To log in to your Plesk control panel:

1. Open your web browser, and in the address bar type the URL where your Plesk control panel is located .

   i.e. https://www.asp-host.co.uk:8443.

2. Press ENTER. Plesk login screen will open.
3. Type the login name and password your provider gave you into the Login and Password boxes, respectively.
4. If you log in for the first time, select the language for your control panel from the Interface language drop-down box. If you had previously specified the interface language and saved it in your interface preferences, leave the User default value selected.
5. Click Login.

Note for hosting resellers: Your customers who were granted access to control panel for managing their own web sites will need to specify their domain names in the Login box.

Becoming Familiar with Plesk's Interface

When you log in to control panel, it can open in either a standard view, a simplified desktop view, or a combination of both. The standard view is a customary view of the control panel divided into two main areas: navigation pane on the left and the main screen where operations are performed on the right.

The desktop view can show site statistics and shortcuts to the operations you frequently perform—everything you may need can now be accessible from a single screen.

Customizing Your Control Panel in the Desktop View

To add or remove items from the desktop:

1. Go to Desktop > Customize Desktop.
2. In the Tools group, specify what tasks you would like to accomplish through the control panel. The appropriate shortcuts will be placed to the desktop. The Selected tasks list shows the tasks for which shortcuts are already placed on the desktop. The Available tasks list shows the tasks for which you do not yet have shortcuts on your desktop.
   • To add a shortcut to the desktop, select the required tasks in the Available tasks list and click Add >>.
   • To remove a shortcut from the desktop, select the task that you do not need in the Selected tasks list and click << Remove.
3. To show your custom buttons on the desktop, select the Custom buttons check box.
4. To show the shortcut for creating new custom hyperlink buttons at the bottom of the desktop, select the Create a new domain custom button check box.
5. Specify whether to show the Statistics and Favorites groups and what items to show there. Clearing check boxes will remove the respective items from the desktop. The Favorites group shows the links to items or control panel screens that you added to desktop by navigating to the respective control panel screens and clicking the Create shortcut or Add to favorites icons.
6. Click OK.

To add a domain to the Favorites group of the desktop:

1. On your Home page, click the domain name you want to add to favorites.
2. Click the Add to favorites icon at the upper right corner of the screen.
3. Specify the desktop shortcut label and the description.
4. Click OK.

To add a mail account to the Favorites group of the desktop:

1. On your Home page, click the required domain name.
2. Click the Mail icon in the Services group.
3. Click the e-mail address you want to add to favorites.
4. Click the Add to favorites icon at the upper right corner of the screen.
5. Specify the desktop shortcut label and the description.
6. Click OK.

To add items to the Favorites group of the desktop:

1. Navigate to the control panel screen you need.
2. Click the Create Shortcut icon at the upper right corner of the screen.
3. Specify the desktop shortcut label and the description.
4. Click OK.

To remove items from the Favorites group of the desktop:

1. On the desktop, click the shortcut that you wish to remove.
2. Click the Edit Favorites icon in the upper right corner of the screen.
3. Click Remove.

OR

1. On the desktop, click the icon corresponding to the shortcut that you wish to remove.
2. Click Remove.

If You Forgot Your Password

To restore your forgotten password:

1. In your web browser's address bar, type the URL where your Plesk control panel is located (for example, https://your-domain.com:8443)
2. Press ENTER.

   Plesk login screen will open.

3. Click the Forgot your password? link.
4. Type your login name into the Login box, and type your e-mail address registered in the system into the E-mail box.
5. Click OK.

   Your password will be sent to your e-mail address.

Changing Your Contact Information and Password

If you need to update your contact information, or change password:

1. On your Home page, click Edit in the Tools group.
2. Update your information as required, or type a new password, and click OK.

If you forgot your password:

1. In your web browser's address bar, type the URL where your Plesk control panel is located.
2. For example, https://your-domain.com:8443.
3. Press ENTER. Plesk login screen will open.
4. Click the Forgot your password? link.
5. Type your login name into the Login box, type your e-mail address registered in the system into the E-mail box, and click OK.

   Your password will be sent to your e-mail address.

Viewing the List of Operations You Can Perform within Your Control Panel

To view the list of operations you can perform within your control panel, onyour Home page, click Permissions. The permissions for operations are listed as follows:

