Speed Zone Roping

While writing an application on my linux machine , i used the PHP function (getmxrr) to resolve MX records, the lovely function returns an array of all the MX records that are associated with a domain name, once i moved the application to a windows machine that ran PHP 5.2.13 on Plesk 9.5 , things went bam, getmxrr is only available on Windows when you are running PHP 5.3 and above, so what to do

The answer was the PEAR package (Net_DNS), here i will document how i installed and used it so that i don’t have to look around again later

Here are the exact steps i had to follow to get things working, including the code

1- Login to the windows server via remote desktop

2- Open the command line

3- on the command line

cd C:\Parallels\Plesk\Additional\Php

Once in that directory, you can execute (on the command line)

go-pear

You should now follow the instructions, install the extra package, and you have pear installed.

Now, a reg file should be in that same directory, double click it, enter it into the registry

Now you need to edit php.ini found at C:\Parallels\Plesk\Additional\PleskPHP5

in the path variable, add the pear folder

include_path = ".;./includes;./pear;C:\Parallels\Plesk\Additional\Php\PEAR"

Now, i restarted the server, you can restart IIS or do that IIS magic you know how to do (No, it is not /etc/init.d/IIS restart), i am just too lazy, it is probably very easy

Now, on the command line, i executed

pear install Net_DNS-1.0.7

i had to do it twice, and for some reason the first run did not find the package, second installed, very strange i think.

Now that the thing was installed, i simply ran the following code, and i got a result very similar to that of my beloved getmxrr

<?php

function extract_answers_mx($answerobj)
{
	//this one extracts the MX records !
	$innerobjary = $answerobj->answer;
	$numofrecs = count($innerobjary);//How many records ?
	$retary = array();//we store servers here...
	if((is_array($innerobjary)) && (count($innerobjary) > 0))
	{
		foreach ($innerobjary as $thisent)
		{
			//we have an entry from the array !
			$retary[] = $thisent->exchange;//put the exchange in the array
		}
	}
	return $retary;//could be an empty array !
}

require_once 'Net/DNS.php';
$resolver = new Net_DNS_Resolver();
$resolver->debug = 0; // Turn on debugging output to show the query
$resolver->usevc = 1; // Force the use of TCP instead of UDP
$resolver->nameservers = array(              // Set the IP addresses
                           '192.168.2.100',     // of the nameservers
                           '192.168.2.101'  // to query.
                           );
$response = $resolver->query('php.net', 'MX');
if (! $response)
{
  echo "\n";
  echo "ANCOUNT is 0, therefore the query() 'failed'\n";
  echo "See Net_DNS_Resolver::rawQuery() to receive this packet\n";
}
$retary = extract_answers_mx($response);
foreach ($retary as $thisary)
{
	print "{$thisary}\n";
}
?>

And now, i can go back to doing my magic

Although plesk allows you to enable or dissable safe mode for a domain, there is no where you can dissable or enable safe mode for a sub domain !

The answer lies in the Plesk apache Config File, Safe mode can be switched off from within the file

/var/www/vhosts/domain.com/subdomains/<subdomain-name>/conf/vhost.conf

<Directory /var/www/vhosts/domain.com/subdomains/<subdomain-name>/httpdocs>
php_admin_flag safe_mode off
</Directory>

Then, as with every time you edit such a config file, you will need to tell plesk about the change

/usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/websrvmng –reconfigure-vhost –vhost-name=domain.com

And you will need to tell apache to reload it’s config files…
/etc/rc.d/init.d/httpd restart

You should now be good to go

Plesk Windows issues

I have already extended a client account’s validity period, what i do not understand is, After un-suspending the client’s account, i try to un-suspend a domain name, and i get the following Warning

Warning: The domain is still suspended for the following reason: Domain is expired.

So, On the plesk website (Forums) they say

Log into the Plesk Control Panel, click <DOMAINS> then the domain in question then “Limits”. Look at the “validity period” You must have an expiration date set there.

And since there is not “Limits” i assumed they were talking about “Resource Usage”, Since this is the Limits new name since plesk 9 ( currently at 9.5.1 , but i am sure it has been like this at least in 9.2.3, 9.3.0, and this plesk)

Anyway, there is expiry for a domain name in there.

The question i can’t help but ask is, Why are domains under a user account not Valid forever by default where the account owner’s validity takes precedence ?

On a PLESK for windows installation, there was a problem reactivating websites, everything seems fine when you activate, then you refresh the page and it is inactive, the answer was in activating the domains from the command line after activating the client’s account

cd c:\Parallels\Plesk\admin\bin

Then

domain.exe –on domainname.com

(Type it in yourself, and notice that — is 2 consecutive dashes)

You should see

SUCCESS: Changing status of domain ‘domainname.com’ completed.

Today, after logging in to the Linux Plesk server (CentOS), i found that PLESK 9.5.1 is out, before updating, i noticed that there is a new module, Parallels Premium Antivirus which turned out to be Dr. Web Antivirus.

