Parallels H Sphere 3.4.1 Administrator Guide Hsphere Admin En

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Legal and Copyright Notice
Parallels Holdings, Ltd.
c/o Parallels International GmbH.
Vordergasse 59
CH-Schaffhausen
Switzerland
Phone: +41 526320 411
Fax: +41 52672 2010

www.parallels.com
© 1999-2010 Parallels Holdings, Ltd. and its affiliates. All rights reserved. This product is
protected by United States and international copyright laws. The product‟s underlying
technology, patents, and trademarks are listed at http://www.parallels.com/trademarks.
Microsoft, Windows, Windows Server, Windows NT, Windows Vista, and MS-DOS are
registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
Mac is a registered trademark of Apple, Inc.
All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Contents
Preface

15

Typographical Conventions ......................................................................................................... 15
Feedback ..................................................................................................................................... 16

About This Guide

17

Introduction To Parallels H-Sphere

18

DNS Management ....................................................................................................................... 19
Server Management .................................................................................................................... 20
User Signup ................................................................................................................................. 20
Billing And Plan Management ..................................................................................................... 20
Merchant Gateway Management ................................................................................................ 21
User/Account/Domain Management............................................................................................ 22
Resellers ...................................................................................................................................... 23
Domain Management .................................................................................................................. 24
SSL .............................................................................................................................................. 25
Support Center ............................................................................................................................ 26
Look and Feel Management ........................................................................................................ 26

Parallels H-Sphere Licensing

27

Purchasing and Leasing Parallels H-Sphere .................................................................... 27
Upgrading to Parallels H-Sphere 3.4 or higher ................................................................. 27
Upgrading Parallels H-Sphere Accounts ........................................................................... 28

Getting Started

29

Step1. Disable Global Resources ................................................................................................ 30
Step 2. Set up a Domain Registrar .............................................................................................. 31
Step 3. Configure Mail Notification Addresses ............................................................................ 31
Step 4. Set up Payment Settings ................................................................................................. 32
Step 5. Create Plans.................................................................................................................... 33
Step 6. Create Billing Periods ...................................................................................................... 33
Step 7. Configure Support Center ............................................................................................... 34
Step 8. Configure Look and Feel ................................................................................................. 34

Server Configuration

35

Physical Servers .......................................................................................................................... 36
Adding Physical Servers ................................................................................................... 37
Physical Server Controls ................................................................................................... 38
Deleting a Physical Server ................................................................................................ 39
Logical Servers ............................................................................................................................ 39
Adding Logical Servers ..................................................................................................... 40
Enabling User Signup on Logical Servers ......................................................................... 42
Removing Logical Servers ................................................................................................ 43
Setting Logical Server Additional Options ......................................................................... 43

Preface

4

Adding IPs ................................................................................................................................... 48
DNS Servers ................................................................................................................................ 51
Mail Server Settings..................................................................................................................... 53
SPF and SRS .............................................................................................................................. 54
Enabling SPF and SRS ..................................................................................................... 54
Configuring SPF and SRS ................................................................................................. 55
AntiSpam and AntiVirus ............................................................................................................... 56
Enabling AntiSpam and AntiVirus in Control Panel........................................................... 56
Configuring AntiSpam and AntiVirus Default Settings ...................................................... 57
System SMTP Relays .................................................................................................................. 58
Advanced Web Server Settings ................................................................................................... 59
Apache Version ................................................................................................................. 59
Apache Modules ................................................................................................................ 60
Using Gotroot.com Modsecurity™ Rules With H-Sphere ................................................. 63
PHP Modes ....................................................................................................................... 66
PHP Plugins ...................................................................................................................... 69
PHP Accelerators .............................................................................................................. 70
Server Groups ............................................................................................................................. 71
Load Balanced Server Clusters ................................................................................................... 74
Platform Change .......................................................................................................................... 77
Updating Physical Boxes From CP Interface .............................................................................. 80
Procedure .......................................................................................................................... 81
Physical Server Installation/Update Profiles ................................................................................ 82
Resource Prerequisites ............................................................................................................... 86
System Service Management ...................................................................................................... 90

DNS and Hosting

92

DNS Manager .............................................................................................................................. 93
Adding DNS Zones ...................................................................................................................... 93
Instant Alias Templates ............................................................................................................... 95
Adding Instant Alias Templates ......................................................................................... 96
Editing Instant Alias Templates ......................................................................................... 98
DNS Records ............................................................................................................................... 99
Adding custom A records ................................................................................................ 100
Adding custom MX records ............................................................................................. 101
Adding custom CNAME records ...................................................................................... 101
Re-generating System Custom DNS Records ................................................................ 103
Hosting Your Corporate Site ...................................................................................................... 103
Step 1. Make sure you have a service DNS zone ........................................................... 104
Step 2. Create a service plan .......................................................................................... 104
Step 3. Disallow signups from outside your admin account. ........................................... 105
Step 4. Create a service account .................................................................................... 105
Adding Domains for Third Level Hosting ................................................................................... 106
Providing Mail Under Service Domain for Third-Level Hosting ................................................. 106

Control Panel Web Interface

107

Regional Settings....................................................................................................................... 108
Images and Icons ...................................................................................................................... 110
Logo Images .................................................................................................................... 110
Icons And Control Images ............................................................................................... 112
Interface Texts ........................................................................................................................... 114
Login Texts ...................................................................................................................... 114
Signup Texts.................................................................................................................... 114
Miscellaneous Texts ........................................................................................................ 114
Skins and Colors........................................................................................................................ 115
Disabling CP Skins .................................................................................................................... 117
Disabling CP Skins globally ............................................................................................. 117

Preface

5

Disabling CP Skins for reseller plans .............................................................................. 117
Setting Interface Language ....................................................................................................... 118
Setting Default System Language ................................................................................... 118
Setting Admin Interface Language .................................................................................. 118

E-Mail Notifications

120

Setting E-Mail Notification Recipients ........................................................................................ 121
Editing E-Mail Notifications ........................................................................................................ 122
Configuring User Notification Rules ........................................................................................... 127
Online Invoices ................................................................................................................ 128
“No Charge” Notifications ................................................................................................ 129

Control Panel Configuration

130

Entering Company Information .................................................................................................. 131
Disabling Global Resources, Hosting Platforms And Reseller CP SSL .................................... 132
Using Background Job Manager ............................................................................................... 135
Supported TLD‟s ........................................................................................................................ 139
Installing Shared SSL Certificates ............................................................................................. 140
Shared SSL installation wizard........................................................................................ 142
Managing Mail SSL.................................................................................................................... 144
Enabling Mail SSL ........................................................................................................... 145
Editing Mail SSL .............................................................................................................. 147
Reposting Certificates ..................................................................................................... 149
Disabling Mail SSL .......................................................................................................... 150
Using Credit Card Encryption .................................................................................................... 150
Turning On....................................................................................................................... 150
Loading Private Key ........................................................................................................ 152
Turning Off....................................................................................................................... 153
If You Lose Your Private Key .......................................................................................... 153
Adding Credit Card Brands ........................................................................................................ 154

Domain Registrars

155

Domain Registrar Manager ....................................................................................................... 155
Configuring Domain Registration Settings ...................................................................... 156
Step 1. Creating Connections with Domain Registrars ................................................... 156
Step 2. Associating Top Level Domains with Domain Registrars ................................... 156
Step 3. Setting Default Domain Registration Prices........................................................ 158
Step 4. Configuring Registrar Connections for Resellers ............................................... 159
Editing Registrar Connection Settings ............................................................................ 159
Removing TLD Associations ........................................................................................... 159
Deleting Registrar Connections ....................................................................................... 160
Enom Configuration ................................................................................................................... 161
Setting Up Enom Connection .......................................................................................... 161
OpenSRS Configuration ............................................................................................................ 163
Setting Up OpenSRS Connection ................................................................................... 164
Asynchronous Response Management .......................................................................... 166
OnlineNIC Configuration ............................................................................................................ 168
Getting Prepared ............................................................................................................. 168
Setting Up OnlineNIC Connection ................................................................................... 168
RRPproxy Configuration ............................................................................................................ 170
Setting Up RRPproxy Connection ................................................................................... 170
Ascionic Configuration ............................................................................................................... 172
Setting Up Ascionic Connection ...................................................................................... 172
TPPInternet Configuration ......................................................................................................... 174
Setting Up TPPInternet Connection ................................................................................ 174

Preface

6

Email Domain Registration ........................................................................................................ 176
Configuring Email Registrar ............................................................................................ 177

Merchant Gateways

180

Merchant Gateway Manager ..................................................................................................... 181
Setting Up Merchant Gateway ........................................................................................ 182
Editing Merchant Gateway Settings ................................................................................ 182
Associating Merchant Gateways with Credit Card Vendors ........................................... 183
Editing Description for User Credit Card Statements ...................................................... 183
Handling CC Charge Request Failures ........................................................................... 184
One Step Gateways ........................................................................................................ 185
AssureBuy Configuration ........................................................................................................... 185
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 185
Configuration ................................................................................................................... 185
AuthorizeNet (Sim Protocol) Configuration ............................................................................... 187
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 187
Configuration ................................................................................................................... 188
Bibit Configuration ..................................................................................................................... 190
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 190
Configuration ................................................................................................................... 190
Cardia Services Configuration ................................................................................................... 191
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 191
Configuration ................................................................................................................... 191
ECHO Configuration .................................................................................................................. 192
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 192
Configuration ................................................................................................................... 192
ePDQ Configuration................................................................................................................... 193
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 193
Configuration ................................................................................................................... 193
eWay Configuration ................................................................................................................... 195
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 195
Configuration ................................................................................................................... 195
HSBC Configuration .................................................................................................................. 196
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 196
Configuration ................................................................................................................... 196
Innovative Gateway Configuration ............................................................................................. 197
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 197
Configuration ................................................................................................................... 197
LinkPoint (API v3.01) Configuration .......................................................................................... 198
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 198
Configuration ................................................................................................................... 200
Moneris Configuration................................................................................................................ 202
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 202
Configuration ................................................................................................................... 202
NetBilling Configuration ............................................................................................................. 203
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 203
Configuration ................................................................................................................... 204
NTPNow Configuration .............................................................................................................. 205
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 205
Configuration ................................................................................................................... 205
Paradata Configuration .............................................................................................................. 207
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 207
Configuration ................................................................................................................... 207
PayGate Configuration .............................................................................................................. 208
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 208
Configuration ................................................................................................................... 208
PayJunction Configuration ......................................................................................................... 210
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 210

Preface

7

Configuration ................................................................................................................... 210
Plug‟n Pay Configuration ........................................................................................................... 212
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 212
Configuration ................................................................................................................... 212
Pay-Me-Now Configuration ....................................................................................................... 214
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 214
Configuration ................................................................................................................... 214
PosNet Configuration................................................................................................................. 215
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 215
Configuration ................................................................................................................... 215
Protx (VSP Direct Protocol 2.22) Configuration ........................................................................ 217
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 217
Configuration ................................................................................................................... 217
PSiGate (XML API) Configuration ............................................................................................. 218
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 218
Configuration ................................................................................................................... 218
SecurePay Configuration ........................................................................................................... 220
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 220
Configuration ................................................................................................................... 220
SkipJack Configuration .............................................................................................................. 221
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 221
Configuration ................................................................................................................... 222
SecurePay.com.au Configuration .............................................................................................. 223
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 223
Configuration ................................................................................................................... 223
SecureTrading Configuration ..................................................................................................... 224
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 224
Configuration ................................................................................................................... 224
ThePayDesk Configuration ........................................................................................................ 226
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 226
Configuration ................................................................................................................... 227
Tucows Configuration ................................................................................................................ 228
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 228
Configuration ................................................................................................................... 228
VeriSign PayFlow Pro Configuration ......................................................................................... 230
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 230
Configuration ................................................................................................................... 231
VeriSign PayFlow Pro With SSL Support .................................................................................. 233
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 233
Configuration ................................................................................................................... 233

Web-based Payments

235

Web Payment Systems Manager .............................................................................................. 236
Work Principles................................................................................................................ 236
Configuration Procedure ................................................................................................. 236
Setting Web Payment Instant Notification URL ............................................................... 237
2CheckOut Configuration .......................................................................................................... 238
Authorize.Net (Sim Protocol) Configuration .............................................................................. 239
Setting Up Authorize.Net ................................................................................................. 239
ChronoPay Configuration .......................................................................................................... 241
Setting Up ChronoPay ..................................................................................................... 241
GestPay Configuration............................................................................................................... 242
PayNova Configuration .............................................................................................................. 243
PayPal Merchant Gateway Configuration ................................................................................. 244
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 244
Configuration ................................................................................................................... 244
Sentry Configuration .................................................................................................................. 245
Preparation ...................................................................................................................... 245

Preface

8

Setup Procedure.............................................................................................................. 245
Webmoney Configuration .......................................................................................................... 247
1. Set your own purse ..................................................................................................... 247
2. Activate Webmoney payments in your Parallels H-Sphere control panel ................... 247
WorldPay Configuration ............................................................................................................. 248
Setting Up WorldPay ....................................................................................................... 248

