Plesk
Manage DNS-01 records through a Plesk server via its API (username + password). Plesk is the dominant panel on Windows hosting.
Prerequisites
- A Plesk login that can manage the DNS zone (admin, or a customer/reseller with DNS rights on the domain).
- The Plesk panel reachable from CertAutoPilot over HTTPS (default
:8443). - The domain must resolve publicly — DNS-01 needs the zone in public DNS.
Credentials
Plesk's DNS API uses your Plesk username + password (no separate token). Use a dedicated Plesk user with only the rights needed for the target domain(s), and rotate its password on a schedule.
Add the credential
- Settings → DNS Credentials → New → Plesk.
- Server URL:
https://plesk.example.com:8443. - Username + Password.
- Test (with a domain) → Save.
Config fields
| Field | Required | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
url | yes | Plesk server base URL (default port :8443). |
username | yes | Plesk login. |
password | yes | Plesk password. |
Propagation
The record is written to Plesk's DNS; propagation depends on the server's nameservers. Default settings usually work.
How CertAutoPilot talks to Plesk
Two Plesk-specific behaviours are worth knowing, neither of which you configure:
- Credential creation is briefly serialized process-wide. The underlying library accepts the Plesk server URL only through an environment variable, so CertAutoPilot sets it under a lock while building the provider. Construction is brief and happens once per issuance, renewal or test, so there is no practical throughput cost.
- Plesk certificates use the synchronous flow, not the phased one. Plesk deletes its TXT record using a lookup table held in the process that created it, so the phased flow's separate cleanup job could not remove the record. Plesk is therefore routed to the single-job synchronous flow — which means the DNS Propagation Deadline setting does not apply to Plesk certificates; the per-attempt DNS Propagation Timeout does. See Propagation settings.
Troubleshooting
401 / authentication failed
Wrong username/password, or the account lacks DNS-management rights on the domain.
"Domain not found"
The domain isn't a subscription/zone on this Plesk server, or the user can't see it.