Parallels Operations Automation

Transcription

1 Parallels Operations Automation What s New Document Version Revision 1.0 (July 2009)

2 Introduction Parallels Operations Automation 2.9 is an Operations Support System designed for the unique needs of Cloud Services Providers that enables delivery of any application or service in a hosted environment which increases revenue per user, decrease costs and decreases time to market. Parallels Automation incorporates feedback received from our Cloud Services Provider partners and these changes underscore Parallels commitment to Cloud Services Providers and continuous improvement. Below is a listing of the new key features and improvements of version 2.9. Please refer to the Parallels Operations Automation 2.9 Release Notes for the most comprehensive list of changes in this new version. Top New Features 1. Exchange Mailbox Templates The Exchange Mailbox Template allows Cloud Services Providers to standardize and automate mailbox configurations as bundled packages or services to customers, instead of selling a baseline single service and offering premium features individually as a la carte add-ons. As a result, Cloud Services Providers do not need to separately count users who need IMAP, OWA, Outlook or ActiveSync; and providers can better estimate the profits since mailbox profiles are easier to map into Microsoft SPLA product items. 2. Windows Shared Hosting: better integration between MS SQL and IIS Some of the Windows Web Applications have limited capabilities for controlling the credentials they use to connect to the database. Now Parallels Operations Automation allows granting MS SQL database access rights to the accounts from Active Directory, including the system accounts used for running the web applications. Cloud Services Providers can limit the number of Active Directory accounts to be created for database access in customer subscriptions. 3. Unified Gateway for Exchange and Linux Shared Hosting This new feature combines the gateway for both Microsoft Exchange and Linux Shared Hosting services to allow cloud services providers to use a single locally hosted anti-virus and anti-spam solution across both systems. The Unified Gateway has been tested with Kaspersky AS/AV solution for protecting the incoming/outgoing mail. 4. RHEL 5 / CentOS 5 Support RHEL 5 and CentOS 5 feature many important improvements over the respective version 4.x lines of these operating systems. Now Parallels Operations Automation supports both RHEL 5 and CentOS 5 for the following key parts of the system: Linux-based Management Node Linux-based User Interface server Linux-based DNS server Linux Shared Hosting Services (only x64 edition): Apache web server ProFTPD PHP5 (only as FastCGI application) Webalizer MySQL4 MySQL5 PostgreSQL Parallels What s New: Parallels Operations Automation 2.9 2

3 Web File Manager oscommerce Domain Parking SSL Proxy phpmyadmin phppgadmin 5. Improved APS Catalog Support Cloud Services Providers can use the external APS application catalog available via or create a local APS application catalog. The public, web-based APS catalog provides convenient access to the total available APS applications and are sorted by categories with search capability. 6. High Availability for Management Node Now it is possible to deploy both Windows and Linuxbased Management Nodes in a Parallels Virtuozzo Containers failover cluster to provide extra fault tolerance for Parallels Operations Automations. Top Improvements 1. New User Permissions in Hosted Exchange 2007 Subscribers can grant the following permissions to the Exchange users: Send Permissions: Send On Behalf Of. Mailbox/Distribution List user is able to send messages on behalf of another mailbox user Send As - Mailbox/Distribution List user is able to send messages as another mailbox user, or distribution list, or public folder. With the Send As permission, the recipients of a message cannot identify whether the message was sent by the mailbox owner or another user that has been granted the Send As permission. Mailbox Permission: Full Access permission - A user can log on to the mailbox of another user and gain access to the entire mailbox content, read, move and delete messages. 2. New Limits for Shared Web Hosting Providers and resellers can limit the following resources consumption per IIS webspace or Apache web site by: CPU consumption Memory consumption Bandwidth consumption Number of running child Apache web server processes (applicable to Linux only) Parallels What s New: Parallels Operations Automation 2.9 3

4 3. Hosted Exchange Public Folder Improvements Parallels Operations Automation 2.9 introduces several important improvements for managing the Public Folders in Hosted Exchange: Replication Allows providers to configure a replication for the public folder store. All public folders located on the configured store will be replicated to another public folder store. This functionality provides a high availability for the public folder store and security for the public folders content. Nested Folders Subscriber can create child public folders or subfolders. The child public folder is a folder created within already existing public folder. Importing Nested Folders Created in Outlook or Outlook Web Access (OWA) Subscribers can import the child public folders hierarchy created in Outlook or OWA client to the public folders list in the Parallels Operations Automation Customer Control Panel. Sender Restrictions Subscriber can specify who can post messages to a mail-enabled Public Folder: Everyone (default) Members of Subscriber s Exchange organization only 4. DNS Improvements there are several improvements related to the DNS Hosting: Master/Slave can now be specified as the type for the DNS Server Auto Host Domain activation parameter is supported for the DNS Hosting Resource Type. When Auto host domain is set to Yes (the default value), Parallels Operations Automation automatically provisions DNS hosting for domains in the following cases: When a hosting service is added to a domain During the Subscription upgrade or migration When a domain is added together with a hosting service These cases may be caused by PBA or any other billing solution during automatic service provisioning. Parallels Plesk Domain Hosting does not longer require manual switching of the DNS hosting type for the domain. Slave DNS Hosting Resource Type is removed; Parallels Plesk Domain Hosting now uses the common DNS Hosting Resource Type Disabling a Domain now disables the DNS configuration settings in the UI and prevents them from being modified by either provider or the domain owner Disabling a Subscription that contains a DNS hosting Resource Type now forces the deactivation of all DNS records provisioned on this resource. Previously, the Parallels Operations Automation name servers were resolving the DNS records even after the corresponding Subscription has been disabled, thus customer websites remained fully functional Parallels What s New: Parallels Operations Automation 2.9 4

5 5. Support for Updated Versions of 3rd-party Software Parallels Operations Automation 2.9 supports the updated versions for various shared hosting software: Linux Shared Mail Hosting Software: Horde 3.3 Atmail 5.5 SpamAssassin Courier-IMAP Linux Shared Web Hosting Software: Apache Database packages and administration tools: PostgreSQL - version For details on this version, refer to PostgreSQL website MySQL - version and For details on this version, refer to MySQL website phpmyadmin - version phppgadmin - version PHP PHP (running as Apache module or in CGI mode) MCrypt and IMAP libraries on PHP 5 (running as Apache module or in CGI mode) The mhash module for PHP 5 is supported; installed as a part of the php5-cgi RPM package. ioncube PHP Loader and SQLite2 for PHP4/PHP5 Note! Starting with Parallels Operations Automation 2.9, obsolete Linux File Manager is not supported. Web File Manager should be used instead. Windows Shared Web Hosting Software: 64-bit versions of Windows 2003 R2 and Windows 2008 ActivePerl 5.8 and Now both modes are supported: as a CGI application as an ISAPI extension AWStats 6.8 ODBC Drivers: ODBC-PostgreSQL driver - version (x86). ODBC-MySQL driver - version (x86 or x64). PHP Parallels What s New: Parallels Operations Automation 2.9 5