Adding and Removing IP Addresses
After installation, Plesk reads all your IP addresses from the network configuration files and can then use these IP addresses for hosting DNS domains and Web sites.
When you obtain a new IP address that you would like to use on the server, you should add the address through the control panel, as Plesk might not recognize manual modifications you make to the network configuration files.
With Plesk you can mark all your IP addresses as shared or dedicated before you assign them to your customers. This allows the control panel to distinguish between them and not to let you assign a dedicated IP address to several customers at once. A dedicated IP address can be assigned to a single customer, while a shared IP address can be shared among several user accounts.
Note that SSL protection with authentic digital certificates and Anonymous FTP services are available only to dedicated hosting accounts on a dedicated IP address. Shared hosting accounts can also have SSL protection, but visitors to such protected sites will get error messages in their browsers.
Note: in this version of Plesk control panel, dedicated IP addresses are referred to as Exclusive IP addresses.
To view the IP addresses you have at your disposal:
- Click the Server shortcut in the navigation pane.
- Click the
IP Addresses icon. Your IP addresses are listed and the following supplementary information is given:
- An icon in the S (Status) column shows
if your IP address is properly configured on the network interface. If your IP address was removed from the network interface, an icon will show
. - An icon in the T (Type) column shows
if an address was allocated to a single customer as a dedicated IP address, and
if an address is shared among many customers. - The IP address, Subnet Mask and Interface columns show which IP addresses are on which network interfaces.
- The Clients column shows the number of user accounts who you assigned a given IP address. To view the users by names, click the respective number in the Clients column.
- The Hosting column shows a number of web sites hosted on an IP address. To view the domain names of these web sites, click the respective number in the Hosting column.
- To update the list of IP addresses and their status, click
Reread IP.
To add a new IP address to the server:
- Click the Server shortcut in the navigation pane.
- Click the
IP Addresses icon. - Click
Add New IP Address. - Select the network interface for the new IP from the Interface drop-down box. All network cards installed on your server are shown in this drop-down box.
- Enter the IP address and subnet mask in the corresponding box.
- Select the type of the new IP address, shared or exclusive, using the IP type radio button.
- From the drop-down box, select the SSL certificate for the new IP address. You can select the following certificates:
- Default certificate - the certificate that comes with the Plesk distribution package. However, this certificate is not recognized by web browsers as it is not signed by a Certificate Authority (a warning message appears). The default certificate is used to provide access to the control panel via the https protocol (https://<Plesk Server name or IP>:8443/).
- Other certificates - the certificates (self-signed or signed by a Certificate Authority) that you added to the repository of SSL certificates (about adding certificates, see the Securing Sites with SSL encryption section).
- Click OK.
To remove an IP address from the server:
- Click the Server shortcut in the navigation pane.
- Click the
IP Addresses icon. - Select the respective check box and click
Remove Selected. - Confirm removal and click OK.
To assign an IP address to a user:
- Click the Server shortcut in the navigation pane.
- Click the
IP Addresses icon. - Click the respective number in the Clients column.
- Click
Add New Client. - Select the user account you need and click OK.
To revoke an IP address from a user:
- Click the Server shortcut in the navigation pane.
- Click the
IP Addresses icon. - Click the respective number in the Clients column.
- Select the respective check box and click
Remove Selected. - Confirm removal and click OK.
To specify what web site will open when users refer to the web resource on your server by an IP address:
- Click the Server shortcut in the navigation pane.
- Click the
IP Addresses icon. - Click the respective number in the Hosting column. All sites hosted on this IP will be listed.
- Select the site you need and click
Set as Default.
To change an IP address allocation type (shared, exclusive) or assign another SSL certificate to an IP address:
- Click the Server shortcut in the navigation pane.
- Click the
IP Addresses icon. - Click the IP address you need.
- Select the IP address allocation type and SSL certificate you need, and click OK.