significant changes in your knowledge base, like removing a number of records or adding a lot of new entries, the search system needs to be reindexed and updated to a number of new keywords. To do it, click
Fix
against the modified knowledge base.
To remove an existing KnowledgeBase, simply click the
Delete
link next to it.
Exporting Knowledge Base
You can export existing knowledge bases from your Parallels H-Sphere control panel and download them to a chosen location. All knowledge bases are downloaded from
Parallels H-Sphere in 'jar' format. To export a Knowledge Base:
1. In your Tech Support Admin account control panel, select
KnowledgeBase
Admin
from the
Support Center
menu.
2. Click the
Export
link next to a Knowledge Base and the standart dialog window shows.
3. Perform common steps to download file: choose location and click
Save.
Technical Support 507
Importing Knowledge Bases
You can import knowledge bases that have been previously backed up or created on other Parallels H-Sphere systems. An imported knowledge base is automatically added to Parallels H-Sphere.
To import a knowledge base:
1. In your Tech Support Admin account control panel, select
KnowledgeBase
Admin
from the
Support Center
menu;
2. Click the
Browse
button next to
Import Knowledge Base
:
3. Select the database file, then click
Upload
.
Spellcheck
Knowledge Base allows checking answers to trouble tickets and knowledge base records for spelling.
To spellcheck records:
1. Click the spellcheck
link under the message field. Pop-up window shows with misspelled words, if any, being underlined:
2. Point your mouse to a misspelled word and a number of suggestions shows.
3. Choose the correct variant and click
Done
.
508 Technical Support
Search
Knowledge base has a search function. It allows not just viewing suggestions in trouble tickets, but also searching the queries with the search utility.
To find an answer to your question:
1. Go to
Search Knowledge Base
in the
Support Center
menu. At the top of the page,
Search
function shows.
Alternatively, go to KnowledgeBase Admin and click Edit next to the knowledge base. At the top of the page,
Search
function shows.
2. Enter query in the
Search
field.
3. Select the category from the drop-down box.
4. Click
Search
. The list of search results appears showing relative categories in brackets.
Technical Support 509
Settings
Here you will learn how actually to make knowledge base work in your trouble ticket system. You can set a default knowledge base and the number of suggestions it will put in trouble tickets. To do this:
1. Select
TechSupport
in the
Settings
menu.
2. On the page that appears, choose the Default Knowledge Base that will be available for end users
as well as TechSupport admins and
TechSupport assistants in the control panel from Support Center ->
KnowledgeBase.
3. Choose the Default Support Knowledge Base that will be used to suggest trouble ticket answers to all TechSupport admins and
TechSupport assistants. Clicking the necessary suggestion will automatically fill out answer box for the ticket.
Note: you can choose between other suggestions, edit and change your answer to make it most suitable for the question.
4. Set the maximum number of suggestions to show in trouble tickets.
5. Click
Save
.
Custom Jobs
Custom Jobs allow you to track the additional services you offer to your customers.
This could be any type of job such as web design and development, installations, support, or even marketing services. You can use it to track services you offer both for resellers and end users. Resellers also have this facility to work with their end users.
In this section:
Adding Custom Jobs
To assign a Custom Job to a particular account:
1.
Find the account (on page 399) using the
Search
utility.
2. Click the
Account ID
to go to the account details:
3. Click
Custom Jobs
in the
Control Panel User
section:
In the bottom frame, the
Custom Jobs
form will appear.
4. Enter the description of the custom job and add it by clicking the button:
The custom job will appear in the list right above the form you have filled out.
5. Click the ID of the custom job you have just created. You will see the details and a form to add tasks to the custom job.
Adding Tasks to Custom Jobs
A custom job consists of tasks. Task involves its own duration in hours and rate per working hour.
To add a task to a custom job:
1. Click the ID of the custom job. The following form will appear:
Description : enter the essence of the task.
Rate : enter the fee for this task per hour.
Time : enter time in hours necessary to complete this task.
Note
: optionally, enter note about this task.
2. Click
Add Task
. The task will appear above the form.
3. Optionally, add anote to this custom job in the
Add a Note
field.
Mind that tasks as well as custom jobs will appear in the user control panel. This way your customers can see what should be or has been done.
Tracking Custom Job Status
You can use controls to set the status of the custom job. This status will reflect on the user control panel. To set status, click the custom job ID on the Custom Jobs page and refer to the
Status field
:
Click
Finish
if the job is completely done. It will show as FINISHED on the user panel.
Note: Upon clicking
Finish
, the corresponding billing entry will immediately appear in customer's online invoice and user will be charged total fee for the Custom Job. It will also show the time when the job was completed in the
ENDED
field on the Custom Job page.
Click
Start
to mark the job as active. It will show as IN PROGRESS on the user panel.
Click
Cancel
to mark the job as stopped. It will show as CANCELED on the user panel.
Click
Abort
to mark the job as ABORTED. This won't delete the job from the list
Click On Hold to mark the job as pending. It will show as ON HOLD on the user panel.
Custom job entries will be accessible by your customers in Support Center -> Custom Jobs .
Mass Mail
Oftentimes, you will need to send emails to multiple users, e.g: newsletters. Mass mail feature allows to send one message to a number of users.
To send a newsletter to a group of customers:
1.
Select accounts (on page 399) using the
Search
utility.
2. Click the
Mass Mail
link at the bottom of the search results page:
3. Compose the message or choose the system notification template (on page
From
: the e-mail address messages will be sent from.
