Zen Dzign » Hosting

SimpleScripts and Softaculous Script Installer Plugins Now Available in InterWorx 4.0

Peter Zendzian — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:45:03 +0000

The latest release of InterWorx Hosting Control Panel Version 4.0 now includes plugins for two 3rd party script installer plugins – SimpleScripts, and Softaculous.

These plugins replace the old “ScriptWorx” functionality, for those of you that are familiar with it. However, they do more than just replace the functionality. In addition to just installing scripts like wordpress, magento, etc, these software packages all the end user to also easily upgrade their software when new versions are released.

Are these script installers free?

Yes, and no. It depends on how you want to use them. Both packages have “Free versions” that are either ad-supported or limited in some way. See below for details.

Which script installer should I choose?

You can choose to enable either, or both on your InterWorx servers. You decide based on what makes sense for you and your customers. SimpleScripts is enabled by default.

Why is SimpleScripts enabled by default?

We choose to enable the SimpleScripts plugin by default because we felt that it provided the easiest transition for end users that are used to using ScriptWorx to install scripts.

What are my options if I don’t want myself or my customers to pay anything extra?

Both software packages have free versions, so you don’t have to do anything!

What about my old ScriptWorx installs? Can I import them?

With some scripts, you may be able to import existing script installs into the script installer software packages for management. Check the relevant documentation for details.

How are SimpleScripts and Softaculous different than one another?

As you might expect there are a number of differences. I will cover some of the important differences and similarities here.

User interface
Even though both script installer packages provide similar functionality, they have significantly different user interfaces. See each software package’s website for demonstrations.

Available Scripts
While there is a lot of overlap in script support, there are some differences as well. See the websites linked above for details.

Service Design
SimpleScripts is a “software as a service” solution – when the end user clicks on the SimpleScripts menu item in SiteWorx, they are sent to the simplescripts.com website. Before they get sent there, simplescripts is granted a special FTP user and API access to their SiteWorx account data, and SimpleScripts uses these tools to perform the script installation. Information about what scripts are installed where is maintained on the SimpleScripts servers. No SimpleScripts software is actually installed on the InterWorx server. The SimpleScripts software is updated on the SimpleScripts servers.

The Softaculous software is actually installed and run on each InterWorx server. It gets installed automatically the first time the plugin is enabled. The softaculous software itself is installed under /usr/local/softaculous, and the software packages softaculous can install get placed in /var/softaculous. Softaculous also makes use of the InterWorx API to assist the user with the installs. Softaculous will install a cron job periodically check for new script updates.

Software Administration
With SimpleScripts, you can customize your customer’s interaction with the software by creating your own SimpleScripts “web host account.” This is not required, but it does allow you extra flexibility in managing SimpleScripts on your servers. Resellers also can have the option of using their own SimpleScripts web host account as well. SimpleScripts provides a “host key” and a “host API key”, both of which can be entered in The SimpleScripts portion of NodeWorx.

Softaculous has an administration interface built in that is accessible via NodeWorx, that allows you to configure various options.

InterWorx Hosting Control Panel 4.1.0 Upgrade

Peter Zendzian — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:39:00 +0000

The dedicated team at InterWorx has released Hosting Control Panel 4.1.0.

This is the first release of the 4.x series that will be automatically applied to all current InterWorx servers, versions 3 and higher. All InterWorx servers that have auto-updates enabled can and should receive this update.

This will be an incremental release for servers already running version 4.0.0. For servers running version 3.0, this upgrade will be significant. From version 3 to 4, virtually every aspect of the software has been improved, inside and out.

Special notes for the version 3 to version 4 upgrade

Given the magnitude of this upgrade from version 3 to version 4, there are a few things you should be on the lookout for:

1) Problems accessing InterWorx immediately following the upgrade
IF you or your customers experience any problem logging in or accessing interworx after the upgrade, the first thing to try to fix it is to login as root, and restart interworx with the command

Code:

service iworx restart
service httpd restart

If problems persist after that, please open a support ticket.

2) Problems accessing webmail immediately following the upgrade
IF there are any problems accessing webmail, try the following things first:

Code:

service iworx restart
service httpd restart
~iworx/cron/iworx.pex --fively

If problems persist after that, please open a support ticket.

3) Problems running PHP scripts on client websites
We do not expect there to be significant problems with PHP scripts, but interworx version 4 does provide suphp as an optional server-wide option. In order to provide this feature, the upgrade script will have to make modifications to the clients’ apache virtualhost config files. If these files have been heavily customized, manual intervention may be required.

If needed, backups of the original virtualhost config files will be in /etc/httpd/conf.d/conf_backup/ after the upgrade.

