Parallels Helm 4.1.1 Available

SOURCE: Web Host Automation Forums
http://forums.webhostautomation.com


Dear Helm Users,

A new updated version of Parallels Helm is available for download, this new version introduces a set of new features including support of APS standard, an application packaging standard that allows to extend the hosting offerings with more than 150 applications, additional features has been also included and the stability of Helm improved.

Release Date: 6 of May 2009
Version Release: 4.1.1

New Features:

• APS Controller, which enables provisioning APS applications: Thanks to this new feature service providers can include in their server offerings hundreds of applications packaged with APS Standard, the list of available applications can be obtained from APS Standard catalog on this link.
  

• Added ability to set default login language other than English.
  To set default CP language:
  1. Go to Helm System > Control Panel Settings page.
  2. Select a default language next to the Language.
  3. Save changes.

• Added possibility to test notifications without sending them to customers directly. The Test and save button was added to the Edit Action Notification Template page. If you click this button, the notification will be saved and sent to the current account. Notifications of Child Created Customer and Delete Customer type cannot be tested because of their specific characteristics.

• Added possibility to create virtual directory which points to physical directory outside of site document root. This directory can be shared between different virtual hosts. To create a virtual directory:
  1. Go to Add Plan Template.
  2. Specify the template name and template resources.
  3. Save the template.
  4. On the page that appears, click Add in the Provisioning Method section.
  5. Choose the Create Physical Virtual Directory method from the drop-down box.
  6. Specify Folder to point to property.
  Virtual directory created this way cannot be removed from a Virtual Directories page of a domain.

• For IIS 7 providers added possibility to switch between x64 and x32 mode for the particular application pool. It means that you can configure some application pool(s) to work in x32 while other will be in x64 at the same time. To specify the mode:
  1. Go to My Domains > > Advanced Website Options > Website Settings page.
  2. Choose the Application Pool tab.
  3. On the page that appears in the Bittness combo box, choose the x32 or x64 mode. If you see the Unknown/Not applicable value, it means that your backend system doesn't support the bittness option.
  4. Click Save.

• Implemented an option to enable/disable write permissions under customer’s home directory which means the ability of anonymous user to make write changes (create files or directories, modify existing files) in a particular domain directory tree. To enable/disable write permissions for a particular domain:
  1. Go to My Domains > > Advanced Website Options > Website Settings page.
  2. Choose the Options tab.
  3. Check/uncheck the Grant "Write" access for Anonymous User box.

• Added an option of choosing a Database name prefix property for MSSQL or MySQL service. Now it is possible to choose between the following database name prefixes:
  * Nothing - no prefix will be used during database creation.
  * DomainName - domain name will be used as a prefix during database creation. Dots in the domain name will be replaced with an underscore symbol in the prefix.
  * AccountName - account name will be added as a prefix during database creation.
  
  Changing this value does not affect existing databases. The Database Name Prefix option can be controlled by admin/reseller only (user has no possibility to choose how the database will be created). For existing database services, admin/reseller should perform the Save action to propagate new service settings into database (even if it wasn’t changed).

• Added control over Enable POP retrieval option for SmarterMail mail server which will allow you to access email on another mail server through SmarterMail. To enable SmarterMail POP Retrieval:
  1. Go to SmarterMail Provider Services page.
  2. Enter necessary Custom Domain Properties (semicolon delimited key/value pairs) which will be passed as custom properties to SmarterMail server when SmarterMail service is enabled for a particular domain. By default the value is set to "enablepopretrieval=True". For a complete list of supported properties, refer to SmarterMail documentation.
  3. Save the changes.
  
  The behavior can be controlled only by admin/reseller. For existing SmarterMail services, admin/reseller should perform the Save action to propagate new service settings into Helm database (even if it was not changed). There is no way to enable Pop Retrieval feature for existing domains in Helm without re-enabling the mail service.

• Introduced Shared data processing into Overusage Notification engine. To configure your Parallels Helm to process Shared Data:
  1. Go to Account Settings > Action Notifications page.
  2. On the page that appears, create new or edit an exisitng Overusage notification.
  3. Check the Process Shared data box on the Generic tab of the Edit Action Notification Template page.
  4. Go to the Internal Notification tab and change the following values:
  * [$PackageLimit.Value] to [$PackageLimit.SharedValue]
  * [$PackageLimit.UsagePercent] to [$PackageLimit.SharedUsagePercent].
  5. Save the changes.

Improvements:

• Added MySQL 5.1 support.
• Added ability to stop uploading files if reaching disk space limit for GeneFTP providers.
• Merak disk space and bandwidth usage are included in statistics.

Issues Fixed:

• Fixed problem with Helm API and Turkish locale. (HLM-1775)
• Fixed bug with creating an Email Alias that has all numeric values preceeding the "@" symbol in an email address. (HMSM-84)
• Fixed problem with IIS password on IIS 6. (HMWEIISP-12)
• Fixed problem with unassigning Module in License Web Services. (HLM-1757)
• Fixed problem with MySQL5 on a port different from the standard. (HMMYSQLFIVE-35)
• Fixed problem with tag text and CSS styling in the HTML field for notification. (HLM-1127)
• Fixed problem with backup DNS after re-enabling DNS. (HMMSDNSS-4)
• Fixed problem with FP extensions and "Integrated Windows Authentication". (HMWEFP-8)
• Fixed problem with creating domains using Simple DNS. (HMSDNS-18)
• Fixed the System Diskspace and Bandwidth Tasks error handling. (HLM-1459)
• Fixed bug with admin level permissions under reseller account. (HLM-1598)
• Fixed wording and behaviour of SQL Server dbo option. (HLM-1756)
• Fixed bug with empty resource list in the package. (HLM-1768)
• Fixed creating subdomain problem when Simple DNS is used. (HLM-1721)
• Fixed server logs deletion. (HLM-50)
• Bugfixes and improvements: A number of issues reported by the customers, detected by support team and discovered on QA stage were fixed, multiple other bugfixes and improvements were made.

Release notes with installation and upgrade instructions for this new version can be found here

Installation Instructions

Please download the Parallels Helm 4.1.1 installation package and follow the installation instructions according to the Parallels Helm 4.1.1 documentation in the Installation and Configuration section.

Upgrade Instructions

4.0.x to 4.1.1 Upgrade

1. The upgrade to Parallels Helm 4.1.1 requires a valid license with Upgrade Protection, or, in terms of Parallels licensing, a license that provides Software Update Service (SUS) which entitles you to version upgrade licenses throughout the life of your SUS. Read more about SUS: http://www.parallels.com/en/support/sus.
   You can validate your license by going to the Parallels Helm member area: http://www.webhostautomation.com/members.
   If you have a license without SUS, go to http://www.parallels.com/store/support/helm/ and reinstate your license. Otherwise, you will not be able to upgrade to Parallels Helm 4.1.1
2. Download the Parallels Helm 4.0 to 4.1.1 Upgrade Tool from the following location: http://helm.download.webhostautomati...pgradeTool.exe.
3. Run the tool and follow its instructions.

4.1 to 4.1.1 Upgrade

1. Launch the Configuration Tool.
   The Configuration Tool should indicate in the left bottom corner that a new version is available. If there is no indication, make sure that the current version of Configuration Tool is 4.1.1.xxxx.
2. Click the link in the left bottom corner of the Configuration Tool to upgrade it to the latest version.
3. Launch the updated Configuration Tool.
4. Tab to Software Updates, and click Update Now.
5. If anything goes wrong, check the install.log file located in the Helm installation directory.