Plans

251
Creating and Editing Plans (Plan Wizards) ............................................................................... 252
Starting Plan Creation Wizards ....................................................................................... 253
Starting Plan Edit Wizards ............................................................................................... 253
Simplified Plan Wizards ................................................................................................... 254
A Typical Web Hosting Plan Wizard .......................................................................................... 256
Step 1. Selecting Resources and Configuring Plan Settings .......................................... 257
Subsequent Steps. Setting Prices ................................................................................... 263
MySQL Plan Wizard .................................................................................................................. 264
Windows Plan Wizard ................................................................................................................ 264
Windows RealMedia Plan Wizard ............................................................................................. 265
E-mail Plan Wizard .................................................................................................................... 265
VPS Plan Wizard ....................................................................................................................... 265
Markup Plan Wizard .................................................................................................................. 266
Admin Plans ............................................................................................................................... 267
Creating Admin Plans ...................................................................................................... 267
Editing Admin Plans ........................................................................................................ 268
Demo Plans ............................................................................................................................... 269
Access to Plans ......................................................................................................................... 272
Plan Controls ............................................................................................................................. 273
Show ................................................................................................................................ 274
Copy ................................................................................................................................ 275
Delete .............................................................................................................................. 275
Plan Settings .............................................................................................................................. 276
Controlling RAM And CPU Usage ............................................................................................. 279
Enable RLimit in Plans .................................................................................................... 279
Configure RLimit Values .................................................................................................. 280
Limiting Resource Use For Individual Accounts .............................................................. 280
Placing Plans on Particular Boxes ............................................................................................. 281

Resources

285

Users, Accounts, Domains ........................................................................................................ 285
Users ............................................................................................................................... 286
Accounts .......................................................................................................................... 286
Domains .......................................................................................................................... 289
Traffic ......................................................................................................................................... 290
Traffic Calculation ............................................................................................................ 291
Traffic Limit ...................................................................................................................... 291
Traffic Pricing................................................................................................................... 291
Restricting Traffic Usage and Traffic Limit ...................................................................... 292
Charging for Traffic .......................................................................................................... 293
Traffic Configuration Changes ......................................................................................... 299
Tracking End User Traffic Consumption ......................................................................... 300
Disk Space ................................................................................................................................. 300
Charging Users for Disk Space ....................................................................................... 301
Enabling/Disabling Summary Disk Usage ....................................................................... 302
Recreating Resources ............................................................................................................... 303
Blacklists in Parallels H-Sphere ................................................................................................. 304
Domains in blacklist ......................................................................................................... 304
Emails in blacklist ............................................................................................................ 305

Preface

9

Uploading and Exporting Black Lists ............................................................................... 306

Billing

307

Plans ................................................................................................................................ 307
Billing Types .................................................................................................................... 307
Trial Hosting .................................................................................................................... 307
Billing Profiles .................................................................................................................. 307
Prices ............................................................................................................................... 308
Limiting Resources .......................................................................................................... 308
Billing Periods .................................................................................................................. 308
Crediting Accounts .......................................................................................................... 308
Debiting Accounts ........................................................................................................... 308
Billing Modes ................................................................................................................... 309
Traffic ............................................................................................................................... 309
Disk Space ...................................................................................................................... 309
E-mailing Invoices ........................................................................................................... 309
Taxes ............................................................................................................................... 309
Promotions ...................................................................................................................... 309
Billing Resellers ............................................................................................................... 310
Managing Debtors ........................................................................................................... 310
Money Returns ................................................................................................................ 310
Billing Statements ............................................................................................................ 310
Billing Types .............................................................................................................................. 312
Billing Profiles ............................................................................................................................ 313
Billing Periods and Discounts .................................................................................................... 313
Default and Actual Billing Periods. Base Prices .............................................................. 313
Monthly and Billing Period Resources ............................................................................ 313
Opening a New Billing Period/Month............................................................................... 314
Creating and Configuring Actual Billing Periods ............................................................. 314
Changing Account‟s Billing Period ............................................................................................. 316
Changing Billing Period Start Date ............................................................................................ 317
Credit Limit ................................................................................................................................. 319
Setting Credit Limit in a Plan ........................................................................................... 320
Increasing Credit Limit for Individual Accounts ............................................................... 320
Resetting Credit Limit For All Users ................................................................................ 321
Fees Collected From Customers ............................................................................................... 322
Plan Fees ........................................................................................................................ 322
Free Units .................................................................................................................................. 323
Setting Prices and Free Units .................................................................................................... 324
Comments on Resources ................................................................................................ 324
Discounts ................................................................................................................................... 330
Billing Consequences of Editing Prices and Free Units ............................................................ 331
Taxes ......................................................................................................................................... 331
Tax Exemption ........................................................................................................................... 333
Enabling Tax Exemption ................................................................................................. 334
Setting Tax Exemption Mode at Signup .......................................................................... 334
Activating User Accounts with Tax Exemption Code Entered ........................................ 335
Money Returns .......................................................................................................................... 337
Events that Trigger Refunds ............................................................................................ 337
Refund Formulas ............................................................................................................. 338
Moneyback Period ........................................................................................................... 338
Reducing Quotas and Limits ........................................................................................... 339
Refund Percentage ......................................................................................................... 339
Managing Debtors ..................................................................................................................... 340
Punitive Measures ........................................................................................................... 340
Punitive Measures Automation ........................................................................................ 340
Start Date of Time in Debt ............................................................................................... 341
Promotions ................................................................................................................................. 342

Preface

10

Promotion Types ............................................................................................................. 342
Calculating Promotion Discounts .................................................................................... 342
Creating Promotions ........................................................................................................ 342
Calculators shipped with H-Sphere ................................................................................. 345
Validators shipped with H-Sphere ................................................................................... 345
Associating Promotions With Plans................................................................................. 345
Extra Packages.......................................................................................................................... 345
Creating Extra Packs ....................................................................................................... 345
Managing Extra Packs .................................................................................................... 346
Anniversary Based Billing .......................................................................................................... 348
Switching Between Billing Modes .............................................................................................. 348
Sending “No charge” Notifications ............................................................................................. 349
Warning of Immediate Charges in Case of Buying Additional Resources ................................ 349

Dedicated Servers

350

Enabling Dedicated Servers in Globals ..................................................................................... 351
Adding MRTG Logical Servers and Network Switches ............................................................. 351
Adding MRTG Logical Servers ........................................................................................ 352
Adding Network Switches ................................................................................................ 352
Viewing MRTG Server Info .............................................................................................. 354
Creating/Managing Dedicated Server Templates ..................................................................... 355
Custom-built Dedicated Servers...................................................................................... 356
Dedicated Server Plans ............................................................................................................. 357
User Plans ....................................................................................................................... 357
User‟s Choosing a Server at Signup ............................................................................... 359
Reseller Plans ................................................................................................................. 360
Managing Dedicated Servers .................................................................................................... 362
Adding Dedicated Servers ............................................................................................... 362
Editing Dedicated Servers ............................................................................................... 364
Deleting Dedicated Servers ............................................................................................. 365
Dedicated Server Status ............................................................................................................ 365
Assigning Additional IP Ranges ................................................................................................ 368
1. Set Prices for Extra IPs in Plans ................................................................................. 368
2. Add IP Subnet ............................................................................................................. 368
3. Split IP Subnet to Smaller IP Ranges ......................................................................... 370
4. Create PTR zone for Reverse DNS Records .............................................................. 371
5. Assign IP Range to Dedicated Server ......................................................................... 372
6. Unassign IP Range ..................................................................................................... 373
Billing Dedicated Servers .......................................................................................................... 374
Bandwidth Billing Types .................................................................................................. 375
Bandwidth Billing Types Options ..................................................................................... 376
Dedicated Servers‟ Maintenance ............................................................................................... 376
Regular Backups ............................................................................................................. 377
Maintenance Requests .................................................................................................... 377
Automatic Cancellation Settings...................................................................................... 379

Resellers

380
Plans ................................................................................................................................ 380
Dual Nature of Resellers ................................................................................................. 380
Private Label.................................................................................................................... 380
Look and Feel and Regional Settings ............................................................................. 380
Merchant Gateways ........................................................................................................ 381
Domain Registration ........................................................................................................ 381
Providing Support ............................................................................................................ 381
Control Panel ................................................................................................................... 381
Web, Mail, and SQL Resources ...................................................................................... 381
Servers ............................................................................................................................ 382

Preface

11

SSL .................................................................................................................................. 382
Billing ............................................................................................................................... 382
Markup plans ................................................................................................................... 382
Reseller DNS ............................................................................................................................. 383
Step 1. Adding Reseller CP Alias Template .................................................................... 383
Step 2. Configuring Reseller DNS Servers ..................................................................... 385
Creating And Editing Reseller Plans ......................................................................................... 386
Step 1. Configuring The Plan .......................................................................................... 386
Step 2 .............................................................................................................................. 389
Billing Resellers ......................................................................................................................... 392
Fees Collected From Resellers ....................................................................................... 392
Fees for services provided with reseller account ............................................................ 392
Fees for services distributed with user accounts ............................................................ 392
Charging Resellers for Traffic .......................................................................................... 393
Reseller Control Panel SSL ....................................................................................................... 394
Enabling Reseller Control Panel SSL Protection ............................................................ 396
Disabling Reseller Control Panel SSL Protection ........................................................... 400
Reseller Shared SSL ................................................................................................................. 400
Resellers‟ Own Wildcard Certificates .............................................................................. 401
Sharing Your Wildcard Certificates with Resellers .......................................................... 402
Placing Resellers on Separate Boxes ....................................................................................... 404
Allocating Physical Servers to Resellers ................................................................................... 407
Supporting Resellers‟ Customers .............................................................................................. 408
Deleting Resellers...................................................................................................................... 409
Suspending And Resuming Resellers ....................................................................................... 410
Moving Accounts Between Resellers ........................................................................................ 410

Account Management

412

Finding User Accounts............................................................................................................... 413
Generic Search................................................................................................................ 414
Search by Domain Name ................................................................................................ 415
Search by Contact Info .................................................................................................... 415
Search in Resellers ......................................................................................................... 416
Search Suspended Accounts .......................................................................................... 417
Search Deleted Accounts ................................................................................................ 418
Search Dedicated Server Accounts ................................................................................ 418
Search by VPS Hostname ............................................................................................... 419
Search by Account Balance ............................................................................................ 419
Search by Merchant Gateway Transactions ................................................................... 419
Search by Invoice/Balance Entries.................................................................................. 419
Search by Credit Card Charges ...................................................................................... 420
Search by Transfer Traffic ............................................................................................... 420
Search by Disk Usage ..................................................................................................... 421
Search by CC Processing Errors .................................................................................... 421
Search by Logical and Physical Servers ......................................................................... 421
Search by Reseller Traffic ............................................................................................... 422
Search by Resellers Disk Usage ..................................................................................... 422
User Details ............................................................................................................................... 422
Admin Notes .............................................................................................................................. 423
Crediting Accounts..................................................................................................................... 424
Debiting Accounts ...................................................................................................................... 425
View debits ...................................................................................................................... 428
Deleting Accounts ...................................................................................................................... 429
Suspending and Resuming Accounts........................................................................................ 430
Suspending Accounts ...................................................................................................... 432
Resuming Accounts ........................................................................................................ 433
Restoring Accounts.................................................................................................................... 433
Reports ...................................................................................................................................... 434

Preface

12

Exporting Reports ............................................................................................................ 436
Billing Balance ................................................................................................................. 436
Estimated balance exhaustion date ................................................................................ 438
Daily Report ..................................................................................................................... 439
Web Payments Log ......................................................................................................... 440
Charge Log ...................................................................................................................... 441
Registrar Log ................................................................................................................... 442
Credit Card Charge ......................................................................................................... 443
Billing Entries ................................................................................................................... 443
Signup/Go-away Statistics .............................................................................................. 445
Monthly Revenue ............................................................................................................ 446
Monetary Transactions .................................................................................................... 447
Transfer Traffic Report .................................................................................................... 448
Disk Usage Report .......................................................................................................... 450
Reseller Traffic Report .................................................................................................... 451
In Resellers Disk Usage Report ...................................................................................... 452
IP Addresses Report ....................................................................................................... 453
CC Processing Errors Report .......................................................................................... 454
Account Check ................................................................................................................ 455
Reports Installed in a Package ........................................................................................ 456
Processing Check Payments ..................................................................................................... 463
Setting up the Check Mailing Address ............................................................................ 464
Setting E-mail .................................................................................................................. 464
Moderating Accounts ....................................................................................................... 464
Turning Off Check Payments For the Entire System ...................................................... 465
Splitting Multiple Accounts ......................................................................................................... 466
Granting SSH Access To Users ................................................................................................ 467

Customer Signup

469

Signing Up Users ....................................................................................................................... 469
Signing Up Users from Admin Control Panel .................................................................. 470
Signing Up Users from the Street .................................................................................... 471
Moderating User Signups .......................................................................................................... 471
Moderated Signups ......................................................................................................... 471
Email Notifications ........................................................................................................... 472
Activating Or Rejecting Signups ...................................................................................... 472
Changing Details of Moderated Accounts ....................................................................... 473
Moderated Credit Card Signup........................................................................................ 474
Signup Guard Settings .............................................................................................................. 475
Creating moderation rules ............................................................................................... 475
Setting Signup Guard Blacklist ........................................................................................ 477
Viewing Signup Info ................................................................................................................... 478
Signup IPs ....................................................................................................................... 478
Signup Statistics .............................................................................................................. 479
Trial Hosting ............................................................................................................................... 480
Introduction to Trial Hosting ............................................................................................ 480
Managing Trial Accounts ................................................................................................. 480
Enabling Trial Registration .............................................................................................. 481
Grouping Trial Plans ........................................................................................................ 482
Managing Trial Accounts ................................................................................................. 483
Enabling Trial Registration .............................................................................................. 484
Grouping Trial Plans ........................................................................................................ 485

