The Complete Guide to install Plesk Obsidian on CentOS

Plesk is a leading web hosting control panel for Linux and Windows operating systems and has been available for commercial use since 2001. The current version of Plesk is Plesk Obsidian which meets the evolving needs of the industry and supports IT professionals in making the Plesk install process seamless and manage their domains and clients effectively.

To install Plesk on CentOS 7, we will share our detailed guide below. You can also install Plesk on other *nix versions and also on Windows OS which has identical UI and installation options.

Prerequisites to Install Plesk on CentOS

• To install Plesk we recommend using CentOS 7 or above OS version
• Intel or AMD CPU with 1 core @ 2.0 Ghz and above
• A minimum of 1 GB of RAM + 1 GB swap is required
• Free disk space required is 20 GB

Plesk Editions

There are three Plesk Obsidian editions available as below:

• Plesk Web Admin Edition – it is used for web admins to manage sites hassle-free as the user does not have to manage customers, resellers, or subscriptions.

• Plesk Web Pro Edition – it is intended for Web Professionals for designing & developing customer websites in a simple way with the use of WordPress as a CMS platform.

• Plesk Web Host Edition – it is designed for Web Hosting providers, for allowing their customers to use their shared account with features customized by the hosting provider.

Plesk Obsidian Releases

The current Plesk version is named Plesk Obsidian ( 18.x ) with version 18 will remain the major current Plesk version that will be supported without any EOL date set currently.
Plesk obsidian is upgraded from its previous version of Plesk Onyx ( 17.x ) with the design focused mainly on a better user-friendly interface, the addition of new & updated tools to increase productivity & tougher security.

Pre-Installation of the Plesk Control Panel Set the hostname for the CentOS Server

At first, we need to set up the server hostname

[root@linuxreview ~]# hostnamectl set-hostname linuxreview.co.in

Assign a Public IP address to the Server

If you are using the server behind NAT, then you need to assign a valid Public IP address to the server

Upgrade the Server OS 

Before installing Plesk, we need to upgrade the OS with the latest RPM software packages & dependencies and then reboot the server.

[root@linuxreview ~]# yum update
[root@linuxreview ~]# reboot

Install wget utility 

“wget” utility is used to retrieve files from web URL so this is also required on the server.

[root@linuxreview ~]# yum install wget

How to install Plesk on Centos 7

There are three common ways to install Plesk for Linux server

Via One-Click Plesk Installation 

Through One-Click installation, Plesk will be installed quick and easily with default configuration and the user does not have to deal with any customization

[root@linuxreview ~]# sh <(curl https://autoinstall.Plesk.com/one-click-installer||
wget -O - https://autoinstall.Plesk.com/one-click-installer)

Install Plesk via Plesk Web Installer

Through web installer service, server SSH credentials are provided in the Plesk official URL : https://get.Plesk.com/ & Plesk installation will begin consequently with the default configuration
We need to provide the server IP address & server root user password in the respective box & click Continue for the Plesk installation to start

Via Command Line Interface (CLI)

With this method, Plesk installation can be customised as per your web server requirements, components & extensions and we would recommend the same:

The entire process of the same is as follows :

Download the Plesk Installer script

First we have to download the Plesk installer script from Plesk official site which will initiate the installation process

[root@linuxreview ~]# wget http://autoinstall.Plesk.com/Plesk-installer

Add execution permissions to Plesk Installer script

Add execution permission to the script with the following command

[root@linuxreview ~]# chmod +x Plesk-installer

Launch Plesk Installer

By default, Plesk-installer command will install the latest version of Plesk Obsidian.

With the use of option “target”, we can specify the location path on which the installer will download files from. If there is no such requirement, then we can omit the option “target” along with the target path.

[root@linuxreview ~]# ./Plesk-installer --target /tmp/Pleskdemo
[root@linuxreview ~]# ./Plesk-installer

On execution of the Plesk installer script, the Plesk installation wizard will open up.
The wizard provides an easy-to-navigate console with detailed instructions on how to install Plesk components.

The Plesk Installation and Upgrade Wizard will guide you through
the installation or upgrade process.
===============================================================================
------ IMPORTANT ------
* New installation of product(s) should be performed on clean servers only.
* Before upgrading Plesk, be sure to back up your data.
* By using this Wizard you agree to the terms and conditions described at
  http://www.Plesk.com/legal/terms/ and those of the Plesk End User
  License Agreement.
Available actions:
(F) Go forward
(Q) Cancel installation
Select an action [F/q]:

Select Plesk Installation type

Plesk’s installation wizard provides three options to install Plesk.
Recommended option will install the most popular Plesk components.