Note : This email is automatically filled in from
Settings -> Tech Support ->
Default Email
From (on page 501). You can change it if necessary.
Use charset from settings
: message encoding will be set based on the language selected by the customer.
Use Message Templates:
check this box to send system notifications (on page 115). In
this case, any info you enter in the message body will be ignored.
Autoinserts
: Use this feature to convert your mass mails into personalized letters. When composing a mass mail, insert generic variables that will be replaced with individual recipient's name, e-mail address, etc.
Subject
: enter a subject of the message.
Message
: enter a message to be sent to all customers. Remember: if you use message templates, this message will be ignored.
Spellcheck:
allows checking your mail messages for spelling. To do it:
1. Click the spellcheck
link under the message field. Pop-up window shows with misspelled words, if any, being underlined:
2. Point your mouse to a misspelled word and a number of suggestions shows.
3. Choose correct variants and click
Done
.
Send the message as : Select HTML to apply formatting to your message, e.g.:
<i>text in italic</i><br>
<b>text in bold</b>
<ul>
<li>unordered list (bullet)</li>
<li>unordered list (bullet)</li>
</ul>
One Message Per Email Address :
Yes - only one message will be sent to an address, regardless of how many accounts use it.
-
No
- the message is sent to every account's e-mail address even if it is the same for different accounts.
4. Click
Send
to send the message.
Crash Report
Crash Report is an Parallels H-Sphere package that integrates crash report interface to administrator's Control Panel. It allows reporting your Parallels H-Sphere problems to
Parallels H-Sphere support directly from your administrator control panel. Problem reports will include basic information about CP version, kernel, system Java and database, and major packages installed on the affected boxes to make fixing the problem easier.
Also, the package provides extended server information about Parallels H-Sphere *nix physical servers: Java/Tomcat/database versions, major packages installed on a server
(Apache, Bind, mail, etc.).
Crash report is available only in admin CP.
In this section:
Changing E-Mail Address Where Reports Are Sent ........................................... 516
Installation
Log into your CP server as To log in as the
cpanel
user:
1. Log in as root first:
$ su -l
2. Log in as the cpanel user:
# su -l cpanel
Download (http://download.hsphere.parallels.com/downloads/index.html#crash_report) the latest Crash Report package.
Install the package (See Developer Guide for the instructions).
Update
To update a crash report package to a newer version:
1. Log into your CP server as cpanel user
2. Uninstall the older Crash Report package installed on your CP:
java psoft.hsp.tools.PkgUnInstaller --pkg-name=CrashReport
3. Restart H-Sphere.
4. Download the latest Crash Report package.
5. Install the package.
6. Restart H-Sphere again after a new package version has been installed.
Changing E-Mail Address Where Reports Are Sent
All problem reports will be sent to PSoft support by default. You must be registered at our
Support Page (http://www.swsoft.com/en/support/hsphere/form/) first.
If you need to change this e-mail address, set the CRASH_REPORT_MAIL property in
~cpanel/shiva/psoft_config/hsphere.properties
:
Log into your CP server as To log in as the
cpanel
user:
1. Log in as root first:
$ su -l
2. Log in as the cpanel user:
# su -l cpanel
Edit ~cpanel/shiva/psoft_config/hsphere.properties. Set the e-mail address for sending reports., e.g.:
When restarting the Control Panel, make sure that you are logged in to the CP server as root.
For Linux:
/etc/rc.d/init.d/httpdcp stop killall -9 java sleep 10
/etc/rc.d/init.d/httpdcp start
For FreeBSD:
/usr/local/etc/rc.d/apachecp.sh stop killall -9 java sleep 10
/usr/local/etc/rc.d/apachecp.sh start to apply changes.
Sending Crash Reports
To create and send a crash report:
1. Pass to the
Support Center
menu and select
Crash Report
:
2. On the page that shows, describe the problem in the text area, select affected physical boxes and click
Preview
.
3. On the page that shows you will see preview of your report the way Parallels
H-Sphere support will see it. Enter the
Title
for the report and your
.
Parallels H-Sphere support (techs) will send you a reply to this e -mail.
4. Click
Submit
to send the report.
Crash reports will be sent to Parallels H-Sphere support by default or to the e-mail set in the
~cpanel/shiva/psoft_config/hsphere.properties file in the CRASH_REPORT_MAIL property
Extended Physical Server Information
After the Crash Report package is installed, you will be able to view additional information about *nix physical boxes in physical server info in administrator CP. For CP server, it will show the Java and Jakarta Tomcat versions, and the system PostgreSQL version. For other servers, it will give the versions of packages for major services (Apache, Bind, mail, etc.)
In the
E.Manager
->
Servers
->
P.Servers
menu, click the magnifying glass icon in front of a *nix physical server to view its server info. You will see the following information at the bottom of the page:
C H A P T E R 2 3
Parallels Virtuozzo Containers
Parallels H-Sphere 3.3 introduced support for Parallels Virtuozzo Containers version
4.0 and higher ( http://www.parallels.com/en/products/virtuozzo/ ). This chapter is dedicated to Parallels Virtuozzo Containers implementation in Parallels H-Sphere and will explain how to set up Parallels Virtuozzo Containers servers and plans.
