To enable basic hosting services and functions on a Plesk-managed server, Plesk distribution package includes several third-party software applications, that are installed along with Plesk. These applications are ultimately responsible for providing various hosting services such as DNS, e-mail, FTP, and others.

All software components shipped with Plesk can be installed and updated by means of Plesk Installer. These components are listed in the Release Notes.

You can also install and manage through Plesk many other third-party applications that are not included in the Plesk distribution package. For the complete list of third-party applications currently supported by Plesk, refer to the Release Notes.

Automatic Detection of Pre-installed Components

Supported third-party applications that have already been installed on a server prior to Plesk installation will be automatically detected during installation of Plesk by Plesk Installer and integrated as Plesk components.

Manual Installation, Update, and Integration of Components Supported by Plesk

If Plesk is already installed and you want to install an application package or an update that you obtained from a software vendor, you need to do the following:

1. Upload the package to the Plesk-managed server and run the package installation program or, when applicable, follow the vendor’s installation instructions.

2. Complete the component installation or update by integrating the application with Plesk:

   1. Log in to Plesk as administrator.
   2. Go to Tools & Settings > Server Components. The list of the currently registered Plesk components is displayed.
   3. Click Refresh under Tools. The list of registered Plesk components is refreshed. The integrated component entry appears in the list.

   Alternately, you can use the following command line call to ensure detection of installed components: "%plesk_bin%\defpackagemng.exe" --get --force

Installation of Software not Supported by Plesk

You might want to install and use on the server other third-party applications not supported by Plesk. The applications will operate properly but will not be manageable through Plesk.

In accordance with Plesk security policies, Plesk sets permissions for all its partitions to restrict users’ access to each other and to third-party applications which are unknown to Plesk. For this reason, to ensure proper operation of third-party applications not supported by Plesk, you need to set required permissions in Plesk. For more information about Plesk security policies, see Changing Security Settings for File System Objects and Accounts.

To enable a third-party application not supported by Plesk, allow the psacln and psaserv groups the required access level to required directories of the application.

If you are installing any IIS extensions or COM components that need to be available on customers’ websites, we highly recommend that you install 32-bit versions of these applications because websites that Plesk creates are 32-bit.