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Using Centralized Access to Your Numerous Plesk Servers

If you have a number of Plesk-managed servers, you can use the control panel on one of your servers for accessing and managing the other servers. To check if this feature is available within your control panel, see if there is the Master shortcut in the navigation pane.

What the Master function can do for you is remember your credentials for accessing other Plesk-managed servers (almost like your Web browser's password manager): When you need to log in to control panel on any of your servers, you will need to get to the list of your slave servers in the control panel and click an icon. The control panel running on another server will open in a new browser window.

In addition to giving you a single point of entry to a number of servers, the Master function can also poll other servers you specify, retrieve information on state of system services and resource usage, and display this information in your control panel.

As you can see, the Master function can only save you a little time and a few clicks: That's all it really does. If you have numerous servers and need truly centralized server management, you should use Plesk Expand or HSPcomplete solutions by SWsoft, Inc.

To add a record on a Plesk-managed server to your control panel:

  1. Click the Master shortcut in the navigation pane.
  2. Click Add Slave Server icon Add New Server.
  3. Enter the hostname and port number (8443) in the respective fields, specify login name and password for Plesk to be able to log on to the given slave server. You may also wish to type in a description for the slave server. Select the Do not request information from the server check box, if you do not want the detailed server information to be retrieved and presented at that time.
  4. Click Set.
  5. To upload an SSL certificate that will be used for secure connection to that server's control panel, click the Certificate button. Click Browse... to locate your certificate file or paste the certificate contents from the clipboard. After that, click the Send File or Send Text button respectively to upload the certificate to the slave server.

When you need to modify a server record, click the Master shortcut in the navigation pane, and then click the host name you need.

To view information on a server and to log in to the server's control panel:

  1. Click the Master shortcut in the navigation pane.

    The following information is displayed for all servers you added:

  2. To view a detailed server report, click the hostname you need.
  3. To log in to the server's control panel, click the respective icon.

To remove a server record:

  1. Click the Master shortcut in the navigation pane.
  2. Select the check box corresponding to the record you wish to remove.
  3. Click Remove Selected. Then, confirm removal and click OK.