In this chapter:
Setting Up Parallels Virtuozzo Containers Node Server .................................... 520
520 Parallels Virtuozzo Containers
Setting Up Parallels Virtuozzo Containers
Node Server
To set up a Parallels Virtuozzo Containers node server dedicated for
Parallels H-Sphere hosting:
1. Prepare a Unix or Windows box that meets requirements for Parallels
Virtuozzo Containers installation.
2. Install Parallels Virtuozzo Containers to the box according to the
Parallels Virtuozzo Containers installation instructions
( http://www.parallels.com/products/virtuozzo/docs/ ). Make sure Parallels
Virtuozzo Containers version is at least 4.0.0.457 for Linux and
4.0.0.014 for Windows.
3. Log into the Parallels Virtuozzo Containers control panel as root, go to
Setup > Network and set the IP range for Virtuozzo container hosting management through Parallels H-Sphere.
4. Go to
Setup > Container Samples
to create and configure a Virtuozzo container sample with default settings for the creation of new containers for Parallels H-Sphere users. While configuring the sample, please pay a special attention to the following parameters:
General Settings > Offline Management . If the vpp and vpp-plesk boxes are checked, you will provide your users with the access to Virtuozzo Power Panel where they could perform configurations overriding the restrictions of their Virtuozzo plan.
This may well be your business strategy, but in this case make sure you won't put the prices on the Virtuozzo plan resources that could be configured by users via their Power Panels.
Network.
Make sure you have chosen the
Routing Network mode. The bridged network mode is not possible for Virtuozzo hosting in Parallels H-Sphere.
Resources
. For PVC for Linux, make sure you have selected
SLM resource management
from the
Memory Management Mode
drop-down box.
5. Return to the Parallels H-Sphere administrator control panel and go to
E.Manager > Add P.Server
to add a physical server for Parallels Virtuozzo
Containers hosting.
For Unix server, specify the root login and password.
For Windows server, specify the administrator's login and password.
In the
OS Type field, specify
Virtuozzo
.
Add the Virtuozzo Server group to the server.
6. Go to
E.Manager > Add L.Server and create a Virtuozzo logical server for the physical server just created.
Parallels Virtuozzo Containers 521
Important: Only one Virtuozzo logical server is available for a Virtuozzo physical server! You cannot add any other logical servers (like Web or Mail).
Group: choose the Virtuozzo Server group.
Server Type: choose Virtuozzo .
Server: select the Virtuozzo physical server just added.
Now your Parallels Virtuozzo Containers server is installed into Parallels H-Sphere.
You now need to create a new Virtuozzo plan to provide Virtuozzo hosting for users.
Note: Parallels H-Sphere Control Panel also provides the
Virtuozzo Migration
cron running hourly. You can view it in
E.Manager> Background Jobs
. If some Container was migrated manually to another Virtuozzo Hardware Node, the cron will reset appropriate host id for this Container in the Parallels H-Sphere system database.
Creating Virtuozzo Plans
To create a new Virtuozzo plan for user hosting:
1. Go to
Plans > Create
.
2. Click the icon next to
Virtuozzo Plan Wizard
.
3. On the first page of the Plan Wizard, configure common H-Sphere resources, and click
Next
.
A page prompting to create a Virtuozzo plan based on one of the available
Virtuozzo Container samples is displayed. Resellers also see prices for each sample, in parentheses next to sample names.
4. Choose a sample from the drop-down list and click
Next
.
5. Click
Next to go to the price settings for the default billing period. Here, pay attention to the Virtuozzo-specific options:
Virtuozzo container CPU limit
. Set up prices for CPU limit (in percents) allocated for each Virtuozzo container.
Virtuozzo container number of processes limit
. (For Windows hosting only) Set up limits on the number of processes run by any Container.
Virtuozzo container memory limit
. Set up prices for memory limit (in MBs) allocated for each Container.
Virtuozzo container IP address
. Take prices for IPs dedicated to Virtuozzo containers' hosting.
Access to Virtuozzo Container Control Panels
,
Virtuozzo container repair
,
Virtuozzo container backup
. Set up prices for the options explained above.
6. Click Next to complete the Plan Wizard.
The newly created plan appears in the list of plans. It is disabled for signup by default.
522 Parallels Virtuozzo Containers
7. Click the red square icon in the
Signup Access column for this plan to enable signup.
The icon turns to the green triangle.
8. To sign up a new user for this plan, click the looking glass icon next to the plan's name.
Parallels Virtuozzo Containers 523
Creating Virtuozzo Plan Groups
Virtuozzo plans can be grouped to provide Parallels H-Sphere users with a possibility to switch to other Virtuozzo hosting plans within a group.
To create a group of Virtuozzo hosting plans:
1. Go to
Plans > Groups
.
2. In the
Available Plans
column, check boxes next to Virtuozzo plans you wish to group. Type in the name of a new group and click
Add Group
.
3. A new group will show up in the
Plan Groups
column. Now any user signed up to one of the plans in the group will be able to swi tch to another plan in this group.
Note: User requests to change Virtuozzo plans are processed by the
VirtozzoApplTemplatesCron
Signing Up Users for Virtuozzo Plans
Parallels H-Sphere provides the special signup wizard for Parallels Virtuozzo
Containers users.
To sign up a new user for a Virtuozzo plan from the Parallels H-Sphere administrator control panel:
1. Go to
Plans > Manage
.
2. Click the lookup icon next to the Virtuozzo plan you wish to sign up a user to.
3. The Virtuozzo plan signup wizard will start. Click Next to pass to the first step.
4. Check
Accept to accept the license agreement and click
Next
.
