I’ve been working with variations of unix since 1992, so I feel very comfortable with the command-line. Indeed, one of the things I’ve always liked about unix is how everything is treated as a file and can be manipulated from the command line rather than hidden behind a GUI. Somehow, it just fits my mind better.

In some of my recent consulting work I’ve finally had to come to terms with Plesk, a Web-based tool with the aim of simplifying system administration. For the person not very experienced with unix then Plesk can be an amazing tool. For the experienced unix sys admin then Plesk can be downright annoying.

Plesk is often supplied with dedicated server accounts. I certainly understand why Web hosting provider supply Plesk. It really can do a lot without having to learn a lot of the arcane methods of command-line unix. And Plesk can be removed from a system, if one like. That would be my preference but I’m consulting in a production environment where the tech staff are not well versed in unix. So, Plesk will stay.

In future postings I will try to mention some of the differences that Plesk bring to unix that may be a surprise if you haven’t used a Plesk-managed system before. Many of the most commonly used Web applications are tightly integrated with Plesk and work somewhat differently.

An example:

Try logging into mysql as the ‘root’ user…should be easy…done that a thousand times…but a plesk mysql has no account with the name of ‘root’. The root mysql account is instead called ‘admin’ and it shares the same password as the plesk admin account. So, if you change the Plesk admin account, then that also changes the mysql admin account.

Fortunately (or not), Plesk stores its admin password in a very noticeable place if you have root access — just look at /etc/psa/.psa.shadow and there’s the password in plain text.

Also, Plesk creates a unix account with the name ‘admin’ that also has the same password.

Considering the integration of so many apps with Plesk I’m reluctant to upgrade an application, like even proftpd, for concern that it will break the configuration maintained by Plesk - sigh.

An interesting side note about Plesk from Wikipedia is that while the company selling Plesk is located in Virginia, the technical staff is in Siberia. …that’s okay…can’t say anything about that since I’m down in Argentina myself.

More adventures with Plesk to follow …..