I'm upgrading to CF VPS+ and considering installing Plesk - in the past we've handled our own admin on IIS but may be allowing clients to do some stuff on their own in the future -- which is why we're considering Plesk

If we install Plesk does that preclude us from doing some admin directly in IIS? Does everything have to be done in Plesk at that point?

Are there any downsides to using Plesk?

Thx.

Hello.

I don't know of the specifics as far as administering behind plesk when it's installed. But I did question support once before about getting plesk during the Beta trials last june, and they said that there is a conflict between Coldfusion and Plesk when installed together. Maybe that's changed since the beta. I would ask support to be sure.

We have seen a lot of permissions problems with plesk on windows and CF (at least as of 7.6). We have not seen issues with Plesk and CF on Linux, but generally discourage from Plesk and CF on Windows.

What sort of automation are you looking to give your clients? You may be able to find individual scripts to, say, create databases and such.

Another option may be Helm, which is a competing product to Plesk. I can't vouch for its integration with ColdFusion, however, as I've never used it in that environment (and we don't officially support here at HMS).