5. Fill out your user information form and click
Next
.
6. Choose your Parallels H-Sphere user login and password and click
Next
.
7. Set your Virtuozzo container name and root password to the container.
Click
Next to complete the signup. The Virtuozzo container will be automatically created on one of the IPs within the IP range set in
Parallels Virtuozzo Containers control panel.
524 Parallels Virtuozzo Containers
Parallels H-Sphere administrator is also provided with a special search form for
Parallels Virtuozzo Containers users. The form is available from the
Search > Virtuozzo
Users menu.
C H A P T E R 2 4
Parallels Sitebuilder Integration
Parallels H-Sphere 3.3 and up introduces full integration with another Parallels product,
Parallels Sitebuilder, a powerful and yet easy-to-use tool for creating and publishing user Web sites.
Parallels Sitebuilder bundled with Parallels H-Sphere is installed on the Control Panel physical server and is by default accessed at: http:// IP :8080/ , where
IP
is a separate IP bound to the Parallels H-Sphere Control Panel box specially for the
Parallels Sitebuilder control panel.
Parallels Sitebuilder requires that the following PHP modules are enabled in Parallels
H-Sphere:
ionCube PHP accelerator (on page 66);
SQLite PHP4/5 extension;
DOM XML PHP4 extension.
In this chapter:
Configuring Access to Parallels Sitebuilder Plans from Parallels H-Sphere Plans 528
Migrating from Parallels SiteStudio to Parallels Sitebuilder ............................... 529
526 Parallels Sitebuilder Integration
Setting Up Parallels Sitebuilder
In case of fresh Parallels H-Sphere 3.3+ installation, Parallels Sitebuilder is being added at one of the steps of Parallels H-Sphere Installation Wizard.
To install Parallels Sitebuilder during the Parallels H-Sphere installation:
1. On the list of physical servers, click the pencil icon next to the Control
Panel physical server.
2. On the list of logical servers for the Control Panel physical server, click the pencil
icon next to the Control Panel logical server.
3. On the
Logical Server
page, set the following parameters under the
Additional options
section:
Sitebuilder IP/Mask : set the Parallels Sitebuilder IP and mask and click Set to apply. You must specify a separate IP for Parallels Sitebuilder bound to the
Parallels H-Sphere Control Panel server.
Sitebuilder MySQL database location:
choose MySQL database from the list and click
Submit
.
Sitebuilder MySQL database user: enter the Parallels Sitebuilder database user.
4. Proceed with the Installation Wizard. At the end, Parallels Sitebuilder will be installed with Parallels H-Sphere.
Note: You must restart Parallels H-Sphere after the Installation Wizard. When restarting the Control Panel, make sure that you are logged in to the CP server as root.
For Linux:
/etc/rc.d/init.d/httpdcp stop killall -9 java sleep 10
/etc/rc.d/init.d/httpdcp start
For FreeBSD:
/usr/local/etc/rc.d/apachecp.sh stop killall -9 java sleep 10
/usr/local/etc/rc.d/apachecp.sh start
See the Parallels H-Sphere Installation Guide for details.
If you updated Parallels H-Sphere to 3.3+, you will need to set up Parallels Sitebuilder later on.
Parallels Sitebuilder Integration 527
To set up Parallels Sitebuilder after the Parallels H-Sphere update:
1. Go to E.Manager > Sitebuilder > Web/API connection . On the page that appears click the pencil icon to pass to the Parallels Sitebuilder configuration the
Parallels H-Sphere Control Panel's logical server. Another way is to go to
E.Manager > L.Servers
and to click the Control Panel logical server to pass to its settings. Set the following parameters under the
Additional options
section:
Sitebuilder IP/Mask
: set the Parallels Sitebuilder IP and mask and click
Set to apply. You must specify a separate IP for Parallels Sitebuilder bound to the
Parallels H-Sphere Control Panel server.
Sitebuilder MySQL database location:
choose MySQL server from the list and click
Submit
.
2. Go to E.Manager > Update and run the update procedure on the Control
Panel server.
3. Restart Parallels H-Sphere. Now Parallels Sitebuilder is installed on the
Parallels H-Sphere Control Panel server.
After Parallels Sitebuilder is installed, configure Parallels Sitebuilder control panel login settings:
1. Go to
E.Manager > Sitebuilder > Web/API connection and fill out the form that appears:
Protocol: choose http
(default option) or https
(administrator should configure secure connection in Parallels Sitebuilder according to its documentation) from the drop-down box.
Login: Parallels Sitebuilder administrator login ( admin by default).
Password:
Parallels Sitebuilder administrator password ( admin by default, change it as soon you log into the Parallels Sitebuilder control panel).
Host name: Parallels Sitebuilder host name.
Port: 8080 by default.
2. Click
Submit to apply changes.
Licensing Parallels Sitebuilder Accounts
By default, Parallels H-Sphere license purchased from the Parallels store also includes license for 3000 Parallels Sitebuilder sites. However, it is valid only in case of Parallels
Sitebuilder built in Parallels H-Sphere.
To view the statistics on Parallels Sitebuilder accounts, hosts and sites in Parallels H-
Sphere, and how many of them are covered by your license, go to E.Manager >
Sitebuilder > Site Admin Usage .
