Software Requirements for Plesk Onyx

We recommend that you read information about the product installation, upgrade, or migration before you start deploying Plesk. This information, including detailed instructions, can be found in the Deployment Guide.

Supported Operating Systems

Note: When choosing the operating system for your Plesk server, we recommend that you check out the operating system termination date set by the vendor.

Linux

Plesk Onyx for Linux can run on the following operating systems:

Operating system SNI support IPv6 support
Debian 8 64-bit **
Debian 9 64-bit (Plesk Onyx 17.8 and later) **
Ubuntu 16.04 64-bit **
Ubuntu 18.04 64-bit (Plesk Onyx 17.8 and later) **
CentOS 7.x 64-bit
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.x 64-bit *
CloudLinux 7.x 64-bit
Virtuozzo Linux 7 64-bit

* - You need to enable the “Optional” channel to install Plesk Onyx on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

** - Plesk only supports Debian 8, Debian 9, Ubuntu 16.04, and Ubuntu 18.04 servers running the ‘systemd’ init system. Compatibility with ‘sysvinit’ has not been tested and is not guaranteed.

Notes:

  1. Before installing Plesk, you should make sure that the package manager's (apt/yum) repositories are configured and can be accessed from the server.
  2. CentOS, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and CloudLinux are supported at the latest available minor (.x) versions.

Windows

Plesk Onyx for Microsoft Windows can run on the following operating systems:

Operating system SNI support IPv6 support
Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 (64-bit, Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter editions, and Windows Web Server), including Server Core installations
Windows Server 2012 (64-bit, Standard, Foundation, and Datacenter editions), including Server Core installations
Windows Server 2012 R2 (64-bit, Standard, Datacenter, and Essentials editions), including Server Core installations
Windows Server 2016 (64-bit, Standard and Datacenter editions), including Server Core installations

Because Windows Server 2003 is no longer supported by Plesk, we recommend that you choose a later operating system version according to the recommendations in our life cycle policy.

According to the Plesk life cycle policy, the support of Windows Server 2008 will end on January 13, 2017. In addition, certain Plesk functionality is not supported in Plesk installations running on Windows Server 2008. For these reasons, we recommend to use Windows Server 2012 R2 or later for new Plesk for Windows installations.

A static IP address should be configured in the operating system before installing Plesk for Windows.

Plesk for Windows can be installed only on NTFS partitions.

In order for your server to support Active Server Pages (ASP) and Microsoft FrontPage Server Extensions, you need to install these components yourself.

Windows Installer 4.5 is required for Microsoft SQL Server 2008 installation. If it is not installed in the system, you can download it from the Microsoft official website.

If you plan to use Microsoft SQL Server support in Plesk for Windows, the SQL Server should be installed and configured to use standard or mixed security mode. If Microsoft SQL Server is not installed, you can select it to be installed with Plesk for Windows and configured with administrator name "sa" and a random password.

Installation requirements

When installing Plesk, pay attention to the following installation requirements:

CloudLinux Support

Installing or operating Plesk on a CloudLinux server with link traversal protection enabled results in a variety of issues. To avoid them, disable the 'fs.protected_symlinks_create' kernel option first.

Active Directory Domain Controllers Support

We recommend that you do not install Plesk on a server acting as a primary or backup domain controller. Doing so may result in the server crashing during the creation of domains with certain names.

AppArmor Support

Plesk Onyx supports AppArmor on Ubuntu 16.04 and Ubuntu 18.04. Before installing Plesk Onyx on any supported Debian version, make sure that AppArmor is disabled first.

NFS Shares Support

Plesk does not officially support the use of NFS shares for storing vhosts directories. This configuration was not tested and can be used at your own risk.

Supported browsers

The following browsers are supported:

Desktop

  • Mozilla Firefox (latest) for Windows and Mac OS
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer® 11.x for Windows
  • Microsoft Edge® for Windows 10
  • Apple Safari (latest) for Mac OS
  • Google Chrome (latest) for Windows and Mac OS

Smartphones and Tablets

  • Default browser (Safari) on iOS 8
  • Default browser on Android 4.x
  • Default browser (IE) on Windows Phone 8

Supported virtualization

The following virtualization platforms are supported:

  • VMware
  • XEN
  • Parallels Virtuozzo Containers 4.6 for Linux
  • Parallels Virtuozzo Containers 4.6 for Windows
  • Parallels Virtuozzo Containers 4.7 for Linux
  • Virtuozzo 6 for Linux (Parallels Cloud Server 6)*
  • Virtuozzo Containers 6 for Windows (Parallels Containers 6 for Windows)
  • Virtuozzo 7 for Linux
  • OpenVZ
  • KVM
  • Hyper-V
  • LXC (Docker)

* - Virtuozzo 6 for Linux (Parallels Cloud Server 6) has reached end of life in November 2019. We strongly recommend that you migrate to Virtuozzo 7.