Migration

486

Moving Domains Between Accounts ......................................................................................... 486
Domain Move Requirements ........................................................................................... 486
Moving Domains with Domain Mover .............................................................................. 487

Preface

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Compatibility .................................................................................................................... 488
Manual Domain Move ..................................................................................................... 488
Moving Accounts Between Servers ........................................................................................... 488
Account move implies: .................................................................................................... 488
Cautions .......................................................................................................................... 489
Requirements .................................................................................................................. 489
Procedure ........................................................................................................................ 490
Migrating Individual Cobalt RAQ4 Accounts to Parallels H-Sphere .......................................... 491
Migration Procedure ........................................................................................................ 492
Billing Issues.................................................................................................................... 495
Migrating Individual cPanel Accounts to Parallels H-Sphere .................................................... 496
Preparing for Migration .................................................................................................... 496
Migration Procedure ........................................................................................................ 497
Billing Issues.................................................................................................................... 499
Migrating Individual Ensim Accounts to Parallels H-Sphere ..................................................... 500
Preparing for Migration .................................................................................................... 501
Migration Procedure ........................................................................................................ 502
Migration Notes ............................................................................................................... 505
Billing Issues.................................................................................................................... 506
Migrating Mass Accounts to Parallels H-Sphere ....................................................................... 506
Preparing for Migration .................................................................................................... 506
Migration Procedure ........................................................................................................ 506
Billing Issues.................................................................................................................... 507

Technical Support

509

Client Support Center ................................................................................................................ 510
Configuring Administration Security ................................................................................ 511
Managing Trouble Tickets ............................................................................................... 512
Task System .................................................................................................................... 516
Searching Trouble Tickets............................................................................................... 517
Exchanging Private Messages ........................................................................................ 518
Managing KnowledgeBase .............................................................................................. 519
Ticket Statistics................................................................................................................ 519
Ticket Queues ................................................................................................................. 520
Supporting Reseller End Users ....................................................................................... 521
Configuring Support Center ....................................................................................................... 522
Knowledge Base ........................................................................................................................ 525
Creating Knowledge Bases ............................................................................................. 527
Editing and Removing Knowledge Bases ....................................................................... 527
Exporting Knowledge Base ............................................................................................. 528
Importing Knowledge Bases ............................................................................................ 529
Spellcheck ....................................................................................................................... 529
Search ............................................................................................................................. 530
Settings ............................................................................................................................ 530
Custom Jobs .............................................................................................................................. 531
Adding Custom Jobs ....................................................................................................... 532
Adding Tasks to Custom Jobs......................................................................................... 533
Tracking Custom Job Status ........................................................................................... 534
Mass Mail ................................................................................................................................... 535
Crash Report ............................................................................................................................. 537
Installation ....................................................................................................................... 537
Update ............................................................................................................................. 538
Changing E-Mail Address Where Reports Are Sent ....................................................... 539
Sending Crash Reports ................................................................................................... 539
Extended Physical Server Information ............................................................................ 541

Virtual Private Server

542

Preface

14

Providing VPS Hosting .............................................................................................................. 542
Step 1. Add VPS Network Gateway ................................................................................ 543
Step 2. Add IP Range to Logical Server ......................................................................... 543
Step 3. Enable User Signup on Logical Server ............................................................... 543
Step 4. Enable in Globals ................................................................................................ 543
Step 4. Create VPS Plans ............................................................................................... 543
Parallels H-Sphere VPS Templates .......................................................................................... 544
Adding H-Sphere VPS Templates ................................................................................... 545

Parallels Virtuozzo Containers

546

Setting Up Parallels Virtuozzo Containers Node Server ........................................................... 547
Creating Virtuozzo Plans ........................................................................................................... 548
Creating Virtuozzo Plan Groups ................................................................................................ 550
Signing Up Users for Virtuozzo Plans ....................................................................................... 550

Parallels Sitebuilder Integration

552

Setting Up Parallels Sitebuilder ................................................................................................. 553
Licensing Parallels Sitebuilder Accounts ................................................................................... 554
Configuring Access to Parallels Sitebuilder Plans from Parallels H-Sphere Plans ................... 555
Migrating from Parallels SiteStudio to Parallels Sitebuilder ...................................................... 556

Third Party Products

557

Urchin ........................................................................................................................................ 558
Miva Kit (intro) ............................................................................................................................ 559
How Does It Work? ......................................................................................................... 559
Adding Miva Merchant Licenses ................................................................................................ 559
Affiliate Programs ...................................................................................................................... 561
How Do Affiliate Programs Work? ................................................................................... 562
How Do I Set Up an Affiliate Program? ........................................................................... 562
Kanoodle™ Support .................................................................................................................. 564
AWStats Support ....................................................................................................................... 565
Setup ............................................................................................................................... 566
Configuration on Unix/Linux ............................................................................................ 566
Configuration on Windows .............................................................................................. 566
SpamAssassin Configuration Manager ..................................................................................... 567
MS Exchange Hosting ............................................................................................................... 571
Prepare Servers for MS Exchange Hosting .................................................................... 572
Enable MS Exchange Hosting in H-Sphere Global Resources ...................................... 572
Configure Microsoft Provisioning Framework ................................................................. 572
Configure MS Exchange Plan ......................................................................................... 573

CHAPTER 1

Preface
In this chapter:
Typographical Conventions ............................................................................... 15
Feedback .......................................................................................................... 16

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

Example

Special Bold

Items you must select,
such as menu options,
command buttons, or
items in a list.

Go to the System tab.

Titles of chapters,
sections, and
subsections.

Read the Basic
Administration chapter.

Italics

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 system supports the
so called wildcard
character search.

Monospace

The names of
commands, files,
directories, and domain
names.

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.

CHAPTER 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.

CHAPTER 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:
DNS Management ............................................................................................. 19
Server Management .......................................................................................... 20
User Signup ...................................................................................................... 20
Billing And Plan Management............................................................................ 20
Merchant Gateway Management ....................................................................... 21
User/Account/Domain Management .................................................................. 22
Resellers ........................................................................................................... 23
Domain Management ........................................................................................ 24
SSL ................................................................................................................... 25
Support Center .................................................................................................. 26
Look and Feel Management .............................................................................. 26

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 106) and instant access domain
aliases (on page 95), as well as to host the corporate (promotional) website. (on page
103)
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 51).
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 36) are actually or virtually separate computers with their
own operating systems (Linux, FreeBSD Unix, or Windows). They can be emulated
with VPS, VMWare or other software packages.
Logical servers (on page 39) 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 71). 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 48), configure system
SMTP relays (on page 58), assign mail server roles, assign name server roles (on page
51), etc.

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 464) through the signup
wizard. Depending on the billing type and signup settings, accounts may not be created
until moderated by administrator (on page 471). For instance, an account may not be
immediately created because it was blacklisted by Signup Guard (on page 475) 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.

Billing And Plan Management

Introduction To Parallels H-Sphere

21

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.
CREDIT CARD PROCESSORS. 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
181).
WEB BASED PAYMENT SYSTEMS. Parallels H-Sphere partially automates payments through
web based payment gateways, including WorldPay (on page 248), PayPal, 2CheckOut
(on page 238), GestPay (on page 242), PaySystems, and PayNova (on page 243).
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 HSphere 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 424) through the Parallels H-Sphere admin interface, as in
processing check payments (on page 463). 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 236).

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.
USERS. 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.
ACCOUNTS. 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 467) and an account under a Windows plan for ODBC or
ColdFusion hosting.
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.
Understanding Accounts, Domains, and Users (on page 285)

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 392)
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:


REGISTER 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 155). 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
176).



TRANSFER 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.



PARK 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:
WEBSITE 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.
SHARED 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 140)
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.
RESELLER CP SSL - you can configure your Parallels H-Sphere to let resellers secure their
control panels with regular SSL certificates. More>> (on page 394)
RESELLER SHARED SSL - resellers can install wildcard certificates to secure their customers‟
websites. More>> (on page 400)
DELEGATED SHARED SSL - you can allow your resellers to offer their customers your service
domain for third level hosting and wildcard certificate installed on it.
MAIL 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 144)

26

Introduction To Parallels H-Sphere

Support Center
Parallels H-Sphere Support Center includes Ticket Center, Knowledge Base, and
Custom Jobs modules.
TICKET CENTER. 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
KNOWLEDGE BASE. 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 525)
CUSTOM JOBS. 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 531)

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 110), default skins and colors (on page 115), interface texts (on page 114), and
notification e-mails (on page 122).
The administrator can also allow users to choose preferred skins and languages.

CHAPTER 4

Parallels H-Sphere Licensing
Parallels H-Sphere 3.4 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 3.4 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 3.4 or higher
Before upgrading earlier Parallels H-Sphere versions to 3.4 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.

 To upgrade the license:

28

Parallels H-Sphere Licensing

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 HSphere 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.

CHAPTER 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 93),
reseller CP alias, and an instant alias template (on page 95), creates a wwwuser
account for hosting your corporate site (on page 103).

Follow the given instructions step by step to configure your control panel.

In this chapter:
Step1. Disable Global Resources ...................................................................... 30
Step 2. Set up a Domain Registrar .................................................................... 31
Step 3. Configure Mail Notification Addresses ................................................... 31
Step 4. Set up Payment Settings ....................................................................... 32
Step 5. Create Plans ......................................................................................... 33
Step 6. Create Billing Periods ............................................................................ 33
Step 7. Configure Support Center ..................................................................... 34
Step 8. Configure Look and Feel ....................................................................... 34

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 singups, 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

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 155) 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.

31

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 181):
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 236), 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 463):
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 464). 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 522). 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 110): 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 131): enter the company info that will show in customer email notifications and the address will be used by customers to send checks.



Default language (on page 118): choose CP interface language. It can be
overridden by individual customers.



Regional options (on page 108): enter preferred currency symbol.The language and
the regional settings will affect all your customers‟ control panels.



Default CP design (on page 115): set designs to be available by users and the
default design for Users CPs.

CHAPTER 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:
Physical Servers................................................................................................ 36
Logical Servers ................................................................................................. 39
Adding IPs ......................................................................................................... 48
DNS Servers ..................................................................................................... 51
Mail Server Settings .......................................................................................... 53
SPF and SRS .................................................................................................... 54
AntiSpam and AntiVirus..................................................................................... 56
System SMTP Relays........................................................................................ 58
Advanced Web Server Settings ......................................................................... 59
Server Groups ................................................................................................... 71
Load Balanced Server Clusters ......................................................................... 74
Platform Change ............................................................................................... 77
Updating Physical Boxes From CP Interface ..................................................... 80
Physical Server Installation/Update Profiles ...................................................... 82
Resource Prerequisites ..................................................................................... 86
System Service Management ............................................................................ 90

36

Server Configuration

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 VPS, 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



VPS hosting

In this section:
Adding Physical Servers ................................................................................... 37
Physical Server Controls ................................................................................... 38
Deleting a Physical Server ................................................................................ 39

Server Configuration

37

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 71) (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 39) (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.

38

Server Configuration

Physical Server Controls
To see all physical servers in your Parallels H-Sphere cluster, go to E. Manager ->
Servers -> P.Servers:

From this page you can:




- choose Apache version (on page 59) for all Unix boxes and configure settings
for Unix web boxes (on page 59)
! 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 90).
See also:
Load balanced server clusters (on page 74)
Updating physical boxes from the CP interface (on page 80)
Physical server installation/update profiles (on page 82)

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:
Adding Logical Servers...................................................................................... 40
Enabling User Signup on Logical Servers.......................................................... 42
Removing Logical Servers ................................................................................. 43
Setting Logical Server Additional Options .......................................................... 43

39

40

Server Configuration

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:

Server Configuration



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
page 71) first.



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.

41

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 39) on this server

b

Automatically generate custom DNS records (on page 99) by clicking Generate in
front of Generate custom DNS records for this logical server

c

Add IP range (on page 48) available for hosting on this server

d

Configure additional options (on page 39) specific to this logical server type
(Web, mail, DNS, Windows, ...)

5. Add DNS records (on page 99) 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
(on page 39).

42

Server Configuration

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:

3. On the page that appears, turn on the Available for signup option.

Server Configuration

43

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

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

44

Server Configuration

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

45

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 51).

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.

REMOVING 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

46

Server Configuration

Once you removed all mail relays, you can remove the corresponding logical server.

MySQL server additional options

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.

VPS server additional options:

Server Configuration

Additional VPS server options allow to choose between FreeVPS and OpenVZ
solutions.
See also Changing Parallels H-Sphere VPS Solution in System Administrator guide.

Load Balancer File Server (Filer) Settings

47

48

Server Configuration

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.

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:

Server Configuration

3. On the page that appears, enter the IP(s):

49

50

Server Configuration



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:

Server Configuration

51



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.

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

52

Server Configuration

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.
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 DNS role drop-down box choose either master or slave1 or
slave2.
4. 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.

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:

Server Configuration

53

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.

54

Server Configuration

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 ..................................................................................... 54
Configuring SPF and SRS ................................................................................. 55

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:

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:

55

56

Server Configuration

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 53), and for individual plans, accounts, domains and mailboxes.

In this section:
Enabling AntiSpam and AntiVirus in Control Panel ............................................ 56
Configuring AntiSpam and AntiVirus Default Settings ........................................ 57

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.

Server Configuration

57

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

58

Server Configuration

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.

Server Configuration

59

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:
Apache Version ................................................................................................. 59
Apache Modules................................................................................................ 60
Using Gotroot.com Modsecurity™ Rules With H-Sphere ................................... 63
PHP Modes ....................................................................................................... 66
PHP Plugins ...................................................................................................... 69
PHP Accelerators .............................................................................................. 70

Apache Version
 To choose Apache version for your physical Unix box:
1. Go to E. Manager -> Servers -> P.Servers and click the
icon.

