(Optional) Specify Administrator's Password

When Plesk is installed, a random password is generated for the user admin, which replaces the old scheme when the same default password was used on all installations. This change was done to protect servers with freshly installed Plesk from hacking by bots that use the default password.

After the installation is finished, you can set the administrator's password being authenticated in Plesk with credentials of the system power user, which is "root" on Linux systems, and "Administrator" on Windows systems. Such authentication with administrator's system account works in both cases of logging in to the Plesk GUI and using XML API.

The admin's password can be set up during the Plesk initialization (this is the best way) or afterwards.

Specify Password During the Plesk Initialization

Setting up administrator's password is an essential part of the Plesk initialization. For details on setting up the password during the Plesk initialization, refer to the section Initialize Plesk.

In case your Plesk instance has already been initialized, refer to the following section for instructions on how to set up the administrator's password.

Specify Password After the Plesk Initialization

In case your Plesk instance has already been initialized, it is still possible to set the administrator's password being authenticated as the server power user.

To set up the administrator's password using XML API:

Send to the server a request packet satisfying the following conditions:

1. The server power user credentials specified as the HTTP_AUTH_LOGIN and HTTP_AUTH_PASSWD values in HTTP header of the packet.
2. The packet content is as follows:

<packet>
  <server>
    <set>
      <password>gogo4ward</password>
    </set>
  </server>
</packet>

To set up the administrator's password using CLI:

Issue the following command (you should have the power user privileges):

On Linux/Unix:

PSA_PASSWORD=<new_password> /usr/local/psa/bin/init_conf --set-admin-password -passwd "

On Windows:

%plesk_cli%\init_conf.exe --set-admin-password -passwd <new_password>

To set up the administrator's password using GUI if you do not know the current administrator's password:

1. Log in to Plesk using the server power user credentials.
2. If you have at least one own subscription, skip this step. Otherwise, create a subscription:
   1. In the left frame, click Hosting Services > Subscriptions.
   2. Click Add Subscription.
   3. Specify a domain name and subscription info and click OK.
3. Go to the Control Panel: click the Control Panel link next to your subscription.
4. Go to the Users tab.
5. Click the 'Admin' link in the list of user account.
6. Under Plesk Preferences, type in the new password, confirm it, and click OK.