Blesta DirectAdmin module problem - SOLVED

bikegremlin

Last time I used the DirectAdmin module was about a year ago or so. It used to work.

Now, I have been able to configure the cPanel module, and it works fine.
However, I'm not able to get the DirectAdmin module to load the created user packages (as shown in the attached screenshot).

I've tried disabling the SSL option in the module configuration - and that didn't help.

I have double checked the server hostname and login credentials - they work outside of Blesta with no problems.

PHP 7.4
Blesta: 5.5.3
Module: DirectAdmin 2.15.0

I suspect it's related to Blesta. Maybe it's just the interface. I've tried to get it to work now with MyW hosting, HostMantis, and with MXroute DA reseller.

Maybe DA did something during one of the updates. Maybe it's Blesta. Of course, it could always be some mistake on my part, but Google, Blesta, DirectAdmin (and MXroute for that matter) tutorials dosc and info aren't helping.

Here's a screenshot of the problem:

I have also tried removing the Group, as well as choosing the "Any" option for the group. No help.

Ympker

Fwiw, PHP 7.4 is eol. Might wanna update that
Don't know what's exactly the issue, but I assume either DA changed smth (maybe API-wise) and Blesta Plugin wasn't updated, or the other way round.

bikegremlin

@Ympker said:
Fwiw, PHP 7.4 is eol. Might wanna update that
Don't know what's exactly the issue, but I assume either DA changed smth (maybe API-wise) and Blesta Plugin wasn't updated, or the other way round.

Blesta still won't play nicely with any newer PHP version as far as I know and have tested.

webcraft

Afaik the DA module is broken for some time already. Package updates aren't working any longer so are updates on the server side no longer reflected into Blesta.
DA had some intensive changes to their core system and the API. It was said the module has been updated but apparently they did it during their refacoring process, so it doesn't reflect the final changes.

Ympker

@webcraft said:
Afaik the DA module is broken for some time already. Package updates aren't working any longer so are updates on the server side no longer reflected into Blesta.
DA had some intensive changes to their core system and the API. It was said the module has been updated but apparently they did it during their refacoring process, so it doesn't reflect the final changes.

That's probably one of the "perks" of having your own in-house panel and why I see more and more providers developing in-house solutions. While you have to do all the coding (or pay somone to do it) you are more in control. That said, I would hope/assume Blesta would soon be updated.

ialexpw

@bikegremlin said:

@Ympker said:
Fwiw, PHP 7.4 is eol. Might wanna update that
Don't know what's exactly the issue, but I assume either DA changed smth (maybe API-wise) and Blesta Plugin wasn't updated, or the other way round.

Blesta still won't play nicely with any newer PHP version as far as I know and have tested.

I managed to get it working with PHP 8.1 now that the ioncube loaders are out. Didn't notice any issues running the patches supplied from Blesta.

bikegremlin

@Ympker said:

@webcraft said:
Afaik the DA module is broken for some time already. Package updates aren't working any longer so are updates on the server side no longer reflected into Blesta.
DA had some intensive changes to their core system and the API. It was said the module has been updated but apparently they did it during their refacoring process, so it doesn't reflect the final changes.

That's probably one of the "perks" of having your own in-house panel and why I see more and more providers developing in-house solutions. While you have to do all the coding (or pay somone to do it) you are more in control. That said, I would hope/assume Blesta would soon be updated.

My initial impression is they are not aware there is a problem.

The initial response from their support, after having checked what we could (including AnyDesk login to see my reseller hosting and Blesta install "back end" setup) was that I should see with my DA hosting provider.

It's my understanding that further assistance will (hopefully) be possible during their regular working hours (8am-4.30pm PST).

bikegremlin

@ialexpw said:

@bikegremlin said:

@Ympker said:
Fwiw, PHP 7.4 is eol. Might wanna update that
Don't know what's exactly the issue, but I assume either DA changed smth (maybe API-wise) and Blesta Plugin wasn't updated, or the other way round.

