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Apache won't start

D3nnis3n

Regular Pleskian
Hello,
my apache doesn't want to start:

Unable to make action: Unable to manage service by websrvmng: websrvmng: Service /etc/init.d/apache2 failed to restart

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

0: /usr/local/psa/admin/plib/common_func.php3:154
psaerror(string 'Unable to make action: Unable to manage service by websrvmng: websrvmng: Service /etc/init.d/apache2 failed to restart')
1: /usr/local/psa/admin/htdocs/server/restart_services.php:28


What to do? :(
 
I have a similar problem

I have, in the last 2 weeks, upgraded from Plesk 8.3.

I added some Rewrite statements to a new config/vhosts.conf file for a domain and bounced Apache. It failed so I removed the file completely from conf directory and restarted Apache and received the following error message;

<cut>
Unable to make action: Unable to manage service by websrvmng: websrvmng: Service /etc/init.d/httpd failed to restart

0: /usr/local/psa/admin/plib/common_func.php3:154
psaerror(string 'Unable to make action: Unable to manage service by websrvmng: websrvmng: Service /etc/init.d/httpd failed to restart')

1: /usr/local/psa/admin/htdocs/server/restart_services.php:28
</cut>

I had added a vhosts.conf file to a website (myyogispace.com) and restarted Apache. It failed so I removed said file and tried restarting Apache which resulted in above error message.

I used the command line: /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/websrvmng -p
command in an attempt to restart the service but no success.

I can find none of the above error messages as they are not in any "/var/log*" files nor in "/usr/local/psa/admin/logs/*"

but in "/usr/local/psa/admin/logs/httpsd_error_log" I did find:

websrvmng: Service /etc/init.d/httpd failed to restart

which I already know.

The only other change I made was to on the system was to change the /etc/php.ini and turn off short_tags. I reverted this back to a previous copy which worked successfully - but still Plesk will not start Apache.

So where next, please?
 
Successful Result

Reviewed Plesk knowledgebase article: http://kb.odin.com/en/1348

Used the following command - modified from above KB article

1)
# ps aux | grep httpd
No Apache running

2)
# /etc/init.d/httpd restart
Stopping httpd: [FAILED]
Starting httpd: [FAILED]

3)
# /usr/sbin/apachectl restart
apachectl: Configuration syntax error, will not run "restart":
httpd: Syntax error on line 209 of /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf: Syntax error on line 271 of /etc/httpd/conf.d/zz010_psa_httpd.conf: Syntax error on line 87 of /var/www/vhosts/<my_domain_name>/conf/httpd.include: Could not open configuration file /var/www/vhosts/myyogispace.com/conf/vhost.conf: No such file or directory

4) Re-created a null "vhosts.conf" file
# touch /var/www/vhosts/<my_domain_name>/conf/vhost.conf

5) Restarted Apache from Plesk control panel

6) Problem Solved.

Basically, if you manually create a "vhosts.conf" file for a domain and then manually remove it Plesk will fail. If you no longer require a "vhosts.conf" file you have to leave a null "vhosts.conf' file in place to satisfy Plesk.

NOTE In 3) above the error suggests that Plesk modifies an Apache system configuration file when you create a "vhosts.conf" file but is not modified when you remove one.
Also, the error messages in 3) above do not get logged to any of the system log files!! so unless you manually execute the command you will have no information to determine the problem.

This is strange, because when you create a new domain there is no "vhosts.conf" file and all works OK.

Parallels - please can you look into this and fix it please.
 
I may be wrong here, but try running "websrvmng -v -a" to rebuild things after you've deleted the vhost.conf file. I think that might all it takes.
 
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