Plesk Main CP Certificate on VPS

[CMOwen]

I am not sure if my problems are because I am on a VPS or not ...

I recently signed up for a VPS account with JaguarPC. They use Virtuozzo and I elected the Plesk 100 domain license option to start off (Plesk 8.6.0).

By default on a new installation you will get a certificate warning when going to the Plesk login page. Today I bought a new cert from RapidSSL (GeoTrust cheap cert). My intention was just to install a cheap cert that would work with Plesk CP so my future clients wouldn't get scared by a warning.

I am about to post a ton of info that is probably irrelevant to my dilemma, but I want to make sure I post as much info as possible to assist in finding the solution.

- I have 3 dedicated IPs (1 main IP that is also my VPS' shared IP and 2 more used for custom DNS IPs ... ns1.mydomain.com and ns2.mydomain.com)

- My VPS is setup with hostname lunar1.mydomain.com and reverse DNS properly resolves from all 3 IPs (lunar1.mydomain.com = IP1 (shared), ns1.mydomain.com = IP2, ns2.mydomain.com = IP3)

- I have set myself up as a client with a domain matching my hostname (mydomain.com) on the VPS' shared IP (IP1)

My steps for my cert:
01. Logged in to Plesk using "admin"
02. Went to Server>Certificates>Add New Certificate
03. Made up a name for the cert then filled in all necessary information and chose 2048 bit then clicked Request
04. Purchased a cert from RapidSSLOnline using the Plesk generated CSR (actually took me to GeoTrust to complete the order)
05. Received the cert and CA in email
06. Pasted (from email) the info from GeoTrust and clicked Send Text
07. Went back up to Server>Certificates and selected the new cert then clicked "Use selected certificate for securing connections to control panel" (long pause, then page came back).
08. Selected new cert and clicked "Use selected certificate for securing connections to newly hosted websites".
09. Went to Server>IP Addresses and assigned the cert to all 3 IPs
10. Went to Server>Service Management
11. Stopped both Apache and Bind
12. Started Bind, then started Apache
13. Tested Plesk control panel login and still received warning
14. Restarted the whole VPS ... still no control panel cert

When I access https://www.mydomain.com:8443 it still shows the certificate warning and on inspection of the certificate it is still the default Plesk (self-issued) certificate. However, when I access https://www.mydomain.com everything is fine (inspecting the certificate shows the GeoTrust cert).

What am i missing here? How do I get it to work as the control panel cert? Is it somehow a limitation of using Plesk on a VPS (that would be REALLY dumb)?

 

[CMOwen]

After a lot of research I found my answer ...

The CP cert on a Virtuozzo/Plesk install cannot be changed by the VPS end user (me). The server owner can do this (my VPS provider), but not without a LOT of hassle.

Solution: Use cPanel

I liked Plesk a lot in the past when I had my own dedicated server (2000-2003). While it has its ups and downs just like any other CP, the company behind it makes or breaks the product. Other issues I encountered tonight were trying to get rid of all the Parallels ads in the user interfaces ... not possible without a few "hacks". Its a little sad to see the current state of Plesk. I can't offer my services to my clients with someone else spamming products and services (Parallels) in the control panel ... that's just not right.

Oh well, I'll just have to make do with cPanel's ugly interface (I'm kinda sad now)

For those want to stick with Plesk on a Virtuozzo container, have your provider view this article if they are not sure how to set up a cp cert for you
http://kb.odin.com/en/1090

 

[faris]

Err... I don't think this is the only solution.

If I recall correctly you just have to disable the offline management options in Virtuozzo, after which Plesk becomes kind of stand-alone.

I've not actually tried it myself. This is just from memory. Or maybe this is only for VZ4?

Faris.