Notes:

  1. Support includes proper functioning of Plesk and applicability of discounted “virtual server” licenses
  2. License key may also restrict Plesk to selected platform. That means license key will be considered invalid in such environment, but other functions (installation, etc.) shall not be impacted.

Earlier Versions Supported for Upgrade

Plesk Onyx supports upgrade from the following earlier versions:

  • Plesk 12.5
  • Plesk 12.0
  • Plesk 11.5 (upgrade to Plesk Onyx 17.0 or 17.5 only)
  • Plesk 11.0 (upgrade to Plesk Onyx 17.0 or 17.5 only)

Source Hosting Platforms Supported for Migration

Configuration and content from the following hosting platforms can be imported into Plesk Onyx:

  • Plesk for Linux and Plesk for Windows: 8.6, 9.5, 10.4, 11.0, 11.5, 12.0, 12.5, and Plesk Onyx.
  • cPanel 11.5
  • Confixx 3.3
  • Helm 3.2
  • Plesk Expand 2.3.2
  • Parallels Pro Control Panel for Linux 10.3.6

Note: To learn about migrating to Plesk Onyx, read the Migration Guide.

Supported Components

Supplied Components

Linux

Plesk Onyx for Linux distribution packages include the following components:

  • Plesk Premium Antivirus 6.0.2
  • Kaspersky Anti-Virus 8.5
  • AWStats 7.7
  • ProFTPD 1.3.6c
  • qmail 1.03
  • Courier-IMAP 4.16.1
  • Postfix 2.11.11 (for CentOS 6, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, and CloudLinux 6)
  • Dovecot 2.3.7.2 (Plesk Onyx 17.8.11 only)
  • Horde IMP 5*
    • Horde 5.2.22 (Plesk Onyx 17.0.17), 5.2.23 (Plesk Onyx 17.5.3 and later)
    • IMP 6.2.15
    • Ingo 3.2.11
    • Kronolith 4.2.17
    • Mnemo 4.2.11
    • Passwd 5.0.5
    • Turba 4.2.15
  • Roundcube 1.3.11
  • phpMyAdmin 4.9.0.1
  • phpPgAdmin 5.1
  • nginx 1.16.1
  • OpenSSL 1.0.2
  • Apache Tomcat 7.0.70 (supported only in Plesk 17.0 and 17.5)
  • Apache Tomcat Connector 1.2.41 (supported only in Plesk 17.0 and 17.5)
  • mod_jk 1.2.40
  • PHP 5.2.17, 5.3.29, 5.4.45, 5.5.38, 5.6.36, 7.0.30, 7.1.33, 7.2.33 (Plesk Onyx 17.5.3 and later), 7.3.21 (Plesk Onyx 17.8.11 only) **
  • Fail2ban 0.9.6
  • ModSecurity 2.9.2
  • ModSecurity Rule Set 2.2.9-30-g520a94b
  • Resource Controller (for CentOS 7, Debian 8, and Ubuntu 16 servers)
  • Node.js 4.6.1, 6.14.1, 7.0.0, 8.16.0, 9.0.0, 10.0.0, 12.0.0 ****
  • Phusion Passenger 5.3.5
  • Ruby 2.1.10, 2.2.10, 2.3.8, 2.4.6, 2.5.5, 2.6.3***
  • Bundler 1.13.5
  • Rootkit Hunter 1.4.4

* - requires PHP 5.3.

** - making changes to the /usr/local/psa/admin/conf/php.ini file may result in Plesk failing to operate properly.

*** - On Debian 9, only Ruby 2.4.6 and later is supported.

**** - On CentOS 6, Debian 7.x, and Ubuntu 12.x, Node.js 12 is not supported.

Windows

Plesk Onyx for Microsoft Windows distribution packages include the following components:

