OpenPanel

Sell OpenPanel hosting and let Blesta create, provision and manage every hosting account on your server automatically, with single sign-on and self-service usage stats for your clients.

What it does

Selling OpenPanel hosting usually means creating each account by hand, then fielding tickets for a lost password or a plan change. The OpenPanel module puts the whole lifecycle on autopilot: the moment an order is placed, Blesta creates the account on your server with a generated username and password, and every later billing event - suspension, reactivation, cancellation, an upgrade to a bigger plan - is pushed straight through to the panel with no staff intervention. Clients get their own Login and Usage tabs in the client area, so they can sign in and check their resource usage without ever asking your team for a password.

Key features

• Automated Account Provisioning: The moment an order is activated, Blesta creates the hosting account on your OpenPanel server automatically, generating a username and a strong password for the client if none is supplied.
• Full Lifecycle Automation: Suspending, unsuspending or cancelling a service pushes the same change to the account on your OpenPanel server, and moving a client to a different plan reprovisions their account onto it automatically.
• Import an Existing Account: Already have an account on the panel? Check Existing Account when adding a service and Blesta binds to it by username instead of creating a new one, confirming with the panel that it actually exists first.
• Plans Loaded Live From Your Server: A package's Plan dropdown is populated directly from your OpenPanel server's own hosting plans, so a package can only be saved with a plan that actually exists.
• Single Sign-On: A Login tab in the client area signs clients straight into their OpenPanel control panel with one click, with no separate panel password to remember.
• Client Usage Tab: A Usage tab shows the client their plan, account status, and how much of their disk, bandwidth, website and database allowance they have used.
• Multiple Servers and Server Groups: Add as many OpenPanel servers as you run and group them together, so a package can be pointed at one specific server or spread across a group.
• Built-In Demo Mode: Trial the whole module against built-in sample data before you have a server or credentials to hand, then switch to a live server whenever you are ready.

Installing OpenPanel

Before you start

• Version 3.x of this module requires Blesta 6.0 or newer. It targets the Blesta 6 admin theme and is not supported on Blesta 5.
• If you are on the leased (subscription) licence, the Blesta Club Subscription Manager must be installed and your subscription active. The owned and owned-source licences have no such requirement.

1. Upload the files

Upload the extension folder into your Blesta installation so it lands under your Blesta directory at:

components/modules/openpanel/

For example, on a typical install: /var/www/html/blesta/components/modules/openpanel/

2. Install it in Blesta

1. Log in to your Blesta admin area with a staff account that has the Modules permission (specifically Install Module and Manage Module) under the Settings group in Manage Staff Groups.
2. Go to Settings > Company > Modules and click the Available tab.
3. Find OpenPanel in the list and click Install.

3. Configure it

1. Go to Settings > Company > Modules > Installed, find OpenPanel, and click Manage.
2. Click Add Server and enter your OpenPanel server's Hostname, API Port (commonly 2087), and the Username and Password of the OpenPanel admin account the module should authenticate as. Your credentials are verified against the server the moment you save, so a mistake is caught immediately.
3. To trial the module before pointing it at a live server, tick Enable Mock API instead of entering real credentials - see the usage guide for details.
4. Group your servers with Add Server Group if you run more than one and want to spread packages across them.
5. Create a package (Packages > Browse Packages > Create Package), set its module to OpenPanel, choose the server (or group) it should provision on, and pick a Plan from the dropdown - it is populated live from that server's own hosting plans.

You're ready to go - see the usage guide for a walkthrough of day-to-day use.

Updating OpenPanel

Upgrading works just like installing: upload the new files over the old ones, then run the upgrade from the same page you installed it on.

1. Back up your current extension files first - good practice before any upgrade.
2. Upload the new version over the existing folder, replacing the old files.
3. Log in to your Blesta admin area and go to Settings > Company > Modules.
4. Find OpenPanel and click Update to run the upgrade.