Blesta still won't play nicely with any newer PHP version as far as I know and have tested.

I managed to get it working with PHP 8.1 now that the ioncube loaders are out. Didn't notice any issues running the patches supplied from Blesta.

Did you take a look at the PHP error logs?

Blesta "officially" recommends running it with PHP 7.4.

8.1. might come (i.e. work without requiring patches and with an "official" approval) with the new 5.6 Blesta version - though I wouldn't rush with any updates.

ialexpw

@bikegremlin said:

@ialexpw said:

@bikegremlin said:

@Ympker said:
Fwiw, PHP 7.4 is eol. Might wanna update that
Don't know what's exactly the issue, but I assume either DA changed smth (maybe API-wise) and Blesta Plugin wasn't updated, or the other way round.

Blesta still won't play nicely with any newer PHP version as far as I know and have tested.

I managed to get it working with PHP 8.1 now that the ioncube loaders are out. Didn't notice any issues running the patches supplied from Blesta.

Did you take a look at the PHP error logs?

Blesta "officially" recommends running it with PHP 7.4.

8.1. might come (i.e. work without requiring patches and with an "official" approval) with the new 5.6 Blesta version - though I wouldn't rush with any updates.

I made a mistake in the last post - it was using the sourceguardian (not ioncube) included loaders for 8.1. It used their hotfix patch included in the download of Blesta. No issues relating in the error logs either from what I saw at the time.

I'll need to spin up similar later this week so will take a look again then.

edit:

8 is supported from 5.4 too - https://www.blesta.com/forums/index.php?/topic/16133-php-8-support/

bikegremlin

@ialexpw said:

@bikegremlin said:

@ialexpw said:

@bikegremlin said:

@Ympker said:
Fwiw, PHP 7.4 is eol. Might wanna update that
Don't know what's exactly the issue, but I assume either DA changed smth (maybe API-wise) and Blesta Plugin wasn't updated, or the other way round.

Blesta still won't play nicely with any newer PHP version as far as I know and have tested.

I managed to get it working with PHP 8.1 now that the ioncube loaders are out. Didn't notice any issues running the patches supplied from Blesta.

Did you take a look at the PHP error logs?

Blesta "officially" recommends running it with PHP 7.4.

8.1. might come (i.e. work without requiring patches and with an "official" approval) with the new 5.6 Blesta version - though I wouldn't rush with any updates.

I made a mistake in the last post - it was using the sourceguardian (not ioncube) included loaders for 8.1. It used their hotfix patch included in the download of Blesta. No issues relating in the error logs either from what I saw at the time.

I'll need to spin up similar later this week so will take a look again then.

Best of luck. Not being sarcastic - anyone doing beta testing for free is helping the whole user community (not just the company).

For me - troubleshooting is hard enough as it is. Had I run with PHP 8.1 I wouldn't be amazed to get the first support response along the lines of "try switching to the officially supported PHP 7.4 and see if the problem persists." That would be the reasonable thing to do.

Ympker

@bikegremlin said:

@Ympker said:

@webcraft said:
Afaik the DA module is broken for some time already. Package updates aren't working any longer so are updates on the server side no longer reflected into Blesta.
DA had some intensive changes to their core system and the API. It was said the module has been updated but apparently they did it during their refacoring process, so it doesn't reflect the final changes.

That's probably one of the "perks" of having your own in-house panel and why I see more and more providers developing in-house solutions. While you have to do all the coding (or pay somone to do it) you are more in control. That said, I would hope/assume Blesta would soon be updated.

My initial impression is they are not aware there is a problem.

The initial response from their support, after having checked what we could (including AnyDesk login to see my reseller hosting and Blesta install "back end" setup) was that I should see with my DA hosting provider.

It's my understanding that further assistance will (hopefully) be possible during their regular working hours (8am-4.30pm PST).

