Plesk consists of the following main components:
- The front-end GUI service. The GUI, served with the Internet
Information Services (IIS) server, is the main means of interaction
with Plesk. - Plesk core. The core processes management requests from the Plesk
GUI, command line interface, and XML API. The core contains scripts,
binary files and other resources used to link Plesk components with
each other and with external services. - The Plesk’s main database called
psa. The database stores
information about Plesk objects, such as IP addresses, domains, user
accounts, and many others. The database is served by MySQL or the
Microsoft SQL database engine. - Plesk’s configuration files.
- Plesk’s log files.
- Command-line utilities. Command-line interface allows integration of
third-party software with Plesk, and provides the means to manage
Plesk through the server console. For more information about the
Plesk command-line interface, refer to Plesk Command Line
Reference. -
XML API. This interface is another way to integrate third-party
software with Plesk. It allows to manage Plesk objects from remote by
sending specifically structured XML packets and receiving responses
from Plesk. For more information on XML API, refer to Developer’s
Guide: Read Me
First and XML API
Protocol Reference.
Services Managed by Plesk
Plesk uses standard packages for the following services:
IIS as a set of Internet services including HTTP, FTP, and others.
FTP servers - ServU, Gene-6, used as alternative FTP servers.
Mail servers - MailEnable, IceWarp (Merak), CommuniGate Pro, or
SmarterMail.
BIND or MS DNS - used as the domain name server.
MySQL used to store the Plesk’s database called psa that is used for
administrative purposes
MSSQL or MySQL - used as a database server by Plesk users.
Tomcat - used as an infrastructure for servlet and JSP-based
applications shipped in the *.war format.
JDK (j2sdk) - used as a library for java applications.
SpamAssassin - used as protection against spam email messages.
Plesk Premium Antivirus, Kaspersky Antivirus, or IceWarp Antivirus -
used as email antivirus tools.
Files and Directories Used by Plesk Installations
Plesk and its components are installed by default in the directory
C:Program Files (x86)Plesk on a physical server, or
C:Program FilesPlesk in the Virtuozzo containers environment. The
default installation directory is referred to as %plesk_dir% in the
following list. Some of the subdirectories with corresponding components
are listed below.
%plesk_dir%admin- The core components used by the Plesk GUI.
%plesk_dir%adminplib- Plesk’s PHP files.
%plesk_dir%adminbin- Binary utilities.
%plesk_dir%bin- Binary utilities.
%plesk_dir%etc- Configuration files.
%plesk_dir%MailServer- Mail servers.
%plesk_dir%backup- Backup files.
%plesk_dir%dns- BIND name server files.
%plesk_dir%MySql- Plesk’s MySQL database server.
%plesk_dir%Databases- Database servers for serving user data.