528 Parallels Sitebuilder Integration
Configuring Access to Parallels
Sitebuilder Plans from Parallels H-Sphere
Plans
To add Parallels Sitebuilder plans to be available from Parallels H-Sphere:
1. First, you should create plans in the Parallels Sitebuilder control panel.
Log into Parallels Sitebuilder as admin (by default, the fresh Parallels
Sitebuilder installation bundled with Parallels H-Sphere will have the user admin and password admin ) and go to
Users > Plans > Add New Plan
.
For details on creating plans in Parallels Sitebuilder please refer to
Parallels Sitebuilder documentation at http://www.parallels.com/products/sitebuilder/docs/ .
2. Return to Parallels H-Sphere administrator panel and go to
E.Manager >
Sitebuilder > Plans
. Plans that have just been created in Parallels
Sitebuilder will be listed under the
Sitebuilder plans registered on the
Sitebuilder side and not available for H-Sphere customers
section.
3. Click the arrow up icon next to a respective plan to make it available in
Parallels H-Sphere. It will immediately be shown in the
Sitebuilder plans that can be used by H-Sphere customers section.
4. To make these plans available to users, go to the
Plans menu and either create a new hosting plan or click an existing plan to edit i ts resources.
Under the
Other section find
Sitebuilder and check
Include to include the
Parallels Sitebuilder resource. Click
Next
. You will be forwarded to the page where you can select the available Parallels Sitebuilder plans and set
Setup and
Monthly
prices for each available Parallels Sitebuilder plan.
Important: Parallels Sitebuilder plans sell packs of sites, while Parallels H-Sphere charges for accounts, not sites. It means that users will actually buy a pack of
X sites managed by Parallels Sitebuilder, where
X is the maximum number of sites set up in the selected Parallels Sitebuilder plan. So, if a Parallels Sitebuilder plan covers 10 sites, and your Parallels H-Sphere user plan provides only 3 domains for a user, this user will still pay for the 10-site Parallels Sitebuilder resource.
Therefore, Parallels H-Sphere administrator should configure Parallels Sitebuilder plans in accordance with Parallels H-Sphere plans.
5. After you saved the Parallels H-Sphere hosting plan settings, users signed to these plans will be able to access the Parallels Sitebuilder resource. Users should go to
Domain Settings > Web Options
on their control panels and check the
Sitebuilder Site resource to enable Parallels
Sitebuilder for a domain. For details, please refer to Parallels H-Sphere
User Guide .
Parallels Sitebuilder Integration 529
Migrating from Parallels SiteStudio to
Parallels Sitebuilder
Users signed up to plans with Parallels Sitebuilder enabled are recommended to migrate their sites published by Parallels SiteStudio to Parallels Sitebuilder. Parallels H-
Sphere administrator provides a trial period when a user could test Parallels Sitebuilder functionality. At the end of the trial period the user who wishes to go on with Parallels
Sitebuilder will be charged according to the selected Parallels Sitebuilder plan.
To configure the trial period duration:
1. Go to
E.Manager > Sitebuilder > Site Studio Migration
.
2. Set the trial period parameters:
Trial period warning
: days of the trial period when the notification of its end will be sent to a user.
Trial period end
: days after the notification when a user will be charged for the
Parallels Sitebuilder resource.
3. Click
Submit
.
4. The migration itself will become available for Parallels H-Sphere users from their control panels. For details, please refer to the Parallels
Sitebuilder section of the Parallels H-Sphere User Guide .
C H A P T E R 2 5
Third Party Products
This chapter considers third party products integrated in Parallels H-Sphere.
In this chapter:
Third Party Products 531
Urchin
Urchin Web Analytics software (http://www.urchin.com/products/index.html) provides detailed metrics about a website's visitor activity. It is is a 100% browser-based administrator system allowing to easily manage user access levels, groups, and affiliations. Urchin produces usage reports in HTML format for viewing with a standard web browser, reporting for up to 100 sites included in base license. It reports in 10 languages with all reports generated on-the-fly and exportable to Excel or other formats.
Urchin will help your customers:
* Track overall site traffic, including unique visitors, referrals, domains, and search engines
* Analyze and improve the quality and loyalty of web site's traffic
* Make more money by maximizing the effectiveness of the search engine optimization and cost-per-click advertising
Urchin software analyzes website log files and delivers fast, interactive reports and graphics on every aspect of website's traffic and visitors.
Urchin is easy to install and allows viewing reports in seven languages, with clear explanations of what shows in each report.
Urchin is an essential tool for web designers, marketing professionals, webmasters, and anyone interested in the success of their web business. Urchin is modular, so one can buy the licenses that best fit their needs.
Urchin Base Module - Start tracking up to 100 sites today for only $895! The Urchin
Base Module reports unique visitors and sessions, requested pages, downloads, page errors, length of sessions and pageviews, referrals, entrance and exit pages, click paths, bounce rates, browser and platform details, robot activity, and much more.
Urchin Campaign Tracking Module - Find out which search words, search engines, marketing initiatives, and ad content create conversions, so you can target your marketing dollars. Identify click fraud, conduct A/B tests, and get complete ROI reporting. Get leads that turn into customers, and start making more money today.
Urchin E-Commerce Module - View advanced shopping cart analysis on your ecommerce site. See revenue by referrals, search terms, and domains. Locate your buyers - by country, by state, and by city. The Urchin E-commerce Module integrates with all the major shopping carts.
Urchin Load Balancing Module - Urchin is used on the largest and most heavily trafficked web sites in the world. Track any size site over any number of servers, just by adding Load Balancing Modules.