(Server options)

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.

60

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:

Server Configuration

61



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.

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
(on page 63).

62

Server Configuration



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

63

Using Gotroot.com Modsecurity™ Rules With H-Sphere
Parallels H-Sphere provides a tool for loading Gotroot.com Modsecurity rules included
into hsphere-apache-shared-h3.1 package.
At the moment, the following Gotroot rules are supported (the list may differ for Apache
1.x and 2.x, modsecurity 1.9 and 2.0-2.1 versions):


apache2-rules



badips



blacklist2



blacklist



exclude



jitp



proxy



recons



rootkits




rules
useragents

You can download Gotroot rules from http://www.gotroot.com/tikiindex.php?page=mod_security+rules

 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).
Apache 1.x: the rules are available for modsec 1.9 only.

1. Enter a temporary directory
2. Download archived Gotroot rules:
# wget
http://www.gotroot.com/downloads/ftp/mod_security/apache1/apa
che1-gotrootrules-latest.tar.gz

3. Untar it into the temporary directory
# tar zxf apache1-gotrootrules-latest.tar.gz

4. Copy the configuration *.conf files to the
/hsphere/pkg/config/httpd/gotrootrules directory:
# cp -f ./apache1/*.conf /hsphere/pkg/config/httpd/gotrootrules/

Apache 2.x: it is required to download the rules for both modsec 1.9 and 2.0-2.1
versions.

64

Server Configuration

modsec 1.9:

1. Enter a temporary directory
2. Download archived Gotroot rules:
# wget
http://www.gotroot.com/downloads/ftp/mod_security/apache2/apache2gotrootrules-latest.tar.gz

3. Untar it into the temporary directory:
# tar zxf apache2-gotrootrules-latest.tar.gz

4. Copy the configuration *.conf files to the
/hsphere/pkg/config/httpd2/gotrootrules directory:
# cp -f ./apache2/*.conf /hsphere/pkg/config/httpd2/gotrootrules/

modsec 2.0-2.1

1. Enter a temporary directory
2. Download archived Gotroot rules:
# wget
http://www.gotroot.com/downloads/ftp/mod_security/2.0/apache2/apache2gotrootrules-modsec2.0-latest.tar.gz

3. Untar it into the /hsphere/pkg/config/httpd2/gotrootrules2 directory:
# tar zxf apache2-gotrootrules-modsec2.0-latest.tar.gz -C
/hsphere/pkg/config/httpd2/gotrootrules2

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] [ 
] [-h|--help]
-f|--force : process rules from gotrootrules configuration
files ‘*.conf’ by force even if they were already loaded (‘*.conf.tmpl’
exists).

: process rules from file ‘.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).

Step 3. enable Apache mod_security options in Admin CP:

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65

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).

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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:

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67

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 both PHP 4 and PHP 5, but the libphp
mode only for one of the PHP versions. 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.
If you have enabled fastcgi mode, you can configure its VirtualHost options in the form
below:

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Server Configuration



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).



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.

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69

PHP Plugins
In this form you can disable unwanted PHP plugins (PHP extensions as DSO modules):

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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.
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.

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71

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.
To see the server groups available in your system, go to E.Manager-> Servers -> Server
Groups:

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Server Configuration

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.

How do I delete a server group?
You can delete only custom server groups by clicking the Delete icon next to them.

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Server Configuration

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 36)
2. Create server groups on these servers (on page 71), 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:

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:

75

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Server Configuration

5. As the result, on the Physical Servers page you should have load balanced
clusters visualized with master and slave servers clearly distinguished:

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77

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

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.

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Server Configuration

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

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79

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
page 135) page:

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Server Configuration

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.

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 HSphere software into the new boxes previously added in admin CP as Parallels HSphere physical (on page 36) and logical (on page 39) 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 HSphere 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 82) - sets of update rules assigned to a group of physical
servers.

Server Configuration

Procedure
 To update or install Parallels H-Sphere on selected physical servers:
1. Go to E.Manager -> Update -> Update Boxes:

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.

81

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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:

Server Configuration

3. Name and configure your profile in the form that appears:


Adding Unix profile:

83

84

Server Configuration



Adding Windows profile:

Server Configuration

85

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

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.

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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:

Server Configuration

for win servers group:

for virtual servers group:

87

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Server Configuration

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:
1. Go E. Manager -> Servers -> P.Servers
2. Click the magnifier icon near a physical server:

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89

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:

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.

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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.

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91

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.

CHAPTER 7

DNS and Hosting
This chapter discusses the configuration steps required for your DNS.

In this chapter:
DNS Manager ................................................................................................... 93
Adding DNS Zones............................................................................................ 93
Instant Alias Templates ..................................................................................... 95
DNS Records .................................................................................................... 99
Hosting Your Corporate Site .............................................................................. 103
Adding Domains for Third Level Hosting ........................................................... 106
Providing Mail Under Service Domain for Third-Level Hosting........................... 106

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93

DNS Manager
DNS Manager in the Admin panel is used to create and manage:


service DNS zones (on page 93) - to host your corporate site and provide third level
domain hosting.



instant alias templates (on page 95) - to provide immediate access to users‟ newly
registered domains until their domain‟s DNS hasn‟t been propagated.



DNS records (on page 99) - 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:

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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

95

5. Click the EDIT icon to go to the DNS zone management page. Here you
can add instant alias templates (on page 95), custom DNS records (on
page 99) and Reseller CP alias (on page 383) 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:
Adding Instant Alias Templates ......................................................................... 96
Editing Instant Alias Templates ......................................................................... 98

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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:

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97

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 39) 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.

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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 39) section for instructions.
To delete Instant Alias Template, click the Trash icon next to the corresponding alias.

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99

DNS Records
Custom DNS records are required to manage non-HSphere servers with Parallels HSphere 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:

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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:
Adding custom A records ................................................................................... 100
Adding custom MX records ................................................................................ 101
Adding custom CNAME records ........................................................................ 101
Re-generating System Custom DNS Records ................................................... 103

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.

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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:



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:

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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

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Re-generating System Custom DNS Records
When you add a logical server (on page 39), 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.

 To set up your corporate site:

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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:

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105

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
Wizards) (on page 252).
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.

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.

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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 93)
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 252) 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 anything@domain.com 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).

CHAPTER 8

Control Panel Web Interface
In this chapter:
Regional Settings .............................................................................................. 108
Images and Icons .............................................................................................. 110
Interface Texts .................................................................................................. 114
Skins and Colors ............................................................................................... 115
Disabling CP Skins ............................................................................................ 117
Setting Interface Language ............................................................................... 118

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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
118). 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:

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109



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.



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:

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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.



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.

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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.: 
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.

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113

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.

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Interface Texts
Here you will learn how to edit interface texts including:


LOGIN TEXTS: the texts that show on the Parallels H-Sphere login page



SIGNUP TEXTS: the texts that show in the signup wizard



MISCELLANEOUS 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.

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115

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.

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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.

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117



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.

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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 108). 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 108) 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.

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.

119

CHAPTER 9

E-Mail Notifications
Parallels H-Sphere provides E-Mail Notifications feature. Please see this chapter for
details.

In this chapter:
Setting E-Mail Notification Recipients ................................................................ 121
Editing E-Mail Notifications ................................................................................ 122
Configuring User Notification Rules ................................................................... 127

E-Mail Notifications

121

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 122) - 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 122) for details.

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E-Mail Notifications

Editing E-Mail Notifications
Master admin and resellers can edit e-mail notifications directly from Parallels HSphere 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 HSphere 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 131). These notifications are grouped by
categories:

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123

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
121) in the 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:

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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.

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125

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
page 121) in the 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.

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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!

E-Mail Notifications

Configuring User Notification Rules
When customers approach their traffic (on page 290), summary disk usage limit (on
page 300) or disk quota (on page 300), 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:

127

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E-Mail Notifications

Online Invoices
When creating plans with plan wizards, you choose whether you want Parallels HSphere 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.

 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:

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129

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:

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).

CHAPTER 10

Control Panel Configuration
This chapter discusses the configuration steps required to set up and manage your
Parallels H-Sphere Control Panel.

In this chapter:
Entering Company Information .......................................................................... 131
Disabling Global Resources, Hosting Platforms And Reseller CP SSL .............. 132
Using Background Job Manager ....................................................................... 135
Supported TLD‟s ............................................................................................... 139
Installing Shared SSL Certificates ..................................................................... 140
Managing Mail SSL ........................................................................................... 144
Using Credit Card Encryption ............................................................................ 150
Adding Credit Card Brands ................................................................................ 154

Control Panel Configuration

131

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:

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Control Panel Configuration



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 114) 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
page 360).

 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.

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133

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4. In the same way disable hosting platforms, enable dedicated servers,
disable reseller CP SSL (on page 394) 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.

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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:

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137

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
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 (on page 544)

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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.

 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:

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139

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

TLD

OpenSRS (on
page 163)

.com, .net, .org, .name, .info, .biz, .ca, .tv, .us, .co.uk, .de

Enom (on page
161)

.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

OnlineNIC (on
page 168)

.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, .us

RRPproxy (on
page 170)

.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

Ascionic (on
page 172)

.co.hu, .co.pn, .com.my, .com.pa, .com.pe, .de, .dk, .hu, .in, .pn, .tm

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Control Panel Configuration

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:

Control Panel Configuration

2. Turn Shared SSL Support on for the DNS zone domain you would like to
secure:

141

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Control Panel Configuration

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:

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143



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.

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.

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Control Panel Configuration

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.

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.

Control Panel Configuration

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:

4. On the page that appears, select the service DNS zone:

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Control Panel Configuration

5. On The next page, post private key and certificate:

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147

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.

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149

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.

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:

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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!

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:

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151

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:

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:

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Control Panel Configuration

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:

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153

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:

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.

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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 181).

CHAPTER 11

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 ............................................................................... 155
Enom Configuration........................................................................................... 161
OpenSRS Configuration .................................................................................... 163
OnlineNIC Configuration.................................................................................... 168
RRPproxy Configuration .................................................................................... 170
Ascionic Configuration ....................................................................................... 172
TPPInternet Configuration ................................................................................. 174
Email Domain Registration ................................................................................ 176

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:
Configuring Domain Registration Settings ......................................................... 156
Editing Registrar Connection Settings ............................................................... 159
Removing TLD Associations ............................................................................. 159
Deleting Registrar Connections ......................................................................... 160

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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 163).
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 176).
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 161), OpenSRS (on page 163),
OnlineNIC (on page 168), RRPproxy (on page 170), Ascionic (on page
172) or Email Domain Registrar (on page 176).

Step 2. Associating Top Level Domains with Domain
Registrars

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157

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:

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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 161) and/or OpenSRS (on page 163) 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:

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159

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.



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 156)

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.

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Domain Registrars

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.

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161

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:

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Domain Registrars

4. You‟ll need to enter your Enom connection data:

Domain Registrars

163



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.



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 155).
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.

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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

4. Now enter your OpenSRS connection settings:

165

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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 155).
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

Asynchronous Response Management

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167

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.

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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:

Domain Registrars

4. You‟ll need to enter your OnlineNIC connection data:

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Domain Registrars



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.



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 155).
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

Domain Registrars

 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:

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Domain Registrars



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.



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 155).
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:

Domain Registrars

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:

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174

Domain Registrars



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.



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 155).
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 HSphere packages in Customization Guide.
With TPPInternet registrar you can register, renew, lookup domains.

Setting Up TPPInternet Connection
Requirement: agreement with TPPInternet signed

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175

 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:

4. You‟ll need to enter your TPPInternet connection data:

176

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 155).
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 HSphere 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 161), OpenSRS (on page 163), 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.

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177

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 HSphere, 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:

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Domain Registrars

4. Enter registrar settings:

Domain Registrars

179



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.



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 155).

CHAPTER 12

Merchant Gateways
This chapter provides information on how to configure Merchant Gateways in Parallels
H-Sphere.

In this chapter:
Merchant Gateway Manager ............................................................................. 181
AssureBuy Configuration ................................................................................... 185
AuthorizeNet (Sim Protocol) Configuration ........................................................ 187
Bibit Configuration ............................................................................................. 190
Cardia Services Configuration ........................................................................... 191
ECHO Configuration .......................................................................................... 192
ePDQ Configuration .......................................................................................... 193
eWay Configuration ........................................................................................... 195
HSBC Configuration .......................................................................................... 196
Innovative Gateway Configuration ..................................................................... 197
LinkPoint (API v3.01) Configuration ................................................................... 198
Moneris Configuration ....................................................................................... 202
NetBilling Configuration ..................................................................................... 203
NTPNow Configuration ...................................................................................... 205
Paradata Configuration...................................................................................... 207
PayGate Configuration ...................................................................................... 208
PayJunction Configuration ................................................................................. 210
Plug‟n Pay Configuration ................................................................................... 212
Pay-Me-Now Configuration ............................................................................... 214
PosNet Configuration ........................................................................................ 215
Protx (VSP Direct Protocol 2.22) Configuration ................................................. 217
PSiGate (XML API) Configuration ..................................................................... 218
SecurePay Configuration................................................................................... 220
SkipJack Configuration ...................................................................................... 221
SecurePay.com.au Configuration ...................................................................... 223
SecureTrading Configuration ............................................................................. 224
ThePayDesk Configuration ................................................................................ 226
Tucows Configuration ........................................................................................ 228
VeriSign PayFlow Pro Configuration.................................................................. 230
VeriSign PayFlow Pro With SSL Support .......................................................... 233

Merchant Gateways

181

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:
Setting Up Merchant Gateway ........................................................................... 182
Editing Merchant Gateway Settings ................................................................... 182
Associating Merchant Gateways with Credit Card Vendors ............................... 183
Editing Description for User Credit Card Statements ......................................... 183
Handling CC Charge Request Failures.............................................................. 184
One Step Gateways .......................................................................................... 185

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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.

