Table of contents
- Log in to Plesk from your Cloud Matrix Client Area.
- Log in to Plesk directly, using the URL of your hosting server.
Plesk is one of the most versatile, and stable web hosting control panels available to shared hosting customers today.
With Plesk you have access to a range of hosting environment tools; a file manager, DNS editor, PHP settings manager, email account and spam filter manager, and so much more.
This quick tutorial outlines the different ways that you can access your Plesk web hosting control panel, to manage any aspect of your sites environment.
How to log in to Plesk control panel through the Client Area (Beginner)
Step 1: First, log in to the Cloud Matrix client area using the 'Login' button at the top right hand side of the cloudmatrix.co.za website.
Note: If you don't know your login details, it will be your billing email address, and there is a 'Password Reset' option available underneath the 'Login' button.
Step 2: From the Client Area Dashboard, click on the 'Services' tile.
Note: Alternatively, you can also access the 'My Services' page from the 'Services' drop down menu item.
Step 3: Find the relevant website hosting plan from the list, and click anywhere in the highlighted tile area.
Note: Do not click on the domain name itself, as this will only open the website URL.
Note: The zero price displayed in the image is for informational purposes only, and is not the actual price of the product for customers / clients.
Step 4: Click on the 'Log in to Plesk' button from the 'Actions' section located in the left-hand sidebar
Note: Alternatively, you can access some of the most used Plesk features directly from the 'Quick Shortcuts' a little further down the current services management page.
Conclusion: You should now see a new window popup. That's it! you should now be logged into Plesk for the subscription you selected.
Why not select the 'Take the tour' option to learn the ropes :)
If you get stuck, simply reach out to us via the website hosting support channels, and we'll guide you through the process.
How to login to Plesk directly (Advanced).
Each shared website hosting subscription with Cloud Matrix, comes with some form of control panel access, which can be accessed through a browser. Some of the more popular control panels include; Plesk, cPanel, and our personal favorite, ISPConfig.
In this case, we are logging into Plesk control panel, directly from a web browser, either using the websites domain name, the IP address, or the hostname of the shared server, within which your hosting subscription is provisioned.
The Plesk IP address, URL, and hostname for your subscription will be sent to you via email as soon as you have signed up for a hosting package. In case you can't find the email, and you need these details, you can contact support, or you can try one of the following methods for obtaining the login link to your Plesk control panel.
This portion of the article covers:
Log in to Plesk using your website's domain name.
This is the simplest method for accessing Plesk control panel for your website. Simply;
Step 1: Open your website browser (Tip: Firefox is the best),
Step 2: Point your URL / Address bar to https://[yourdomain].[tld]:8443/
Note: [yourdomain] is the name of your domain, such as 'example' in example.com.
The [tld] is the 'top level domain' portion of your domain, which would be something like, .com, .co.za etc.
You will see a warning message, 'Warning: Potential Security Risk Ahead'. This is to be expected, as the SSL certificate will be for the Plesk server address, rather than for your domain.
Note: An astute user will realize that the SSL certificate contains the hostname of the server, and can be used in place of the individual domain name, to avoid the SSL security warning ;)
Step 3: Click on the 'Advanced' button, then
Step 4: Click on the 'Accept the Risk and Continue' button.
You will be greeted with the Plesk login page for your subscription, and you will need to input the username or email address, as well as the password for you Plesk user (sent to you when you first signed up).
If you don't know the username or password, attempt a password reset using the 'Forgot your password?' link, or contact support. Your email address is normally the same as your billing / administrative email with Cloud Matrix, but it may differ.
It's as easy as that! You'll now be logged in to the Plesk dashboard for your website.
If you have more than one hosting package with us, it's very likely that you will see them all in one dashboard.
Log in to Plesk using your IP address
This process is exactly the same as the above process 'Log in to Plesk using your domain', except instead of the domain name, you would use the IP address of your hosting account as follows:
https://[your_IP_address]:8443/
Something very cool happens here, i.e. the login form will actually give you the hostname of the server, so that you can avoid the SSL security warning mentioned above.
Continue to login as outlined above. You will get your IP address from the sign up email, or by contacting the support department, or you may try one of the methods outlined in the following tutorial;
"How to find the IP address of your website or domain name".
In most cases, the IP address of your website will be the same as the IP of your control panel.
That's it.
Conclusion
The two main ways to access Plesk have been outlined in the above tutorial, specifically; from the client area, or directly through your browser, by pointing to either the domain, the IP address, or the hostname of the Plesk server, that holds your website hosting plan.
Normally, these details are sent to your admin email when you sign up for a new hosting plan with us, although any one of our support agents will help you get access, should you get stuck.