Fingers crossed. Keep us in the loop

bikegremlin

Further attempts:

Disabled Cloudflare proxy - just in case. Didn't help.

Looking at Tools > Logs > Module,
All is good except the "Output" (direction) for getting the DA package info - with this code:

my.reseller.domain|getPackagesUser
a:0:{}

Blesta support says it looks like my reseller hosting user can't get the listing of the packages.
Say it works with root privileges, and they may test it with a set up reseller account on their server to try and replicate the issue.

Ympker

@bikegremlin said:
Further attempts:

Disabled Cloudflare proxy - just in case. Didn't help.

Looking at Tools > Logs > Module,
All is good except the "Output" (direction) for getting the DA package info - with this code:

my.reseller.domain|getPackagesUser
a:0:{}

Blesta support says it looks like my reseller hosting user can't get the listing of the packages.
Say it works with root privileges, and they may test it with a set up reseller account on their server to try and replicate the issue.

Is the DA module for Blesta actually developed by the Blesta team, or by a third party developer? If it is developed by a third party developer, then Blesta support can only be expected to do so much (e.g. I remember WHMCS also had various third party integrations; modulesgarden etc).

webcraft

@Ympker said:
Is the DA module for Blesta actually developed by the Blesta team, or by a third party developer? If it is developed by a third party developer, then Blesta support can only be expected to do so much (e.g. I remember WHMCS also had various third party integrations; modulesgarden etc).

I don't know if this is still the case but if I recall correctly cubecoders made the initial work, though I don't know if they're still the developers.

Ympker

@webcraft said:

@Ympker said:
Is the DA module for Blesta actually developed by the Blesta team, or by a third party developer? If it is developed by a third party developer, then Blesta support can only be expected to do so much (e.g. I remember WHMCS also had various third party integrations; modulesgarden etc).

I don't know if this is still the case but if I recall correctly cubecoders made the initial work, though I don't know if they're still the developers.

Is it still being developed, even? Sounds like that's not really clear either.

bikegremlin

@Ympker said:

@webcraft said:

@Ympker said:
Is the DA module for Blesta actually developed by the Blesta team, or by a third party developer? If it is developed by a third party developer, then Blesta support can only be expected to do so much (e.g. I remember WHMCS also had various third party integrations; modulesgarden etc).

I don't know if this is still the case but if I recall correctly cubecoders made the initial work, though I don't know if they're still the developers.

Is it still being developed, even? Sounds like that's not really clear either.

Officially, the module says "Phillips Data, Inc." and links to the blesta.com site.

Ympker

@bikegremlin said:

@Ympker said:

@webcraft said:

@Ympker said:
Is the DA module for Blesta actually developed by the Blesta team, or by a third party developer? If it is developed by a third party developer, then Blesta support can only be expected to do so much (e.g. I remember WHMCS also had various third party integrations; modulesgarden etc).

I don't know if this is still the case but if I recall correctly cubecoders made the initial work, though I don't know if they're still the developers.

Is it still being developed, even? Sounds like that's not really clear either.

Officially, the module says "Phillips Data, Inc." and links to the blesta.com site.

That would be the "preferred" option as then they would (probably) take care of fixing/updating the plugin. If it was a third party dev...

Fwiw, ClientExec developes the DA module themselves

webcraft

@Ympker said:

@webcraft said:

@Ympker said:
Is the DA module for Blesta actually developed by the Blesta team, or by a third party developer? If it is developed by a third party developer, then Blesta support can only be expected to do so much (e.g. I remember WHMCS also had various third party integrations; modulesgarden etc).

I don't know if this is still the case but if I recall correctly cubecoders made the initial work, though I don't know if they're still the developers.

Is it still being developed, even? Sounds like that's not really clear either.

Well, last update like a year ago.

Ympker

@webcraft said:

@Ympker said:

@webcraft said:

@Ympker said:
Is the DA module for Blesta actually developed by the Blesta team, or by a third party developer? If it is developed by a third party developer, then Blesta support can only be expected to do so much (e.g. I remember WHMCS also had various third party integrations; modulesgarden etc).

