My firtst Plesk 8.1 errors.... and so the show begins

[Bogdan]

I installed Plesk 8.1 last night on 2 brand new servers:
Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition Service Pack 1
Dual Core AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 265, 1.81 GHz, 2.00 of RAM
one with ColdFusion MX 7.0.2 Enterprise and the other one without CF

I also installed the following features:

Destination Folder: D:\Plesk\
Application Data Folder: D:\PleskData\
Virtual Hosts Destination Folder: D:\inetpub\vhosts\

Database engine for Plesk database: MySQL.
Web server engine: Internet Information Server (IIS).

Selected components:
Plesk Core
SiteBuilder 3.2 for Windows
Plesk Agent
Plesk Skins
Aqua
Longhorn
Plesk
WinXP
Statistics
AWStats
Webalizer
Plesk Site Applications
Mambo CMS
osCommerce
bbClone
gtChat
phpBB
phpBook
postNuke
Uebimiau
ASP.NET Web Applications
Portal Starter Kit
Reports Starter Kit
Time Tracker Starter Kit
Commerce Starter Kit
Community Starter Kit
DotNetNuke
CommunityServer
Database Management
MySQL Connector
MySQL Database Server
ASP.NET Enterprise Manager
PHP MyAdmin
Mail Management
MailEnable Mail Server
WebMail Client
SpamAssassin
Antivirus
Dr Web
Script Engines
Python
Perl
PHP
PHP 5

I'm also using a dedicated SQL 2005 Standard server for MSSQL

Everything went unexpectedly smooth, but both servers threw these errors when trying to set up a domain:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: websrvmng.exe
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1
Date: 12/4/2006
Time: 6:30:18 AM
User: N/A
Computer: BOSON
Description:
Cannot create a file when that file already exists. (Error code 183) at CreateDirectory(C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\systemprofile\Local Settings\Temp\)
at (makeDir line 57)
at configHosting(boson.domain.com)(WebServerAdapter::configHosting line 464)
at configHosting(boson.domain.com)(WebServerManager::configHosting line 2245)
at execute console command --reconfigure-vhost(vconsoleapp::start line 128)
at execute D:\Plesk\/admin/bin/websrvmng --reconfigure-vhost "--vhost-name=boson.domain.com"(vconsoleapp::run line 138)
Execute file name: D:\Plesk\admin\bin\websrvmng.exe

And the other server:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: usermng.exe
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1
Date: 12/4/2006
Time: 6:17:48 AM
User: N/A
Computer: FERMION
Description:
Unable to get the user (fermion) home: (2221) The user name could not be found.
Execute file name: D:\Plesk\admin\bin\usermng.exe

Event Type: Error
Event Source: websrvmng.exe
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1
Date: 12/4/2006
Time: 6:18:34 AM
User: N/A
Computer: FERMION
Description:
Cannot create a file when that file already exists. (Error code 183) at CreateDirectory(C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\systemprofile\Local Settings\Temp\)
at (makeDir line 57)
at addHosting(fermion.domain.com)(WebServerAdapter::addHosting line 334)
at addHosting(fermion.domain.com)(WebServerManager::addHosting line 2235)
at execute console command --install-vhost(vconsoleapp::start line 128)
at execute D:\Plesk\/admin/bin/websrvmng --install-vhost "--vhost-name=fermion.domain.com"(vconsoleapp::run line 138)
Execute file name: D:\Plesk\admin\bin\websrvmng.exe

I guess that what they advertised at ftp://download1.swsoft.com/Plesk/Plesk8.1/Windows/8.1.0/plesk_8.1.0_build061129.18.htm#41 doesn't apply for the 2 copies of Plesk I bought from them:

4. What's New
4.1. Plesk 8.1.0 build 061129.18 for Windows

....

32. Bugfixes - All serious and most minor bugs were fixed, making Plesk 8.1 one of the most stable hosting control panels on the market.

33. Improvements - Plesk 8.1 includes a number of various improvements in terms of stability, security, usability and other important things. Working with Plesk is now easier and safer than ever.

 

[Patiek]

Everything went unexpectedly smooth, but both servers threw these errors when trying to set up a domain

Everyone's expectations are so low, that even failures such as "these errors when trying to set up a domain" are classified as "unexpectedly smooth".

Hahaha. Oh SWsoft, when will you produce some Windows software that isn't complete garbage?

 

[sergius]

Bogdan, this error has happened once on our test x64 server but after machine reboot it disappeared and never repeated.
Please reboot your machine and if it will repeate please address SWsoft support.

 

[Bogdan]

Both servers have been fine so far, but I'm reviewing the logs daily for the next week to see if this reoccurs.

Patiek, I am as reluctant as you about Plesk for Windows (I've been working with it since Plesk 7.0 on about 20 servers) and rand into about all the problems there are, but so far, Plesk 8.1 (on a clean install, at least) has been pretty stable and it's performance is amazing (at least comparing to Plesk 7.6.1, which is a complete disaster). I hope I'm speaking ahead of myself, but things are looking better now.