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183

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.

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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

185

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:

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Merchant Gateways

Merchant Gateways

187



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.



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

188

Merchant Gateways

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//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:

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189



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;
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.

190

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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:



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

191

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

192

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

193

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:

194

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

Merchant Gateways

195

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:

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

196

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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:

Merchant Gateways

197



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



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

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:

198

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

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.

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

Merchant Gateways

199

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);
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==

200

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-----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



201

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.



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.

202

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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 HSphere 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

Merchant Gateways

203

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//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.

204

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Configuration
1. Select NetBilling in the Add New Gateway box.
2. Click the Add button.
Fill out the form that appears:

Merchant Gateways



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.

205

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.

Configuration
1. Select NTPNow in the Add New Gateway box.
2. Click the Add button.
3. Fill out the form that appears:

206

Merchant Gateways



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



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

Merchant Gateways

207

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:

208

Merchant Gateways



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

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:

Merchant Gateways

209



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



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

210

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 HSphere 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:

Merchant Gateways

211



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



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

212

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:

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213



Title: give a name to this Plug‟n Pay connection



Login: your Plug‟n Pay login



Password: the password which comes with login/username



E-mail: 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

214

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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:

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215



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.

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 HSphere 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:

216

Merchant Gateways



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

4. Click Submit Query

Merchant Gateways

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:

217

218

Merchant Gateways



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
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 181), 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:

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219



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
Email



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 support@psigate.com 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

220

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

221

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 HSphere 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//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.

222

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

223

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

224

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

225



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.

226

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//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

227

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

228

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//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

229

230

Merchant Gateways



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



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.

VeriSign PayFlow Pro Configuration
Preparation
Make sure that the signio.jar file is present in the
/hsphere/local/home/cpanel/java_rt/ directory.
If it‟s not there:

Merchant Gateways

231

1. Contact PayFlow Pro and obtain the signio.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 PayFlow Pro in the Add New Gateway box.
2. Click the Add button.
3. Fill out the form that appears.

232

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 checkup in the merchant gateway configuration.



Login: your PayFlow Pro login



Password: the password which comes with login/username

4. Click Submit Query

Merchant Gateways

233

VeriSign PayFlow Pro With SSL Support
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, 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) in the Add New Gateway box.
2. Click the Add button.
3. Fill out the form that appears:

234

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



Path to the certificate file: on the control panel server, the path to the SSL
certificate you received when you signed up with PayFlow Pro

4. Click Submit Query.

CHAPTER 13

Web-based Payments
This chapter describes how to make payments through Web payments Systems in
Parallels H-Sphere.

In this chapter:
Web Payment Systems Manager ...................................................................... 236
2CheckOut Configuration .................................................................................. 238
Authorize.Net (Sim Protocol) Configuration ....................................................... 239
ChronoPay Configuration .................................................................................. 241
GestPay Configuration ...................................................................................... 242
PayNova Configuration...................................................................................... 243
PayPal Merchant Gateway Configuration .......................................................... 244
Sentry Configuration .......................................................................................... 245
Webmoney Configuration .................................................................................. 247
WorldPay Configuration..................................................................................... 248

236

Web-based Payments

Web Payment Systems Manager
Unlike Merchant Gateways (on page 181), 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

237

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 248) and GestPay (on
page 242) 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

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2CheckOut Configuration
Before proceeding, make sure to read about Web Payment Systems Manager (on page
236).

 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

239

Authorize.Net (Sim Protocol)
Configuration
Before proceeding, make sure to read about Web Payment Systems Manager (on page
236).
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:

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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.

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241

ChronoPay Configuration
Before proceeding, make sure to read about Web Payment Systems Manager (on page
236).
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:

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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
236).

 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



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.

243

5. Click Submit Query. GestPay now must show as active.
6. Set Instant Notification URL (on page 236) 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
236). 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.

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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

245

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 463), 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 f or
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:

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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

247

Webmoney Configuration
Webmoney payments are similar to check payments (on page 463) in that they are
added to Parallels H-Sphere manually.
Before proceeding, make sure to read about Web Payment Systems Manager (on page
236).

 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 HSphere 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.

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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
236).

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

249

250

Web-based Payments



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
2. In the Installations section, click the Configuration Options icon;
3. Enter a callback URL (on page 236)
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.

CHAPTER 14

Plans
In Parallels H-Sphere a hosting plan determines the account type (on page 285) 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:

Related docs

Available to:

Administrati
ve

administrative and
tech support accounts

Admin Plans (on page
267)
Providing Technical
Support

Master admin and resellers.
Resellers can create
administrative plans at the
level of their reseller control
panel.

Reseller

reseller accounts

Understanding
Resellers
Creating Resellers

Master admin only

End User

system (service) and
customer accounts

Hosting Your Own
Domain (on page 103)
Signing Up Users (on
page 464)

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 269) 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:
Creating and Editing Plans (Plan Wizards) ........................................................ 252
A Typical Web Hosting Plan Wizard .................................................................. 256
MySQL Plan Wizard .......................................................................................... 264
Windows Plan Wizard ....................................................................................... 264
Windows RealMedia Plan Wizard ...................................................................... 265
E-mail Plan Wizard ............................................................................................ 265
VPS Plan Wizard ............................................................................................... 265
Markup Plan Wizard .......................................................................................... 266
Admin Plans ...................................................................................................... 267
Demo Plans....................................................................................................... 269
Access to Plans ................................................................................................. 272

252

Plans

Plan Controls..................................................................................................... 273
Plan Settings ..................................................................................................... 276
Controlling RAM And CPU Usage ..................................................................... 279
Placing Plans on Particular Boxes ..................................................................... 281

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:
Starting Plan Creation Wizards .......................................................................... 253
Starting Plan Edit Wizards ................................................................................. 253
Simplified Plan Wizards ..................................................................................... 254

Plans

253

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 39)
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 360)n the
next sections.

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Plans

Simplified Plan Wizards
Starting with version 3.1 Beta 1, Parallels H-Sphere allows shortening the subsequent
steps (on page 360) 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

255

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:

256

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
322) for this plan.

In this section:
Step 1. Selecting Resources and Configuring Plan Settings ............................. 257
Subsequent Steps. Setting Prices ..................................................................... 263

Plans

257

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 285) 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 276).
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
for disk usage (on page 300).

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 155) 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 155). 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 155). To enter custom domain transfer
prices, don‟t check this box.

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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 95). 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.

Plans

259



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 565) 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)

260

Plans




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 95)). 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 HSphere)



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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265

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

VPS Plan Wizard
VPS plans are created similarly to Unix plans (see Unix Plan Wizard). The only
difference is that you can include


VPS memory limit: check to restrict memory consumption by one VPS account.



VPS process limit: check to set the maximum number of simultaneous system
processes.



Summary Disk Usage: mandatory resource. Users will be charged for the actual disk
space used (on page 300).



VPS context RSS limit: the maximum resident/virtual memory usage for processes
running and libraries loaded on a VPS server.



VPS files limit: the maximum number of file handlers opened inside a VPS server.



VPS TCP sockets limit: the maximum number of TCP connections established on a
VPS server.



VPS CPU hard limit: the maximum CPU usage (of all host server CPUs) for a VPS
server.



Custom DNS Record: check to enable creating custom DNS records (on page 99).



VPS server details: returns technical server info.

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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
360). 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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267

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 464).
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
page 422).

Merchant Gateway Manager: configure merchant gateways (on page 181).
Admin Billing Manager: administer users‟ billing: debit and credit users‟ accounts, view
reports.

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Plans

Daily Financial Report: create daily user reports (on page 434).

Domain Registrar Manager: set connection and prices for Enom&OpenSRS (on page
155) domain registrars.
Miva Merchant License Manager: add Miva Merchant licenses (on page 559).
Urchin License Manager: add Urchin licenses.
Kanoodle Manager: sign up as a Kanoodle.com Referral Partner (on page 564) from
Parallels H-Sphere.
Site Toolbox: configure and enable Site Toolbox utility
SpamAssassin Manager: configure SpamAssassin (on page 567).

Admin DNS manager: manage DNS settings.
Enterprise Manager: manage logical and physical servers.
Recreation Tool: recreate user resources (on page 303).
Shell Requests Manager: acknowledge users‟ shell access (on page 467) 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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269

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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Plans

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.

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271

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



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.

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Plans

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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273

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:

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Plans



Clicking the lens icon near the plan will start the signup wizard (on page 464).



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 272) - 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 276) - 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.

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.

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275

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.

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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:

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277

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.



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 319)
documentation.



Payment Interval: enter how far in advance recurrent fees for billing period resources
are prepaid. Read more about Creating Billing Periods (on page 322).

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Plans

Promotions management: assign flexible discounts to the particular plan. One plan can
have several associated promotions (on page 342).



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:
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:

...

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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279

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:

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Plans



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.

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

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281

 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
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:

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Plans

Plans

283

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:

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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:

* 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 48) 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.

CHAPTER 15

Resources
In this section we consider types of resources provided in Parallels H-Sphere.

In this chapter:
Users, Accounts, Domains ................................................................................ 285
Traffic ................................................................................................................ 290
Disk Space ........................................................................................................ 300
Recreating Resources ....................................................................................... 303
Blacklists in Parallels H-Sphere ......................................................................... 304

Users, Accounts, Domains
On the user side, Parallels H-Sphere operates with three tiers:
- users
- accounts
- domains

In this section:
Users................................................................................................................. 286
Accounts ........................................................................................................... 286
Domains ............................................................................................................ 289

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Users
A user is, for the most part, nothing but a login and password to enter Parallels HSphere 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

Main Functions

Administrati
ve

main
admin

- allows Parallels H-Sphere
owner to administer the
entire hosting system

tech
support

- allows Parallels H-Sphere
owner‟s support staff to
manage/answer trouble
tickets from customers

Created

FTP home
directory

N/A
with administrative
plan

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Reseller

Reseller
Administrati
ve

User

N/A

admin

- represents reseller as a
user to the system and
distributor of parent host
resources
- allows reseller to create
reseller administrative
account
- represents reseller as an
administrator to their
customers
- allows reseller to distribute
parent host resources
grouped into plans to their
customers at retail prices

tech
support

- allows reseller‟s support
staff to manage/answer
trouble tickets from
customers

customer

- provides Parallels HSphere 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

287

N/A
with reseller plan

N/A
from reseller
account CP

from reseller
administrative CP
with administrative
plan

N/A

YES

with user plans

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Multiple Accounts
Depending on account‟s plan permissions (on page 272) its owner can create other
accounts of the following types under the same login:

User‟s Original Account Type

Accounts that User Can Add Under the Same Login

administrative

- administrative
- user

reseller

- user
- admininstrative

reseller administrative

- 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 93) is registered, instant alias
template (on page 95) is created , and there is shared or free dedicated IP on the web
server (on page 48) .
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 155) is configured.

transfered

existing domains transfered onto one of your Parallels
H-Sphere‟s IP

third-level

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
(on page 95) or dedicated IP

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 103)



provide third level domain hosting (on page 106)



provide shared SSL (on page 140)



provide instant access to the site through domain
aliases (on page 95)

To offer registration and maintenance of any of the above domain types, include the
corresponding resource in the account‟s plan creation/edit wizard.

 To delete domains of a user:

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1. Find the account by domain name (on page 413)
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:
Traffic Calculation.............................................................................................. 291
Traffic Limit........................................................................................................ 291
Traffic Pricing .................................................................................................... 291
Restricting Traffic Usage and Traffic Limit ......................................................... 292
Charging for Traffic............................................................................................ 293
Traffic Configuration Changes ........................................................................... 299
Tracking End User Traffic Consumption ............................................................ 300

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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 322), charges for exceeding traffic limit
(on page 322) 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 7th 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 15th 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 535) 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 535) 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 322):
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 15GB.

- 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.
Plan & Account Settings:

Traffic Consumption:

System Behavior:

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1 month billing period
starts Jan 1;
Free = 10GB;
Recurrent = $2;
Usage = $4;
Traffic limit = 10GB



By January 15, the user
runs up 9GB and
increases traffic limit to
12GB.
By January 30, the user
runs up 13GB.

- 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.
Plan & Account Settings:

Traffic Consumption:

System Behavior:

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1 month billing period
starts Jan 1;
Free = 10GB;
Recurrent = $2;
Usage = $4;
Traffic limit = 12GB



By January 15, the user
runs up 4GB and
decreases his traffic
limit to 10GB.
By January 30 the user
runs up 9GB.

295

- 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:
Plan & Account Settings:

Traffic Limit and Traffic
Consumption:

System Behavior:

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

Source plan:
Free = 10GB;
Recurrent = $2;
Usage = $4;
Traffic limit = 10GB;
Traffic month starts
January 1.

By the time the user
switches to a new
plan, he runs up
14GB.

Target plan:
Free = 50GB



- 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:

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Traffic limit = 6GB
1 month billing period
Free = 5GB
Recurrent = $2

By the time a user on
1 month billing period
switches to a 2
month billing period,
he runs up 10GB.