Urchin 100 Profile Pack - Track even more sites, just by adding Profile Packs.
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Miva Kit
Miva kit is Miva Merchant (http://www.miva.com/products/merchant) and Miva Empresa
(http://www.miva.com/products/empresa).
Miva Merchant is an e-commerce solution that gives access to the tools you need to develop, maintain, and grow a thriving online store.
Miva is a trusted e-commerce solution provider, enabling tens of thousands of online businesses across the internet. Miva kit is based on a solid foundation of proven proprietary technology, supported by an established network of e-commerce hosts, solution developers, and store designers.
Miva Merchant requires Miva Empresa for web server XML scripting, e-commerce and database capabilities. Like all third party commercial products, Miva Empresa and Miva
Merchant are purchased and installed separately from Parallels H-Sphere.
How Does It Work?
1. A user logs into the control panel and activates the Miva resource.
2. Parallels H-Sphere finds an available license in the database and allocates it to this user.
3. The cgi-bin and mivadata directories are created inside the user's site directory, if only they haven't been created earlier.
4. miva.cgi
is copied into the cgi-bin directory.
5. miva.cgi
is registered in the config file, in which the mivaroot and mivadata variables are defined. mivaroot is configured to be the same as DocumentRoot for Miva-enabled site. mivadata is defined as the mivadata directory outside this user's site.
6. Permissions to these directories along with their content are changed.
7. Now the user can activate Miva Merchant. Miva Merchant is created using a web-based form containing the fields required by Miva
Merchant, though a user can activate the original Miva Merchant installer by entering his site URL followed by /cgibin/mivavm?/Merchant2/setup.mvc
or his site URL followed by
/Merchant2/setup.mvc
.
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Adding Miva Merchant Licenses
If you have Miva Merchant installed, do the following steps to add Miva licenses:
1. Enter your administrator control panel.
2. Select
Miva Merchant Licenses
from the
E. Manager
->
3 rd party Tools
menu.
3. Enter the numbers of purchased licenses, separating them by hard returns, in the
Add new licenses here
section.
4. Click
Submit Query
.
The statistics and status of Miva licenses show in the Miva Merchant Licenses Information section:
Free licenses are the licenses available to users.
Licenses in Use
are the licenses reserved by user accounts but not yet used by any domains.
Installed licenses are the licenses reserved by an account and used by a domain with
Miva Merchant setup.
Dead licenses are the licenses already used up. Such licenses can't be re-used.
'Total number of licenses' include all the above licenses.
Note: Miva licenses are not transferrable between domains: a license once used for a domain can't be used by another domain. If Miva is turned off for the domain, the license acquires 'dead' status. But once Miva is turned on again for this domain, the system will activate the dead license.
You can edit Miva license number if you entered it incorrectly:
1. Click the
Change
icon next to the license number.
2. Enter a new number in the field.
3. Click
Submit Query
.
To remove Miva license from the control panel, click the Delete icon.
534 Third Party Products
Affiliate Programs
You can add up to five external affiliate program (referral program) scripts. Parallels H-
Sphere passes signup info (e.g. account number, amount, etc.) to an affiliate program script so the latter can track signups and produce relevant reports.
Affiliate commission is based on completed signups (physically created user accounts), not visits or clicks.
Also Parallels H-Sphere supports moderated signups which include:
moderated credit card payments
all check payments and bank transfers
payments with web processors (e.g. PayPal, WorldPay, 2CheckOut, and GestPay)
Trial signups: On the other hand, a non-moderated trial registration is treated as a sales transaction, and the affiliate is given credit for it.
In this section:
Third Party Products 535
How Do Affiliate Programs Work?
Affiliate programs involve four types of players:
Affiliate Program Company/Server;
Affiliate Site potential customers are referred from;
Your Parallels H-Sphere Server;
Potential Parallels H-Sphere Customer.
This process is as follows:
1. You place a referral link (text or banner) on an Affiliate Site.
2. The Potential Customer visits the affiliate site and clicks this link. It sends a request to Affiliate Program Server with an assortment of variables that define the affiliate transaction (such as the unique ID of the exchange participant).
3. Affiliate Program Server sets cookies in Potential Customer's browser about which Affiliate Site, text link, banner advertisement, or product link was used in the exchange. This cookie will identify the open transaction.
4. Next, a new record is opened in the database of referrals on the Affiliate
Program Server. The opened record consists of two parts -- the first one is filled with customer-related data, the second one remains empty.
5. Then Potential Customer is redirected to your signup page.
6. Once the signup is complete, Parallels H-Sphere sends a request to each of the Affiliate Servers (if you have more than one). Only one of them (depending on cookie) will start the affiliate program; the other servers will ignore the request. For each Affiliate Program, this reque st would have to pass different parameters, which has to be configured in
Parallels H-Sphere interface. At the same time, Affiliate Program Server reads cookies from the customer's browser.
7. The affiliate program finds the related database record using the cookie information and fills it with the received signup data. Then, it opens a new sale transaction.
How Do I Set Up an Affiliate Program?
Different affiliate programs work differently. Please read documentation for the affiliate program you have chosen.
1. Install and configure affiliate software on your server according to the included instructions. This software will track referrals from affiliate websites that promote your hosting services.
536 Third Party Products
2. Read the instructions on how to make the signup confirmation link for the affiliate program you have chosen. The link must contain variables required for the affiliate program to authenticate a sales transaction.