Anyway, the complete list is as follows

You have an up-to-date version

Apache ASP support    Oct 8, 2008
Apache mod_python module    Jan 6, 2007
Bandwidth Limiter For Apache support (mod_bw)    Nov 7, 2007
Plesk billing    June 24, 2009    June 24, 2009
PostgreSQL server support    Oct 26, 2009    Oct 26, 2009
SiteBuilder module migration suite    Sept 8, 2008    Sept 8, 2008
SiteBuilder publishing support for Plesk    May 22, 2007    May 22, 2007
SSHTerm – SSH Terminal java applet    Nov 30, 2008    Nov 30, 2008

An update is available

Base packages of Plesk    Dec 29, 2009    April 14, 2010
ColdFusion support for Plesk    Dec 29, 2009    April 9, 2010
Horde webmail support    Dec 29, 2009    April 9, 2010
Kaspersky antivirus module    Dec 29, 2009    April 9, 2010
Mailman mailing list manager support    Dec 29, 2009    April 9, 2010
MIVA Empresa support    Dec 29, 2009    April 9, 2010
Parallels Premium Antivirus    Dec 29, 2009    April 9, 2010
Plesk API [former Plesk Agent]    Dec 29, 2009    April 9, 2010
Plesk Backup Manager    Dec 29, 2009    April 9, 2010
Plesk Firewall module    Dec 29, 2009    April 9, 2010
Plesk migration manager    Dec 29, 2009    April 9, 2010
Plesk Professional Web Site Editor    Dec 29, 2009    April 9, 2010
Plesk Updater    Aug 17, 2009    April 7, 2010
Plesk VPN module    Dec 29, 2009    April 9, 2010
Ruby on Rails support    Dec 29, 2009    April 9, 2010
SpamAssassin support    Dec 29, 2009    April 9, 2010
Tomcat Java Servlets support    Dec 29, 2009    April 9, 2010
Watchdog (System monitoring module)    Dec 29, 2009    April 9, 2010

Not installed

Application vault packages    9.5.1-cos5.build95100410.11    April 9, 2010
AtMail webmail support    1:1.02-cos5.build95100410.11    April 9, 2010
Chinese language pack for China    9.5.1-2010032917    Mar 29, 2010
Chinese language pack for Taiwan    9.5.1-2010032917    Mar 29, 2010
Dutch language pack for Netherlands    9.5.1-2010032917    Mar 29, 2010
French language pack    9.5.1-2010032917    Mar 29, 2010
German language pack    9.5.1-2010032917    Mar 29, 2010
Italian language pack    9.5.1-2010032917    Mar 29, 2010
Japanese language pack    9.5.1-2010032917    Mar 29, 2010
Plesk Battlefield 1942 game server module    1.0.0-cos5.build95100410.11    April 9, 2010
Plesk Battlefield2 game server module    1.0.0-cos5.build95100410.11    April 9, 2010
Plesk Counter-Strike game server module    2.0.0-cos5.build95100410.11    April 9, 2010
Plesk Fileserver module and SMB file server package    0:3.0.33-3.15.el5_4.1    April 9, 2010
Russian language pack    9.5.1-2010032917    Mar 29, 2010
Spanish language pack    9.5.1-2010032917    Mar 29, 2010

Upgrading from 9.3.0 to 9.5.1 went smooth, unlike what you see in the post below on upgrading from 9.2.3 to 9.3.0, in the upgrade below, i had not reinstalled application vault applications because of an MD5 checksum check error in the downloaded package.

Today, i revoked a PLESK server’s security certificate and had to login via HTTP to make a new one.

First, if the server’s security certificate is revoked, you are in trouble, the reason is, you have to use plain HTTP as Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer and Google chrome will not let you in.

To get this out of the way, PLESK does allow you to login via HTTP (Not recommended), you can do that by visiting your server with PORT NUMBER 8880, so to open in plain HTTP (Plain text) you simply visit http://myserver.mydomain.com:8880/ but as you may well know, you are putting the server at risk of someone hijacking your server

So what i did is this

I assume you have putty, i SSHed to the server where i have set a tunnel using putty’s SSH tunnel feature, then logged in to the server via HTTP, this is how it works, when you browse the internet, you are actually asking your plesk server to get the pages for you, and therefore when you visit the http page via an ssh tunnel, your connection to the server is in reality encrypted (With the SSH tunnel).

Right after, you can visit settings => ssl certificates => Add SSL certificate => Add a certificate

Then you would go to settings => ssl certificates => put a tick beside the certificate you want to use for the server, then click on “Secure Control Panel” and you should be done and ready to go again

In some cases, you can self sign your certificate, meaning you do not need a third party to certify that you are you, but this will notify the visitors that there is no trusted authority on the certificate, so i only use a self signed certificate when i am the one who will be logging in, surely i do trust myself $25.99 (I get that price here)

Anyway, i hope this has got you a way around connecting via http in plain text, happy administrating