This year, we’ve publicly announced the automatic updates to 17.8, from Plesk 17.0 and 17.5. Then, in September, we announced the beginning of the short releases era of auto-updates. Now, we’re sharing the progress we made with auto-updates to the latest Onyx version, with additional details and timelines on auto-updates from Onyx to Obsidian. You’ll also find out how you can set up the automatic updates to run at the time you want them to.
Plesk Obsidian 18.0 General Availability (GA) happened on October 22, 2019. As of end of November 2019, we updated around 60,000 Plesk servers to Plesk Obsidian. Since then, they continue to be updated to the latest version every month. Of course, only if a system administrator has allowed automatic updates.
Thanks to the auto-updates, we increased the number of servers on supported Plesk v17.8 to over 20%. With the Plesk Obsidian release to GA we have two supported versions, and 76% of all the Plesk servers are running actual and supported versions.
How We’re Ending 2019 – Plesk Servers by Version Distribution
Your Automatic Server Update To Plesk Obsidian
We plan to start mass distribution of automatic updates to your Plesk Onyx 17.8 servers starting from January 20, 2020. From the end of January until the end of February, Plesk Retail Customers (who purchased licenses directly from us) and Partners with Early Adopters tier* will be updated. From March through June, we plan to update the servers that belong to the General Release tier. Then, we’ll start updating servers on the Late Adopters tier from June.
*To check your tier in Plesk Onyx 17.8, in the Plesk interface in the left side menu, click Tools & Settings > Update and Upgrade settings.
Controlling Automatic Updates from Partner Central and Plesk
There are two ways for a server administrator to set up days and timeframes for the installation of automatic updates in Plesk:
- If you’re managing just one Plesk Server, please refer to our Administrator’s Guide for details on how to set the automatic updates time through the panel.ini configuration file.
- If you want to apply auto-update settings to more than one Plesk server, you will need to do so from Partner Central:
- Login to Partner Central here.
- Go to Product Configuration > configuration you need > click Edit link close to Server Settings.
- Make sure the radio button Install updates automatically is selected.
- Set weekdays when you want the auto-updates to run (at least 2).
- Enter the email address of a person or group of people who we should notify when the auto-update starts and ends.
- Set a timeframe for when you want the updates to be installed (3 hours at least).
- Click Save.
- Make sure to activate the configuration
Please note that in both cases of setting up a timeframe through panel.ini or KAPC configuration, the time that is specified is in UTC time zone. There are some limitations that you should be aware of:
- When specifying a timeframe, it should fit into 24 hours timeframe, i.e. the period that is being specified, should be either until midnight, or after it.
- There is just one timeframe for any week day, i.e. on the settings in the screenshot above the auto-updates are allowed for installation Monday to Thursday from 1 am to 4 am UTC.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: I have several Plesk servers and I perform their administration. Auto-updates are enabled on all of my servers and I see that several servers were already updated to the latest version of Plesk Obsidian, while several servers are still on older version. What is wrong?
A: There is nothing to worry about. The remaining Plesk servers should be updated to the latest available version until the end of the particular short release period.
Q: I have set up in panel.ini file the weekdays and timelines where I want my Plesk servers to be auto-updated. What will happen if my provider sets another days and timeframes in KAPC?
A: The settings on a single server have higher priority, and in this situation, the settings specified on your single Plesk server will be taken into consideration by the auto-update algorithm.
Q: I purchased my Plesk license directly from you. Can I use the configuration settings in Partner Central even if I’m not Plesk Partner?
A: You cannot use Partner Central settings in this case. We recommend that you set the days and time-frames using panel.ini.
Got any more questions about the upcoming mass update or new Partner controls? Drop us a line in the comment section below!