Installation & activation

Drop the server module into modules/servers/, drop the addon into modules/addons/, activate, and add a license key. ImpulsePlesk registers existing Plesk servers — there is no VPS to provision.

Time: ~10 min · Requires: WHMCS 9.0+ · Core: 1.61.19+

1. Prerequisites

ImpulsePlesk is the “existing-host” module in the Impulse suite: you register Plesk servers you already operate rather than provisioning virtual machines. So the prerequisites are a healthy WHMCS + Core install plus at least one Plesk box you already run.

• WHMCS 9.0 or later with the system cron running.
• PHP 8.2 / 8.3 / 8.4 with ionCube Loader 13+ — the module’s customer-facing PHP is encoded, so ionCube must be present before activation.
• ImpulseCore 1.61.19+ — the shared Impulse addon. ImpulsePlesk depends on it for project membership, hook dispatch, the cron runner, the licensing client, audit, and the shared Email Delivery service. Install and activate impulsecore before activating ImpulsePlesk.
• A Plesk server (Plesk Obsidian) you already run, with admin access and its API port (8443 unless you changed it) reachable from your WHMCS server.
• A license key — an IPLSK- key. Your WHMCS install’s domain is recorded the first time the key is validated; you don’t enter it anywhere.

Verify ionCube first

Run php -m | grep -i ionCube with the PHP binary your WHMCS uses: /opt/plesk/php/8.3/bin/php on Plesk, /opt/cpanel/ea-php83/root/usr/bin/php on cPanel, or /usr/bin/php (whatever which php returns) on a plain Linux server. No output means the loader is missing — enable it under Tools & Settings → PHP Settings on Plesk or in WHM’s PHP extension settings on cPanel, or install the loader from ioncube.com and add its zend_extension line to php.ini.

2. Upload the files

Download the release from your license in the Impulse Software portal and extract it into the WHMCS root. You should end up with the two module directories and the hook file:

whmcs/
├── modules/
│   ├── servers/impulseplesk/          ← Server module (Plesk API client + client area)
│   └── addons/impulseplesk_addon/     ← Operator admin UI
└── includes/hooks/impulseplesk_hooks.php

The new files need the same owner and group as the rest of your WHMCS files — on Plesk that’s the subscription user, on cPanel the account’s cPanel user, and on a plain Linux server typically www-data. If you extracted them as root, copy the ownership of the existing directories from the WHMCS root:

chown -R --reference=modules/servers modules/servers/impulseplesk
chown -R --reference=modules/addons modules/addons/impulseplesk_addon
chown --reference=includes/hooks includes/hooks/impulseplesk_hooks.php

3. Activate the addon

1. Log in to WHMCS Admin.
2. Go to System Settings → Addon Modules.
3. Find ImpulsePlesk in the list and click Activate.
4. Set Access Control → Full Administrator (or whichever admin role(s) should see the addon).
5. Click Save Changes, then open Addons → ImpulsePlesk.

What activation does

The activate hook runs the schema install (all mod_impulseplesk_* tables), registers the module’s seven cron tasks — provision, backup_runner, usage_sync, health_version_poll, file_service_poll, alert_detection, dns_pointing_check — with ImpulseCore’s cron runner, and self-registers in the Core module registry.

If ImpulseCore isn’t ready

WHMCS reports the addon as activated either way, so read the activation message. If ImpulseCore is older than 1.61.19, it says ImpulseCore registration failed and names the version ImpulsePlesk needs. If ImpulseCore isn’t installed, the message says it wasn’t registered. Install or update ImpulseCore, then deactivate and reactivate ImpulsePlesk.

Confirm registration in the Core admin: the module should appear in ImpulseCore’s module list and the seven cron tasks should show as registered.

4. Enter your license key

Licensing is centralized in ImpulseCore using the shared licensing client — you don’t enter the key in the module itself.

1. Obtain your IPLSK- key from the Impulse Software portal.
2. Enter it in ImpulseCore → Modules & Licensing → Licenses for impulseplesk and click Save. Core validates it against the licensing server and caches the status, tier and enabled features.
3. Open ImpulsePlesk → Diagnostics → License — status, tier, enabled features and the development-key limits render, with a link back into Core Licenses.

Note

The licensing response is XML, and Core owns the parsing. The install domain is auto-captured on first validation — you never enter it by hand. Verification is cached with a grace window, so transient licensing-server blips don’t disrupt billing or customer access.

5. Where to go next

With the module activated and licensed, the remaining setup is all in the addon UI:

• Register a Plesk server — mint an API key, add the box, and pick a TLS mode.
• Set up the file-service daemon — the per-server component that backs the file manager, logs, scheduled tasks and backups.
• Define plans & wire WHMCS products — hosting plans, feature flags, and the product mapping.

Once a server, a plan and a product are in place, place one test order and walk suspend → unsuspend → terminate to prove the lifecycle end to end before you sell.