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Simplifying Installation and Upgrade of Plesk on Numerous Servers with Auto-installer Configuration File

To simplify installation and upgrade of Plesk on numerous servers:

  1. Create a configuration file that will tell Auto-installer where to get updates, which temporary directory on the server to use during deployment, and what components installed on the system Auto-installer must not overwrite, upgrade, or otherwise modify. The file must be in the text format. Refer to the table below for the list of options and syntax you can use.
  2. Save the configuration file under name .autoinstallerrc and copy it to the /root/ directory on each server where Plesk should be installed or upgraded. During installation or upgrade initiated through the control panel or command line, Auto-installer will read the configuration file and use the options you specified as default.

Table. The options you can specify in the .autoinstallerrc file.

Option

Description and possible arguments

SOURCE_TYPE="local", "network", "plesk"

Specify the location of Plesk packages: type "local" for local file system, "plesk" for the official Plesk update server at http://autoinstall.plesk.com (the URL is hardcoded in the auto-installer binary), and "network" for any network server (ftp, http and https protocols are supported).

Example: SOURCE_TYPE="plesk"

SOURCE="path", "url"

When retrieving Plesk packages from a local file system, specify the local path to the file that contains the information on the Plesk build you want to install.

When retrieving Plesk packages from a network server, specify the URL of the directory where the mirror of Plesk update server resides.

USE_PLESK_UPDATES="yes", "no"

To retrieve only Plesk distribution files from the Plesk Update server, specify USE_PLESK_UPDATES="no". If you also wish to retrieve the updates for your operating system, specify USE_PLESK_UPDATES="yes".

TARGET

By default, Auto-installer saves the retrieved files in the directory /<current user name>/psa. For instance, if Auto-installer was executed by user root, the /root/psa directory will be created and used. If you want to use a custom directory for storing the retrieved files, use the TARGET option.
Example: TARGET= "/opt/storage/plesk"

PROXY_HOST="network address"

When using a proxy server or firewall, use this option to specify proxy server domain name or IP address.

Example: PROXY_HOST="proxy.example.com"

PROXY_PORT="port number"

Default port for connecting to proxy server is 3128. If your proxy server uses different port number, you should specify it using this option.

Example: PROXY_PORT="5741"

Proxy authentication options:
PROXY_USER="user name"
PROXY_PASSWORD= "password"

If your proxy server requires authentication, you should use these options to authenticate Auto-installer at the proxy server.

Example: PROXY_USER="doe" PROXY_PASSWORD= "f1sZ9AnQ4EnO52"

ALLOW_KERNEL_INSTALL="yes", "no"

Use the option ALLOW_KERNEL_INSTALL="yes" if you want to allow kernel upgrade. By default, Auto-installer does not make any kernel upgrades.

Note that Auto-installer installs new kernels to the system, leaving the older kernel aside so that you can revert to it at any time.

IGNORE_KEY_ERRORS="yes", "no"

To be able to upgrade to a newer version of the control panel that requires a license key that you may or may not have at the moment, specify IGNORE_KEY_ERRORS="yes". For example, if you had Plesk 7.5.4 installed with a valid license key, and decided to upgrade to Plesk 8.0, having the IGNORE_KEY_ERRORS="yes" directive in the configuration file will make Auto-installer retrieve a license key for Plesk 8 that you previously ordered, otherwise it will retrieve and install a trial license key. Specifying IGNORE_KEY_ERRORS="no", you will not be able to upgrade Plesk until you obtain the appropriate license key.

NOTIFY_EMAIL="e-mail address"

Use this option to have Auto-installer send you status reports by e-mail. A successful completion report includes a list of installed/upgraded packages with a detailed log.

HOLD_PACKAGES="package name1", "package name2"

Specify the packages that Auto-installer should not upgrade, modify or delete from the system.

Example: HOLD_PACKAGES="apache2.*", "mysql*.*"

NO_CLEAR_SCREEN="yes", "no"

Specify whether Auto-installer should clear the screen after each performed operation.

TRUNCATE_LOG="yes", "no"

 

By default, Auto-installer keeps a single log file ("no" option is used) and adds the information on each installation or upgrade process to the end of this file. Specifying TRUNCATE_LOG= "yes" will clear the log file before each installation or upgrade.

SEPARATE_LOGS="yes", "no"

 

If you wish to have separate log files for each installation or upgrade, specify SEPARATE_LOGS="yes", otherwise, Auto-installer will use one log file for all installations and upgrades.

DEBUG="yes", "no"

 

Specifying DEBUG="yes" will make Auto-installer write detailed information on installation or upgrade progress to the log file. Specifying DEBUG="no", will make Auto-installer write only general information to the log file.

OVERRIDE_OS_NAME="Linux", "FreeBSD", or "MacOS"

 

If Auto-installer detects your operating system incorrectly, you can work around this by explicitly specifying your operating system.

OVERRIDE_OS_VENDOR="Fedora", "RedHat", "Debian", "SuSE", "CentOS", "Apple"

 

If Auto-installer detects your operating system distribution incorrectly, you can explicitly specify it.

OVERRIDE_OS_VERSION="version number"

 

If Auto-installer detects your operating system version incorrectly, you can explicitly specify it.

OVERRIDE_OS_ARCH="i386", "x86_64"

 

If Auto-installer detects your operating system's architecture incorrectly, you can explicitly specify it.

OVERRIDE_ENVIRONMENT="", "vz"

 

If Auto-installer does not detect that you are operating within a Virtuozzo virtual private server, you can explicitly specify it: OVERRIDE_ENVIRONMENT="vz".