Plesk Book?

[Kimber]

I am new to Plesk and have looked over the help files however I like old fashion books. Something I can write in, bookmark and make notes as I read.

Does anyone know of any good Plesk books for semi-non-technical people. I have a managed hosting but build the web sites myself.

Thank you

 

[atomicturtle]

Ive got one in development, but otherwise nope, nothing on the market.

 

[Kimber]

Originally posted by atomicturtle
Ive got one in development, but otherwise nope, nothing on the market.

Great, it is hard to find computer books that are so mid-tech level. Everything is way to easy or way to technical.

Thank you
Kimberly

 

[laughingbuddha]

When the book is complete can you drop me an email. I will happly buy a copy.

Its silly things like OS install, and do I need to setup MySQL, PHP, and a Firewall during the OS install, or will the Plesk install do all this for me???

These things aren't pointed out in the installation guide, and also not covered in the pre-regs on the website.

Matt

 

[Kimber]

Please drop me an email too when it is complete!

The problem with all these online manuals, computer help is (for the most part) they are aimed at people who grew up with computers and video games.

I am only 44 years old, which believe it or not, we only had three TV stations when I grew up and our first microwave oven was so heavy it took two grown men to get it in the house.

My point is I grew up with books, pen and paper, I like writing notes in the margin. I don’t do well reading online manuals whoever I don’t need the books out today in bookstores for old people about how to send an email.

It is sad is there is a whole age groups of people no technical books are written for. We get how to send an email, making a web page for frontpage, and can figure out the basic stuff on most software.

HOWEVER – When you go the bookstore everything is about hard core coding or how to attach a file to an email. BELIEVE me when I say I have spend hours looking for a book med level tech book and there are not there. I have yet to find one book to tell me very simply how to click “MySQL†on Cpanel and make a database. I know it sounds simple to a lot of people but I had to find hire a tech person to come in and teach me that simple things because I mid-level tech stuff is hard to find.

I wish more people would write books like http://www.lulu.com/content/466605 Zen Cart. It is great book, simple set by set picture books for people like me.

Sorry just venting. I really get tired of every computer book being so extreme one way or the other.

YES, PLEASE email when it is complete! I would love a buy a copy of plesk. I am trying to watch these flash tutors but …. That is another vent.

 

[atomicturtle]

Im not that much younger. Remember changing the channel with pliers? Or when MTV played music?

I started toying around with Video tutorials here (yes theres no sound): http://www.atomicorp.com/Tutorials/

Otherwise I dont have any kind of fixed schedule for the book. I started developing it for a publisher who brought the idea to me last year, but we never signed a publishing agreement. Which means that once I have a manuscript Ive got to shop it around.

 

[laughingbuddha]

Or when MTV played music?

Nice. Yeah I remember that, a long time ago.

I have the Zen Cart book. Its a life saver, cos that Zen Cart is a ***** of a program.

At first I thought to myself "I'll use Zen Cart and customise it allot instead of building my own cms with ecommerce system". Since using it I'm more determined to build my own now.

I mean, the admin section is patchy at best. 3 differnt menu sections/items to change one eliment. Product options are all over the show. You can tell allot of differnt coders have worked on it. No consistancy.

All in all its very powerful, if it wasn't for the book and the extra modules I got down (UK shipping and so on) I would've used something like OpenCart.

That and I had to SSH into my WebFusion VPS to disable PHP Safe Mode. If they fined out I have done that, they won't be happy

Thank god I'm putting my own server up soon.

Matt

 

[laughingbuddha]

Love the Turtle by the way.

On another note, is the Linux penguin copyrighted? Reason I ask is that I saw one that looks the same in the rendered 3d style on the back of a bus (advert poster) today.


Matt

 

[atomicturtle]

Its definitely Trademarked.

 

[laughingbuddha]

Guessed so

Got a quick question:-

I'm trying to work out what I need OS wise to install Plesk, i.e PHP, MySQL, Apache, Firewall. Haven't managed to get an answer yet in other posts in this forum.

I found the following link to a guide on HowToForge.com Click Here Is this a good idea and does it cover everything.

Matt

 

[atomicturtle]

Personally, I do a minimal installation, and then let yum do the rest. ASL is my security suite, so that part rolls up all the things I normally do to lock down a box.

 

[laughingbuddha]

Ok, so you don't install PHP, MySQL, Apache, Firewall?

Do you run the Plesk install first then run YUM?

Oh and can you get Plesk to use multiple Hard Drives. I have 2 U320 SCSI HP 72 GB 15K rpm drives, and I'm thinking about not running RAID and instead using both the drives for storage.

Excuse me for sounding dum, I don't normaly use Linux and have no idea what Plesk needs from the OS prior to an install, and for that matter have no idea what YUM is, only that its similar to Windows Update.

Matt

 

[atomicturtle]

I install plesk through yum, that resolves the dependencies it needs (apache, mysql, bind, etc). You can also do that through the autoinstaller, its just a bit more sensitive.

 

[laughingbuddha]

So I don't need to install anything with the OS then, Plesk handles the lot.

Is it possible to install Plesk at my office on the local LAN, then move it to the server house and make the IP changes in Plesk?

Reason I ask is that I don't want to do the install when its at the server house, because if anything goes wrong I would have to drive over and sort it out.

I guess from what you are saying I don't have to setup a Firewall as Plesk deals with that. But you would recommend running your security YUM pack that you mentioned in another thread.

Sorry to be a pain, to a Windows user Linux servers is a scary thing, an I don't want to be hack within days and used as a torrent server.


Matt

 

[atomicturtle]

Sure I do that all the time. Once you move it run:

/usr/local/psa/bin/reconfigurator.pl

That will run you through a dialog to update your IP's for the new environment.

Plesk has a decent firewall interface, although to be honest firewalls dont really do much in a hosting environment. They're good for configuring what services you allow to connect to the system, or blocking specific IP's/Netblocks. ASL gets into looking at what is being sent to/from the system, or controlling what happens at the process or file system level. I use the firewall component to block access in ASL after malicious activity has been detected.

 

[laughingbuddha]

Thanks for your reply.

ASL sounds interesting, is that a subscribe service or free?

 

[atomicturtle]

Subscription service. I might get some 30-day trial functions into it in the future.