Windows users

[LeaUK]

After trawling through the forums and FAQs the only think I'm a little concerned over is what appears to be lack of general support from the Windows community.

 

Of course I understand that CPanel is THE *nix panel and that nix is still greater in popularity, but coming from the Windoz world (running Plesk) I'm a little nervous.

 

For example, Cron - no talk of configuring the Task Scheduler in *doz, not even anything in the Manual.

 

 

I've seen Database backup scripts for *nix but can this lso be achieved on *doz?

 

I love the look and feel of WHM but am a little wary, so wondered if anyone can shine some light and provide a little confidence/guidance?

 

Many thanks

Lea

[CSNM-Carl]

Hello LeaUK,

 

We run WHMCS on Windows Servers, it all works fine.

 

Simply set-up a scheduled task to run at midnight:

http://yourwhmcs.com/clients/admin/cron.php

 

We don't make use of the database backups as we handle backups differently.

[LeaUK]

Ah, that's a simple answer - there I was thinking this Cron thing was difficult!

 

Cheers

 

Don't suppose anyone knows how to get blasted Ioncube running on a Plesk Windows server by anychance....3 hours of hair pulling and PHP still fails to recognise the extension

 

I've tried everything... changing the position in the ini file - yes I am amending the correct ini - I've commented out other modules and restarted IIS and yes they disappear fine so I can prove I'm editing and restarting IIS OK.

 

BUt yet still no ioncube - it's REALLY putting me off and I know it's not WHMs issue but the manual just doesn't cater for Win users or those running Win CPs, which is a real shame...

 

I've Googled and tried EVERY suggestion I can (BTW I have root access to my servers).

 

Any help would of course be most welcomed.

Lea

[Matt]

You would need to get the Windows version of the loaders if you haven't already done so - the ones included with WHMCS are for linux only

 

http://www.ioncube.com/loaders.php

 

Matt

[cibertec]

I'm currently running Windows 2003 Server with Plesk 8. I had the same problem when I first installed WHMCS, I downloaded the windows ioncube loaders and put them in each directory. I ended up going to c:\windows\ini.php and turning global_registars = on

 

As soon as I did that everything worked fine.

 

Hope this helps or just PM if you have any more questions with Plesk.

[joe123]

the loader has a readme file which explains exactly what to do .

[LeaUK]

cibertec

 

Ah, GREAT I haven't chance to try until later but you could be my saviour. And yes I've used the windows driver, read the instructions, run phpinfo(), amended the correct php.ini file, read the instructions again, used the ioncobe php scripts to help (they didn't) and they DON'T deal with this issue otherwise maybe I would have solved this yonks ago.

 

[PPH]

If you use a custom .ini file within your install, they have to be reloaded in it also as we have found them to drop off if not.

[LeaUK]

global_registers = on made no difference.

 

First things first - I should be see able to see 'ioncube' somewhere after a call to phpinfo() shouldn't I? Would be slighly amusing if it's not supposed to show and I keep looking for it.

 

Also, where would a custom ini file likely to live?

 

phpinfo() reports ini file location at c:\windows\php.ini so this is the file I've added:

 

 

;Windows Extensions

;Note that MySQL and ODBC support is now built in, so no dll is needed for it.

;

 

; added by LR to support ioncube encrypted php files (WMH billing)

zend_extension_ts=ioncube_loader_win_4.4.dll

 

;extension=php_mbstring.dll

 

I've placed this dll into:

 

C:\Program Files\SWsoft\Plesk\admin\modules

and

C:\Program Files\SWsoft\Plesk\Additional\Php\extensions

 

to be on the safe side - yet still nothing

 

extension_dir = C:\Program Files\SWsoft\Plesk\Additional\Php\extensions

 

THis is turning into a tuffy. Maybe off to ioncub's forums to see if anyone there can help?

 

Cheers all and if anyone's got some further pointers would love to hear them - I just want to install my trial WHM

[LeaUK]

George

 

Can you explain a little further about the 'custom' ini file.

 

Thanks

Lea

[PPH]

If you have another php.ini in any folder that you try to run php in, it seems to drop the zend and ioncube loaders. If you don't have a php.ini file in any of the folders in whmcs then you don't have to worry about it.

 

The ioncube loaders show up in the zend optimizer box I believe in your info.php call. Are you showing zend installed?

[LeaUK]

ioncube support has resolved the issue, here's some help for Windows IIS users struggling to load the ioncube loader:

 

As we’re using IIS we cannot use the run time selection and the php.ini file has to be modified.

 

 

1. Download Windows ioncube drivers from ioncube.com and place dlls in an IIS 'trusted location - ie c:\windows\ioncube

 

2. Ensure quotes are used in the correct php.ini ie

zend_extension_ts="C:\WINDOWS\ioncube\ioncube_loader_win_4.4.dll"

 

3. Reboot IIS (net stop w3svc then net start w3svc)

 

4. Copy the 'ioncube-loader-helper.php' and 'ioncube-encoded-file.php' PHP scripts (found within the

ioncube download package) to a directory where you expect the encoded files to be working.

 

Access the 'ioncube-loader-helper.php' script from a web server

 

5. It should report all ok - if not, choose the 'modify PHP.ini' option and it will provide some help.

 

Generally problems are resolved by ensuring modification of the correct php.ini file and by placing the ioncube windows dlls beneath c:\windows\ioncube

 

6. If you're still experiencing problems create a test.php file with the following within:

 

<?php

phpinfo();

?>

 

upload to the web server and call the script from a browser. Check the path to php.ini and that you're editing the correct php.ini

 

check the ioncube loaders have successfully loaded by scrolling down to 'additional modules' – they should be listed.

 

7. If you still cannot resolve the issue raise a support ticket with ioncube.com -as these are very helpful guys - thanks to Nick for resolving my issue.

 

 

 

BTW - global_registers do NOT need to be switched on

 

 

Thanks George. For your information, the zend credits box just before the PHP credits graphic is showing fine.

 

The ioncube loaders show up in the 'additional modules' section of phpinfo()

 

Now onto the exciting task of actually being able to evaluate WHM!

 

Suggestions as a result:

 

1. Update to manual to help us poor Windows IIS users

 

Maybe this post can be converted to a sticky to help other prospective WHM customers with dedicated server installs? You could be loosing custom. I persevered but others may not?

 

Hope this helps someone else in the future

Lea

[cibertec]

Thanks for the update LeaUk. I'm going to try the iocube loaders like you explained because I really don't like global_registers on. I had the iocubes just in the root of C: so that could have been my problem. I will give it try and update to this post. Everything has been working fine with my Plesk and WHMCS has been doing great.

[LeaUK]

Hi cibertec

 

Don't suppose you can recommend a gateway that supports transactional changes only and not an additional monthly charge by any chance?

 

I'm looking at Paypal Standard/Pro (pro cost 20/month) albeit not expensive I'm keen to keep monthly costs to an absolute min. Unfortunately Matt informs me that both are not supported WHMCS

 

Cheers

Lea

[cibertec]

LeaUk sorry I have an Authorize.net account which charges monthly. Have you tried Google Checkout I think its free for this year. The only ones I know is PayPal and Google Checkout but I didn't like the fact that it takes customers to their sites so thats why I got an Authorize.net account. My customers don't have to go to another site they just stay at mine. I'm in the US but you may want to ask some of the UK customers out there.

 

Wes

[LeaUK]

Hi Wes

 

Unfortunately Google checkout isn't actually free as you receive credits for checkout services based on your Adwords credit - rather sneaky!

 

Best I investigate all those that can be integrated with WHM.

 

Cheers

Lea