I don't know if this is still the case but if I recall correctly cubecoders made the initial work, though I don't know if they're still the developers.

Is it still being developed, even? Sounds like that's not really clear either.

Well, last update like a year ago.

Is that the last plugin update, or the Knowledgebase article that was last updated? If you are referring to that date at the top of the KB article I am not sure to which it is referring.

webcraft

@Ympker said:

@webcraft said:

@Ympker said:

@webcraft said:

@Ympker said:
Is the DA module for Blesta actually developed by the Blesta team, or by a third party developer? If it is developed by a third party developer, then Blesta support can only be expected to do so much (e.g. I remember WHMCS also had various third party integrations; modulesgarden etc).

I don't know if this is still the case but if I recall correctly cubecoders made the initial work, though I don't know if they're still the developers.

Is it still being developed, even? Sounds like that's not really clear either.

Well, last update like a year ago.

Is that the last plugin update, or the Knowledgebase article that was last updated? If you are referring to that date at the top of the KB article I am not sure to which it is referring.

No, I mean the plugin core files.

jarland

Since I don't have time to install blesta and test it right now, and probably won't this week, I'm throwing you some account credit. That way if you've done any math to making good use of the reseller plan, an unintended setback doesn't throw off your profit margins.

bikegremlin

@jarland said:
Since I don't have time to install blesta and test it right now, and probably won't this week, I'm throwing you some account credit. That way if you've done any math to making good use of the reseller plan, an unintended setback doesn't throw off your profit margins.

Thank you for providing an awesome service - it has solved one of the problems for both my friends, clients, and myself.

Adding the account credit is an ubercool move and I appreciate it.

What I appreciate even more is the great support - and the will to look further into it.
It's fair to note that Blesta support is also willing to dig deeper and try to find the problem cause.
Same goes for MyW, and MDDHosting ( @MikePT and @MikeDVB ).

What often works well for problems I can't figure out is to let them sit for a while. Solutions often pop up during my morning bicycle ride. However, with this one, I'm pretty much stuck - which is quite frustrating. I must rely on the smarter folks to figure it out.

So, I opened tickets with more than one service provider - and did my best to keep everyone in the loop about what I have tried, and what other providers have tried and the info they asked for. It's one of those situations I call a Catch22 problem - every service is basically working fine in and of itself, but for some reason, they won't work together. In my experience, more often than it is "statistically justified," two or more things can be causing a problem at the same time. It's very difficult to troubleshoot when that happens.

The main purpose of this thread is to help share ideas and stuff to try, and to keep all the info in one place. As the Serbian proverb says:
"Two heads are wiser than one."

Abdullah

I have been using Blesta for past 2 years. It was okay at start , very affordable.
now many modules haven't been updated for long like their long broken proxmox module & bugs with the virtualizor one..

Hxxx

So basically from what I gather from this thread is that the module might require upper level permissions like root to be able to actually work flawless.

I might try to configure it with a reseller that I shall create in my servers to see if is a permission issue. I provision manually so I never really integrated my blesta with DA.

I wouldn't use root or admin users just to maintain security practices. So if the module do require it for some reason, I would just continue deploying manually. Anyway most orders are manually checked.

jarland

@Hxxx said:
So basically from what I gather from this thread is that the module might require upper level permissions like root to be able to actually work flawless.

I might try to configure it with a reseller that I shall create in my servers to see if is a permission issue. I provision manually so I never really integrated my blesta with DA.

I wouldn't use root or admin users just to maintain security practices. So if the module do require it for some reason, I would just continue deploying manually. Anyway most orders are manually checked.

Aye. On all but the reseller servers (where I have to provision as admin), I provision everything under a reseller account with hostbill. So if this is how it works, I couldn't use blesta either without changing a fair amount of things.

bikegremlin

Blesta support suggested I ask the provider where my Blesta is currently installed to whitelist the MXroute server IP on port 2222.