3. Go to your Admin control panel and select
Affiliate Program
in the
Settings menu.
4. On the page that appears, make up the signup confirmation link as required by the instruction:
Lead Refferal URLs
are launched during signup whether the user is moved to moderation section or not.
Sales refferal URLs
are launched when newly created user logs into his CP for the first time, via the same browser when redirected by banner to the signup page.
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Use the drop-down box and the
Insert
button to add required parameters to the
URL.
Here's another example of an URL:
/cgibin/affiliates/sale.cgi?cashflow=${amount}&goods=${user_name}
5. Click the
Submit
button. Now Parallels H-Sphere will execute this URL after each customer signup for the affiliate software to track the signups.
6. Have the referral link placed on affiliate sites to refer Internet users to your signup page.
7. Now your affiliate program is ready for use.
Kanoodle™ Support
Parallels H-Sphere provides an interface to sign up as a Kanoodle.com Referral
Partner. An account with Kanoodle.com will enable your company to issue FREE $5.00
Kanoodle.com Pay-Per-Click advertising accounts to your hosting clients. It's free money your clients can use to promote their websites on Kanoodle's search engine network simply for hosting their websites with you!
Kanoodle.com is one of the world's largest search engines feeding search results to
Infospace, HotBar, MetaCrawler, WebCrawler, CNET Search, IxQuick, Galaxy and over
9,700 other search enabled websites. Kanoodle powers more than 750 Million searches per month through their network. Giving your clients maximum visibility for their websites, and a much greater return on their advertising investment.
The FREE $5.00 incentive from Kanoodle.com can be promoted as an instant signup bonus, or a value-added addition to your services. Kanoodle's Referral Partner program is an excellent way to help your clients drive 100% targeted traffic to their websites and increase their sales. As they drive more traffic to their sites with Kanoodle, they may need additional services and extra bandwidth. Resulting in more dollars in your company's pocket!
The Kanoodle signup process is completely seamless and automatic. All a client has to do is fill out a short form in their Control Panel and hit 'Submit'. They will instantly receive their free $5.00 account information from Kanoodle via email. The best part is that the client never leaves their Control Panel during the signup process with
Kanoodle. No new windows will open redirecting them to another domain. Just a simple thank you message in the Control Panel telling them to check their email for additional details.
By signing up today your company will be paid a 20% commission on all initial deposits made by your referrals to Kanoodle.com. This can become a substantial revenue stream for your company and is an excellent additional revenue source that you may not have had otherwise. Pay-Per-Click Search is the fastest growing and most effective segment of on-line advertising. Enable your clients to do more, get more, and receive a greater value from their hosting account by setting up your Kanoodle.com Referral
Partner account today!
538 Third Party Products
To sign up as a Kanoodle.com Referral Partner from Parallels H-Sphere:
1. Select Kanoodle from the E. Manager -> 3 rd Party Tools menu
2. At the bottom of the page that appears, click
Create a new trial Advertiser account with Kanoodle
3. Enter your details and click
Submit
.
4. Once your account is created, you will receive a confirmation email from
Kanoodle.com
AWStats Support
Parallels H-Sphere supports AWStats (http://awstats.sourceforge.net/), a free tool that generates advanced graphical web server statistics reports. AWStats is set up on each
Unix/Linux and Windows web server with Parallels H-Sphere installation or upgrade.
Parallels H-Sphere supports AWStats in http traffic and doesn't work with FTP and Mail traffic stats.
In this section:
Setup
To enable AWStats in a plan:
1. Launch Plan Editor
2. Check
Include
to make AWStats available to users
3. Check Activated to have new accounts created with AWStats enabled.
Configuration on Unix/Linux
AWStats has config files for each user domain:
/hsphere/local/home/{user}/{domain.name}/cgibin/awstats.{domain.name}.conf
Also, symlinks to them are created in /hsphere/shared/awstats/wwwroot/cgibin/ .
Third Party Products 539
Configuration on Windows
AWStats collects Web statistics with reports generated every 24 hours.
When a user (for example, usertest ) turns on AWStats for a domain (e.g., mydomain.com
), Parallels H-Sphere creates:
1. the AWStats virtual directory in the domain root folder pointing to
\HSphere\skeleton\AWStats.
2. the AWStats\awstats.log file in the user's log directory
(\hshome\ usertest \logs\ mydomain.com
\AWStats\awstats.log) where domain logs for AWStats are collected.
3. the AWStats configuration file for a domain
(awstats.
mydomain.com
.conf) in the \HSphere\skeleton\AWStats directory.
The awstats.log
file is automatically rotated by AWStats (AWStats removes processed rows from this file). The \HSphere\bin\stats.exe
utility updates
AWStats statistics daily at 00:01 AM.
The AWStats domain page is password-protected and can be viewed only by the domain owner (password protection is off if Serv-U is used).
540 Third Party Products
SpamAssassin Configuration Manager
To configure SpamAssassin from your administrator control panel:
1. Select
SpamAssassin Manager
in the
E. Manager
->
3 rd Party Tools
menu.
2. On the page that shows select mail server from the drop-down box and click
Go
.
3. Configure parameters for the chosen mail server:
Turn
Rules Du Jour
on and check custom SpamAssassin rule sets (on page 540)
whose newer versions you'd like to be automatically downloaded and updated:
Third Party Products 541
Custom SpamAssassin Rule Sets
ANTIDRUG intended to detect common "pill spam" however, it is not appropriate for all environments. It may not be appropriate for a medical or pharmaceutical environment.