Full option will install Plesk with all the available components.

Custom option is where we can select or remove Plesk components as per our requirement.

Select the installation type for Plesk Obsidian
===============================================================================
Installation types for the product:
 1. (*) Recommended
       Install typically used components. Recommended for general use.
 2. ( ) Full
       Install all available components.
 3. ( ) Custom
       Custom components selection. Recommended only for experienced users.
Available actions:
(F) Go forward
(B) Go back
(Q) Cancel installation
Select an action or a number [F/b/q/1-3]:

Press “3” for custom installation of Plesk components & then Press “F” to proceed

Select the installation type for Plesk Obsidian
===============================================================================
Installation types for the product:
 1. ( ) Recommended
       Install typically used components. Recommended for general use.
 2. ( ) Full
       Install all available components.
 3. (*) Custom
       Custom components selection. Recommended only for experienced users.
Available actions:
(F) Go forward
(B) Go back
(Q) Cancel installation
Select an action or a number [F/b/q/1-3]: F

Select Plesk server components as per the requirement

By default, the option with the star (*) next to it is chosen. To change your selection, enter the number of the option you wish to select, and then press Enter. The location of the star (*) will change.

Main components list for Plesk
===============================================================================
 32 of 58 components selected
Please select the components of Plesk you want to install:
 1. [*] Plesk
 2. [*] BIND DNS server
 3. [ ] PostgreSQL server
 4. [*] Fail2Ban
 5. [*] SELinux policy
 6. [*] All language localization for Plesk
 7. [*] Git
 8. [ ] Resource Controller (Cgroups)
 9. [ ] Plesk Migrator
10. [ ] Web Presence Builder
11. [*] MySQL server
12. [.] <+> Webmail services // 1 of 2 components selected
13. [.] <+> Mail hosting // 2 of 6 components selected
14. [.] <+> Web hosting // 9 of 24 components selected
15. [.] <+> Plesk extensions // 13 of 15 components selected
Enter a number to toggle the respective component or view the group (marked with <+>).
Available actions:
(F) Go forward
(B) Go back
(Q) Cancel installation
(A) Select all
(D) Deselect all
Select an action or a number [F/b/q/a/d/1-15]:

Options with the symbol <+> means that there are further subcomponents available to be selected. Pressing the number associated with it will show the subcomponents list.

Primary components list / hosting
===============================================================================
Select the components you want to install:
 1. [*] ProFTPD
 2. [*] Webalizer
 3. [*] AWStats
 4. [*] ModSecurity
 5. [ ] Phusion Passenger server
 6. [ ] Ruby support
 7. [ ] NodeJS support
 8. [ ] Tools required for building Ruby gems
 9. [.] <+> Apache // 2 of 2 components selected
10. [.] <+> PHP interpreter versions // 2 of 13 components selected
11. [*] <+> Nginx web server and reverse proxy server // 1 of 1 components selected
Enter a number to toggle the respective component or view the group (marked with <+>).
Available actions:
(B) Go back
(Q) Cancel installation
(A) Select all
(D) Deselect all
Select an action or a number [B/q/a/d/1-11]:

Press “B” to go back to the previous menu once everything is selected as per requirement & press “F” to proceed.
Once extra packages information will show, press “F” to proceed & Plesk will start installing.

Preparing Your System for Product Installation
===============================================================================
There are 378 packages required for the product to function properly which
were not found in your system.
There are 1 packages that need to be upgraded
in order to install the product.
Available actions:
(F) Go forward
(B) Go back
(Q) Cancel installation
(S) Show the list of packages
Select an action [F/b/q/s]: F

Complete and confirm Plesk installation

The following message will show once Plesk installation gets completed

Components and product check results:
Installation is finished
                                   Congratulations!
        The installation has been finished. Plesk is now running on your server.
        To complete the configuration process, browse either of URLs:
          * https://linuxreview.co.in/login?secret=yv6S3lPvxdODx5NeA4pkkwdq4bKGMfKXjH4CeZ_LKpJporn9
          * https://103.234.116.176/login?secret=yv6S3lPvxdODx5NeA4pkkwdq4bKGMfKXjH4CeZ_LKpJporn9
        Use the username 'admin' to log in. To log in as 'admin', use the 'Plesk login' command.
        You can also log in as 'root' using your 'root' password.
        Use the 'Plesk' command to manage the server. Run 'Plesk help' for more info.
        Use the following commands to start and stop the Plesk web interface:
        'Service psa start' and 'service psa stop' respectively.
        If you would like to migrate your subscriptions from other hosting panel
        or older Plesk version to this server, please check out our assistance
        options: https://www.Plesk.com/professional-services/
The changes were applied successfully.

