Installation Guide: Step by Step Approach

Please follow the following steps to perform a successfully installation of hosting controller

1. Double click the hc.exe to run the self extracting .EXE file, the setup will unzip the installation files and will run the installer. At any level of installation you can click back and alter your previous settings.

2. In the first information dialog click Next.
   Next you are displayed the license agreement, please read the license agreement carefully before proceeding, If you do not agree with the terms of the license agreement please cancel the setup. If you agree to the terms click Next.

3. In the Customer Information dialog supply your name and your company name, in the serial number box please enter the serial number for the software, if you have not purchase the software yet, you can do it online at www.siamasp.com, you will be given a serial number online as soon as you make the purchase. If you want to install the software for evaluation purpose please leave DEMO in the serial number, in this case a message will be displayed in the top frame of HC Control Panel indicating the trial mode, the trial version will expire after 30 days of installation
   
   

4. In the Destination location dialog please select the location where you want to install HC, the path can be on any portion of your hard disk. click Next.

5. In Setup Types option please select the type of installation you want, the preferred option is typical which will install all the required files to your system. To custom install the setup you can choose the custom option. click Next

6. In Start Menu option select the name with which HC should create the startup links in your Start menu. click Next

7. In the Root Setup Path dialog, please select the location where you want the whole domain setup folders to be created. HC will create FTP roots of all new domains created with HC under this root. This root is considered the default root of the host and all the reseller and web admin folders are created under this path. You can keep this path on any portion of your hard disk. You can change this path later on by using the settings (settings.exe) utility. The new path will apply to all domains created under the reseller, which is created under the new path. For reseller created under the old path this new settings will not apply, as the web admin root is created under the reseller folders. click Next
   
   

8. During Setup, in the Server Option dialogue, select the servers you want hosting controller to manage. The servers should be installed before hand in order to configure HC to manage it, if the server is not already installed you don't need to select it. You may select the server later using provided utility (settings.exe). click Next
   List of supported servers
   
   
    

9. In Remote Server Options dialog, you can choose if the Mail and DNS servers are on remote system or not. If you choose any of them to be on the remote system, then you need to install the HC Secondary Setup  (download) on the server, which you choose to be the secondary server.
   If you choose the remote server option then you will be displayed the Remote Server Entries option specify the IP Address of the remote servers. Please provide the following information.

• Remote Mail server IP Address (if selected)

• Remote DNS Server IP Address (if selected)

10. If you do not choose the Mail on remote system (In step IX), then you will be displayed the Mail Server options dialog. Currently four mail servers are supported you can choose the mail server installed on your system to give the required information about the mail server.

• For IMail / Post.Office, you need to give the Port which IMail web server is using.

• For MailMax, you need to give the virtual directory for the web based interface of MailMax.  

• For VOPMail, you have to give VOPMail box type.

All the above selections and settings can also be made after installation is complete through settings utility (settings.exe) provided. Setting Mail Server section in Configure HC part guides in detail about Mail settings, visit that section later.

On clicking Next, If you have selected the stats server option in step VIII, you need to supply the following information

Stat server admin name and password: The name and password you provided for administration login during stat server Setup, e.g StatsAdmin:StatsPassword
Server Address:Port : The IP address on which you have installed the stats server and the port on which it is running, e.g. 175.210.132.19:8080
Installation Path: The path on which stats server is installed

If you also selected to use the Serv-U as your default FTP server in step VIII, then you need to give the path of the Serv-U ini file by the name of Serv-U.ini, this ini file is located in the root folder of where you have installed the stats server, click Next.

If you have not chosen the DNS on remote server in step IX, then you will be displayed the option to choose the DNS server type (supported DNS) . Once you select the type of DNS server you want hosting controller to manage you need to provide the following information to be used by HC to generate the zone files.

In the DNS Entries dialog

NS1: means the Name Server one for the domains
NS2: is the Name Server two for the domains
AdminMail: is the mail address of the person that will be authoritative for the domain.

click Next

All the above selections and settings can also be made after installation is complete through settings utility (settings.exe) provided. Setting DNS Server section in Configure HC part guides in detail about Mail settings, visit that section later.

11. In IPLess domain IP dialog, you need to provide an IP Address that will be used by HC to create IPLess domains, this IP can be in use by one site on IP Specific concept. This IP Address can then later be altered by using the settings utility
    
    

12. Setup will then start copying files, after copying you will be displayed the dialog Virtual directory configuration to give the server name and the Virtual directory for HC.
    
    

In HostServer change the localhost to the name of your server e.g. NS1 etc what ever is the name of your machine, this will allow HC to create correct link for the hosting controller start up in the start menu, even when localhost is disabled. In the Virtual Direc name enter the name of the Virtual directory by which you will reference HC. The virtual directory will be created on the default web site.

14. You will then be displayed a dialog to choose the default user name and password for HC, this user will become the default user for HC , also specify the name you want to use for database connection to HC database, this is meant for security purpose so that each customer can have his own default username/password for HC ,and a unique ODBC connection string to connect to HC database.
    
    
    
     

15. At the end you must start the Hosting Controller Service using the HC service manager dialog box, or the System Service manager, you can click hide to minimize the service control dialog to system tray or cancel it to close the dialog, the service will keep on running.

Hosting Controller setup doesn't require to reboot the system, but if you are upgrading or uninstalling HC, setup might require to reboot the system to free up locked DLLs. You may avoid system reboot by restarting World Wide Web Service before starting the setup.

 Clients reinstalling or upgrading from previous version to new version of HC must backup their old database files in order to save their old settings, accounts and sites. After the new files have been copied you must copy back the old setup file to the new location in database folder. If you are using SQL database, then backup is not required.