Plesk 8.3 beta for Windows Release Notes

Contents

  1. Disclaimer
  2. Introduction
  3. Installation Instructions
    1. Before Installation
    2. Software Requirements
    3. Installation Steps
    4. Completing Installation
  4. Supplied Components
  5. What's New
    1. Plesk 8.3.0 build 071012.13
  6. Supported 3rd party components
  7. Known Problems and Limitations
  8. Contact Information

1. Disclaimer

A Beta is an advance version of a new SWsoft Plesk product designed to provide developers with certain features for testing purposes in between official releases of each Plesk version. A Beta has not necessarily passed all of SWsoft's Quality Assurance or Validation testing and as such is only recommended for use in test environments. By installing this Beta, you represent that you understand and agree to the following:

SWsoft authorizes you, or the company or organization you represent (collectively "You"), to download and use this Beta, provided that You agree to use this Beta for internal purposes only, and not to make available or disclose the Beta to any third party (except employees and independent consultants bound by industry standard nondisclosure obligations) or to sublicense, lease, loan, modify, reverse compile, modify, translate, or disassemble the Beta in whole or in part, or authorize others to do any of the foregoing. Additionally, You understand that this Beta is experimental in nature and may contain bugs or be unstable. You expressly agree that download and use of this software is at your own risk and SWsoft will not be liable to any party for any damages arising in any shape or form from such use.

2. Introduction

Thank you for downloading beta release of Plesk 8.3 for Windows. This file contains information that supplements the Plesk 8.3 for Windows documentation such as requirements, information on new features, corrected bugs, known problems etc. This file was updated with the latest information available at release time.

3. Installation Instructions

We strongly recommend that you refer to the product installation instructions and the product user manual prior to installing and operating Plesk. Refer to the SWsoft, Inc. web site at http://www.swsoft.com for more information.

Plesk 8.3 for Windows documentation: http://www.swsoft.com/en/products/plesk8win/docs/

Plesk 8.3 for Windows FAQ:http://kb.swsoft.com/category7.php

3.1. Before Installation

Before starting the installation process we strongly recommend that you create a full system backup of the entire server.

Internet Information Services (IIS) should be preinstalled with World Wide Web (WWW) Service support.

3.2. Software Requirements

Plesk 8.3 for Windows requires Microsoft Windows 2003/2008 Server installed on your computer with configured IP address. The IP address received via DHCP will be converted into static when you change IP pool.

Plesk 8.3 for Windows can be installed only on NTFS partition.

IMPORTANT: If you plan to install Plesk 8.3 for Windows on Microsoft Windows 2003 Server x64 or Microsoft Windows 2008, you should preinstall Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1.

In order for your server to support ASP.NET, FrontPage 2002 Server Extensions, File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Service, Server Side Includes (SSI) and Active Server Pages (ASP) you need to select corresponding components during the initial IIS installation.

In order for your server to support ASP.NET 2.0, you need to install .NET Framework 2.0 manually. Note that .NET Framework 2.0 is required to install and run SiteBuilder 4.0 for Windows, which is included in Plesk 8.3 for Windows distribution.

In order for your server to support domain performance configuring, you need to enable QoS Packet Scheduler service.

If you plan to use MS SQL Server support in Plesk 8.3 for Windows, the MS SQL Server should be installed and configured to use standard or mixed security mode. If MS SQL Server is not installed, you can select Microsoft Database Engine to be installed with Plesk 8.3 for Windows and configured with administrator name 'sa' and random password.

IMPORTANT: We strongly recommend that you install Plesk 8.3 for Windows on a clean server; specifically, only above-mentioned operating system components should be installed.

3.3. Installation Steps

  1. Log in as "Administrator" or another user with Administrator's privileges.
  2. Change your working directory to the directory where the Plesk 8.3 for Windows distribution resides.
  3. Run the installer.
  4. Follow the on-screen instructions.
  5. In some cases when the installation is finished, reboot confirmation will be requested.
  6. After the reboot Plesk will be started automatically.

3.4. Completing Installation

In order to finish the initial configuration of Plesk, you need to login to Plesk 8.3 for Windows on your host at https://domain.name:8443/ or https://IP-address:8443/

The default username is "admin" and the default password is "setup". Both are case sensitive. For security reasons the password has to be changed upon initial login.

4. Supplied Components

Plesk 8.3 for Windows distrubution package ships the following components:

5. What's New

5.1. Plesk 8.3.0 build 071012.13

  1. [+] Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and IIS7 support - Plesk 8.3 beta supports Microsoft Windows Server 2008 RC and IIS7.

  2. [+] PHP FastCGI support - PHP can be configured to use FastCGI on IIS7.

  3. [+] Web mail client selection on a per-domain basis - Plesk 8.3 offers the ability to choose web mail clients on a per-domain basis.

  4. [+] SmarterMail mailing lists management support - It is possible to manage mailing lists if you're using SmarterMail.

  5. [+] CommuniGate Pro mailing lists management support - It is possible to manage mailing lists if you're using CommuniGate Pro.

  6. [+] Mail submission port option - Special port for mail message submission can be configured in Plesk 8.3.