That didn't help - I'm still facing the same problem.

The Blesta support said they replicated the problem on their server using root privileges, but then went with no problems using reseller access privileges. That's quite unexpected (was expecting to hear the opposite - double checked to confirm it wasn't a typo/mistake).

Very confusing, and quite frustrating. Going back and forth between Blesta and provider support - but still stuck without any clues.

MichaelCee

In general when this happens I:

• Double and triple check the credentials
• Try without SSL
• Try with an alternate hostname (aka switching to IP or viceversa)
• Whitelist Blesta IP on DirectAdmin
• Whitelist DirectAdmin IP on Blesta
• Double check the server group settings. Try without server group, try with.

I will edit this if I think of anything more.

Feel free to reach out if you want me to look at yours or try credentials on mine etc etc etc.

Ympker

@MichaelCee said:
In general when this happens I:

• Double and triple check the credentials
• Try without SSL
• Try with an alternate hostname (aka switching to IP or viceversa)
• Whitelist Blesta IP on DirectAdmin
• Whitelist DirectAdmin IP on Blesta
• Double check the server group settings. Try without server group, try with.

I will edit this if I think of anything more.

Feel free to reach out if you want me to look at yours or try credentials on mine etc etc etc.

The Real MVP has shown up

bikegremlin

@MichaelCee said:
In general when this happens I:

• Double and triple check the credentials
• Try without SSL
• Try with an alternate hostname (aka switching to IP or viceversa)
• Whitelist Blesta IP on DirectAdmin
• Whitelist DirectAdmin IP on Blesta
• Double check the server group settings. Try without server group, try with.

I will edit this if I think of anything more.

Feel free to reach out if you want me to look at yours or try credentials on mine etc etc etc.

• Checked the credentials. Well over three times. I think it's safe to disregard that as a potential problem cause.
• Tried without SSL, several times, with three different servers. Ruling it out for the time being.
• IP instead of the hostname - tried both with and without the SSL. Didn't help.
• MXroute interface won't let me whitelist an IP from DirectAdmin (I opened a support ticket), but I could do that with my other DA reseller hosting accounts - and it didn't help.
• DirectAdmin IP and port 2222 are whitelisted on the Blesta install server. Didn't help.
• Tried both with and without server group. No go.

Pretty much stuck at the moment.

Lee

@bikegremlin said: my.reseller.domain|getPackagesUser a:0:{}

I remember this issue from before on my free hosting service before I eventually changed the billing panel again and had no issues with the API since.

I can't at this point remember exactly what the issue was but it was definitely related to the reseller provider and the way they had it set up. Some elements of the API were working but I couldn't get the package information. There were 3 providers where it worked without issue and 2 had the same issue of not being able to get the package.

Will have a dig around in my notes to see if I can find the reason.

bikegremlin

It's alive!
WOOOHOOO!

My Blesta is installed on a cPanel reseller hosting account with MDDHosting (Gremlin site links).

After having spent hours, checking various stuff, both MXroute (Gremlin, again) and Blesta suport guys suggested double checking if port 2222 is open.

Having already asked MDDHosting to open that port, I asked them to just double check if it really is open and working, as we were all running out of options and ideas.

Turns out, by mistake, they had made the firewall whitelist rule be inbound instead of outbound. After having fixed that, it all works fine now.

It's fair to note that all the folks from Blesta, MXroute, MyW, and MDDHosting were super-patient and really trying to figure it out and help. Not a single of those service providers gave a "all-works-on-our-end-bug-off" answer, even at times they seemed pretty certain the problem was not on their end. This is something I've learned to highly appreciate over the years, as it's definitely not the norm.

Rakija, ćevapi and beers are on me should any of those wizzards come to Novi Sad.
Pigeon deliveries abroad are not possible, as all my pigeons are carnivore alcoholics and can't be trusted to deliver the above-listed goods.