  • Plesk Premium Antivirus 6.0
  • Kaspersky Anti-Virus 8.6.1.51 (Plesk 17.0 Update 43 and later)
  • Microsoft SQL Server Express 2008 R2 SP2
  • Microsoft SQL Server Express 2012 SP3
  • Microsoft SQL Server Express 2014 SP2
  • Microsoft SQL Server Express 2016 SP1
  • Microsoft SQL 2017 Express
  • MySQL 5.5.62 (for Plesk database)
  • MySQL 5.7.30 (for Plesk database) (Plesk Onyx 17.8.11 only)
  • MySQL 5.6.48 (for customer websites)
  • MySQL 5.7.30 (for customer websites) (Plesk Onyx 17.8.11 only)
  • BIND DNS Server 9.14.1, 9.14.8 (Plesk Onyx 17.8.11 only)
  • Oracle Java Development Kit 5
  • Apache Tomcat 7.0.70 *
  • Apache Tomcat Connector 1.2.40 *
  • MailEnable Standard 10.25 (Plesk Onyx 17.8.11 only)
  • PHP 4.4.9 (Plesk 17.5.3 and earlier), 5.2.17, 5.3.29, 5.4.45, 5.5.38, 5.6.36, 7.0.30, 7.1.33, 7.2.33 (Plesk Onyx 17.5.3 and later), 7.3.21 (Plesk Onyx 17.8.11 only)
  • ASP.NET Core 2.0.5 (Plesk Onyx 17.8.11 only)
  • ionCube Loader 5.0.21
  • SpamAssassin 3.4.1
  • myLittleAdmin 3.8
  • phpMyAdmin 4.9.0.1
  • AWStats 7.7
  • Webalizer V2.01-10-RB02 (Windows NT 5.2) English
  • Horde 5.2.22 and IMP 6.2.21
  • Microsoft Web Deploy 3.5 + WebMatrix 3.0
  • Microsoft Web Deploy 3.6
  • URL Rewrite 2.1 for IIS 7
  • Node.js 4.6.1, 6.14.1, 8.11.1, 9.0.0, 10.0.0
  • 7zip 18.05

*Supported in Plesk Onyx 17.0 and 17.5.

Supported Third-Party Components

Linux

Web servers:

  • Apache 2.2, 2.4

Mail servers:

  • Postfix 2.6–3.1 (except for CentOS 6, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, and CloudLinux 6)

DNS servers:

  • BIND 9.8–9.10.6-P1

Web statistics:

  • Webalizer 2.x–3.x
  • AWStats 7.0–7.4

Web scripting:

  • mod_perl 2.x (Plesk Onyx 17.0.17 and 17.5.3 only)
  • mod_python 3.x (Plesk Onyx 17.0.17 and 17.5.3 only) *
  • PHP 5.2–7.3**
  • Apache Tomcat 5.5–8.0 — depending on the Linux distribution (Plesk Onyx 17.0.17 and 17.5.3 only)

Database servers and tools:

  • MySQL 5.1–5.7
  • MySQL community edition 5.5, 5.6, 5.7
  • PostgreSQL 8.4–10.8
  • MariaDB 5.5, 10.0, 10.1, 10.2 (Plesk 17.8.11 only)

Anti-spam tools:

  • SpamAssassin 3.0–3.4

* - mod_python is not supported on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.x, CentOS 7.x, and CloudLinux 7.x.

** - we install PHP used for webmail (Horde, Roundcube) from the OS vendor repository. You can install PHP from another repository (follow the repository maintainers' instructions). If you do, make sure that the PHP package names are not changed (known offenders: IUS, Webtatic), otherwise you will have trouble using webmail and may also face dependency issues when installing Plesk updates.

Windows

This is a shortened list of supported third-party components. It does not include the components supplied with the Plesk distribution, as they were already mentioned as distributed and supported.

Web servers

  1. Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.5, 8.0, 8.5, 10.0

Mail servers

  1. MailEnable Standard / Professional / Enterprise / Enterprise Premium 5.10–9.16
  2. SmarterMail 10.0–16.3
  3. IceWarp Mail Server 12.0.3.1

Webmail tools

  1. MailEnable Web Client
  2. SmarterMail Web Client
  3. IceWarp (Merak) Mail Server Web Client

Spam filtering tools

  1. SmarterMail Spamfilter
  2. IceWarp (Merak) Mail Server Anti-Spam

Antivirus tools

  1. SmarterMail Anti-Virus
  2. IceWarp (Merak) Mail Server Anti-Virus

DNS servers

  1. Microsoft DNS Server
  2. Simple DNS Plus 6.0.115

FTP servers

  1. Microsoft FTP Server 7.0-8.0

Web statistics

  1. SmarterStats 11.1

Web scripting

  1. ActiveState Perl 5.10.1
  2. ActiveState Python 2.6.5
  3. ASP
  4. ASP.NET 2.0-4.x
  5. ASP.NET Core 1.0.5, 1.1.2
  6. ASP.NET Core 2.0 (“Windows Server Hosting (.exe) Runtime” on the download page)

Database servers

  1. Microsoft SQL Server 2005–2016
  2. MySQL community edition 5.5, 5.6, 5.7
  3. MySQL ODBC connector 5.3.12, 5.3.14 (Plesk Onyx 17.8.11 only)