MachPanel Knowledgebase

Disabling weak protocols and hashes such as SSL and TLS on basis of security

rehan_waseem — Mon, 15 Jul 2019 04:06:01 GMT

Summary

This article provide a summary about disabling weak security protocols and hashes.

Applies To

This article applies to MachPanel Build v6.1.30 and later.

Disabling weak protocols and hashes such as SSL and TLS on basis of security

Requirements like disabling all weak protocols and hashes such as SSL2, SSL3 and TLS1.0 etc. is common these days for security administrators who want to keep their platforms away from security threats and risks. This locking down of insecure / less secure protocols mentioned above helps to prevent attacks such as POODLE, GOLDENDOODLE, Bleichenbacher etc.

A server administrator can use the best practices applied by the IISCrypto tool from Nartac to make the required registry changes on a Windows server. This tool helps block protocols like SSLv3 by disabling them on server host.

In doing this, previously MachPanel would stop you from gaining access via API (like clicking on link such as "Login to control panel" from WHMCS to login directly to MachPanel would throw the following error: “Operation failed.Error in fetching tenant details from office 365.

Details: Error processing command: System.Management.Automation.RemoteException: Authentication Error: Unable to complete authentication request (potentially a proxy issue)

If you turn SSL V3 back ON, that error would away.

MachPanel analysts and developers have made sure that the requirement to disable these protocols and hashes is fully supported. Hence, MachPanel Supports blocking of such protocols and hashes. A fix has already been made part of MachPanel latest builds (build 6.1.30 and above).

Just make sure you are running latest build 6.1.30 or above and disabling these weaker protocols wont make a difference and everything related to MachPanel and its APIs will keep working work as required.

How to improve performance of MachPanel Control Panel

rehan_waseem — Tue, 30 Sep 2014 04:26:56 GMT

Summary

This article provides a summary on how to improve performance of MachPanel Control Panel.

Applies To

This article applies to MachPanel all versions.

Improve performance of MachPanel Control Panel:

To speed up MachPanel for your new sites, please set up Application Pool for each site as follows:

Open IIS manager and navigate to section as shown below and then select Application Pool for MachPanel site, afterwards click on “Advanced Settings” and “Recycling” one by one.

Advanced Settings: For Advanced settings change settings as shown below and click “Ok” button:

Recycling: For “Recycling” confirm settings as under and hit Finish:

Run IIS Pool optimization settings in Configuration Studio start if needed

What and why: Automated above steps to optimize MachPanel website performance.
How it works: Now, when Configuration studio will be started, it will check for “AppPoolToOptimise” key in registry. If this key found or set to “true” or “1”, it assumes optimization settings are already applied, else it will apply following settings to MachPanel website’s application pool:

Changes to Web.Config:

Open Web.config in any editor (start Notepad as Run as Administrator, File >> Open >> Locate web.config from control panel installation directory and make following changes, then save the file.

==================================================================

1: Find section similar to shown below and replace it with following:

<system.web.extensions>

<!--

</converters>

</jsonSerialization>

-->

<!--

-->

<!-- Uncomment these lines to enable the profile service. To allow profile properties to be retrieved

and modified in ASP.NET AJAX Applications, you need to add each property name to the readAccessProperties and

writeAccessProperties attributes. -->

<!--

<profileService enabled="true"

readAccessProperties="propertyname1,propertyname2"

writeAccessProperties="propertyname1,propertyname2" />

-->

<!--</webServices>

-->

</scripting>

</system.web.extensions>

2: Find modules section, add/updated highlighted after it:

</modules>

</staticContent>

3: Set Debug to false if it is true and set optimizeCompilations=True.

==================================================================

Perform an IISRESET via command prompt.

NOTE:

Please close browser and reopen to see changes in effect.
First load of any page is always slow compared to subsequent loads, so verify and load each page couple of times to see the difference.
After few loads, you will see MachPanel starts to load much faster for portions of the control panel that have been accessed at least once by any customer.

Integrating Web Hosting Services with MachPanel

mudesira.munir — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 05:25:00 GMT

Summary

This articles describes in detail about the integrating MachPanel Automation Module for WebHosting in MachPanel.

Applies To

MachPanel all versions

Pre-Requisites

MachPanel Control Server has been installed, if not then follow below KB article:
http://kb.machsol.com/Knowledgebase/Article/50261

MachPanel Remote Server has been installed, if not then follow below KB article:
http://kb.machsol.com/Knowledgebase/Article/50262

All the required back end servers have been installed e.g IIS, DNS, FTP, Mail Servers etc.

