Hi,

I have a dedicated unix server. I originally went with plesk as my control panel. However, I am constantly bumping into limitations on what I can/can''t do imposed by plesk. The latest is I can't upgrade to php 5 or mySQL 5 because my version of plesk won't support it. The HMS support folks have strongly advised me not to attempt upgrading plesk to lift this restriction, so I'm just stuck with pre 5 versions of php and mySQL.

The dedicated server engineering staff have said several times that cpanel was more flexible and would provide everything I need. However, this migration (from plesk to cpanel) would be time consuming, fraught with peril, and probably have costs associated with it.

So, my question is, what are the pros and cons of each? Would this be a worthwhile switch?

I am a very experienced unix/linux developer and administrator (I did unix/linux system development and management for 20 years). Therefore, I understand most of what I'd need to manage a server without a control panel, but that sure does cut down on the repetitive workload.

So, help me out folks. Which way do you think I should go?

-Smitty

I have a Linux VPS, and I did not choose Plesk for the obvious reason that it doesn't support *anything* I run. CPanel, while more flexible, is extremely bloated, and hogs a lot of memory. I have also heard many reports that CPanel is insecure. I personally use no Control Panel, and while it was hard to setup the first week, I have since found it extremely easy to admin the server via SSH and an FTP client. I have put multiple services on one init.d task, and have aliased repetitive operations such as restarting the software so I can just type in "rstsoftware" and work with multiple services at once. Since you are using PHP and MySQL, you can probably install them using RPMs, just as easy as with Plesk. What tasks do you use a cp to do? I have fairly simple tasks, and wrote my own software in a few days to do so.

Personally I prefer neither.

I'm more familiar with Plesk, however cPanel provides much more flexibility.

The problem is I don't believe either is better than the other. cPanel is more for someone who is familiar with running a Linux web server, and will need to easily install custom software, make direct changes to your services configuration files, recompile Apache or PHP, etc.

Plesk is pretty much for any average Joe. As such they accommodate the lowest common denominator. You won't be able to easily upgrade software the way you would with cPanel. Also you don't have the fine grained service control that you would with cPanel.

However these limitations can pretty much be overlooked if you are familiar with Unix/Linux, vi, and SSH. The only thing that is a bit different is modifying Apache configurations per domain on Plesk, and I can provide you the necessary KBs from SWSoft to ensure that you make the changes so that Plesk doesn't over write them.

Anything that can be done in cPanel can more than likely be accomplished in Plesk however there will be an added layer of complexity getting Plesk to recognize your changes, whereas cPanel knows about the changes because it should be in charge of them.

If you want to stick with Plesk you may want to check out http://atomicrocketturtle.com/ to see if the necessary packages for your OS are available for PHP 5 and MySQL 5. If they exist it may be relatively easy for you to perform the upgrade yourself.

Don't tell the guys in support I told you though should anything go wrong

http://www.atomicorp.com/wiki/index.php/Plesk