Plesk hosting accounts¶

Updated 22 October 2026

The plesk server module provisions hosting on a Plesk Obsidian server through its REST API (/api/v2). Each PNLCS hosting service becomes a Plesk customer with one subscription for the service's domain, optionally on a Plesk service plan.

This page covers what is specific to Plesk. Adding the server, server groups and linking products are in Connect a Server. Installing PNLCS itself on a Plesk server is a different topic: Deploy on Plesk.

Requirements¶

• Plesk Obsidian with the REST API (/api/v2) available.
• A Plesk API key for the administrator, for example created on the server with plesk bin secret_key --create. If you restrict the key to an IP address, use the PNLCS server's address.
• Plesk's HTTPS port (8443 by default) reachable from the PNLCS server.
• Service plans under Service Plans in Plesk if products are to sell a specific plan.

The module does not verify the server's TLS certificate, so Plesk's self-signed certificate works. Each call times out after 30 seconds.

The module never creates service plans, opens ports or changes Plesk settings.

Configure PNLCS¶

1. In Setup → Servers, add a server of type Plesk. Port: 8443.
2. Username: the Plesk administrator, usually admin.

3. Paste the API key into the Access Hash field. The module sends it in the X-API-Key header. Server credentials are stored encrypted.

   The key goes in Access Hash

   The form calls the password field Password / API Key and says Access Hash is "Not used by Plesk". The opposite is true: a key in the password field is sent as a password. A server saved as active without an Access Hash is refused with "A PLESK server signs in with an API key. Fill in the API key field - the password is not used for this module." Without a key the module falls back to HTTP Basic authentication with the username (default admin) and password; that only applies to a server saved inactive.

4. Save and press Test. PNLCS first opens a TCP connection to the port, then calls GET /api/v2/server. Any successful HTTP answer passes. If the port is open but Plesk refuses, you see "Reached , but PLESK refused the credentials. Check the API key."

Product settings¶

On the product, set Server Module to Plesk. The Plan on the server list is read from the first active Plesk server. The REST API has no plans endpoint, so the list comes from Plesk's XML API (/enterprise/control/agent.php, service-plan → get), sorted by name. The plan name is stored on the product.

With Use the server default, the subscription is created without a plan.

In a server group, give the plan the same name on every server.

The list only offers what the server returned. If it cannot be read when you open the product, only Use the server default is offered, and saving the product then stores that in place of the plan it had.

Creating an account¶

Create is two calls:

1. POST /clients creates a customer: name = the client's first and last name (or the login when both are empty), the client's email, type: customer, and the login and password below.
2. POST /domains creates the subscription: the service's domain, hosting_type: virtual, an FTP login and password equal to the customer's login and password, the new customer as owner, and the plan by name when one is chosen.

If the subscription fails, the module deletes the customer it just created, so no empty customer is left behind.

A service without a client or a domain is refused with "Service is missing client or domain."

Login rules. The first label of the domain, lowercased, with everything except a-z and 0-9 removed and leading digits stripped (u and the service id if nothing is left), cut to 16 characters, followed by the service id. example.com on service 42 becomes example42. A username typed on the service beforehand is not used.

Password rules. The service's password if one is set; otherwise 12 characters with at least one lowercase letter, one uppercase letter and one digit, without the look-alike characters l, O, I, 0 and 1.

The login and password are saved on the service. The Plesk customer id and subscription id are saved in its module data (plesk_client_id, plesk_domain_id); every later action uses them.

Supported operations¶

Termination is destructive. Deleting the customer deletes its subscriptions with their websites, mail and databases. Back up first.

Change password. If Plesk accepts the new panel password but refuses the FTP password, the service keeps the new password and the action reports "Control panel password changed, but Plesk kept the old FTP password: ".

Change package moves the subscription to the new product's plan. When the new product has no plan chosen, the module sends the new product's name as the plan name, so name the product after the plan or choose a plan on it. Without a customer id or subscription id, it fails with "Missing server, domain ID, or plan name."

Usage is read every hour by pnlcs:usage-polling, one call per active service: disk_space and traffic, converted from bytes to MB. No disk or bandwidth limit is recorded, so overage billing compares against the product's own disk and bandwidth figures.

Not supported¶

• Login to panel (single sign-on): no Login to panel button is shown. Customers sign in to Plesk with their login and password.
• Listing or importing existing customers from the server.
• More than one subscription per customer, or hosting tools inside the PNLCS client area.

What the customer sees¶

The service page shows the server name, the Plesk login, and the server's hostname and IP address. The welcome email can include the login and password through the service_username and service_password merge fields. The same login and password work for the Plesk panel and for FTP.

Error messages¶

Failed create, suspend, unsuspend and terminate actions go to the retry queue; see Provisioning did not happen.