2 month billing period
* set explicitly:
Free = 12GB



297

- 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:
Traffic Configuration for 1 and 2
Month Billing Periods:

Traffic Limit and Traffic
Consumption:

System Behavior:

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1 month billing period
Free: 5GB
Recurrent: $2
2 month billing period
* set explicitly:
Free = 12GB
Recurrent = $3

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

Decreasing Prices

Free

2GB -> 5GB

Free

2GB -> 1GB

Monthly
(recurrent)

$3 -> $4

Monthly (recurrent)

$3 -> $1

Extra (usage)

$5 -> $6

Extra (overlimit)

$5 -> $2

By the end of the traffic month the customer runs up 8GB.


Traffic limit remains 4GB.



Traffic limit remains 4GB.



Recurrent fee isn‟t recalculated.
No refunds.



Recurrent fee isn‟t recalculated.





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.

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.



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.



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.

Tip:

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

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
Traffic Report (on page 434).

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 322). The resulting amount makes up user‟s
average summary disk usage.

In this section:
Charging Users for Disk Space ......................................................................... 301
Enabling/Disabling Summary Disk Usage.......................................................... 302

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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 322) 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 322).


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 339).

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Enabling/Disabling Summary Disk Usage
Enabl
e

In a Certain Plan

In All User/Reseller Plans

1. Include Summary Disk Usage in
the plan.

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.

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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 HSphere 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).

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:

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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:

 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.

CHAPTER 16

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
312)

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 HSphere 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 480)

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 >>

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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 322)

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 >>
(on page 127)

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 322)

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
>> (on page 424)

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 425)

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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 290)

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 300)

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 127)

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 331)
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 333)

Promotions

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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.
More >> (on page 342)

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
page 340)

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
339)

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 322). 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:
Billing Types ...................................................................................................... 312
Billing Profiles.................................................................................................... 313
Billing Periods and Discounts ............................................................................ 313
Changing Account‟s Billing Period ..................................................................... 316
Changing Billing Period Start Date .................................................................... 317
Credit Limit ........................................................................................................ 319
Fees Collected From Customers ....................................................................... 322
Free Units.......................................................................................................... 323
Setting Prices and Free Units ............................................................................ 324
Discounts .......................................................................................................... 330

Billing

Billing Consequences of Editing Prices and Free Units ..................................... 331
Taxes ................................................................................................................ 331
Tax Exemption .................................................................................................. 333
Money Returns .................................................................................................. 337
Managing Debtors ............................................................................................. 340
Promotions ........................................................................................................ 342
Extra Packages ................................................................................................. 345
Anniversary Based Billing .................................................................................. 348
Switching Between Billing Modes ...................................................................... 348
Sending “No charge” Notifications ..................................................................... 349
Warning of Immediate Charges in Case of Buying Additional Resources .......... 349

311

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Billing

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 181). Removing all
merchant gateways will remove the credit card option from the signup wizard.
Credit card numbers can be encrypted (on page 150) (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 154) and activating credit card
accounts (on page 464).
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 463). 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
248), PayPal, 2CheckOut (on page 238), and GestPay (on page 242). 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
resources they have used during the trial period and recurrent fees (on page 322) for
an open billing period (on page 322). Their custom settings remain unchanged. See
also Providing Trial Hosting (on page 480).

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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.

Monthly and Billing Period Resources

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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:

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315

5. Interval: the time unit used to measure billing period duration.
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.

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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.

of the day he switches to a new billing period on.

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.

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 prorated to the time
remaining to a new billing billing period
closure.

new recurrent fees for a new billing period.

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.

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317

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
322).

 To change billing period start date:
1. Find account (on page 413).
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 322) (if any) are charged.
3. Refunds (on page 339) (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 424) 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 340)
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.

 When you shift the start billing date forward:

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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).

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319

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 340). Recurrent and usage fees will be still accrued, and
the debt will grow with every new billing period (on page 322).
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:
Setting Credit Limit in a Plan ............................................................................. 320
Increasing Credit Limit for Individual Accounts .................................................. 320
Resetting Credit Limit For All Users ................................................................... 321

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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 413) 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.

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321

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.

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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 HSphere 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.

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323

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 285) and can use them free of charge within one billing period
(on page 322) or billing month when we talk about monthly resources. For example:
Resource

Traffic

Mailbox

Free units set for

User gets

default one
month billing
period

actual 2 month
billing period

10

-

10 GB to use over one month for
free

10

12

12 GB to use over one month for
free

10

-

10 free mailboxes

10

12

12 free mailboxes

Free isn‟t applicable to resources that can‟t be measured in units, such as Directory
Index or SSH Access.

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Setting Prices and Free Units
This section explains how to set prices used to calculate plan fees (on page 322).
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 322). 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 161) and OpenSRS (on page 163) 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.

Comments on Resources
Don‟t get confused with setting prices for the following resources:


CP Account: See Understanding Accounts, Domains, and Users (on page 285).

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325



Summary Traffic: See Traffic (on page 290)



Disk Space Quota: See Individual Disk Space Quotas (on page 300)



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

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CP
Account

A
user/administrative
account in HSphere. 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
page 300) X 2 )

N/A

Summary
Traffic

User data
transferred to/from
web, mail, and
other servers

GB of
traffic
which
users can
use over
the month
for free

N/A

Used to
calculate
recurrent fee (on
page 285) for
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.

Disk
Space
Quota

User FTP quota
on the web /
windows server

MB of disk
space that
you grant
users for
free

N/A

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

Domain

Includes
transferred
domains and
newly registered
OpenSRS/Enom
domains. Prices
for this resource
don‟t replace

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

Billing

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

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.

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

Mailbox
quota

Quota on one user
mailbox

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

The
default
mailbox
size user
can use
for this
mailbox
free of
charge

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Billing

MySQL/PG
SQL
database
quota

Quota on one
database
calculated as the
total size of all files
in the database
directory

MB of free N/A
disk space
that you
give out
for each
new
database

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

MS SQL
Quota

Quota on one
database
calculated as the
total size of all files
in the database
directory.

MB of free N/A
disk space
that you
allocate
for each
new
database

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

Billing

IP Address

A dedicated IP
Address

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

N/A

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

329

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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 322) for additional mail box:

Monthly Price for Mailbox

default one
month billing
period

2 month billing
period

Recurrent Fee

Billing

$10

-

18 (= $10 x 2 month x ( (100% 10% recurrent discount) / 100% )

$10

$17

$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:

331

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Billing



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:

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333

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:
Enabling Tax Exemption.................................................................................... 334
Setting Tax Exemption Mode at Signup ............................................................. 334
Activating User Accounts with Tax Exemption Code Entered ............................ 335

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Billing

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.

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.

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335

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 464).
After signup, the created account is put into the list of accounts awaiting moderation (on
page 471), 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:

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Billing

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:

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337

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 322) recurrent (on page 322) charges can
be refunded. Other charges can be returned by crediting accounts (on page 424)
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 .............................................................................. 337
Refund Formulas ............................................................................................... 338
Moneyback Period............................................................................................. 338
Reducing Quotas and Limits ............................................................................. 339
Refund Percentage ........................................................................................... 339

Events that Trigger Refunds
Refunds are issued on:



quitting hosting during and after the moneyback period (on page 339)
changing account‟s plan



changing account‟s billing period (on page 322)



changing account‟s start billing period date (on page 322)



reducing quotas and limits (on page 339)



deleting prepaid billing period resources (on page 322)
* Recurrent fees prepaid for monthly resources are not refunded on monthly
resource removal. See also reducing quotas and limits (on page 339).
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 322) 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 322).
In such cases users are advised to remove the resouce to get the refunds and then
add it again as free.

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Billing

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 322) 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.

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339

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 (on page 339) ) / ( 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 339) ) / 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.

340

Billing

Managing Debtors
In Parallels H-Sphere terms a user runs into debt when their account negative balance
exceeds credit limit (on page 319).

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 434) to track down debtors and warn
them with mass mail (on page 535) 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 430). 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 429) their
account along with user‟s home directory content.

Punitive Measures Automation
You can configure Parallels H-Sphere to apply punitive measures (on page 429) to
debtors automatically:

1. Select Managing Debtors in the Settings menu.
2. You‟ll be taken to the Managing Debtors form:

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341

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 531).
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. Find (on page 413) this user.
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.

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Billing

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:

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343

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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:

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345

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.

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:

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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



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

347

348

Billing



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 319) 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 319).
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.

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:

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349

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 127) 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.

CHAPTER 17

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:
Enabling Dedicated Servers in Globals ............................................................. 351
Adding MRTG Logical Servers and Network Switches ...................................... 351
Creating/Managing Dedicated Server Templates .............................................. 355
Dedicated Server Plans ..................................................................................... 357
Managing Dedicated Servers ............................................................................ 362
Dedicated Server Status.................................................................................... 365
Assigning Additional IP Ranges......................................................................... 368
Billing Dedicated Servers .................................................................................. 374
Dedicated Servers‟ Maintenance ....................................................................... 376

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351

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 374) graphs. The Round Robin Database Tool
is used to store data on each network switch port in a separate RRD.

In this section:
Adding MRTG Logical Servers .......................................................................... 352
Adding Network Switches .................................................................................. 352
Viewing MRTG Server Info ................................................................................ 354

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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 48) 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:
3. Fill in the following data:

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353



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.

4. Click Submit. The newly-added switch should appear on the Managing
Nework Switches page:

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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 362) 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:

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355

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 357), 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:

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

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 357).

In this section:
Custom-built Dedicated Servers ........................................................................ 356

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 362) and assign
them to users by changing server‟s status (on page 365) to In use.

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357

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
322) in plan.
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 273) page.

In this section:
User Plans......................................................................................................... 357
User‟s Choosing a Server at Signup .................................................................. 359
Reseller Plans ................................................................................................... 360

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 376) for their dedicated servers.

DNS PTR-records resource allows users to create reverse DNS records (on page
368) for IPs used on thier servers.
Choose Bandwidth Billing Type (on page 374).

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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:

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359

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 376). 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.

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.

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Dedicated Servers

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 365) 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 374) 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:

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:

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

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:
Adding Dedicated Servers ................................................................................. 362
Editing Dedicated Servers ................................................................................. 364
Deleting Dedicated Servers ............................................................................... 365

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

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363

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 368).
Network switch interface - choose a network switch (on page 351) 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 365) 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.

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Deleting Dedicated Servers
Only dedicated servers of Disabled and Clean up status (on page 365) 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 413) 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.

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

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.

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.

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Dedicated Servers

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:

Dedicated Servers

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).

3. 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:

369

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Dedicated Servers

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:

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):

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371

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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373

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:

3. Select an IP subnet. A page similar to the following appears with IP
ranges available for assignment. Choose one of them:

4. 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
2. On the Dedicated Server page click Assign IP in the section:

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Important: When assigning/unassigning IP ranges from the control panel, don‟t forget
to effect these changes on the physical level.

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 355) which are assigned directly to
clients who ordered them.

In this section:
Bandwidth Billing Types .................................................................................... 375
Bandwidth Billing Types Options ....................................................................... 376

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375

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 357) 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;



95th 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 95th 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 95th 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 95th percentile in overall size. This number is then put into the formula,
i.e:
(95th 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 95th percentile would
be around 0.5GB/day. Using the 95th 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 95th 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, 95th percentile (in + out), mbps;



Bandwidth, Average (in + out), mbps;



Bandwidth, 95th percentile (in + out), GB;



Bandwidth, Average (in + out), GB;



Bandwidth, 95th percentile (out), mbps;



Bandwidth, Average (out), mbps;



Bandwidth, 95th 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 351).

In this section:
Regular Backups ............................................................................................... 377
Maintenance Requests ...................................................................................... 377
Automatic Cancellation Settings ........................................................................ 379

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377

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:

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Dedicated Servers

Add you comments to confirm or reject providing such services, or to specify the
necessary details:

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379

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:

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 339).


update cancellation settings
You can update both your own and your user‟s cancellation settings. To discard
cancellation, click
and confirm your intention. To reschdedule, click
choose the new date.



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 122).

CHAPTER 18

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.

Look and Feel and Regional Settings

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381

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 408).
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.

Web, Mail, and SQL Resources

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Resellers

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 404).

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 392).

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 392).
To create a markup plan, see Creating and Editing Plans (on page 360).

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In this chapter:
Reseller DNS .................................................................................................... 383
Creating And Editing Reseller Plans .................................................................. 386
Billing Resellers ................................................................................................. 392
Reseller Control Panel SSL ............................................................................... 394
Reseller Shared SSL ......................................................................................... 400
Placing Resellers on Separate Boxes................................................................ 404
Allocating Physical Servers to Resellers ............................................................ 407
Supporting Resellers‟ Customers ...................................................................... 408
Deleting Resellers ............................................................................................. 409
Suspending And Resuming Resellers ............................................................... 410
Moving Accounts Between Resellers................................................................. 410

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:

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2. Click the Edit icon next to the DNS zone:

3. On the page that appears, click Add reseller cp alias:

4. Enter a new prefix, for instance w.

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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 sure 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.
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.

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Creating And Editing Reseller Plans
 To create reseller plan:
1. Launch reseller plan creation wizard (on page 360)
2. Fill in the wizard forms (see below)
3. Follow-up (optional)
- Grant access to the newly created plan (on page 272)
- Enable/disable the newly created plan for signup
- Create actual billing periods (on page 322)
- 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.



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
394)



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 383)

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

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 319).



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 383) 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 392)
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.

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.

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The custom fees you enter override the default domain registration fees set in the
Domain Registration Manager (on page 155). 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
155). 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.

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.

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Step 2
Set prices to calculate fees collected from resellers for hosting services they distribute
with user accounts (on page 285) over free quotas set herein.