BLACKLIST a blacklist of spammers.
BLACKLIST_URI looks for these domains inside URL's in the message.
BOGUSVIRUS lists bogus virus warnings and similar.
RANDOMVAL list of tags spammers sometimes forget to convert in spam.
SARE_ADULT designed to catch spam with "Adult" material.
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SARE_BAYES_POISON_NXM using lists of words with equal length.
SARE_BML
designed to catch "business, marketing and educational" spam.
SARE_CODING contain HTML coding rules that detect various spammer tricks applied through HTML coding within messages.
SARE_FRAUD
designed to catch "Nigerian 419", "International Lotto", etc. type scams.
SARE_HEADER
contain Header rules that are not found in other SARE rule sets.
SARE_OEM
tries to detect people selling OEM software to consumers.
SARE_RANDOM
tries to detect common mis-fires on bulk mail software. Many signs are found like: %RND_NUMBER, etc.
SARE_SPECIFIC
rule set which flags specific spam and/or spam from specific spammers.
SARE_SPOOF
tries to detect common spoofing attempts by spammers. Many use a Message-ID of one provider but the message was never passed through the suggested system.
TRIPWIRE
searches for 3 characters that shouldn't be together. This is based on the English language.
RANDOMVAL
lists tags spammers sometimes forget to convert in spam.
SARE_EVILNUMBERS
lists addresses and phone numbers harvested from spam.
SARE_GENLSUBJ
contains Subject header rules that are not found in other
SARE rulesets.
SARE_HIGHRISK
is developed because there are spam signs which readily detect spam, and which in our testing do not flag significant ham, but theoretically there is no reason for such rules not to flag ham. We therefore consider these to be "high risk" rules, useful for many systems at this time, but not suitable for systems that must be very conservative and cautious in their spam detection.
SARE_HTML contains HTML coding rules that detect various spammer tricks applied through HTML coding within messages.
SARE_OBFU looks for obfuscation within emails. It looks for the various tricks spammers use to hide their message from spam filters, while keeping their messages readable to humans. It treats these as spamsign.
SARE_SPAMCOP_TOP200 contains top 200 spam relays condensed into as few rules as possible.
SARE_STOCKS contains set of rules for stock spams.
SARE_UNSUB looks for common unsubscribe phrases and codes in spam.
SARE_URI contains files look for spamsign in URI links within emails. It is not intended to replace SURBL or BigEvil, but instead will use characteritics that these domain-based tests cannot track.
ZMI_GERMAN contains German ruleset.
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Spamcheck maximum file size (Kb)
Set the maximum file size of messages to be checked on spam. For instance, when you set 10Kb, the files that are smaller than 10Kb will be subject to spam check. If the file size exceeds 10Kb, the message will not be checked.
required_score
Set the score required before a mail is considered spam. n.nn
can be an integer or a real number. 5.0
is the default setting, and is quite aggressive; it would be suitable for a single-user setup, but if you're an ISP installing SpamAssassin, you should probably set the default to be more conservative, like 8.0 or 10.0. It is not recommended to automatically delete or discard messages marked as spam, as your users will complain, but if you choose to do so, only delete messages with an exceptionally high score such as 15.0 or higher. End users can choose their own spam check level to override the default one set. The larger the number of hist, the less aggresive spam check level: very_aggressive=2(hits),aggessive=4,normal=7,relaxed=10,permissive=14
rewrite_header Subject
Text added to the "Subject:" line of mails that are considered spam. Note that you should only use the REQD and SCORE tags when rewriting the Subject header unless "report_safe" is 0. Otherwise, you may not be able to remove the
SpamAssassin markup via the normal methods.
report_safe
If this option is set to 1, an incoming message is tagged as spam, instead of modifying the original message, SpamAssassin will create a new report message and attach the original message as a message/rfc822 MIME part
(ensuring the original message is completely preserved, not easily opened, and easier to recover). If this option is set to 2, then original messages will be attached with a content type of text/plain instead of message/rfc822. This setting may be required for safety reasons on certain broken mail clients that automatically load attachments without any action by the user. This setting may also make it somewhat more difficult to extract orview the original message.If this option is set to 0, incoming spam is only modified by adding some "X-Spam-
" headers and no changes will be made to the body. In addition, a header named X-Spam-Report will be added to spam.
clear_headers
Clear the list of headers to be added to messages. You may use this before any add_header options to prevent the default headers from being added to the message. Note that X-Spam-Checker-Version is not removable because the version information is needed by mail administrators and developers to debug problems. Without at least one header, it might not even be possible to determine that SpamAssassin is running.
use_bayes
Whether to use the naive-Bayesian-style classifier built into SpamAssassin. This is a master on/off switch for all Bayes-related operations.
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use_auto_whitelist
Whether to use auto-whitelists. Auto-whitelists track the long-term average score for each sender and then shift the score of new messages toward that long-term average. This can increase or decrease the score for messages, depending on the long-term behavior of the particular correspondent. For more information about the auto-whitelist system, please look at the the Automatic Whitelist
System section of the README file. The auto-whitelist is not intended as a general- purpose replacement for static whitelist entries added to your config files. Note that certain tests are ignored when determining the final message score: - rules with tflags set to noautolearn
4. Click
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.
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