Ensim / Parallels Pro Services

The previously very popular Ensim Pro control panel was acquired in 2007 by SWsoft, maker of the Plesk control panel. SWsoft shortly after rebranded to Parallels in 2008 and then renamed the Ensim Pro control panel to Parallels Pro.

Unfortunately development of this product was extremely limited following their acquisition and this was declared end of life in December 18th 2012, with no further licences being able to be purchased either. Additionally, Parallels announced that they would no longer accept any further support requests for the product after this date, meaning that any issues with your server can be very problematic.

Thankfully, this is an area that we can provide considerable expertise in and so are in a position to assist you. We are a Parallels Partner and have experience going back to the early development of the Ensim Pro product, in fact we still have staff present who were part of the product development panel and so have an extensive technical knowledge surrounding this product.

As a result we are one fo the few companies who can genuinely offer speciality services surrounding this product and still provide support for any issues that you may experience.

Our services include:

• Initial installation of your Parallels Pro server
• Server security hardening
• Parallels Pro / Ensim Version Upgrades
• Server Migrations - between Parallels servers or to new platforms
• Fault Troubleshooting and rectification

Details of these services are provided below. If you require any custom services, please speak to our support team who will be able to advise you accordingly.

Initial Parallels Pro / Ensim Software Installation

Our highly experienced staff can perform the initial installation & configuration of the Parallels Pro control panel onto your dedicated server so that it is then ready for you to use and gives the peace of mind that the server is correctly set up. We can perform the installation on your server using our own high-speed repositories so as to avoid any potential issues with Parallel's servers being busy at peak times and so slowing down or causing time-out issues whilst downloading packages. This enables us to perform an install & set up your server in as little as 10-15 minutes as opposed to over an hour for a normal installation. We can also support discontinued version installations as well for disaster recovery using this method.

Price: £25 +VAT

Ensim / Parallels Pro Server Security Hardening

Based on our many years experience of running our own extensive Ensim / Parallels Pro based hosting platform, we have a number of bespoke security solutions specifically designed for Ensim / Parallels Pro based dedicated servers or VPS's.

Our server security hardening service removes many of the potential security vulnerabilities inherent with the default configuration of a server and its applications, along with adding in many levels of additional protection to your server.

As well as enhancing security, there are also some operational adjustments to improve reliability and to provide you with more information about the condition of your server. Please do remember though, security hardening is not a one-time process.

Once hardened, your server still requires regular maintenance in the form of software updates and audits of your logs to ensure that it remains secure.

Our security hardening service includes the following:

• Update of your control panel software to the latest release version
• Update of your operating system to include latest patches
• Operating system kernel upgrade
• Installation of mod_security to remove common PHP/SQL injection attacks
• APF (Advanced Policy Firewall) installation & configuration
• BFD (Brute Force Detector) installation & configuration
• SIM (System Integrity Monitor) installation and configuration
• Mail server RBL spam blacklist filtering (Spamcop & Spamhaus)
• Removal / disabling of insecure or unused services, eg Telnet, Anonymous FTP
• DNS server configuration changes and enhancements
• ProFTP server configuration changes and enhancements
• SSH security hardening
• Security hardening of Apache web server
• Rootkit Checks
• NTP time server synchronisation
• Logwatch setup & configuration
• SmartD configuration to monitor hard disks and alert of any issues (if supported)
• MRTG installation (allows monitoring of server performance and highlights issues)
• E-mail notification of server root logins

We would recommend that this service be performed on a clean / new installation of Ensim / Parallels Pro as this is designed to be a preventative service, however it can still equally be performed on any server at any time.

Price: £49 + VAT

Ensim / Parallels Pro Version Upgrades

If you're running older version of Ensim / Parallels Pro then we can upgrade this to the latest version if required. Depending on your current version and what customisations have been performed, this needs to be assessed and priced on a per-server basis. We offer free estimates for this work, outlining what is required, what the implications are and any costs involved.

Prices from: £20 + VAT

Server Migrations

Our staff are very experienced with the migration of accounts between servers. Whether you're upgrading to a newer, faster server or switching between control panels or even server providers, our staff are able to provide the services you require to ensure a smooth transition with as little disruption to your clients as possible.

Price: Quoted on individual basis

Fault Troubleshooting & Rectification

You can never predict when a fault will occur on your server, which is why our server management staff are on hand to help you out when things go wrong. We can deal with issues ranging from small configuration issues and changes to servers that are failing or have failed and you need to get them back online again.

Price: £45 +VAT / hour