ISPmanager general information
| Category path: | ISPmanager Business -> Setup and configuration |
| ISPmanager Lite -> Setup and configuration |
ISPmanager is control panel for web-server management.
ISPmanager is available in two versions
- Lite - a control panel for managing your personal server. Normally, it is installed on a VPS or dedicated server, and enables to manage one virtual or dedicated server.
- Business - a control panel for providing shared hosting services. It allows to build a cluster of servers, so a single control panel can be used for managing multiple physical or virtual servers.
Contents
ISPmanager core features
With ISPmanager you can perform the following tasks:
- Create and manage users/user templates. Set limits for users/user templates.
- Create and manage web-domains. Set PHP modes, install SSL certificates, quickly install popular CMS on your domain, set up SSL redirects.
- Manage DNS. Create domain zones and edit domain records.
- Manage mail: create mail domains and mailboxes. Configure redirects and aliases. Set up mail filters. Use DKIM and anti-spam tools.
- Manage databases. Create databases and database users. Set permissions for database users.
- Manage FTP users. Crete, activate, suspend FTP users. Specify a user home directory.
- Edit files through the control panel. Set permissions on files and directories.
- Set up Firewall.
- Backup data
- Monitor resource usage statistics.
- Set up user permissions.
Differences between Lite and Business
ISPmanager Business can be used for providing shared hosting services, therefor it ensures uninterrupted operation of your system and allows for flexible configuration of user permissions.
The following functions are available only in ISPmanager Business:
- Integration with CloudLinux.
- Manage multiple servers (nodes) from a single web-interface.
- Allocate users between cluster nodes.
- Assign different roles to different nodes (servers) - web-server role, database server, mail server, primary and secondary name servers.
- Advanced limits for users/user templates.
- Reselling.
Architecture
ISPmanager can be installed on popular Unix-based systems. For more information about installation and supported operating systems, please refer to the article ISPmanager installation guide.
ISPmanager is installed into the /usr/local/mgr5 directory.
Data
ISPmanager Lite keeps all the information in the sqlite database located in /usr/local/mgr5/etc/ispmgr.db.
ISPmanager Business keeps the data in several databases:
- The mysql database - ispmgr. The database contains information about the whole cluster. The base is located on the server where ISPmanager Business is installed (i.e. on the master server, rather than on a cluster node).
- The sqlite database - ispmgrnode.db. Each cluster node has its own ispmgrnode.db database that keeps data related to its cluster node only.
Configuration
The main configuration files are located in the /usr/local/mgr5/etc directory:
- ispmgr.conf - the main configuration file of the control panel. For ISPmanager Business there is an ispmgrnode.conf additional file, located on each cluster node.
Additional configuration files are located in the /usr/local/mgr5/etc/ispmgr.conf.d/: directory
- db.conf - connections to the database
- nginx.conf - paths to Nginx
- phpfpm.conf - paths for php-fpm
- dns.conf - DNS configuration
For more information about directives refer to the article ISPmanager configuration file
Logs
Control panel logs are located in the /usr/local/mgr5/var directory.
Different modules of the control panel use different logs. The main logs are as follows:
- ispmgr.log - main log.
- backupctl-ispmgr.log - backup log.
- longtask.log - long tasks log.
- pkg.log - setup log.
- usermove.log - user import log.
ISPmanager Business installs some kind of a Lite version on each node. Beside the main log ispmgr.log, ISPmanager Business has ispmgrnode.log located on each cluster node.
When reaching 100 Mb, logs are rotated and archived into the /usr/local/mgr5/var/logs/ directory.
You can add debug for any module of the control panel via the the interface -- the "Error log" module -> Settings.
Supported software
All software applications are installed from repositories, thus you will get the the version available in OS repository.
Repositories are connected during installation of ISPmanager. We strongly recommend that you do not connect any third-party repositories as this may lead to incorrect installation of the software product.
ISPmanager Lite includes the "Features" module where you can choose a software product to be installed. In the table below you can see a list of features and corresponding applications:
| Feature | Description | Software |
|---|---|---|
| Web-server (WWW) | This feature defines operation mode of the web-server. You can choose the following variants: only Apache, Nginx + Apache, Nginx + PHP-FPM | Apache ITK/Prefork. Nginx, PHP-FPM, PHP as Apache, Awstats, Webalizer, Logrotate |
| Mail server | Defines operations of the mail system | Exim, Dovecot, Greylisting, OpenDKIM, SpamAssassin, ClamAv, Sieve, AfterLogic, RoundCube |
| СName server (DNS) | Enables to choose a name server | Bind/PowerDNS |
| FTP server | Enables to choose an FTP server | ProFTP/PureFTP |
| MySQL server | Enables to enable/disable a MySQL server | MySQL database management system |
| PostgreSQL server | Enables to enable/disable a PostgreSQL | PostgerSQL database management system |
| Disck quotas | Enables to set/delete disk quotas | Quota |
| Archivers | Enables to choose an archiver | Zip, Unzip |
In ISPmanager Business you cannot select software to use. All applications that the control panel requires, are installed automatically. The list of software can be found in the article ISPmanager 5 Business at work
Changing software versions
The version provided by OS repository is installed by default. Very often users ask us: how can we change the version of PHP or MySQL server?
PHP versions
There are a number of ways how you can change a PHP version.
ISPmanager Lite:
- Use a built-in PHP selection tool, which enables to choose an alternative PHP version for every web-domain (In ISPmanager Lite you can activate this option in the "Features" module).
ISPmanager Business:
- Use the CloudLinux module, which enables to set a certain PHP version for every user.
- Use a built-in PHP selection tool, which enables to choose an alternative PHP version for every web-domain (In ISPmanager Business you can activate this option in the "PHP versions" module)).
MySQL version
ISPmanager Lite: In ISPmanager 5 Lite 5.68.0 and later you can set several alternative MySQL versions on a server. For more information, please refer to this article.
We don't recommend reinstalling software applications if you run ISPmanager Business. We test only those applications that are provided by the official repository of a selected operating system. Manual configuration of software applications may cause ISPmanager Business to fail.