This upgrade is drop-in - nothing on your existing servers, packages or services needs to change, and no data is migrated. The new capabilities below are all optional additions you can start using whenever you like.

Version-specific notes

• v3.0.0: Requires Blesta 6.0 or newer - upgrade Blesta first, then upload the module files and click Update as described above. Nothing else changes: your servers, packages and services carry over as they are. Every staff-facing screen now uses the Blesta 6 admin theme and follows its light or dark mode, and the Add Server and Edit Server forms gained a Back button.
• v2.0.0: Clients now get a Usage tab showing their plan, status, and disk, bandwidth, website and database usage - nothing to configure, it appears automatically. You can also let clients change their plan later via a Blesta configurable option (see the usage guide's "Good to know" section for how to set one up), and you can add a service for a client's account that already exists on the panel by ticking Existing Account instead of creating a new one.
• v1.2.0: Added an Enable Mock API option on each server, so the module can be trialled or demonstrated with no live server. If you were affected by Add Server or Edit Server showing a blank page, or by failed API calls being logged as successful, both are fixed in this version.

Using OpenPanel

For your staff

Managing your servers

Go to Settings > Company > Modules > OpenPanel > Manage to see every OpenPanel server you have added and every server group. Add Server and Edit Server both ask for the server's Hostname, Port, Username and Password; leaving Password blank on Edit keeps the currently stored one. Tick Enable Mock API to run that server against built-in sample data instead of a live panel - see "Trying it without a server" below. Delete a server or group with the trash icon next to its row, after confirming the prompt.

Creating a package

Create a package (Packages > Browse Packages > Create Package), set its module to OpenPanel, and choose the server (or server group) it should provision new accounts on. The package's Plan field is a dropdown populated live from that server's own hosting plans, so you always pick a plan that genuinely exists rather than typing one in.

Adding a service

From a client's profile, use Add Service and choose an OpenPanel package. Under OpenPanel Options, you can leave Username and Password blank and Blesta generates both automatically, or type your own values and they are used instead. Tick Existing Account if the client already has an account on your OpenPanel server - Blesta then binds the service to that username instead of creating a new one, and refuses to save if the panel says no account by that username exists.

Managing a service

The service page shows the account's Username, Password and a Login link that signs you into the panel as that account, for both a normal and an imported (Existing Account) service. Suspending, unsuspending or cancelling the service applies the same action to the account on OpenPanel. Moving the client to a different plan - either by changing their package, or by editing the Plan configurable option on the same package (see "Good to know" below) - updates the account's plan on the server automatically.

For your clients

Signing in with one click

The Login tab on the service takes the client straight into their OpenPanel control panel by single sign-on - no separate password to remember. If a login link isn't available right now, the tab says so and suggests trying again shortly.

Checking their usage

The Usage tab shows the client their current plan, whether the account is active or suspended, how many websites and databases they have against their plan's limits, and a progress bar each for disk space and bandwidth used. An unlimited allowance shows as an infinity symbol instead of a number.

Good to know

• Trying it without a server: Tick Enable Mock API on a server row to run the whole module - ordering, suspending, the Login and Usage tabs, everything - against realistic built-in sample data, with no live server and any credentials accepted. Untick it and enter real credentials when you're ready to go live; never use it for real client accounts, since nothing is actually created on a panel while it's on.
• Letting clients change their own plan: To offer a plan change as a Blesta configurable option (rather than only a full package change), create a Select-type configurable option with its internal name set to exactly plan_name, add the same plan names your packages use as its values, and attach it to the package. A client changing that option - at order time or later, from their existing service - updates their plan on the OpenPanel server the same way a package change does.
• Imported accounts keep their own password: When a service is added with Existing Account ticked, Blesta doesn't generate or store a new password for it, since a generated one wouldn't match the account's real password on the panel. The Password field for that service stays blank until you set one yourself.
• Every API call the module makes and the response it received are recorded in Tools > Logs > Module, which is the first place to check if an order or an action doesn't behave as expected.