Are there any windows server 2003 experts here

[theodotcom]

Need a little help.

I had a couple of programs that used databases and php.

I was trying to install a crm program and in doing so I think I messed up my mysql, I uninstalled the mysql from add/remove programs and reinstalled it. I then linked it to plesk so in plesk I can make databases, however any programs I try to install that use databases cannot install,

I had a dummy installation of joomla set up and if I try to load it I get the following message:

Database Error: Unable to connect to the database:The MySQL adapter "mysql" is not available.

I've seen various issues around the net with people with this problem but cannot find a definate solution, plus because I dont know fully what i'm doing I don't want to mess up the server totally as its hosting a few websites.

Also I cannot seem to run any php files at all, I tried to run a phpinfo file and it wouldn't run either.

Any help really appreciated.

[Realist]

Can you not place a support ticket with your host and ask them to fix it.

[theodotcom]

my host are crap with support, I'm with 1and1 and they give no support on a VPS server apart from hardware issues. they only give support on their hosted packages.

[Realist]

Can you not reinstall mysql from root.

[theodotcom]

mysql was reinstalled from root, uninstalled the old one using add/remove programs and reinstalled, I think this is installed fine because I can now create databases in plesk, before I couldnt however it doesnt seen to be linking with php, I cannot even open a php page.
Do I need to reinstall php? If so how?

[EvilBoB]

You said the one word I didn't want to ear there... Plesk. Possibly one of the worst tools EVER released. Half the features don't work and the ones that do are scatty at best. When you create a website in Plesk it creates the IIS site, accounts and all sorts of other nonsense with behind the scene scripts. I host a server that uses it and it is terrible. And Parallel (Who support Plesk) have a near non-existant support department. Have a look at their forums - it's full of people asking for their money back and slating the product. cPanel is MUCH better.

[theodotcom]

Thanks EvilBoB, just what I didnt want to hear

[EvilBoB]

Sorry mate. If you do need any help with Plesk I can try and assist as I've been looking after it for a while across a few different versions. From what I remember there is a script you can run to reinstall PHP. I'll try and dig some info out in a minute.

[theodotcom]

Thanks that would be appreciated.

[EvilBoB]

Ugh - I forgot how complex this interface is lol.

If you log into the admin panel and go to the Domain Templates you should be able to see a template for the domains managed by Plesk. If you select that and wait for the page to load you should be able to scroll down and find the "PHP support" checkbox which lists a number. Make sure that's ticked. It may have defaulted or something.

[theodotcom]

Checked the default template, and also the templates saved with individual domains, all have...

php support (ticked) version (5.2.6) run as (fastcgi application)

With the 5.2.6 option I can select 4.4.7.

with the fastcgi application I can also select "cgi application" or "ISAPI extension"

[EvilBoB]

That's what mine is setup with so you should be okay. I don't know if unselecting and reselecting will try and re-register it or not.

Have you checked in Eventviewer to see if there is some permissions issue going on trying to use PHP?

Also are you using IIS or Apache as your webserver? This is quite important as Apache needs some bits to get PHP to work that are different to IIS.

[EvilBoB]

As an added note. Plesk is only an admin front end for other applications so if you go to IIS admin, Expand "Web Sites", right click your website in the left hand pane, go to "Properties"

Then go to "Home Directory" and click configuration you will see a list of extensions. Make sure PHP is in there.

For example : mine has the executable as "C:\Program Files\Parallels\Plesk\Additional\PleskPHP5\php-cgi.exe"

with "Script engine" and "Verify that file exists" ticked. (And "All verbs" ticked too).

Also I checked the file permissions for the php-cgi.exe file and there are a few user accounts that I "think" are generic Plesk ones as follows :

psaadm
psacln
psaserv

They all have Read & Execute and Read permissions set. The user accounts listed above don't appear to be the account that IIS or Plesk is running under so I'm not sure if they are hard coded in somewhere.

Looking at the setup it appears that PHP5 is not a standalone install and it needs to be installed WITH Plesk as part of their package so I don't think you would be able to install PHP seperately. There are a couple of registry entries in the directory listed above - dunno if they will re-register it or not.

[theodotcom]

im using IIS, how do I get to the IIS admin.

Thanks

[EvilBoB]

You should be able to get to it through Administrative Tools or click start go to run, type MMC and hit return then you can add in Internet Administrative Tools (Or something like that - can't remember the exact wording).

[theodotcom]

ok I checked and mine is exactly the same executable as yours, with script engine and verify the file exists ticked.

Checked the 3 files and they had the same permissions as well.

[EvilBoB]

That is weird. Basically Plesk doesn't get involved. IIS should forward the ISAPI request to the PHP executable.

To test PHP is working (or not) if you create a file in the previously mentioned directory with the following :

<?php
print("Hi");
?>

Call it test.php or whatever and from a command prompt you can run
[quote]php-cgi.exe test.php[quote]

If it works you should get something like this :

C:\Program Files\Parallels\Plesk\Additional\PleskPHP5>php-cgi.exe test.php
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.2.6
Content-type: text/html
Hi

(Use CTRL+C to get back to a command prompt).

If that works then it's something to do with IIS interacting with the executable so I'd look there but remember to always use the PHP executables in the Plesk directory.

I'll see if I can find any more documentation on it that may help later on Gotta go home soon and I have some work to finish up.

[theodotcom]

I made a file called test.php tried to run it and it showed an error box:

title: php-cgi.exe - Unable to Locate Component

error: The application has failed to start because php_pdo.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem.

Does that make it simpler now?

[theodotcom]

just an update, when I clicked ok it came up with another error, basically the same but php_mbstring.dll not found.

[EvilBoB]

aha!!!
Looks like PHP has become unregistered. You may see a complementing error in Event Viewer where it can't find something.

Try this :

"%plesk_bin%\websrvmng.exe" --reconfigure-all

from a command prompt. This should reconfigure all domains to use PHP5. If that doesn't work follow this page http://kb.parallels.com/article_149_1048_en.html from around Step 7.

I know this is talking about upgrading however it does give you the information necessary to reregister PHP on the server.


I have a thought that maybe Step 7

cscript c:\windows\system32\iisext.vbs /AddFile "%plesk_dir%Additional\php\php-cgi.exe" 0 PHP 1 "PHP Extensions"
cscript c:\windows\system32\iisext.vbs /AddFile "%plesk_dir%Additional\php\php5isapi.dll" 0 PHP 1 "PHP Extensions"
cscript c:\windows\system32\iisext.vbs /EnFile "%plesk_dir%Additional\php\php-cgi.exe"
cscript c:\windows\system32\iisext.vbs /EnFile "%plesk_dir%Additional\php\php5isapi.dll"

followed by that previous command may be all you need to do though.