• Access to control panel. Shows whether you can access the control panel for managing domains and sites.
• Domain creation. Shows whether you can host new domain names/web sites on the server.
• Physical hosting management. Shows whether you can fully control hosting accounts for your web sites. If it says No,then you can only change FTP password for accessing your web spaces.
• System access management. Shows whether you can enable and disable access to the system through Remote Desktop.
• Hard disk quota assignment. Shows whether you can set up the hard quotas on disk space allocated to your sites.
• Subdomains management. Shows whether you can set up, modify and remove subdomains.
• Domain aliases management. Shows whether you are able to set up additional alternative domain names for web sites and allow users to do so.
• Log rotation management. Shows whether you can adjust the cleanup and recycling of processed log files for your site.
• Anonymous FTP management. Shows whether you can have an FTP directory where all users could download and upload files without the need to enter login and password. A web site should reside on a dedicated IP address in order to use anonymous FTP service.
• FTP accounts management. Shows whether you can create and manage additional FTP accounts.
• Scheduler management. Shows whether you can schedule tasks with the task scheduler. Scheduled tasks can be used for running scripts or utilities on schedule.
• Domain limits adjustment. Shows whether you can distribute the resources given to you by your service provider between your domains.
• DNS zone management. Shows whether you can manage the DNS zones of your domains.
• Tomcat applications management. Shows whether you can install Tomcat Java applications and applets on the web site through the control panel.
• Mailing lists management. Shows whether you can use mailing lists provided by the GNU Mailman software.
• Spam filter management. Shows whether you can use spam filter provided by the SpamAssassin software.
• Antivirus management. Shows whether you can use server-side antivirus protection for filtering incoming and outgoing mail.
• Backup/restore functions. Shows whether you can use the control panel's facilities to backup and restore your sites. Scheduled and on-demand backups are supported.
• Ability to use remote XML interface. Shows whether can remotely manage web sites through custom applications. The XML interface can be used for developing custom applications integrated with web sites, which could be used, for instance, for automating setup of hosting accounts and provisioning of services for customers purchasing hosting services from your reseller's site. The remote XML interface operations are limited to setting up and removing domain names/web spaces on the server, modifying domain and web site related preferences and hosting services, retrieving information on domains.
• SiteBuilder. Shows whether you can use SiteBuilder for creating and editing your web sites.
• Hosting Perfomance Management. Shows whether you can change the hosting performance preferences for your domains.
• IIS Application Pool Management. Shows whether you can manage your IIS application pool.
• Web statistics management. Shows whether you can manage web statistics for your domains.
• Additional write/modify permissions management. Shows whether you can manage additional write/modify permissions for your domains. These permissions are required if your web applications are using a file-based database (like Jet) located in the root of httpdocs or httpsdocs folders. Please note that selecting this option might seriously compromise the web site security.
• Shared SSL management. Shows whether you can manage shared SSL for your domains.
• User interface. Shows what type of Plesk control panel interface you can use - standard, desktop, or both.
• Desktop management. Shows whether you can customize and manage your desktop interface

Viewing Resource Allotments for Your Account

To view the resource allotments for your account, on your Home page, click Limits. The resource allotments are shown as follows:

• Maximum number of domains. The total number of domain names/web sites you can host on the server. This includes web sites that you host on this server, and domain forwarders that point to web sites hosted on other servers. Domain aliases (additional domain names for sites hosted on this server) are not limited by this resource type.
• Maximum number of domain aliases. Displays the maximum number of domain aliases that can be created for your domains.
• Maximum number of subdomains. Displays the maximum number of subdomains that can be hosted under your domains.
• Disk space. Shows you the total amount of disk space allocated to your account. This amount is measured in megabytes. It includes disk space occupied by all files related to your domains/web sites: web site contents, databases, applications, mailboxes, log files and backup files. This is the so-called soft quota: when it is exceeded, domain names and web sites are not suspended automatically, only the appropriate notices are sent to your provider's e-mail addresses and the resource overage is indicated by a corresponding icon shown in the control panel to the left of your domain name.
• MySQL databases quota and Microsoft SQL databases quota. Displays the maximum disk space amount that MySQL and Microsoft SQL Server databases respectively can occupy on your domains.
• Maximum amount of traffic. Displays the maximum amount of data in megabytes that can be transferred from your websites during a month. Once the limit is reached, the appropriate notices are sent to your provider's e-mail addresses and the resource overage is indicated by a corresponding icon shown in the control panel to the left of the domain name.
• Maximum number of web users. Shows the maximum number of personal web pages that you can host for other users under your domains. This service is mostly used in educational institutions that host non-commercial personal pages of their students and staff. These pages usually have web addresses like http://your-domain.com/~username.
• Maximum number of additional Microsoft FrontPage accounts. Displays the maximum number of additional Microsoft FrontPage accounts you can create on your domains.
• Maximum number of additional FTP accounts. Displays the maximum number of additional FTP accounts that you can create on your domains.
• Maximum number of MySQL databases and Maximum number of Microsoft SQL Server databases. Displays the maximum number of MySQL and Microsoft SQL Server databases respectively that can be hosted in your domains.
• Maximum number of mailboxes. Shows the maximum number of mailboxes that can be hosted in your domains.
• Mailbox quota. Displays the amount of disk space in kilobytes that is allocated to each mailbox in your domains.
• Total mailboxes quota. Displays the total amount of disk space available for all mailboxes on all your domains.
• Maximum number of mail redirects. Shows the maximum number of mail redirects that can be used in your domains.
• Maximum number of mail groups. Shows the maximum number of mail groups that can be used in your domains.
• Maximum number of mail autoresponders. Displays the maximum number of autoresponders that can be set up in your domains.
• Maximum number of mailing lists. Shows maximum the number of mailing lists that you can run in your domains.
• Maximum number of Java applications. Displays the maximum number of Java applications or applets that you can install on your domains.
• Maximum number of IIS application pools. Specify the total number of dedicated IIS application pools that the customer can allocate between his or her domains.
• Maximum number of shared SSL links. Shows the total number of subdomains (including their parent domain) that can link to the Master SSL domain defined by the server administrator.
• Maximum number of ODBC connections. Shows the maximum number of ODBC connections that you can use on your domains.
• Validity period. Shows the term for a hosting account. At the end of the term, your domain/web site will be suspended, its Web, FTP and mail services will no longer be accessible to the Internet users, and you will not be able to log in to the control panel.