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Date:      Mon, 16 Jul 2007 16:03:12 +0100
From:      Vince <jhary@unsane.co.uk>
To:        Michael Williams <gberz3@gmail.com>
Cc:        koitsu@freebsd.org, freebsd-stable@freebsd.org, Tom Samplonius <tom@samplonius.org>, Norberto Meijome <freebsd@meijome.net>
Subject:   Re: HOW TO:  Enabling root on a new server?
Message-ID:  <469B88B0.9070806@unsane.co.uk>
In-Reply-To: <9C1BC8FF-E72B-48EE-A6DA-F6CC3FFBD580@gmail.com>
References:  <33091425.4771184570229755.JavaMail.root@ly.sdf.com> <9C1BC8FF-E72B-48EE-A6DA-F6CC3FFBD580@gmail.com>

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For most versions of plesk i've come across (I look after a load of
linux servers with it installed,) if you have the plesk admin then you
have root. Look for the modules option, then look for the add modules,
this should let you upload a shell script which is then run as root
(horribly insecure but thats plesk, and if you fiddle with their setting
enough you can change the css of the webapp not to display the page) If
this is the same on FreeBSD as on linux you can create a new UID 0 user
if need be using pw in a shell script, or you can put a ssh public key
in to roots authorized_keys file. I'd definitely advise you get plesk
removed if you intend to administrate the box by hand though.

	If thats no help, when you log into the box by ssh, what is the output of
grep root /etc/passwd
it should be something like
root:*:0:0:Charlie &:/root:/bin/csh
if not then they have renamed/removed root so try looking in /etc/passwd
 for a user with uid of 0 (third field.)
This should at least get you a username to ask their support about. If
they have actually removed the root user your a bit stuffed and

Hope some of thats some help.

Vince



Michael Williams wrote:
> Tom,
> 
> Again, Plesk just came with the server config we asked for.  We didn't
> ask for Plesk, we *asked* for the specific hardware.  Plesk was "free". 
> *rolls eyes*
> 
> Regards,
> Michael
> 
> On Jul 16, 2007, at 3:17 AM, Tom Samplonius wrote:
> 
>>
>> ----- "Michael Williams" <gberz3@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> No,  I don't necessarily need Plesk; although we will be selling
>>> hosting.  It simply came with the default configuration for the
>>> server.  My plan is to manage most everything from the Unix shell.  I
>>>
>>> just figured I might find a morsel inside Plesk somewhere for
>>> enabling root access.  FYI, logging in as admin didn't work.  Any
>>> other suggestions?
>>
>>   You are probably better off just asking the hosting company for the
>> password.  You need the root password, and you need to have an account
>> that is a member of the wheel group (use "groups" when you ssh to see
>> if your account is ok).
>>
>>   They might have flagged you as a newbie, and think you are better
>> off inside the padded confines of Plesk.  I work at a hosting company,
>> and a whole bunch of our dedicated server customers are in over their
>> heads with their servers as it is.  Given that you asked for Plesk,
>> and are now asking for root, they are probably has made them worried
>> that the next call from you will be that you deleted /etc, and  your
>> server won't boot anymore.
>>
>>   If you are planning to do any admin via ssh with root, you will not
>> want Plesk.  Plesk manages all of your software installs.  Plesk
>> includes Plesk specific versions of Apache, PHP, and MySQL.  All
>> patches and updates can only come from SWSoft, or the Plesk universe
>> will crash.  And Plesk ties you to a specific FreeBSD version too. 
>> Plesk versions lag big time for FreeBSD.  But on the other hand, it is
>> big GUI thing, and people like it.
>>
>>
>> Tom
> 
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