Hosting Panels & Hostmatic Components

Following hosting panel are supported:

Below is the list of services and their providers which MachPanel Automation Module for WebHosting supports:

Web Services
- IIS 6 Server
- IIS 7 Server
- IIS 8 Server
- IIS 10 Server

FTP Services
- Microsoft FTP 6 Server
- Microsoft FTP 7/7.5 Server (Windows 2008 or Windows 2012)
- Microsoft FTP 10 Server (Windows 2016)
- Gene6 FTP Server
- Filezilla FTP Server
Mail Services
- Mail Enable Server
- Merak Mail Server 9.2.1
- Smarter Mail Server 6.x
- Smarter Mail Server 8.x
- SmarterMail 11.x/12.x/13.x
DNS Services
- Microsoft DNS Server
- Simple DNS Plus Server
- Power DNS
Database Services
- SQL Server 2000
- SQL Server 2005
- SQL Server 2008
- SQL Server 2012
- SQL Server 2014
- SQL Server 2016
- MYSQL 5.1 Server
Web Stats
- SmarterStats 4
Protected Folders
- IIS Password

Integrating Plesk in MachPanel

Navigate to Home > Service Director > Web Hosting > Server group and then click Add Server Group.
In Step-1 provide server group name, select provider as "Plesk" and click Next.

In Step-2 provide server information as below and click Finish:
- Plesk Server Name
- Plesk Base URL
- Plesk Login
- Plesk Password
- Plesk Shared IP Address
- Maximum website load
- Current website load

Integrating MachPanel Automation Module for WebHosting in MachPanel

Navigate to Home > Service Director > Web Hosting > Server group and then click Add Server Group.

Enter Server Group name, select Hostmatic Control Server from the Provider drop down list. Then move to next step.

4) Enter the Web Hosting Server Reference ID, IP, local administrator credentials and click Finish.

At this point you have successfully added the Hostmatic Control Server in MachPanel. Now you need to add services in the recently added server. So click on the recently added Hostmatic Control Server group.
You will see the list of Web Hosting Server being added in this Server Group. To add Web Hosting Services in the Hostmatic Server, click Services in the options menu against the desired server. then click on Add Service button.

From the Service drop down menu, select the Service you want to add.

After selecting the service, you will be taken to their respective pages. Fill the required information for the services and save. Add multiple services as per your requirements. Please review following KB article for more details:

http://kb.machsol.com/Knowledgebase/Article/53474

Below is a snapshot of Web, DNS services added in the above Hostmatic Server.

Hit Test Service for each service and if you get below snapshot then integration of that service is successful.

Access Is Denied - http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:786 Asks For Login Password When Opened

zohaib.shaikh — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 04:53:49 GMT

Summary
When accessing the control panel (http://localhost:786) you get a challenge-response login prompt in the web browser windows. Clicking cancel results in following error message.

Error: Access is Denied.

Applies To
MachPanel all versions
IIS 6.0
IIS 7.0

Solution
This problem occurs when the anonymous user is miss-configured for a web site in IIS. You have to set appropriate user and its password in IIS for anonymous user settings. Please follow the steps below:

Step1: Create User MachPanel_Web or Reset Password for MachPanel_Web

Click on Start
Click on Run
Type compmgmt.msc and press Enter / click OK. This will open Computer Management MMC.

In Computer Management MMC:

Under System Tools click on Local Users and Groups.
Click on Users.
Right click on Users and click New User to create new user with name MachPanel_Web.
If user already exists, Reset Password for this user and note current password.

Step2: Set MachPanel_Web as anonymous user

Click on Start
Click on Run
Type inetmgr and press Enter / Click OK. This will open Internet Information Services (IIS) MMC.

For IIS 6.0
In IIS MMC:

Expand your server i.e. PC_Name (local computer).
Click on Web Sites
Right Click and go to Properties for the website named: MachPanel Control Server.
Click on Directory Security Tab.
Click on Edit button for Authentication and access control option.
Check Enable anonymous access.
Enter username MachPanel_Web
Enter current password for user MachPanel_Web.
Check Integrated Windows authentication and click OK twice.

For IIS 7.0
In IIS MMC:

Expand your server i.e. PC_Name (local computer).
Click on Sites
Then go for the website named: MachPanel Control Server.
Double Click on Authentication icon form the Home Menu.
Click on Edit button from the actions and then check the Application Pool identity option.
Click on Application Pools under the PC_Name and go to the pool name:MachPanel Control Server.
Select MP AppPool 2.0 and click on advanced settings from the Edit Application Pool.
In the Process Model, click on the tab on the side of the Identity and select the Custom Account from there.
Enter username MachPanel_Web
Enter current password for user MachPanel_Web.

Configure MachPanel To Run On Port 80 on a Customized URL

zohaib.shaikh — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 00:41:12 GMT

Summary
This article describes HOW TO Configure MachPanel to run on port 80 on a customized URL.

Applies To
MachPanel

Solution
Following steps elaborate, how to configure MachPanel to run on port 80 (instead of 786) on a customized URL. For example: http://cp.webhost.com, where webhost.com is your website name.

Steps

Open MachPanel Configuration Studio. Then go to the following navigation path in MachPanel Configuration Studio: Configure >> Control Panel Website.
Update following settings as per your requirement:

IP Address: Select the IP for the website.

TCP Port: Leave 80 as TCP port.

Host Header Name: Enter your customized URL e.g. http://cp.webhost.com

3. Click on Update Setting button to finalize changes.

You have now configured MachPanel to run on port 80. Open browser, enter http://cp.webhost.com and you should see the login page.