Copyright (c) 2011 by Parallels
This tool will analyze your Helm 3 installation and report Plesk incompatibilities.
Migration has some known issues and limitations, please read this document before starting compatibility check.
There are some differences in the structure within domain directory:
Following items are not migrated for forwarding domains:
Following limitations are caused by differences between Helm and Plesk.
Plesk supports FTP accounts and databases for subscription, not individual domains.
Helm allows to set PHP4 and PHP5 limits independently, but Plesk only allows either to fix PHP version (without ability to turn it off) or give user to choose/disable PHP version.
PHP version selection will be allowed in Plesk if at least one of PHP4 and PHP5 limits in Helm is non-zero.
Similar to PHP4/PHP5 limits merging.
Some limits in Helm 3 (like "number of Perl installations") are permissions in Plesk ("enable/disable Perl").
See Helm 3 to Plesk Migration Guide for complete list of Helm 3 limits and corresponding Plesk settings.Helm resellers can specify DNS template which will propagate to their users. Plesk has no such feature.
DNS records from template will be merged into user's DNS records.
Demo accounts (whose name starts with 'DEMO' in Helm) are not supported by Plesk and will not be migrated.
Plesk doesn't support this database type.
Database user password doesn't satisfy to Plesk requirements and will be changed.
Special characters will be replaced with underscore, too short password will be extended. If new password is not secure, it will be replaced with autogenerated one. In this case you have to change password for this account manually after migration.
Length of the name of the state should not exceed 50 characters. For US and CA individually checked the existence of the state.
Zip code for US accept format "****" or "*****-****". For other countries, it should not exceed 10 characters.
Fax number can contain only numbers amd symbols '()-+., '. Fax should be no longer than 60 symbols.
Address should be no longer than 255 symbols
Phone should be no longer than 60 symbols
Company name should be no longer than 255 symbols
City name should be no longer than 50 symbols
User name must start with a letter and contain only "A-Za-z0-9_-". If it starts with a number, '-' or '_' then name will be prefixed with "u" character. If name doesn't contain valid characters then new user name prefixed with "dbuser" is generated.
Plesk doesn't support MS Access database type so database will not appear in databases list after migration. However database file (*.mdb) will be migrated as part of private site content. You may use it directly from your applications or create ODBC DSN for it. If you already have ODBC DSN record for this database in Helm it will be migrated to Plesk.
Forwarding domain will be migrated, but flags will be lost.
Plesk supports only one catch-all address per domain.
Plesk don't support addons for reseller plans. If Helm reseller has extra features purchased then his plan is merged with extra features and this new plan is assigned to reseller.
Reseller has purchased some extra features but limits or permissions from these extra features have no corresponding limits/permissions in Plesk. Extra packages will be completely ignored and no custom plan will be created.
See also Plesk doesn't have addons (extra features) for resellers.
Extra feature affects limit or permission which is not migrated to Plesk. Extra feature will be skipped.
Helm allows to set quantity during extra feature purchase. Plesk allows only one instance of addon per subscription. Migrator overcomes this restriction by creating separate addon for each purchased quantity.
Additional package domain was created in Plesk so the maximum domain limit was increased for the subscription.
Plesk doesn't support virtual directories which redirect to URLs, so such directories are not migrated.
Helm stores web settings for forwarding domains. So you may turn domain with hosting into forwarding domain and then back without loosing web settings. Plesk doesn't store web settings for forwarding domains so they will be lost.
Plesk uses single IP for all domains in subscription so migrator has to change domain IP sometimes.
Migrator uses following algorithm to choose IP for subscription:
This is warning, no action is required.
Plesk doesn't support ODBC for text files. However text files will be migrated as part of domain private content.
Plesk's rules for naming customers are stricter than Helm's ones:
This may lead to changing user names during migration. Following algorithm is used:
Note that user name may change even if it is valid in Plesk. For example, if there are two users in Helm named ".Alex" and "Alex", than first one will be renamed to "Alex" and second one to "Alex_2". Users are ordered by signup date during conflict resolution, so adding new users in Helm will not change generated names for already existing users. This will help you to perform selective migration.
Plesk's rules for naming FTP account names are stricter than Helm's ones.
See description of User name limitation for algorithm used to make names valid and resolve conflicts.
Full-text objects from database will not be migrated.
MSSQL database doesn't allow to get definition of encrypted entities.
Unlike Helm Plesk doesn't support user groups for secured folders. Groups will not be migrated. However, group users will be migrated and assigned to the correct folders.
