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On the user side, H-Sphere operates with three tiers:
- users
- accounts
- domains
Users
A user is, for the most part, nothing
but a login and password to enter H-Sphere control panel. One
user can have many accounts created under different
plans and platforms, and
switch between them without having to log in every time.
For example, a user can have an account under a Unix
plan for SSH access and an account under a Windows plan for ODBC and ColdFusion hosting.
Accounts
H-Sphere primarily operates with accounts, not users.
One account, also referred to as CP account, can be defined as an instance of a plan.
One account regardless of its type (admininstrative, reseller, reseller administrative or user),
requires one license. Once an account is deleted, the license gets released and can be taken by new accounts.
One user can have many accounts
created under different plans and platforms, and switch between them without having to log in every time.
For example, an owner of a Unix account and a Windows account under the same username will use two H-Sphere licenses.
The unique thing about each account is not username, but a numeric account ID.
The four account types are:
| Account Type |
Variations |
Main Functions |
Created |
FTP home directory |
| Administrative |
main admin |
- allows H-Sphere owner to administer the entire hosting system |
with administrative plan |
N/A |
| tech support |
- allows H-Sphere owner's support staff to manage/answer trouble tickets from customers |
| Reseller |
N/A |
- represents reseller as a user to the system and distributor of parent host resources
- allows reseller to create reseller administrative account
|
with reseller plan |
N/A |
| Reseller Administrative |
admin |
- represents reseller as an administrator to their customers
- allows reseller to distribute parent host resources grouped into plans to their customers at retail prices |
from reseller account CP |
N/A |
| tech support |
- allows reseller's support staff to manage/answer trouble tickets from customers |
from reseller administrative CP with
administrative plan |
N/A |
| User |
customer |
- provides H-Sphere owner and resellers with a 'medium' to distribute hosting services to customers
- allows customers to manage their sites |
with
user plans |
YES
|
| service |
- allows H-Sphere owner and resellers to manage their promotional corporate sites |
Multiple Accounts
Depending on account's plan permissions
its owner can create other accounts of the following types under the same login:
| User's Original Account Type |
Accounts that User Can Add Under the Same Login |
| administrative |
- administrative
- user |
| reseller |
- user
- admininstrative |
| reseller administrative |
- reseller administrative
- user |
| user |
- administrative (valid only for parent host's users)
- reseller (valid only for parent host's users)
- reseller adminintrative (valid only for reseller's users)
- user
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Generally, a user with several accounts can:
* login to different accounts with one login/password
* switch between accounts without logging in every time
* have accounts under different plans and platforms
* use the same billing and contact information for different accounts (optional)
In order to create a new account under the same user:
- Select Add Account in the User menu. You will be taken to the signup page.
- Follow the signup process. Note that the system suggests the contact information
previously entered for the first account created under this user.
To switch between accounts within the same user:
- Select Choose Account in the User menu.
- Click the Select icon to log into the selected account.
Domains
Domains represent the third tier in the end-user side hierarchy.
Your customers can have as many domains as they want under their one control
panel license, unless you limit
the domains they can have. In terms of
a web server, a domain is little more than a correspondence to a web-site.
Domains within one account share one control panel (one menu tree with the
same look and feel), and, having no traffic usage or disk quota of their own,
are billed in bulk with the same invoices.
It is not recommended to run more than thirty or forty domains
on one account, because some pages of the user control panel may become
very slow or even time out when displaying the entire list of domains.
To provide registration and maintenance of the following domain types from
user accounts make sure
service DNS zone is registered,
instant alias template is created
.
| Domain Type |
Explanation |
| second-level |
new standard domains registered
with a domain registrar
Important: In addition to the above requirements, make sure
domain registrar is configured.
|
| transfered |
existing domains transfered onto one of your H-Sphere's IP |
| third-level |
new domains created based on the hosting company's service domain,
e.g.user-domain.service-domain.com |
| stopgap |
not an actual domain, just FTP service; the site can be accessed
from the Internet by an
instant domain alias or dedicated IP |
| parked |
domain hosted elsewhere; a DNS zone mapping this domain
to the IP of the server where your site is hosted. |
| service |
domain to:
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To offer registration and maintenance of any of the above domain types,
include the corresponding resource in the account's
plan creation/edit wizard.
 (in 2.5.1 Beta 3) To delete domains of a user:
- Find the account by domain name
- Click the Trash icon next to the domain you want to delete
- On the page that appears, chose the Delete domain option
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