If there are any website problems, first just try restarting the webserver and see if that helps.

As always, any other problems with or questions about this update can be sent via e-mail to support@zzservers.com, or by opening a support ticket via the web at https://www.zzservers.com/support

Understanding PCI Levels and Types

Peter Zendzian — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 13:19:57 +0000

Any merchant who accepts credit cards and has a merchant account must validate compliance. It does not matter if you use a 3rd party processor or if you outsource all of your credit card processing. It’s the ownership of the merchant account that defines if you must validate compliance. The only to avoid PCI compliance is by not having a merchant account. Below are some charts which will help you decide which category and merchant type your business fits into.

Merchant levels and Compliance Validation Requirements

PCI Merchant Levels
Level	Description	Validation Requirements
1	Any merchant, “regardless of acceptance channel, processing over 6,000,000 Visa transactions per year Any merchant that has suffered a hack or an attack that resulted in an account data compromise. Any merchant that Visa, at its sole discretion, determines should meet the Level 1 merchant requirements to minimize risk to the Visa system. Any merchant identified by any other payment card brand as Level 1	Annual Report on Compliance (“ROC”) by Qualified Security Assessor (“QSA”) Quarterly network scan by Approved Scan Vendor (“ASV”) Attestation of Compliance Form
2	Any merchant-regardless of acceptance channel-processing 1,000,000 to 6,000,000 transactions per year	Annual Self-Assessment Questionnaire (“SAQ”) Quarterly network scan by ASV Attestation of Compliance Form
3	Any merchant processing 20,000 to 1,000,000 transactions per year.	Annual SAQ Quarterly network scan by ASV Attestation of Compliance Form
4	Any merchant processing fewer than 20,000 transactions per year.	Annual SAQ recommended Quarterly network scan by ASV if applicable Compliance validation requirements set by acquirer

Merchant Types

The “SAQ” is a self-validation tool for merchants and service providers who are not required to do on-site assessments for PCI DSS compliance. The SAQ includes a series of yes-or-no questions for compliance. If an answer is no, the organization must state the future remediation date and associated actions. In order to align more closely with merchants and their compliance validation process, the SAQ was revised and now allows for flexibility based on the complexity of a particular merchant’s or service provider’s business situation (see chart below). The SAQ validation type does not correlate to the merchant classification or risk level.

Self-Assessment Questionnaires and Validation Types
SAQ ValidationType	Description	SAQ
1	Card-Not-Present (e-commerce or MO/TO) merchants, all cardholder data functions outsourced. This would never apply to face-to-face merchants.	A
2	Imprint-only merchants with no cardholder data storage.	B
3	Standalone dial-up terminal merchants, no cardholder data storage.	B
4	Merchants with payment application systems connected to the Internet, no cardholder data storage.	C
5	All other merchants (not included in descriptions for SAQs A, B or C above), and all service providers defined by a card brand as eligible to complete a SAQ.	D

Service Provider Levels

Service providers are organizations that process, store, or transmit cardholder data on behalf of clients, merchants, or other service providers. Service provider levels are defined as:

Self-Assessment Questionnaires and Validation Types
Service Provider Level	Description	Validation Requirements
1	Processors or any service providers that stores, processes and/or transmits over 300,000 transactions per year.	Annual On-Site PCI Data Security Assessment validated Qualified Security Assessor (“QSA”) Quarterly network scan by Approved Scan Vendor (“ASV”)
2	Any service provider that stores, processes and/or transmits less than 300,000 transactions per year.	Validated by Service Provider Quarterly network scan by Approved Scan Vendor (“ASV”)

By using the charts above, you should be able to easily determine your level and validation type. Knowing this details will go a long way in guiding you through your compliance but it is important to partner with other qualified businesses for your service. ZZ Servers provides PCI focused hosted infrastructure designed for PCI compliance and includes many of controls and measures required for your business infrastructure to be fully compliant.

ZZ Severs now offers InterWorx-CP Servers

Peter Zendzian — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 22:28:09 +0000

ZZ Servers is happy to announce the release of our InterWorx VPS Servers. Interworx is one of the best web hosting server control panels available to day. The InterWorx control panel has a slick interface perfect for managing every aspect of dedicated and VPS servers. It is is set-up in such a way that seasoned dedicated hosting administrators as well as the novice systems admin can appreciate the wide array of features available all within interface that’s easy on the eyes.

To read more about our new InterWorx VPS package visit the InterWorx VPS page where you can see detailed information about InterWorx including screen shots, live demos. Upgrade your server with InterWorx and make managing your server fast and easy.