Deploy a Plesk hosting stack on Lightsail - Amazon Lightsail
Step 1: Create a Plesk instanceStep 2: Sign in to the Plesk User Interface for the first timeStep 3: Read the Plesk documentationStep 4: Attach a static IP address to your Plesk instanceStep 5: Map your domain name to your Plesk instanceStep 6: Purchase a Plesk licenseStep 7: Create a snapshot of your Plesk instance

Deploy a Plesk hosting stack on Lightsail

Learn how to create a Plesk instance in Amazon Lightsail, and how to sign in to the Plesk User Interface for the first time by creating a username and password. You will also learn how to how to connect to and configure your Plesk instance after it is up and running.

Important

Your Plesk instance includes a 30-day trial license. After 30 days, you must purchase a license from Plesk to continue using the Plesk application.

Plesk hosting stacks in Lightsail include the following features.

  • WordPress Toolkit, featuring automation in a graphical user interface

  • Let's Encrypt support for SSL certificates and configuring encrypted (HTTPS) traffic on a single instance

  • FTP access to transfer files to and from your instance

  • Docker Proxy Rules

  • Web-based server management and security tools, including Plesk Firewall, Logs, and ModSecurity

Step 1: Create a Plesk instance

Complete the following steps to create a Plesk instance on Lightsail.

  1. Sign in to the Lightsail console at https://lightsail.aws.amazon.com/.

  2. On the Instances home page, choose Create instance.

  3. Choose the location where you want to create your instance.

    Choose Change AWS Region and Availability Zone to change your instance location.

  4. Under Apps + OS, choose Plesk Hosting Stack on Ubuntu.

  5. Choose your instance plan. The $5 USD per month Lightsail plan does not support the Plesk hosting stack.

  6. Enter a name for your instance.

    Resource names:

    • Must be unique within each AWS Region in your Lightsail account.

    • Must contain 2 to 255 characters.

    • Must start and end with an alphanumeric character or number.

    • Can include alphanumeric characters, numbers, periods, dashes, and underscores.

  7. (Optional) Add tags to your instance. For more information, see Tags.

  8. Choose Create instance.

    The instance requires a few minutes to provision and become available after you create it.

If you experience issues after launching your Plesk instance, go to the Plesk support page to see if there are updates that need to be installed on the instance. For more information, see the Plesk help center and Plesk Updates in the Plesk Documentation and Help Portal.

Step 2: Sign in to the Plesk User Interface for the first time

Use the following procedure to obtain a one-time login URL. You need the one-time login URL to access the Plesk User Interface as an administrator.

  1. On your instance management page, under the Connect tab, choose Connect using SSH.

  2. After you're connected, enter the following command to get the one-time login URL.

    sudo plesk login | grep -v internal:8

    You should see a response similar to the following example, which contains the one-time login URL.

    https://heuristic-bassi.192-0-2-0.plesk.page/login?secret=ce-e3b0c44298fc1c149afbf4c8996fb92427
    Tip

    If you recently attached a static IP to your Plesk instance, you might get a one-time login URL that uses the old public IP address. Reboot the instance, and then run the above command again to get a one-time login URL that uses the new static, public IP address.

  3. Copy and paste the one-time login URL into a web browser.

    Note

    You might see a browser warning that your connection is not private, not secure, or that there’s a security risk. This happens because your Plesk instance does not yet have an SSL/TLS certificate applied to it. In the browser window, choose Advanced, Details, or More information to view the options that are available. Then choose to proceed to the website even if it’s not private or secure.

  4. Follow the instructions on the page to create your sign in credentials for Plesk. You should see an option to add your domain to Plesk when you sign in for the first time.

To sign in again later, navigate to https://PublicIPAddress:8443. Replace PublicIPAddress with the public IP address or static IP address of your instance. For example, https://192.0.2.0/:8443. Then enter the username and password you created earlier to sign in to the Plesk User Interface.

Step 3: Read the Plesk documentation

Read the Plesk documentation to learn how to administer websites, customize the Plesk User Interface, and more.

For more information, see the Getting Started with Managing Websites in Plesk in the Plesk Documentation and Help Portal.

Step 4: Attach a static IP address to your Plesk instance

The default dynamic public IP address attached to your instance changes every time you stop and start the instance. Create a static IP address, and attach it to your instance, to keep the public IP address from changing. Later, when you use your domain name with your instance, you don’t have to update your domain’s DNS records each time you stop and start the instance. You can attach one static IP to an instance.

On your instance management page, under the Networking tab, choose Attach static IP, then follow the instructions on the page.

For more information, see Create a static IP and attach it to an instance.

Step 5: Map your domain name to your Plesk instance

Map a domain to your Plesk instance, which you can use to access your Plesk User Interface. You can also map multiple domains within the Plesk User Interface, which you can use to manage websites. This section describes how to map your domain to your Plesk instance. For more information about mapping multiple domains within the Plesk User Interface, see Adding a Domain in Plesk in the Plesk Documentation and Help Portal.

To map your domain name, such as example.com, to your instance, you add a record to the domain name system (DNS) of your domain. DNS records are typically managed and hosted at the registrar where you registered your domain. However, we recommend that you transfer management of your domain's DNS records to Lightsail so that you can administer it using the Lightsail console.

On the Lightsail console home page, on Domains & DNS, choose Create DNS zone, then follow the instructions on the page.

For more information, see Creating a DNS zone to manage your domain’s DNS records in Lightsail.

Step 6: Purchase a Plesk license

Your Plesk instance includes a 30-day trial license. After 30 days, you must purchase a license from Plesk to continue using it. For more information, see Pricing on the Plesk website.

You must install the license after you purchase it from Plesk. To install your Plesk license, see How to install the Plesk license on the Plesk support website.

Step 7: Create a snapshot of your Plesk instance

A snapshot is a copy of the system disk and original configuration of an instance. The snapshot includes such information as memory, CPU, disk size, and data transfer rate. You can use a snapshot as a baseline for new instances, or as a data backup.

Under the Snapshots tab of your instance’s management page, choose Create snapshot. Then, follow the instructions on the page. For more information, see Create a snapshot of your Linux or Unix instance.