Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Dedicated Server : Control Panel S/W

[talash]

Hello Guys,

I am looking for a good control panel softwares for my servers, to reduce the pressure of support from petty issues like making email aliases etc.

I have seen Plesk.
I am also seeing another one which is webhostingtools.com

Which one do you all suggest ?
I am not sure of either, since I have never used them. From functionality, webhostingtools.com seems better, but when it comes to interface, plesk looks easy to use.

Any suggestion and comments will be really appriciated.

[Coreace]

You could take a look at psoft.net They have a couple of tools reasonable priced and they even install it for you!

[Boksoft]

Take a look at smarthostingtools.com next week again. You will be surprised by its new interface and pricing. (thanks coreace)

Arnoud

[Coreace]

Boksoft,
I'll look forward to test it but it better be good!

[Chicken]

Looked nice from what I saw. Needed a bit of design work which is surely what you are/will be doing. I have it bookmarked as well.

[Jake_01]

I've heard things about sphera.com, but I have yet to actually hear from a client of theres. The price is a little high ($400 per CPU with ability up to 200IPs.) I don't suppose there's anyone out there who's actually used them, is there?
Just curious.

[Jag]

Im resting spehra out on a machine now, its not $00 per cpu for 200 ip's though. They charge $4 per Virtual server, they dont care about sites and site ips. Each Virtual server needs its own ip though. They say you can run up to 30 virtual servers on one dedicated, I would push that many though. It has great laod balancing to even up the heavy virtual servers on the machine. Not bad so far, quite useful.

[Jake_01]

Since you are a guru, I have come to seek your wisdom, actually your opinion/expertise. I know of other control panels out there: such as smarthosting tools.com, psoft.net., and plesk.com. I was wondering if you used any of these before you started trying out sphera. What is your opinion of them?

[Jag]

Heres just what I think about those products,

smarthostingtools: nice controls, basci design not appealing and its as close to alabanza as you get without using alabanza. All in all a pretty good setup. In the admin demo though nothing works and i would like to see more admin functions first hand.

sphere by psoft.net: a joke, no real server functions, not much of anything to control. looks pretty.

plesk.com: a spehra wanna be and worse pricing at that. The admin and user panels of plesk doesnt even hit the same ballpark as sphera.

I have to make a note about sphera though, sphera is made to create virtual servers, a function that none of the above panels can do. All you do is create your own vds using sphera and allot yourself the entire machine. If you want to sell virtual servers though you can share the part you dont use. The main admin is just awesome, the VDS admin (which each virtual server gets along with root access to their vds if you let them) is awesome as weel. That is the highest panel the vds admin will see, and of course the users panel is nice too. Its fast, easy and very functional. Of course each vds owner can modify thier panels for their clients.

The only drwaback about sphera is it doesnt having a billing function built in. But sphera does get feedback from clients about requested features and they do use the good suggestions. This is one Ive made and others that use it should too.

[globe]

We had to stop with Alabanza...

We've been in contact with sphera sales dept and it's true they sell at $ 4- for virtual server BUT they also have got a thresold they can't drop down. They ask for $400/month allowing to get 200 virtual servers in a machine.
:( $ 400 are just the average cost of a good machine at DI.

So we decided to use Plesk, it seems nice to use but no tools like mailing list or counters. We are still testing the complete version (unlimited licence $ 550) it seems not too much stable with DI Red hat 6,1 - So we've asked DI to install red hat 6,2.
Has somebody experienced Plesk ahd its features? Is it enough stable? They advice to NOT install Apache but there's not HTTPD server in Plesk?!

Thank you for helping

[jellywobbles]

Globe

I just got a RH 6.2 box with Plesk .. had it 2 days. Initial reaction is that its good .. the new version due out in December will be much better (v1.3.1) .. you SHOULD get a FREE upgrade.

My one beef however is that it doesnt support auto-responders !! Have you found a work around this problem??

I see youre with DI .. how do you find them? I am just finishing with them afer 18 months .. gone to catalog.com

Cheers

[globe]

jelly

hum... first 4 days were not good: mails not working, had to restart it one time cause it was frozen, then it frooze other 2 times answering every user: "there's another session with this user, try later" I am beginning to lament about alabanza's one.
We've got three machines and really in trouble about that.

DI: well I think they have got a good organization; I am just wondering why our new machine is labeled 1999 and runs RH 6.1 - Control panel is terrible but they do their best to keep their customers "in a good shape" , however empty machines are as fast as alabanza's full ones.
We'll see.
I've got also a new machine at UltraspeedUsa, seems excellent the possibility to split it doing "virtual housing" this is our main need and Plesk shows it can do it.

tnx everybody

[jellywobbles]

Hey Globe:

Ref your problem with Plesk .."Session already open etc"..

See below:-

A client did not properly log out for some reason, and now he cannot log
back in. The PSA control panel interface keeps telling them that another
session is still running. How can they log in again?
As the administrator, you must log into MySQL and delete the contents of the
session table located in the 'plesk' database by completing the following
steps:


-Log into the server locally as root or through telnet, then su to root.



-Log into MySQL as admin by executing the following at the command prompt:



# /usr/local/plesk/mysql/bin./mysql -u admin -p plesk



Replace with the admin password for the PSA control panel. Notice that there
is no space inbetween the "-p" and the password.)



-Delete the contents of the sessions table in the "plesk" database by typing
the following at the MySQL command prompt:



> use plesk;



> delete from sessions;



You will then receive a message:



Database changed
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)



-Log out of MySQL by typing exit, then the client should be able to log into
the PSA control panel interface again.


I have NOT tried this yet .. just got it from Tech Support at catalog.com

ATB

[globe]

jelly

an italian expresso is waitin' for you at corner's restaurant.

As a matter of fact Catalog.com seems faster than Plesk.com itself.
I am still wondering why in their documentation they advice to "deinstall the Apache server" after installing plesk.
Without Apache no httpd server is running on the machine.

bye
thank you again

[jellywobbles]

Globe

Glad 2 help!! Keep that expresso warm!

Keep smiln'