May 19-20 l Washington, DC l Omni Shoreham Extending Plesk Functionality to Control External Web...

May 19-20 l Washington, DC l Omni Shoreham

Extending Plesk Functionality to Control External Web ServicesA SoftLayer API Case Study

Nathan Day

CTO, SoftLayer Technologies, Inc.

Introduction

How to extend the functionality of Plesk for Linuxto talk to an external web service—the SoftLayer API.

1.Plesk Modules Overview

2.SoftLayer API Overview

3.Example: SoftLayer Demo Module

4.Questions

Softlayer—Extending Plesk Functionality to Control External Web Services2

Introduction

A global, on-demand data centerand hosting service provider

The SoftLayer difference:

– Automated Services and Solutions

– Industry-leading Customer Portal and Open API

– Industry’s First Secure Network-within-a-Network Topology

– On-demand Scalability

– Integrated Geographical Diversity

www.SoftLayer.com


Introduction

Long-standing partnership across multiple Parallels product lines

– Gold Partner

– Member of Service Provider Alliance Program

– Sponsor of Parallels Summit


&

Plesk Modules Overview

“The main advantage of Plesk is the opportunity to manage a wide range of functionality from a single control panel. In this sense, integrating additional applications and services with Plesk via the mechanism of modules gains benefit as follows:

– PCP (Plesk Control Panel) provides means for installing/uninstalling modules easily

– Modules integrate with Plesk Language system – Modules integrate with Plesk Help system – Modules use skins provided by Plesk – Plesk provides Modules API specially designed to create Plesk-specific modules – Modules are registered in Plesk, which prevents from casual deletion of 'module’

applications”Plesk 8.3 Modules Development Guide


Plesk Modules

– Consist of Front-end, Back-end, Resource Files, Install scripts, Third-party code

– Controlled by a GUI Using Module Manager

Plesk Modules Overview


SoftLayer API Web Service

– Used for infrastructure management

▪ Control Servers or Services (DNS, iSCSI, CDN, etc.)

– SOAP or XML-RPC

– Same functionality available as SoftLayer customer portal

– Details available at SoftLayer Developer Network http://www.softlayer.com/devnet.html


SoftLayer Plesk Module Example

– Server Details

– Bandwidth Graph from Switch Data

– Server Power and Reboot Management

– Accounting

▪ Previous Invoices

▪ Current Balance

– Support Ticket

▪ New

▪ Previous


How we did it

– Written in PHP

– Built a class extending PHP SOAP Client

– Uses built in Plesk templating

– References built-in Plesk Module API

– Uses built-in Plesk Global Constants

– Created a template file per tab

– Created a controller file per tab

– Stores data in Plesk backend database


File listing


Code to access SoftLayer API$client = new SoftLayer_API_SoapClient('SoftLayer_Hardware_Server');$objectMask = new SoftLayer_API_ObjectMask();

// General$objectMask->datacenter;$objectMask->serverRoom;$objectMask->provisionDate;$objectMask->lastOperatingSystemReload;

// Hardware Components$objectMask->components->hardwareComponentModel->hardwareGenericComponentModel->hardwareComponentType;$objectMask->hardwareChassis;

//software components$objectMask->softwareComponents->softwareLicense->softwareDescription->drivers;

//network component$objectMask->primaryBackendIpAddress;$objectMask->primaryIpAddress;$objectMask->frontendNetworkComponents->uplinkComponent->networkVlan;$objectMask->frontendNetworkComponents->primarySubnet;$objectMask->frontendNetworkComponents->uplinkComponent->hardware;$objectMask->backendNetworkComponents->uplinkComponent->networkVlan;$objectMask->backendNetworkComponents->primarySubnet;$objectMask->backendNetworkComponents->uplinkComponent->hardware;$objectMask->bandwidthAllocation;

// Billing cycle for bandwidth calculation$objectMask->account->billingInfo;

$client->setObjectMask($objectMask);$server = $client->findByIpAddress($_SERVER['SERVER_ADDR']);


Module Page


General Tab


General Tab (continued)


Account Tab


Tickets Tab


Settings Tab


Conclusion

Plesk functionality can be extendedbeyond the server using the modules subsystem

– Next Steps for SoftLayer

▪ Publish SoftLayer Demo

▪ Encourage/Develop Integration Projects


References

– Plesk 8.3 Unix Modules Guide

– Plesk 8.3 Unix Modules Reference

– SoftLayer API User’s Guide Wiki, http://sldn.softlayer.com/wiki

– Kevin Laude, SoftLayer API Evangelist, [email protected]


May 19-20 l Washington, DC l Omni Shoreham Extending Plesk Functionality to Control External Web...

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