Price Parameters
Parameter

Meaning

Example

Entering 0 (zero)

Leaving Empty

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

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
11th 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 11th
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.

Reseller won‟t be
charged for resources
his end users acquire
over free.

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 4th
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.

Resellers won‟t be
charged any recurrent
fees in the
documentation for
resources his end
users acquire over
free.

Usage

not

-

-

-

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implemented
yet
leave the field
empty
Max

Units of this
resource that
can be
distributed
among all
customers of
one reseller.
Reseller‟s
customers can‟t
create
resources
beyond the
reseller‟s Max.

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
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.

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.

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.

Reseller will be
refunded 100%.
Don‟t enter 100%,
leave the field empty
instead.

Comments on Resources
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.

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

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.

 To edit reseller plan:
1. Launch reseller plan edit wizard (on page 360).
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 285) (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 322) 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 322).


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 392) 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.

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

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

Traffic Allocation

- 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

- charge resellers for traffic that their
end users have requested

Configuration of Traffic Charge Billing Schemes through Plan Edit Wizard

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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.

On the first step leave all the fields
referring to traffic empty.
On the second step set:







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

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.

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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 ............................................... 396
Disabling Reseller Control Panel SSL Protection............................................... 400

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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.

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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
page 48)
Step 5: Install SSL certificate.

1. Log into reseller control panel.

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2. Select DNS Manager in the E.Manager menu and create a DNS Zone (on
page 93) 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:

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399

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:

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Resellers



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

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:
Resellers‟ Own Wildcard Certificates ................................................................. 401
Sharing Your Wildcard Certificates with Resellers ............................................. 402

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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.

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Resellers

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 140) manual.
3. Once you have installed the shared SSL certificate, select Shared SSL
Manager in the E.Manager menu:

Resellers

4. Click to enable Share SSL with resellers for the domain zone you have
added:

403

404

Resellers

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

405

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:

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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 48) 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 386). Otherwise, launch the Plan Editor (on page 386). In the Allow server groups
section, check the server groups you would like the reseller to use:

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407

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 404)). 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 471) 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 server groups (on page 71):
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 39): 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
488)

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:

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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 386)
6. Sign up (on page 464) 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

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.

409

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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.

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 To move an end user account to a different reseller:
1. Find the account (on page 413) 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 285) to another reseller.
Note: Even though resellers use different nameservers, you don‟t need to add them to
the control panel.

CHAPTER 19

Account Management
In this chapter you will find information on how you can manage accounts in Parallels
H-Sphere.

In this chapter:
Finding User Accounts ...................................................................................... 413
User Details....................................................................................................... 422
Admin Notes...................................................................................................... 423
Crediting Accounts ............................................................................................ 424
Debiting Accounts ............................................................................................. 425
Deleting Accounts ............................................................................................. 429
Suspending and Resuming Accounts ................................................................ 430
Restoring Accounts ........................................................................................... 433
Reports ............................................................................................................. 434
Processing Check Payments ............................................................................. 463
Splitting Multiple Accounts ................................................................................. 466
Granting SSH Access To Users ........................................................................ 467

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413

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:
Generic Search ................................................................................................. 414
Search by Domain Name .................................................................................. 415
Search by Contact Info ...................................................................................... 415
Search in Resellers ........................................................................................... 416
Search Suspended Accounts ............................................................................ 417
Search Deleted Accounts .................................................................................. 418
Search Dedicated Server Accounts ................................................................... 418
Search by VPS Hostname ................................................................................. 419
Search by Account Balance .............................................................................. 419
Search by Merchant Gateway Transactions ...................................................... 419
Search by Invoice/Balance Entries .................................................................... 419
Search by Credit Card Charges......................................................................... 420
Search by Transfer Traffic ................................................................................. 420

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Account Management

Search by Disk Usage ....................................................................................... 421
Search by CC Processing Errors ....................................................................... 421
Search by Logical and Physical Servers ............................................................ 421
Search by Reseller Traffic ................................................................................. 422
Search by Resellers Disk Usage ....................................................................... 422

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:

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415

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.

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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.

Account Management

Search Suspended Accounts
 To find a suspended account:
1. Select Suspended in the Search menu.
2. Enter search criteria and click Search.

417

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Account Management

Search Deleted Accounts
 To find a deleted account:
1. Select Deleted in the Search menu.
2. Enter search criteria and click Search.

Search Dedicated Server Accounts
To find dedicated server accounts, go to Search -> By D. Serevers, and enter search
criteria.

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419

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.

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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.

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421

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.
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
 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.

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Account Management

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.

User Details
 To view details of a particular user or account:
1. Find the account (on page 413) 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.

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423

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 413) 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.

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Account Management

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 413) 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 425).



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.

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425

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 413) 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.

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Account Management

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.

Month based debit
In this case accounts will be debited every month for regular premium services.

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427

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 1st 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 1st 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

Billing period based debit
In this case accounts will be debited at the beginning of each billing period for regular
premium services.

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Account Management

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.

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429

Deleting Accounts
 To delete an individual account permanently:
1. Find the account (on page 413) 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 339) and usage
fees (on page 322) are accrued, however account isn‟t charged.



Perform billing (refund/usage) with charging end balance amount (applied to CC
accounts only): refunds (on page 339) and usage fees (on page 322) are
accrued first. If the resulting balance is negative and it has reached the
account‟s credit limit (on page 319), 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 319), 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.

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Account Management

Suspending and Resuming Accounts
Account suspension closes user access to their control panel, but on the contrary to
removing account (on page 429), 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 322). As a result:
- recurrent fees (on page 322) are not refunded (on page 339).
- user files remain on disk. This may lead to average summary disk usage (on page
300) exceed its limit and user be charged usage fees (on page 322) 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 313).
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

Admin
Reseller
Overlimit
Cron

Reseller

Overlimit
Cron

Suspend Cron
(account of a
suspended
reseller)

Suspend Cron
(account in
debt)

Trial
Cron

MoneyBack
Request

Account Management

Suspend
Cron
(account of a
suspended
reseller)
Suspend
Cron
(account in
debt)
Trial Cron
MoneyBack
Request
Trtoin
(account
moved from
trial payment
to instant)
ExemptionCo
de Approve
ExemptionCo
de Reject

431

432

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 ........................................................................................ 432
Resuming Accounts .......................................................................................... 433

Suspending Accounts
 To suspend any individual account:
1. Find the account (on page 413).
2. Click the Suspend icon in the Controls column.
You can, also, configure your system to suspend debtors automatically (on page 340)
in case of trial hosting (on page 480) and exceeding resource limit (on page 290).

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433

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 413).
2. Click the Resume icon in the Controls column.
There are several billing cases caused by resuming account:
before the billing month ends

after the billing month ends

after the biling period ends

You will be charged
according to your Billing
Statement
(../user/billing.html#onlinein
voice) prior to suspension.

You are charged
overusage fees of the
previous and monthly fees
(on page 322) for the next
billing month
(../admin/billing_periods.ht
ml#month), for monthly
resources (e.g. quota and
traffic).

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
page 322) for the next
billing period.

Resuming expired trial account (on page 480) 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 HSphere. 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:

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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:

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435

In Parallels H-Sphere seven additional reports can be installed as a package (on page
456). It adds the following reports:

In this section:
Exporting Reports.............................................................................................. 436
Billing Balance ................................................................................................... 436
Estimated balance exhaustion date ................................................................... 438
Daily Report ...................................................................................................... 439
Web Payments Log ........................................................................................... 440
Charge Log ....................................................................................................... 441
Registrar Log ..................................................................................................... 442
Credit Card Charge ........................................................................................... 443
Billing Entries .................................................................................................... 443
Signup/Go-away Statistics ................................................................................. 445
Monthly Revenue .............................................................................................. 446
Monetary Transactions ...................................................................................... 447
Transfer Traffic Report ...................................................................................... 448
Disk Usage Report ............................................................................................ 450
Reseller Traffic Report....................................................................................... 451
In Resellers Disk Usage Report......................................................................... 452
IP Addresses Report ......................................................................................... 453
CC Processing Errors Report ............................................................................ 454
Account Check .................................................................................................. 455
Reports Installed in a Package .......................................................................... 456

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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:

Account Management



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.

437



>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:



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
430)

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.

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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:

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

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.



Email: 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 424) / Debit (on page 425) / Increase
Credit Limit (on page 319) / Change Billing Period Start Date (on page 322) /Login /
Suspend (Resume) (on page 430) / Delete (on page 429) 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.
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:

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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.



Web Payments Log
You can perform search in your WebPayment transactions logs:

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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:



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.

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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.
The retrieved information is organized in the chart with the following columns:



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

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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.

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:

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

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.



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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.
Transfer traffic report can also be used as a search utility to find accounts by overall
traffic (on page 413).

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Account Management

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.

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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:

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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.

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:

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453

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.

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:

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4. Click Submit
5. The following results will show:


ID of logical server



Logical server host name



Host IP



IP Type (on page 48) (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.
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.

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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:

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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.

In this section:
Suspended ........................................................................................................ 457
Billing Statement History ................................................................................... 458
Cash Receipts Reports...................................................................................... 459
Refunds ............................................................................................................. 459
Billing Statements.............................................................................................. 460
Balance History ................................................................................................. 460
Bill Entries ......................................................................................................... 461
Tax/Refund Report ............................................................................................ 461

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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:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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The search result will be similar to the following:

* Billing statement ID is modified to indicate the order number of the billing statnment in
the billing statement history.

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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 424) 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 340).
9. When necessary, you can turn off check payments for the entire
system.

In this section:
Setting up the Check Mailing Address ............................................................... 464
Setting E-mail .................................................................................................... 464
Moderating Accounts ......................................................................................... 464
Turning Off Check Payments For the Entire System .......................................... 465

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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
page 121).

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:

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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.

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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 285) 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 413) 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.

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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:

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Account Management



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.

CHAPTER 20

Customer Signup
This chapter tells you how to manage customer signups.

In this chapter:
Signing Up Users .............................................................................................. 469
Moderating User Signups .................................................................................. 471
Signup Guard Settings ...................................................................................... 475
Viewing Signup Info........................................................................................... 478
Trial Hosting ...................................................................................................... 480

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 ..................................................... 470
Signing Up Users from the Street ...................................................................... 471

470

Customer Signup

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 331) 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 471).
If you want to replace signup forms with those of your own, read the User Signup
Customization guide.

Customer Signup

471

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 272).

 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
page 471) guide.

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 475) 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 475) 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.

472

Customer Signup





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 475) 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:

Customer Signup

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.



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:

473

474

Customer Signup

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

475

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.

476

Customer Signup

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 464) user will be required to enter the validation letters:

Customer Signup



477

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:

478

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.

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:

Customer Signup

479

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 434).

 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.

480

Customer Signup

Trial Hosting
Introduction to Trial Hosting
Trial registration allows users to sign up (on page 464) 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 430).
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:

Customer Signup

481

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
122).

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:

482

Customer Signup

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.
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 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.
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:
Managing Trial Accounts ................................................................................... 483
Enabling Trial Registration ................................................................................ 484
Grouping Trial Plans .......................................................................................... 485

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
122).

483

484

Customer Signup

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:

Customer Signup

485

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.

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.

CHAPTER 21

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:
Moving Domains Between Accounts ................................................................. 486
Moving Accounts Between Servers ................................................................... 488
Migrating Individual Cobalt RAQ4 Accounts to Parallels H-Sphere .................... 491
Migrating Individual cPanel Accounts to Parallels H-Sphere .............................. 496
Migrating Individual Ensim Accounts to Parallels H-Sphere ............................... 500
Migrating Mass Accounts to Parallels H-Sphere ................................................ 506

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 ............................................................................. 486
Moving Domains with Domain Mover ................................................................ 487
Compatibility...................................................................................................... 488
Manual Domain Move ....................................................................................... 488

Domain Move Requirements


The accounts must be located on the same server



The accounts must belong to compatible (on page 486) 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

manually

second- and third-level domains
(on page 285)running on shared
IP

- second- and third-level domains
running on dedicated IP
- other types of domains

Migration

487

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.

488

Migration

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

Migration

489

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 ............................................................................................................ 489
Requirements .................................................................................................... 489
Procedure.......................................................................................................... 490

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.

490

Migration

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.

Migration

491

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 Procedure.......................................................................................... 492
Billing Issues ..................................................................................................... 495

492

Migration

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:

Migration

4. Fill in the form that appears:

493

494

Migration



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.



Name, Company, Address, Phone, Email: 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:

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 413) 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 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.

495

496

Migration

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 ...................................................................................... 496
Migration Procedure .......................................................................................... 497
Billing Issues ..................................................................................................... 499

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 360) 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.

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

497

498

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. Read more about billing upon migration (on page 496).



Name, Company, Address, Phone, Email: enter contact info for the future Parallels HSphere account.

4. Click Submit.
This will initiate a new migration job which appears under Current jobs.

Migration

499

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 413) 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.

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Migration

Migrating Individual Ensim Accounts to
Parallels H-Sphere
You can migrate individual user Ensim accounts into Parallels H-Sphere.

In this section:
Preparing for Migration ...................................................................................... 501
Migration Procedure .......................................................................................... 502
Migration Notes ................................................................................................. 505
Billing Issues ..................................................................................................... 506

Migration

501

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 360) 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

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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:

3. Fill in the page that appears:

Migration

503



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



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.

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Migration



Name, Company, Address, Phone, Email: enter contact info for the future Parallels HSphere 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 413) under the chosen plan and manage it just like other Parallels H-Sphere
accounts.

