Issue Not impressed with how sign in works

[craigueH]

Hi

We've set up a demo installation of Plesk Multiserver to eventually replace our PPA platform but after creating our first customer and logging in to the CP, it immediately redirects the pageto the actual service node they are deployed on. This is NOT how we expected things to work and it is not at all like PPA where logging into the CP server, you remain in the CP server in the browser and not directed all over the place.

I hope Plesk Multiserver are planning to change this.

 

[Reboot]

Hi

We've set up a demo installation of Plesk Multiserver to eventually replace our PPA platform but after creating our first customer and logging in to the CP, it immediately redirects the pageto the actual service node they are deployed on. This is NOT how we expected things to work and it is not at all like PPA where logging into the CP server, you remain in the CP server in the browser and not directed all over the place.

I hope Plesk Multiserver are planning to change this.

I think you're in for a tough ride as Multi Server isn't designed that way. MutliServer extension != PPA. Multi Server aims at a unified configuration using a single point of login.

 

[Anthony]

Hi @craigueH,

it immediately redirects the pageto the actual service node they are deployed on.

This is correct.

The customer sign in scenario working using the following way:

- If a customer has only one subscription, he will be redirected to service node which serves current subscription.
- If a customer has a couple of subscriptions on different service nodes, after log in the customer will remain on the Management node. The additional screen will be showed to the customer where he will be able to choose a particular subscription and then he will be redirected to the service node.

Such configuration allows decreasing the load to RAM on the Management node.

This is NOT how we expected things to work

Could you clarify why you are expecting that customer's session should remain on the Management node w/o redirection to service nodes?


What disadvantages do you see in our current solution?

 

[craigueH]

We have moved through several Parallels Shared Hosting platforms over the years, H-Sphere, Plesk Automation, and recently worked with Operations Automation, all of them provided a centralised management server which the client logged in through and all mail/DNS/Hosting functions were managed from within that CP without the need to redirect the clients browser outside of the initial CP URL.

If we're looking to move all our PPA customers to Plesk Multi-Server then it will feel like somewhat of a regression if clients are aware of their browser being redirected from one URL to another to manage their hosting. Some of our more savvy web developer clients will also view this negatively, whether it's justified or not is irrelevant unfortunately as they will also no doubt be familiar with other hosters who have more "Serious" platforms where the management interface is better designed and doesn't seem as "half baked" as Plesk's implementation of it's Control Panel.

From a technical perspective I understand and generally am OK with how the URL redirects work, it actually seems cleaner than the iFrame include method of PPA which sometimes went nuts with tokens getting out of sync etc. but the problem we have is that we are in a very competitive market and small things like perceived security risks or "inferior looking" control panel design means customers moving elsewhere.

Personally I think Plesk Multiserver will be excellent, very capable and a marked improvement over PPA with support for things like nginx etc. making life very easy but there are a few fundamentals that our clients are very used to and if they change or seem to regress then I know we will have a problem.

 

[Anthony]

@craigueH,

Thank you for the detailed response.

it will feel like somewhat of a regression if clients are aware of their browser being redirected from one URL to another to manage their hosting

doesn't seem as "half baked" as Plesk's implementation of it's Control Panel.

Frankly speaking, I still don't get it why it should be an issue for an end-customers.

I would like to clarify Multi Server was not developed as a replacement for PPA. It has no such features like a role-based system or automated service nodes installation.

Initially, we would like to simplify a life of existing Plesk customers and cover the following TOP-3 issues with single Plesk installation:

1. Plesk admin requires to log in on each Plesk server for managing it before --> now he will remember credentials to the management node only and will be able to manage all his farm.

2. For make changes Plesk admin performs N actions where N equal the number of Plesk servers --> now he is able to perform it just once (centralized management)

3. Plesk admin requires managing DNS and mail on each Plesk server --> CDNS and CMAIL on the way.

Plus, as a result, Plesk admin gets always up-to-date, automatically balanced system, which is will always be compatible with the last Plesk features like Docker, Git, Wordpress Toolkit, etc.

small things like perceived security risks or "inferior looking" control panel design means customers moving elsewhere

Could you please clarify which security risks do you see here?

Multi Server management node is communicating with service node using an encrypted secret key which generates during a service node adding and stored in our database.

Even if the key will be compromised or broken, you will always be able to re-issue this key.

 

[SteveITS]

I would like to clarify Multi Server was not developed as a replacement for PPA

I was kind of hoping it was, based on the timing of Odin killing off PPA and not having a replacement that is affordable or even workable for some customers. :-(