  7. [+] Mail List export and import - Users can import and export a list of mailing list memebers

  8. [+] Managing IIS ASP Debugging Flags and ASP buffers - Management of IIS debugging flags and ASP buffers size is available in Plesk 8.3.

  9. [+] Merak Spam Filter Support - Merak Spamfilter can be used in Plesk if Merak mail server is used.

  10. [+] SmarterMail Spam Filter Support - SmarterMail Spamfilter can be used in Plesk if SmarterMail mail server is used.

  11. [+] Component updates - Plesk 8.3 for Windows includes the following updated components:

  12. [*] Security fixes

Legend:

[+] new feature

[-] bug fixed or removed

[*] bug fixed and improvement made


Supported 3rd party components

Mail servers

  1. MailEnable Standard 1.983
  2. MailEnable Professional 3.02
  3. MailEnable Enterprise 3.02
  4. Merak 9.1.0
  5. SmarterMail 4.3
  6. MDaemon 9.6
  7. hMailServer 4.4
  8. CommuniGate Pro 5.1

Antiviruses:

  1. DrWeb 4.33.1.3290
  2. Kaspersky AV 5.0.0.49
  3. ClamWin 0.90.2.1
  4. Merak Antivirus

DNS servers:

  1. Microsoft DNS 5.2.
  2. BIND DNS Server 9.4.1
  3. Simple DNS Plus 4.00.07

FTP servers:

  1. Microsoft FTP 6.0
  2. Gene6 FTP Server 3.9
  3. Serv-U FTP Server 6.4

Web Statistics:

  1. Webalizer V2.01-10-RB02
  2. AWStats 6.6
  3. SmarterStats 3.3
  4. Urchin 5.7

Web Scripting:

  1. ASP 6.0.3790.0
  2. ASP.NET 1.1.4322.0
  3. ASP.NET 2.0.50727.0
  4. Miva Empresa 5.0.6
  5. Perl 5.8.8
  6. PHP 4.4.7
  7. PHP 5.2.4
  8. Python 2.5.0.0
  9. SSI 6.0.3790.0
  10. Apache Tomcat 5.5.4
  11. ColdFusion 5.0
  12. ColdFusion MX 6.1
  13. ColdFusion MX 7.0
  14. Microsoft FrontPage 5.0.2.5012

Web Administration Tools:

  1. phpMyAdmin 2.10.1
  2. ASP.NET Enterprise Manager 0.1.3
  3. myLittleAdmin 2000 2.7.r124, 2005 3.1e

Database servers:

  1. Microsoft SQL Server 2000
  2. Microsoft SQL Server 2005
  3. MySQL 5.0.37

Web Mail Solutions:

  1. Horde IMP H3 (4.1.4)
  2. MailEnable Web Client
  3. IceWarp Web Mail
  4. SmarterMail Web Client
  5. CommuniGate Pro Web Client

Spam Filter:

  1. SpamAssassin 3.2.3

Other:

  1. stunnel 4.20

6. Known Problems and Limitations

  1. Plesk 8.3 for Windows cannot be installed if installation path contains non-ASCII characters.
  2. We strongly recommend that you install Plesk 8.3 on English Windows.
  3. Plesk Firewall does not work if Plesk is installed on Microsoft Windows Server 2008.
  4. Plesk Firewall works only if Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (or higher) is installed.
  5. Upgrade from previous version of Plesk does not work.
  6. Plesk 8.3 cannot be uninstalled properly.
  7. PHP-5.2.4 applications may crash if configured to use FastCGI on IIS7.
  8. SmarterStats user is created with the credentials of a corresponding domain FTP user. It should be noted that StarterStats user password will contain only alphanumeric characters and '_' symbol used in place of all non-alphanumeric characters.
  9. If an external SiteBuilder instance (i.e., SiteBuilder installed in SVE or VPS environment or on remote server) is integrated with your Plesk server, your customers will not be able to access SiteBuilder through Plesk if they use Internet Explorer with default security settings. To resolve this issue, make sure that both Plesk and SiteBuilder are located in one subnet (e.g., 110.57.106.1 and 110.57.106.2). Alternatively, you can tell your customers to go through the following procedure:
    1. Open Internet Explorer and go to Tools > Internet Options > Privacy > Sites.
    2. Enter the address of external SiteBuilder instance in the Address of Web Site field and click Allow.
  10. Plesk does not detect 3rd party components automatically. After you have installed a 3rd party component, log in to Plesk, go to Components Management and click Refresh to detect.
  11. If you run both Plesk and Sitebuilder inside one Virtuozzo VPS, make sure that the VPS has the memory limit of at least 700 Mb.

7. Contact Information

SWsoft Headquarters
13755 Sunrise Valley Drive Suite 600
Herndon, VA 20171 USA
Phone: +1.703.815.5670, Fax: +1.703.815.5675

Web: http://www.swsoft.com

E-mail:
For billing information, email accounting@swsoft.com
For purchasing or partnering information, email sales@swsoft.com
For technical support, use our Online Support Form.
To report problems with Plesk software, email bugreport@swsoft.com
For information on career opportunities with SWsoft, email careers@swsoft.com
For press contact information, email press@swsoft.com
For information about becoming a Partner, email partners@swsoft.com
For information on translating Plesk into your language, email i18n@swsoft.com
For general product information, email info@swsoft.com

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