phpMyAdmin + Plesk

[fastdrive]

Is there a 'proven' way to install phpMyAdmin on Plesk, so one can access databases across different domains. Possible to access phpMyAdmin through the Plesk interface?

Any experience anyone?

 

[Whistler]

Yes it's no problem installing ie. phpMyAdmin in a centralized place like sql.<yourserver>.<domain>

I use this setup myself - allowing all customers to use phpMyAdmin without having to login through Plesk.

I also make the custom install and the Plesk install of phpMyAdmin use the same phpMyAdmin database setup for storing bookmarks, queries etc. - so people will have access to this from both levels of entry.

I used to put the PSA-phpMyAdmin upgrade together - but got a bit tired of the phpMyAdmin team constantly releasing new versions - so must admit I've been a bit behind and at the same time not have being able to test the new Plesk 8.x.x tree I haven't updated PSA-phpMyAdmin for quite some time now.

But I hope to manage a release of PSA-phpMyAdmin 2.8.2.4 one of the next days. A version for 7.5.x and 8.0.x series of PSA.

 

[fastdrive]

What did you do technically? Which files you had to modify / add ? Where? Did you use links from the different domain locations to the install dir?

 

[Whistler]

What did you do technically? Which files you had to modify / add ? Where? Did you use links from the different domain locations to the install dir?

When installing on it's own subdomain make sure:

1) you set it up using SSL - this is very important for security!

2) you just get a fresh source-package from www.phpmyadmin.net and it will work almost out the package.

3) create a configuration.inc.php file that suits your needs. Remember to set phpMyAdmin up to use http auth for people to login.

Now your customers/clients just enters the choosen subdomain and enter their database username and password and logs in to phpMyAdmin.

No problem with that.

 

[fastdrive]

thx for your advice.
The idea with a subdomain is new to me. The installation of Typo3 for all my site doesn't work on a subdomain but in an extra folder.
I've installed the Typo3 app in a separate folder outside the vhosts dir. In the /var/www/vhosts I have the following entries:

<domain1>
<domain2>
<typo3_src-4.0>
<domain3>
<default>

If I want to access Typo3 from <domain2> I add the following vhost.conf:

<Directory "/var/www/vhosts/<domain2>/httpdocs">
php_admin_value open_basedir "/var/www/vhosts/<domain2>/httpdocs:/tmp:/var/www/vhosts/typo3_src-4.0"
</Directory>

Is this a good approach?
Is it possible to do the same for phpMyAdmin ?

 

[Whistler]

thx for your advice.
The idea with a subdomain is new to me.
Is it possible to do the same for phpMyAdmin ?

The subdomain idea is used due to the fact that (in the Plesk 7.5.x series) it's not possible to create a subdomain with SSL capabilities under a normal domain. You have to create it as a seperate domain account to enable SSL.

(I'm not sure if its possible in Plesk 8.0.x haven't tested that yet)

Also I think it's more clean to have all servers running, ie: sql.server1.gld.dk etc. instead of server1.gld.dk/sql/ - but of cause this requires you to use a wildcard ssl certificate to run without SSL browser warnings.

But as far as phpMyAdmin and MySQL it dosen't matter what domain (or subdomain) a user comes from when connecting to localhost using the http auth to supply the mysql-user credentials.

So actually any manually installed version of phpMyAdmin will allow any user on the server to login to the mysql database if they know the right set of user credentials.

So you won't have to worry about domains - but of cause you could create a sql.<any_domain_on_server>.<tld> alias just like the one Plesk is using to enable webmail.<any_domain_on_server>.<tld> - but remember this will give problems with SSL warnings, limit the customers ability to use the sql subdomain for other purposes etc.

 

[Whistler]

Hmm... seems like the new phpMyAdmin tree has some serious problems with Plesk and PHP5.0.x used by the default installation of Plesk on FreeBSD (this seems to be a problem on both 7.5.4 and 8.0.x versions of Plesk).

(also some internal code changes to secure phpMyAdmin against injections seems to cause a lot of trouble as Plesk relies on sending/injecting the username, password and database name to phpMyAdmin)

So this might not be as easy as expected to do a new release of PSA-phpMyAdmin - will have a closer look at this when I have some more time to debug it.

So I'm currently not able to do a new release of PSA-phpMyAdmin :-(

My guess is that's why SW-Soft hasen't updated the phpMyAdmin since 2.6.4-pl3.

 

[thundercon787]

well u can set up a domain to use this

for instance...

www.whatever.com

inside the httpdocs directory create a folder called myadmin

set the folder permission in plesk to be password protected directory

upload phpmyadmin via ftp

create a config.inc.php to suit your needs

give the url to trusted clients or people.. give them username and password to protected directory...

give them auth via the config.inc.php

wallah u can use latest version of phpadmin

but for securing access to the box abit more

if you have root access to the box (which you should if your doing this in the first place) create a user with admin rights to the box and change his group access to a non superuser add this into the config.inc.php as your main account that can access the databases on the box.. then u don't need to worry about anyone getting into your system with your personal details or admin but can allow them to edit the the db...

let me know if this helps..

-Mike