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505

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

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Migration

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 HSphere
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 360)
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.

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 413) under the chosen plan and manage it just like other Parallels H-Sphere
accounts.

Billing Issues

507

508

Migration

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.

CHAPTER 22

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 267).
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
522)

These are delivered to POP3 support mailbox (e.g.support@example.com) specified in
Settings - >Tech Support (on page 522) and then submitted to your Client Support
Center (on page 510).
Web-based customer support has been profoundly improved. New Client Support
Center is now equipped with:


Security Administration (on page 510) allowing to set permissions per admin



Reseller Client Support (on page 510) allowing admin to process resellers end user
tickets and charge for it.



Task System (on page 510) which allows assigning tech admins tasks with due
date



Private Messaging System (on page 510) for better communication between Tech
Support Admins

Merging (on page 510) 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 522).
To configure Reseller Client Support, go to Settings menu - > Reseller Client Support and
follow instructions of Client Support Center (on page 510).
To enter Client Support Center, go to Support Center menu - > Client Support Center:

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Technical Support

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:
Client Support Center ........................................................................................ 510
Configuring Support Center ............................................................................... 522
Knowledge Base ............................................................................................... 525
Custom Jobs ..................................................................................................... 531
Mass Mail .......................................................................................................... 535
Crash Report ..................................................................................................... 537

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.

Technical Support

In this section:
Configuring Administration Security ................................................................... 511
Managing Trouble Tickets ................................................................................. 512
Task System ..................................................................................................... 516
Searching Trouble Tickets ................................................................................. 517
Exchanging Private Messages .......................................................................... 518
Managing KnowledgeBase ................................................................................ 519
Ticket Statistics ................................................................................................. 519
Ticket Queues ................................................................................................... 520
Supporting Reseller End Users ......................................................................... 521

Configuring Administration Security

511

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Technical Support

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.

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:

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513

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 .

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:

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Technical Support

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.
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 510) 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:

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515

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:

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Technical Support

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:

To see the task details, click the task name. On the Task Info page, you can change
Due Date and add a note.

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517

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.

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Technical Support

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.

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519

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
KnowledgeBase (on page 525)

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.

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Technical Support

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
sales@example.com or the Billing queue for tickets sent to billing@example.com.
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 522) configured in the Settings -> Tech Support
menu. Thus, queue e-mail addresses should be configured mail aliases/redirects to the
main support address.
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.

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521

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.

522

Technical Support

Configuring Support Center
Parallels H-Sphere periodically polls the specified POP3 support mailbox (e.g.
support@example.com) 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:

Technical Support



Default Email From: This email address will be automatically filled in as the From
email for Mass Mail (on page 535). It can be changed if necessary.

523

524

Technical Support



Support Email: Your primary support e-mail address (e.g. support@example.com)
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.:
example_user@example.com. 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.



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.

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525



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.

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.

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Technical Support

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:
Creating Knowledge Bases ............................................................................... 527
Editing and Removing Knowledge Bases .......................................................... 527
Exporting Knowledge Base ............................................................................... 528
Importing Knowledge Bases .............................................................................. 529
Spellcheck ......................................................................................................... 529
Search............................................................................................................... 530
Settings ............................................................................................................. 530

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527

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:

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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.

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529

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.

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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.

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.

Technical Support

531

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 ......................................................................................... 532
Adding Tasks to Custom Jobs ........................................................................... 533
Tracking Custom Job Status.............................................................................. 534

Adding Custom Jobs
 To assign a Custom Job to a particular account:
1. Find the account (on page 413) 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
panel.



Click Cancel
panel.



Click Abort



Click On Hold
panel.

to mark the job as active. It will show as IN PROGRESS on the user
to mark the job as stopped. It will show as CANCELED on the user
to mark the job as ABORTED. This won‟t delete the job from the list
to mark the job as pending. It will show as ON HOLD on the user

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 413) 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
122):



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 522). 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 122). 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.:
text in italic

text in bold

    

  • unordered list (bullet)
    • 

  • unordered list (bullet)
    • 





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:
Installation ......................................................................................................... 537
Update ............................................................................................................... 538
Changing E-Mail Address Where Reports Are Sent ........................................... 539
Sending Crash Reports ..................................................................................... 539
Extended Physical Server Information ............................................................... 541

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.:
CRASH_REPORT_MAIL=hs-crash@example.com

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 Email.
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
(on page 537).

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:

CHAPTER 23

Virtual Private Server
Parallels H-Sphere VPS feature integrates virtual private server hosting into H-Sphere.
Install H-Sphere VPS software on a separate physical box and add this box to your
Parallels H-Sphere cluster. This software is then identified as a logical VPS server and
run by a number of packages that may vary depending on your operating system (for
full list of VPS packages, check the list of packages for your Parallels H-Sphere
version).

In this chapter:
Providing VPS Hosting ...................................................................................... 542
Parallels H-Sphere VPS Templates ................................................................... 544

Providing VPS Hosting
This document describes final steps you need to perform in Parallels H-Sphere
interface to provide VPS hosting. We presume that you have already installed Parallels
H-Sphere VPS software to a separate box. Before your users will be able to signup to
virtual server plans and receive virtual servers in their use, you need to perform the
following steps.

In this section:
Step 1. Add VPS Network Gateway................................................................... 543
Step 2. Add IP Range to Logical Server ............................................................ 543
Step 3. Enable User Signup on Logical Server .................................................. 543
Step 4. Enable in Globals .................................................................................. 543
Step 4. Create VPS Plans ................................................................................. 543

Virtual Private Server

543

Step 1. Add VPS Network Gateway
Use our sysadmin documentation to add VPS Network Gateway.

Step 2. Add IP Range to Logical Server
 To add IP range to logical server:
1. Select L.Servers in the E.Manager -> Servers menu.
2. You will be taken to the list of all logical servers in the system. Choose
the VPS server to edit.
3. Fill in data below Add IP range:

IPs‟ type must be set to Virtual private server IP. Each VPS leased to your users takes
a free Virtual private server IP.
If all virtual private server IPs on this logical server are taken, no users will be able
to signup under VPS plans.

Step 3. Enable User Signup on Logical Server
1. Go to E.Manager -> Servers -> L.Servers and choose a server.
2. Click the red button Off to make it On:

Step 4. Enable in Globals
Make sure Virtual private server is enabled in Globals (on page 132).

Step 4. Create VPS Plans
1. Create VPS plan (on page 265).
2. Go to Plans -> Manage and turn Signup on for this plan.

544

Virtual Private Server

Parallels H-Sphere VPS Templates
VPS template is a predefined set of RPMs to install/remove/upgrade a certain service,
tool or application (e.g. BIND, Webalizer etc.). Basically, template is a structured file
with the list of RPM packages, including their names, full version and platform
architecture. Starting with Parallels H-Sphere 3.1 Beta 1, you can manage the VPS
Application, VPS Extra and VPS Core templates via CP interface.
Parallels H-Sphere VPS Application Templates are OS independent RPMs that include:


dns-server




ftp-server
mail-server



mysql-server



pgsql-server




samba-server
web-server

Parallels H-Sphere VPS Extra Templates are the custom set of RPMs that will be
provided to your users depending on their OSs. On different OSs different Extra VPS
templates can be installed.
Parallels H-Sphere VPS Core Templates are the basic services, libraries, and tools of
Parallels H-Sphere VPS. Starting with Parallels H-Sphere 3.1 Beta 2, your users can
update Parallels H-Sphere VPS Core templates from their CP.

In this section:
Adding H-Sphere VPS Templates ..................................................................... 545

Virtual Private Server

545

Adding H-Sphere VPS Templates
1. Make sure you have already installed Parallels H-Sphere VPS software
to a separate box.
2. Go to Server groups in E.Manager->Servers
3. Click on the Edit icon next to your VPS Server group
4. Add the templates to be available for your users:

5. Go to Virtual Private Server plan wizard and include the templates in the plan:

CHAPTER 24

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 .................................... 547
Creating Virtuozzo Plans ................................................................................... 548
Creating Virtuozzo Plan Groups ........................................................................ 550
Signing Up Users for Virtuozzo Plans ................................................................ 550

Parallels Virtuozzo Containers

547

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.

548

Parallels Virtuozzo Containers

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.

Parallels Virtuozzo Containers

549

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.

550

Parallels Virtuozzo Containers

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 switch to
another plan in this group.
Note: User requests to change Virtuozzo plans are processed by the
VirtozzoApplTemplatesCron background job (on page 135).

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.

Parallels Virtuozzo Containers

551

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.

CHAPTER 25

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 70);




SQLite PHP4/5 extension;
DOM XML PHP4 extension.

In this chapter:
Setting Up Parallels Sitebuilder ......................................................................... 553
Licensing Parallels Sitebuilder Accounts ........................................................... 554
Configuring Access to Parallels Sitebuilder Plans from Parallels H-Sphere Plans 555
Migrating from Parallels SiteStudio to Parallels Sitebuilder ............................... 556

Parallels Sitebuilder Integration

553

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.

 To set up Parallels Sitebuilder after the Parallels H-Sphere update:

554

Parallels Sitebuilder Integration

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 HSphere, and how many of them are covered by your license, go to E.Manager >
Sitebuilder > Site Admin Usage.

Parallels Sitebuilder Integration

555

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 its 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.

556

Parallels Sitebuilder Integration

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 HSphere 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.

CHAPTER 26

Third Party Products
This chapter considers third party products integrated in Parallels H-Sphere.

In this chapter:
Urchin................................................................................................................ 558
Miva Kit (intro) ................................................................................................... 559
Adding Miva Merchant Licenses ........................................................................ 559
Affiliate Programs .............................................................................................. 561
Kanoodle™ Support .......................................................................................... 564
AWStats Support ............................................................................................... 565
SpamAssassin Configuration Manager.............................................................. 567
MS Exchange Hosting ....................................................................................... 571

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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 (intro)
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.

Adding Miva Merchant Licenses
If you have Miva Merchant installed, do the following steps to add Miva licenses:

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1. Enter your administrator control panel.
2. Select Miva Merchant Licenses from the E. Manager -> 3rd 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.

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Affiliate Programs
You can add up to five external affiliate program (referral program) scripts. Parallels HSphere 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:
How Do Affiliate Programs Work? ..................................................................... 562
How Do I Set Up an Affiliate Program? .............................................................. 562

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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 request
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.

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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:

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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.
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.

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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!

 To sign up as a Kanoodle.com Referral Partner from Parallels H-Sphere:
1. Select Kanoodle from the E. Manager -> 3rd 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................................................................................................................. 566
Configuration on Unix/Linux .............................................................................. 566
Configuration on Windows ................................................................................. 566

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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/.

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).

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SpamAssassin Configuration Manager
 To configure SpamAssassin from your administrator control panel:
1. Select SpamAssassin Manager in the E. Manager -> 3rd Party Tools menu.
2. On the page that shows select mail server from the drop-down box and
click Go.

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3. Configure parameters for the chosen mail server:


Turn Rules Du Jour on and check custom SpamAssassin rule sets (on page 567)
whose newer versions you‟d like to be automatically downloaded and updated:

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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.



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.

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

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.



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.

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

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.



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 Set.

MS Exchange Hosting
According to Microsoft.com (http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/default.mspx),
“Exchange Server, the Microsoft messaging and collaboration server, is software that
runs on servers that enables you to send and receive electronic mail and other forms of
interactive communication through computer networks. Designed to interoperate with a
software client application such as Microsoft Outlook, Exchange Server also
interoperates with Outlook Express and other e-mail client applications.”
Parallels H-Sphere integrates MS Exchange Server hosting. At the administrator level,
a special MS Exchange plan is provided. Users signed up for this plan are enabled to
manage MS Exchange mailboxes, SMTP domains and distribution lists.

In this section:
Prepare Servers for MS Exchange Hosting ....................................................... 572
Enable MS Exchange Hosting in H-Sphere Global Resources .......................... 572
Configure Microsoft Provisioning Framework .................................................... 572
Configure MS Exchange Plan............................................................................ 573

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Prepare Servers for MS Exchange Hosting
Before configuring MS Exchange in CP, you must prepare Windows boxes for MS
Exchange hosting (See System Administrator Guide).

Enable MS Exchange Hosting in H-Sphere Global
Resources
MS Exchange hosting is globally disabled by default. Enable it in Plans -> Globals, under
the Hosting Platforms section:

Configure Microsoft Provisioning Framework
Go to MS Exchange in the E.Manager menu:

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Here:


Netbios Domain name. Enter Active Directory domain‟s NetBIOS name.



Login and Password. Enter credentials for Domain Administrators Group member.



Host Name. Enter MPF server name or IP.



Port number. Enter port you are using to access the MPF server (by default, port
„80‟).



Path. Enter virtual directory name, by default it is MPSWS/



Primary Domain Controller: domain name of the primary domain controller server



LDAP: standard LDAP path to the reseller organization unit (reseller unit in terms of
H-Sphere users will sign up for MS Exchange hosting plan). Here, OU stands for
“Organization Unit”, DC=domain_name_part1,DC=domain_name_part2, .... (Go to
Preparing Servers for MS Exchange Hosting > Creating Reseller Organization Unit
in System Administrator Guide for details.)

Configure MS Exchange Plan
1. Go to Create in the Plans menu and create a plan under Hosted Exchange
Plan Wizard.
2. In Plans -> Manage, turn Signup Access ON for the newly created MS
Exchange plan. After this, users can sign up for this plan and manage
MS Exchange hosting in Parallels H-Sphere under their user CP
accounts.
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Title                           : Parallels H-Sphere 3.4.1 Administrator Guide
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