Provisioning Admin

Provisioning is the process by which Hostpanel creates, suspends and removes hosting accounts on control-panel servers automatically.

When an order is paid

When a client pays an order, Hostpanel accepts it and marks each service line as Pending. It does not create the hosting account at that moment. The account is created in one of two ways:

• Client completes the setup wizard — the client opens the service in the client portal and clicks "Set Up My Service" to enter the domain, username and billing details. Provisioning runs once the setup is saved.
• Staff press Create — on a Pending service in the admin panel, click Create in the Module Commands card.

The setup wizard is refused until the service's first invoice is paid in full (SERVICE_FIRST_INVOICE_UNPAID).

Server selection

The provisioner selects a server as follows:

1. If the product has a Server Group, a server is chosen from that group by the group's fill type. Disabled servers and full servers are skipped, and a Max Accounts of 0 counts as full. A server with no maximum is never full.
   • LeastFull: the lowest fill ratio wins; ties go to the default server, then to the larger capacity, then to the first by name.
   • FillUntilFull: the default server is used first, then servers with a limit in name order, then servers with no limit as overflow. A server is filled until its maximum, then the next one is used.
2. If the product has no server group, the module must be unambiguous: if only one supported module is in use across all servers, that module's server is chosen with LeastFull, which always applies without a group. If more than one module is in use, the order fails with PRODUCT_SERVER_GROUP_REQUIRED.
3. If no eligible server exists, the operation fails with NO_ELIGIBLE_SERVER.

The default server is preferred within its group or module when other things are equal. Account counts come from connection tests and the Sync Server Account Counts job, so fill is approximate between syncs.

What happens on provisioning

1. Hostpanel reads the service's domain, username and password. If no password was set, one is generated and saved to the service record before the panel is called.

2. Hostpanel calls the server's control panel API to create the hosting account with the product's Package Name. If the product has no package name, the operation fails with PRODUCT_PACKAGE_MISSING.

3. On success the service becomes Active, the billing period starts, and the provisioning reference is stored on the service record.

A retry is safe: if the same account already exists on the panel under the same username and domain, Hostpanel adopts it. If the username is taken by a different domain, provisioning fails with PROVISIONING_ACCOUNT_CONFLICT. Other panel failures return PROVISIONING_UPSTREAM_FAILED.

If the service record has no domain or username yet, provisioning fails with SERVICE_HOSTING_DETAILS_MISSING. Attempting to run provisioning on a service that is not in Pending status returns SERVICE_NOT_PENDING.

On success the client receives the service-provisioned email.

Failed domain registrations on the same order

When an order contains both a hosting service and a domain, and the domain registration fails, the domain's cost is refunded automatically (through the original gateway or as credit). The hosting service is still provisioned.

The Module Commands card

The Module Commands card on a service's detail page shows the actions available for the current status.

Service status	Available commands
Pending	Create, Terminate
Active	Suspend, Terminate, Change Package, Change Password
Suspended	Unsuspend, Terminate
Terminated	(shows Termination Date field only)

The Login to Control Panel button (top of the service page) is available on Active and Suspended services. It opens a single-sign-on URL to the client's account on the control panel (SERVICE_CREDENTIALS_UPSTREAM_FAILED if the panel does not answer).

Change Package and Change Password require a provisioning reference to be set (i.e. the account was created successfully). Without one: SERVICE_NOT_PROVISIONED. Without a server assigned: SERVICE_NO_SERVER_ASSIGNED. Panel refusals return SERVICE_PACKAGE_UPSTREAM_FAILED or SERVICE_PASSWORD_UPSTREAM_FAILED.

Terminate always shows a confirmation dialog before proceeding.

Staff can also change the status directly with the Status drop-down in the same card without calling the panel, useful for correcting a record.

Suspension

A service is suspended in two ways:

• Manually by staff — click Suspend in Module Commands.
• Automatically by the billing job — the Suspend Overdue Services job suspends services whose invoices are overdue beyond the billing.renewal.suspend_after_overdue_days grace period.

Hostpanel calls the panel first and updates its own record only after the panel confirms. A panel refusal returns SERVICE_SUSPEND_UPSTREAM_FAILED.

When a service is suspended, any SSH keys the client had installed on the server are removed automatically.

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Suspend through Hostpanel, not directly in the control panel. A panel-side suspension locks the password but does not stop a key from logging in. Suspending in Hostpanel removes the keys.

Unsuspend re-installs the SSH keys on the server after the panel confirms. Panel refusal returns SERVICE_UNSUSPEND_UPSTREAM_FAILED.

Termination

A service is terminated in three ways:

• Manually by staff — click Terminate in Module Commands.
• Automatically at end of billing cycle — tick Auto-Terminate End of Cycle on the service's Auto-Management tab and optionally set a Termination Reason.
• Automatically after long suspension — the Auto-Terminate Suspended job terminates services that have been suspended for more than billing.renewal.terminate_after_suspended_days days.

When a service is terminated manually, Hostpanel contacts the panel first. If the panel refuses, it returns SERVICE_TERMINATE_UPSTREAM_FAILED and the service remains unchanged — no status change is written. If the panel accepts, the service is set to Terminated and the SSH keys are revoked.

If the panel refused and the service stayed as it was, the daily auto-terminate job retries when the service is next due for auto-terminate, and staff receive the service-termination-failed-admin email at that point.

SERVICE_TERMINATE_NOT_ALLOWED is returned when attempting to terminate a service that is already Terminated.

Auto-Management settings

On the service's Auto-Management tab:

Setting	What it does
Automatic billing	Enables renewal invoice generation, overdue suspension and auto-termination for this service
Override Auto-Suspend	Prevents the billing job from suspending this service automatically
Suspend Until	Date after which auto-suspend can resume (only when Override Auto-Suspend is on)
Auto-Terminate End of Cycle	Terminates the service at the end of the current billing period
Termination Reason	Note recorded with the auto-termination (only when Auto-Terminate End of Cycle is on)

Scheduled jobs

Job (Cron class)	Default time (UTC)	What it does
Sync Server Account Counts (SyncServerAccountCountsCron)	06:00	Updates the live account count shown on each server row
Auto-Terminate Suspended (AutoTerminateSuspendedCron)	08:00	Terminates services suspended for non-payment past billing.renewal.terminate_after_suspended_days days, then terminates services set to auto-terminate at end of cycle
Suspend Overdue Services (SuspendOverdueServicesCron)	09:00	Suspends services whose invoice has been overdue for more than billing.renewal.suspend_after_overdue_days days

The job times are set in ScheduledJobs options. Go to Settings → System Settings to change the billing thresholds:

Name	Type	Default	Description
billing.renewal.suspend_after_overdue_days	number	3	Days an invoice may stay overdue before the services on it are suspended. Range: 0 to 90.
billing.renewal.terminate_after_suspended_days	number	14	Days a service suspended for non-payment stays suspended before it is terminated and its hosting account removed. Range: 1 to 90.