H-Sphere Reseller Guide

Understanding Accounts, Domains, and Users

 

On the user side, H-Sphere operates with three tiers:
- users
- accounts
- domains

 

Users

A user, for the most part, is nothing but a login and password to enter H-Sphere control panel. One user can have many accounts (control panels) 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.

H-Sphere has a service user (wwwuser) that owns the service account for hosting the service domain (see Domains below).

 

Accounts

H-Sphere primarily operates with accounts, not users. One account, also referred to as CP Account, equals one license and one control panel with its own balance, traffic usage, disk quota and usage, online invoice, menu tree, cp look and feel, etc. 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:

CP Account Type Variations Main Functions Created FTP home directory
Administrative main admin - allows H-Sphere owner to administer the entire hosting system with administrator plan wizard 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 wizard N/A
Reseller Administrative N/A - 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
User customer - provides H-Sphere owner and resellers with a 'medium' to distribute hosting services to customers
- allows customers to manage their sites
with Unix / Windows / Zeus / E-Mail Only / Real Unix plan wizards YES
service - allows H-Sphere owner and resellers to manage their promotional corporate sites

Sometimes you can see a CP Account opposed to a Web Server User. A Web Server User refers to an FTP account with its home directory on the web server.

 

Multiple Accounts

One user can have many accounts (control panels) of different types and platforms. For example, the admin user can have the following accounts:

  • an administrative account to manage the hosting system
  • a service account with domains for third level hosting
  • a regular unix or windows account to run the corporate website
  • a reseller account and reseller administrative account to sell hosting in another country with different language, currency, and look&feel settings of the control panel.

A new account can be created from an existing account's control panel, provided the existing account:
1. has appropriate access permissions
2. isn't restricted with Max set for CP Account in the account's plan.

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:

  1. Select Add Account in the User menu. You will be taken to the signup page.
  2. 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:

  1. Select Choose Account in the User menu.
  2. 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.

Service Domain

Service domain is an integral part of every H-Sphere. It is used for:

Service domain is managed through the service account, which is an instance of the service plan. Service domain is the only thing that makes service plan different from other hosting plans.

 



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