Plesk's naming rules for secure folder users are much stricter then Helm's. Plesk allows only letters, digits, dots, dashes and underscores. All nonconforming users will be renamed during migration.
Helm stores passwords for secure folder users as hashes, while Plesk requires plain text. Migrator will reset passwords for secure folder users.
Some secure folders have names allowed by Helm but rejected by Plesk, e.g. name starting with dot. Content of such folders will be migrated, but they won't be protected by password. Site will be suspended to prevent unauthorized access to secure folder content.
Please rename and protect folders manually before resuming site.
Some secure folders weren't migrated due to invalid name (see corresponding limitation). Site will be suspended to prevent unauthorized access to secure folder content.
Helm account password doesn't satisfy to Plesk requirements and will be changed.
Special characters will be replaced with underscore, too short password will be extended. If new password is not secure, it will be replaced with autogenerated one. In this case you have to change password for this account manually after migration.
FTP account password will be changed to satisfy Plesk requirements.
See Password doesn't satisfy to Plesk requirements for detail.
You can set specific days of month or specific days of week but not both for Plesk cron task.
"Days of month" field will be set to 'every day' after migration.
Additional admin accounts can be created in both Helm and Plesk, but Plesk doesn't support their migration. This may be fixed in future versions of Plesk.
Mail content can't be migrated from your mail service.
Mail services supported by both Helm and Plesk:
Mail services Plesk supports migration from:
Mail services not supported by migrator:
Migrator can't find primary DNS service for domain. Custom DNS records will not be migrated.
Plesk doesn't allow to have 'CNAME' and 'A' records with the same name. 'A' record won't be migrated.
If you have shared SSL configured in Helm, shared SSL domain will be migrated, but you have to set up it's IP and certificate manually after migration.
This issue is caused by bug in Plesk and will be fixed in the future.
Plesk allows only one Shared SSL domain. One Shared SSL domain from Helm will be migrated into Plesk's Shared SSL domain, others will be converted into domain which just forward requests to main Shared SSL domain. In order for forwarding to work you have to manually enable HTTPS forwarding for these domains in IIS manager.
This issue is reported for every domain affected by Shared SSL limitation. Requests from old HTTPS address will be redirected to another domain.
ODBC DSN type is not supported by migration tool.
While web scheduler tasks are migrated, they are not functional because Plesk expects script and not an URL.
Some migrator components can't be found. Plesk Migration Agent should be installed on every mail server.
Use instruction at http://kb.parallels.com/en/111820 to install Plesk migration agent with Helm 3 support.
You have to specify SSL folder name in web service settings In order to migrate domains with shared SSL.
Solution: add shared IP to web server.
ODBC DSN record references database which doesn't exists anymore. DSN will not be migrated.
External tool used by Helm migrator to migrate mail content has failed for unknown reason. Look at tool output provided in error message.
Helm doesn't manage Shared SSL domains, administrator has to create them manually and set their name in service settings. Thus Shared SSL domains in Helm do not use IP addresses from Helm pool.
In contrast, Plesk manages domains used for Shared SSL. Migrator will create these domains for you, but it needs free IP to use.
Add IP address to Helm pool.
Migration tool requires access to every server of multi-server Helm installation in order to perform migration. Start Helm compatibility checker and Plesk migration agent under Helm system account.
Ensure that domain directory exists and access to it is permitted to user performing migration.
Helm domain uses Shared SSL service, but references Shared SSL domain is not found.
Possible causes:
Empty subscriptions are not supported by Plesk, empty packages are migrated into subscription with generated domain name. This subscription requires IP address to use. Helm system should contain at least one shared IP.
See details in provided error message.
This error may arise during migration of mail content from remote server. It won't be shown by compatibility checker tool, because tool doesn't perform actual mail migration.
Error is caused by network misconfiguration. Please check that fully qualified machine name of Helm CP server is resolved to proper IP address from each remote server.
Helm allows complex rules for task schedules, like '2-4,8' or '*/4,3'. Migrator tries to parse them, but may fail. Report error to Parallels.
Task will be migrated, but it's schedule will be reset and task will be disabled.
In order to migrate content of MS SQL databases migrator requires SQL Server Management Objects software to be installed on machine.
Download and install software version corresponding to your operating system from Microsoft site.
The plan is not selected for the package. Please choose for the package plan in the GUI.
Database content will not be migrated. Ensure that there is a connection to the database and database is consistent.