Login to the Plesk control panel

Run the following command for Plesk Login , Plesk will generate a one-time login link to access the Plesk control panel.

Paste the login link on the browser to access the Plesk control panel.

[root@linuxreview htdocs]# Plesk login
https://linuxreview.co.in/login?secret=BBU9IROi7G5vedWJxh2S-Re4glPuIRNTDQNhjHNhDgPELH6i

An alternate way of login to the Plesk panel would be to browse the Plesk panel via URL :
http://<server IP/host name>:8880 or https://<server IP/host name>:8443
By default Plesk panel is accessible with URL via port 8880 for without SSL & port 8443 with SSL connection.

Post-installation configuration setup for Plesk Panel

Confirm the Plesk control panel License Agreement

Once browse the Plesk URL, we can see the contact info & user license agreement page.
Provide the contact details of the Admin & check the tick box to agree the terms and conditions and proceed to the next page.
We can opt to proceed with a trial license which will be valid for 15 days, or we can provide a paid license key and proceed.

Once the setup process gets completed, finally the Plesk panel will open.
By default, after you login for the first time inside Plesk, there will be no domain listed and you can click on the Add Domain option to add a new domain
It is also a good practice to customize the server environment as per requirement from the Tools & Settings tab before adding any domain.

Select Plesk View – Power User or Service Provider

In the bottom-left corner of the Change View page, we can choose the appearance of the panel as per our requirements.
The power user view is a simple interface for server administrators to manage their own websites, email accounts, and other services.
The service provider view interface is a little more complicated than power user view & it is used by the server administrator, resellers, and hosting end-users.

Register a Public IP address with Plesk

Even though it is an optional activity, the public IP address of the server can be registered with the Plesk panel for several benefits depending upon the requirement of the service provider.
Plesk provides the IP Address management option under the tools & settings section where the server IP address is designated with Plesk as per the requirement either as a dedicated IP or Shared IP address.

Note that if you are using the Plesk server on a NAT setup then you need to assign a Valid Public IP address to the server Public IP address option so Plesk can convert the private IP requests from within your network and forward it as a public IP.

Add a new Domain to Plesk

To add a domain after login to the Plesk panel for the first time, simply click on Add Domain
On the following tab, provide the domain name to be added. An FTP & SSH user with the same credentials for the domain will also be automatically created along with the process.

Apply Letsencrypt certificate to Plesk

Plesk provides free & reliable Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates for the hosted domains & subdomains with easy to install, renew & reissue SSL features. Click on SSL/TLS Certificates under the Security tab to install SSL

Plesk Security

Fail2ban is an intrusion prevention software that provides protection against Brute Force Attacks. IP addresses with multiple failed authentication will get blocked by fail2ban filter jails.
Click on the IP Address banning tab under Tools & Settings to enable Fail2ban

Once Fail2ban is enabled then click on Jails to see the active filter status

Web Application Firewall 

Plesk provides a Web Application Firewall to prevent attacks against web applications.
Click on the Web Application Firewall ( ModSecurity )  tab under Tools & Settings to enable modsecurity

Plesk Extensions

The Plesk Extensions tab is like your App store on your phone and it lists independent software and applications with a wide range of features to provide services with specific & custom needs. It can be viewed as similar to the Play Store for Android.
Click on the Extensions tab to view the list of popular applications. You can also search for a specific application in the search box.
It is also worth notifying that Plesk extensions come with free & paid versions. Users can manage paid extensions in “My Purchases” section under the Extensions panel.

Server Monitoring within Plesk

To monitor the server resources Plesk provides a free built-in Grafana Monitoring extension where the server Disk I/O, Memory & CPU usage, Network traffics & Service health status can be monitored on a real-time basis.

Click on the Monitoring tab to view the resource usage

Plesk Support References

Plesk also provides broad support resources for implementation as well as troubleshooting Plesk issues.

• Plesk Obsidian Documentation
• Plesk Help Centre
• Plesk Forum

Conclusion on the Plesk Installation Guide

Plesk is an excellent web hosting control panel for Web development agencies, SMEs and corporates and web hosters who want to provide a feature rich and well supported control panel which is easy to use and has several extensions to improve its capabilities. As an alternative to cPanel, you can use Plesk Panel to make managing your business operations simpler and more efficient. Diadem Technologies is a premier  Plesk Partner in India since inception and to know more about how you can use Plesk Panel to streamline your business operations, do get in touch with us. Diadem Technologies also offers Cloud VPS services to provide scalable and reliable cloud hosting solutions for your business needs.

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