The main problem with SWsoft that I see is the attitude regarding the problems (bugs) clients find on Plesk and their support. OK, we all understand that their product may have a few bugs, especially since it integrates several third-party applications (MailEnable, SpamAssassin, Horde, etc) and I'm also sure that running tests to include all possible scenarios is nearly impossible on such an application, however, I'm sure that if they were to actually listen to the problems the community is reporting and actually release PUBLIC hotfixes for them, people would think better about their products.

They can invest all they want in marketing their products, but if their clients are not happy with what they buy, that's just money thrown out the window. If you check the Plesk forum, most of the posts are to complain about the product, there are several people complaining about the same problems and mainly to say that 'Plesk sucks'. How much money do you think should be invested in marketing to counteract that? Wouldn't it be much easier to have someone from SWsoft involved in this community and actually try to help with these problems? I know Plesk has it's own support team that can handle these issues (for a fee, of course), but I'm sure I'm not the only person that just refuses to pay someone to fix a bug that just wasn't suppose to be there. Also, even Plesk's paid support is not worth the money because they take AT LEAST 24 hours until they even look into an issue, regardless how urgent it is, and usually their support is plain useless.

I have worked a few months back with another Control Panel, H-Sphere and although it's more expensive than Plesk, it's sure worth the money. I'm not going to make absolutely any comparisons between the actual products, I am just going to say that the support for H-Sphere is far better than for Plesk.

First of all, the H-Sphere documentation for System Administrators is very thorough and most important it's always up to date. Their forum is actually a large community of users and sysadmins who help each other and also get help and advice from the vendor. Also, their paid support is extremely prompt (usually under 15 minutes response time and 30 minutes resolution time for urgent tickets) and everyone is really very helpful.

I'm not sure if SWsoft is ever going to get there, but if they really want to, they do need to listen to their clients needs.

 

[matija]

Originally posted by Bogdan
The main problem with SWsoft that I see is the attitude regarding the problems (bugs) clients find on Plesk and their support. OK, we all understand that their product may have a few bugs, especially since it integrates several third-party applications (MailEnable, SpamAssassin, Horde, etc) and I'm also sure that running tests to include all possible scenarios is nearly impossible on such an application, however, I'm sure that if they were to actually listen to the problems the community is reporting and actually release PUBLIC hotfixes for them, people would think better about their products.

They can invest all they want in marketing their products, but if their clients are not happy with what they buy, that's just money thrown out the window. If you check the Plesk forum, most of the posts are to complain about the product, there are several people complaining about the same problems and mainly to say that 'Plesk sucks'. How much money do you think should be invested in marketing to counteract that? Wouldn't it be much easier to have someone from SWsoft involved in this community and actually try to help with these problems? I know Plesk has it's own support team that can handle these issues (for a fee, of course), but I'm sure I'm not the only person that just refuses to pay someone to fix a bug that just wasn't suppose to be there. Also, even Plesk's paid support is not worth the money because they take AT LEAST 24 hours until they even look into an issue, regardless how urgent it is, and usually their support is plain useless.

I second that... very nicely put together. @SWSoft: wake up!

First of all, the H-Sphere documentation for System Administrators is very thorough and most important it's always up to date. Their forum is actually a large community of users and sysadmins who help each other and also get help and advice from the vendor. Also, their paid support is extremely prompt (usually under 15 minutes response time and 30 minutes resolution time for urgent tickets) and everyone is really very helpful.

You should try and experience the promptness of DotNetPanel support... it's lightning fast and - FREE. That is a company (and community) which can be bright example for other companies in the market.

 

[jerry2]

Originally posted by matija
I second that... very nicely put together. @SWSoft: wake up!



You should try and experience the promptness of DotNetPanel support... it's lightning fast and - FREE. That is a company (and community) which can be bright example for other companies in the market.

Are you sure DotNetPanel is free? On their homepage I see it is a paid product with enterprise and few other versions, nowhere is mentioned word FREE?!?

 

[matija]

Originally posted by jerry2
Are you sure DotNetPanel is free? On their homepage I see it is a paid product with enterprise and few other versions, nowhere is mentioned word FREE?!?

Refers to their support, not the product although, the product is lightning fast as well, but not free.

 

[Bogdan]

It's the same for H-Sphere... the support is free (consider it included in the license you pay).

In order to provide free support for all you clients, you should be really committed to making a very good product and to actually fix your bugs, otherwise you won't be able handle the incoming ticket flow. I don't SWsoft is offering paid support just for the money, they wouldn't be able to handle the ticket flow if they made it free (they take more than 24 hours to answer support tickets as it is).

Again, the problem is the company's attitude towards the products they develop and the clients that use them. Anyway... in the past months things seem to be slowly improving... they have a knowledge base and their products seem to be better, but the question is, how many clients actually have the patience for them to come around? Apparently, not many and I'm sorry to see that Matija is not one of them because he's been always very helpful on this forum.