plesk and isapi_rewrite 3
November 13th, 2008
ISAPI_Rewrite is a powerful regular-expressions-based URL rewriter for IIS. It is compatible with Apache mod_rewrite making it possible to move configurations from Apache to IIS and vice versa just by copying .htaccess files. It is used for search engine optimization, to proxy another server’s content, stop hotlinking or strengthens server security.
Simply put, I love being able to make my .htaccess portable between Apache and IIS without having to rewrite the syntax to make it compliant.Okay, let me plug Plesk:
Parallels Plesk is a comprehensive control panel solution used by leading hosting providers worldwide for shared, virtual and dedicated hosting. The control panel is designed to simplify the management and administration of web sites… blah blah blah…
Okay, now that I have the marketing plugs out of the way, let me vent a little:
Parallels Plesk is horrible software that was introduced to humanity as a lame excuse for website management. Its UNIX version leave much to be desired and has had the same crappy and often inapt features for the last 8 years or so. The Windows version has seen more development time, which begs the question, did their developers get fed the Microsoft cool aid? That said; let’s move on troubleshooting ISAPI_Rewrite 3 with Plesk, shall we?
First off, install the software. A standard minimal install will suffice. Once you’ve done this, browse to the Helicon tech directory, which is often located under %ProgramFiles%\Helicon\
- You’ll need to modify the NTFS permissions to ensure that the psaadm and psacln groups are not denied. This is done by right-clicking the Helicon directory, browse to Security, and then make sure that you correct the permissions. You’re done here.
- I found out that in addition to the permissions changes above, you’ll need to make sure that the IIS worker process group (IIS_WPG) has access to the user’s HTTPDOCS directory. Make sure that you add this group to the directory to allow IIS process to be able to read the user’s .htaccess accordingly.
Once you’ve completed the steps above, test out the rewrite rules. That should be it! Unfortunately none of this information is disclosed by either Parallels support (nincompoops) or HeliconTech, so you’ll need to debug most of the Plesk interop issues yourself…
November 30th, 2008 at 11:35 am
Why do we need to BUY a software to rewrite the urls? In linux it’s free. In windows it should be. Parallels could easily write an extension for it but they didn’t…
November 30th, 2008 at 11:49 am
You’re comparing apples to oranges. I’d like to remind you that Linux is open-source, which means the development process doesn’t require you to drink the Microsoft Cool aid.
Parallels as a company is already overwhelmed with their products. Adding a rewrite extension to their development would be detrimental. You should also consider that HeliconTech has been doing this for a long time, so why re-invent the wheel when they have already invented it? We all know that Parallels wouldn?t be able to create a better extension, so let?s not ask them to do this, okay?
It seems that your problem is the cost, which is understandable. If that case I would recommend that you stop using Windows and use Linux instead…