Creating an SPF Record When Configuring Plesk

This guide will walk you through setting up Plesk for the first time. It has been written using a CentOS VPS with Plesk 12, but the general principles will apply to any dedicated or virtual server with Plesk installed.

• Gather the Required Information
• Log into Plesk for the First Time
• Set Up Your Account

Gathering Information

1. After you’ve received an email confirmation that your server is ready, you will need to collect some information about your VPS. Log into your Simply Cloud control panel at: https://admin.simplyhosting.cloud/login using your contact email address from the confirmation email and the password you chose when ordering your virtual server. Click ‘VPS’ at the top of the control panel to view your installed services (see Screen 1).
   
   (Screen 1)
2. Now click the name of the server on which Plesk is installed (i.e., svm29900) to access the VPS management page (see Screen 2).
   
   (Screen 2)
3. At the VPS management page, write down the default root password or administrator password in the case of a Windows server (see Screen 3).
   
   (Screen 3)
4. Next, click on the ‘IP Addresses’ tab and write down the IP address of the server (see screen 4). Once you’ve made a note of these you’re ready to login to Plesk for the first time.
   
   (Screen 4)

Logging into Plesk for the First Time

1. Navigate to https://(yourserver's-ip):8443. Using the IP address in Screen 4 as an example, you would enter https://31.172.245.130:8443.
2. The first time you connect to Plesk, your browser will notify you that there is a problem with the SSL certificate for the control panel. This is normal as Plesk uses a self-signed certificate to secure its control panel. Click ‘Proceed anyway’ to continue to the Plesk login screen (see Screen 5).
   NOTE: In the case of Firefox, click 'I understand the risks’ then ‘Add exception.’ You can then click ‘Get Certificate’ and ‘Confirm Security Exception’ to proceed. In other browsers generally you can just click ‘Proceed’ or ‘I understand the Risks’ to continue to Plesk’s login screen.
   
   (Screen 5)
3. At the Plesk 12 login screen (see Screen 6), enter ‘root’ (no quotes) for the username. Note that previous versions of Plesk used ‘Admin’ as the username. The password is the same as the default root password listed in the Simply Cloud control panel (see Screen 3).
   
   (Screen 6)
4. The first time you login to Plesk you’ll be asked to accept their license agreement. Read the agreement and tick the box to accept the terms. You may also tick the box to stop Plesk from displaying the agreement again. Then click the ‘Accept’ button (see Screen 7).
   
   (Screen 6)
5. The first time you login to Plesk you’ll be asked to accept their license agreement. Read the agreement and tick the box to accept the terms. You may also tick the box to stop Plesk from displaying the agreement again. Then click the ‘Accept’ button (see Screen 7).
   
   (Screen 7)

Setting Up Your Account

1. You will now be prompted to complete Plesk’s set-up wizard (see Screen 8). Complete all the required fields and click the ‘OK’ button.
   
   (Screen 8)
   
   Below are explanations of the various fields in Screen 8:
   
   Full hostname: Your server will identify itself as this hostname, which is particularly important if you’re sending emails from it. The hostname needs to have a DNS record pointing to your VPS’s main IP address, and that main IP address needs a corresponding rDNS record that matches the hostname. By default, this is set up with a hostname of .vps.simplyhosting.cloud. You only need to change this if you want your mail server to identify itself by a different hostname.
   
   Default IP Address: Selected from the available IP addresses on the server, this is the ‘main’ IP address used by Plesk. Leave this as the default unless you have a compelling reason to change it.
   
   Shared IP addresses: Here you can choose whether your IP address is shared or exclusive. Shared addresses can be used by multiple accounts and domains, exclusive addresses can only be used by one client. It’s common for domain resellers to keep one or more shared addresses for sites that don’t use SSL certificates, and to use an exclusive address for each site that needs an SSL certificate.
   
   Administrator’s Preferences: Here you can change the administrator password. Be sure to set a strong one!
2. Decide how the product will be used by selecting one of the options from the list and clicking the ‘OK’ button (see Screen 9).
   
   (Screen 9)
3. Complete the ‘Administrator Information’ form by entering your details and clicking the ‘Ok’’ button (see Screen 10). Take note of the email address you enter as Plesk will send monitoring alerts to this address.
   
   (Screen 10)
4. You will now be at the Plesk home page where you can manage websites and hosting accounts (see Screen 11).
   
   (Screen 11)