Resolved Can't acccess the CP | 8443

[Michaela Strotmann]

Hi,

I installed Plesk 12.5 on Microsoft Azure (RedHat Enterprise Linux 7) but I can't log into Plesk, because whenever i try to go to https://137.135.91.125:8443/ i got a blank page or a gateway timeout.

- I installed Plesk via wget-O-http://autoinstall.plesk.com/one-click-installer | sh
- I have access to the server: via SSH (Putty)
- Plesk is running: /etc/init.d/psa status
- I retrieved my password: # /usr/local/psa/bin/admin --show-password
- I opened the port: firewall-cmd--add-port=8443/tcp

I don't know what's wrong...please help!

Thank you in advance.
Michaela

 

[Lloyd_mcse]

Hi Michaela Strotmann
it sounds like the installation didn't finish correctly, but it' hard to tell without any logs, you can check in...

/var/log/plesk/install/plesk_12.5.30_installation.log
/var/log/plesk/install/plesk_12.5.30_installation_problems.log

To repair the install...

# plesk repair installation

In case of gateway timeouts, you can adjust the Plesk panels server via...

/etc/sw-cp-server/config

fastcgi_buffers 16 16k;
fastcgi_buffer_size 32k;
fastcgi_read_timeout 600;
fastcgi_send_timeout 600;

For example.
I hope that helps.
Kind regards

Lloyd

 

[Michaela Strotmann]

Hi Lloyd,

Thank you for your fast reply! It seems like the job for nginx.service failed. I'm wondering a bit, because I've got the same error message in two linux installations (CentOS + RedHat).

Did I something wrong during the installation routine?

Kind regards
Michaela

 

[Lloyd_mcse]

Hi,
do you have any errors in...

/var/log/nginx/error.log

For instance...
http://kb.plesk.com/en/126734

Regards

Lloyd

 

[trialotto]

@Michaela Strotmann

There are many challenges and sometimes issues when using Plesk on Azure.

First thing to note is the "internal network" used on Azure: one has to careful when assigning IPs.

Second, the Azure IP should be a "fixed IP", otherwise you will have issues with the control panel.

Third, you should be careful when selecting the OS image you are using.

Having stated the above, your particular issue seems to be related to

- SELINUX (note: I am pretty sure that this is not the root cause of the problem)
- Nginx (read: general config)

and you will have to check the Nginx configuation files, since they have to contain the PROPER IPs (that is, the internal network IPs).

Finally, keep in mind that your server´s hostname has to be identical to the (really long) Azure name (plesk.eastus.cloudapp.azure.com).

Regards.....

PS If you do not get the system running, I am willing to have a look or spin up a CentOS machine on Azure, in order to replicate the issue(s) and be of further assistance.

 

[Michaela Strotmann]

@trialotto

Thank you for the excellent feedback. I was wondering if I made the mistake right in the beginning while the server was associated with an internal IP. Therefore, your hint with the fixed or static IPs was very helpful. I'm looking forward and start to deploy OpenLogic's CentOS on Azure....

Just a quick question: Is there any illustrated guide in the web to create a simple CentOS azure-ready OS image which fits perfectly with Plesk - mean where I did not have to configure Nginx? This would be so useful, while I'm still learning...



Once again, *BIG* thank you guys for great support!

Sincerely yours
Michaela

 

[trialotto]

@Michaela Strotmann

When dealing with Azure, one always has to think "big", in terms of

- awareness that network speeds are not always high (note: Plesk even runs on a Basic A0, but then you have something like 5MB/s bandwidth, which is not sufficient)
- a big pocket/budget (Azure can become quite expensive)
- a good design structure, with respect to the network, load balancing and whatever is relevant
- investment (time and money) to create redeployable (and maintained) images (note: the default images on Azure marketplace are often rubbish)
- and many other things.

In essence, one does not have to "configure" Nginx, it is installed and should work out-of-the-box.

What I would recommend is the following:

a) invest time (and/or a little bit of money) to get a default Plesk installation up and running in a Azure VM,

b) extract an "default image" that can be redeployed across VMs,

c) redeploy whenever necessary and ONLY change VM sizes on the fly, if and only if required.


The nice thing about Azure is that it is full of tools ......... but those are not always available to everyone.

Do you have DevLabs?

That really is the way to go, when wanting to create and maintain a stable (default) image of a CentOS + Plesk stack.


By the way, always possible to bundle forces and work together on a Azure VM image, containing a CentOS + Plesk stack.

You can respond to that in this forum, or send me a private message.

Regards!

 

[Michaela Strotmann]

@trialotto @Lloyd_mcse

I would like to give you a quick update (after reading tons of log-files).

• NGINX is running! (Before proceeding with the installation steps, I removed the existing instances of Apache, MySQL, PHP,...). I think this could be a pre-requisites on Microsoft Azure for installing Plesk.
• IP problem on Azure solved! (Due to missing "Inbound security rules", ports, i.e. 8443 were not reachable)
• Acccess the Plesk CP solved!
• Plesk installed!

I'm thrilled, while Plesk 12.5.30 Update #36 is running as fast as a shark on Microsoft Azure!!!

P.S. Much appreciate your advice guys!

Cheers
Michaela

 

[trialotto]

@Michaela Strotmann

Nginx is not yet running properly, it has to be able to connect to the local server (this would be "good to go" normally, but you will have to check).

One cannot simply remove existing instances of Apache, MySql or PHP, this should simply not be necessary (the install script should detect them or the image should not have them).

The "inbound security rules" that you are talking about, are only a small part of ACL and other configurations that you have to do: all Plesk related ports should be set/configured.

The good news is that you only have to make one set of rules, you can then use the set for every machine (in principle).

Well, Plesk is installed, but not completely, most of the services will not work yet.


By the way, you are using a D1 machine (as I saw from the screenshot) and that is a whopping € 57 euro per month for a SSD based machine, with limited memory (3.5 GB).

There are many important things to note:

a) the D1 v2 machine is cheaper at € 54 euro per month (768 hours) and is much faster! (both the processor and the SSD disk(s) are faster)

Note that changing the D1 to a D1 v2 machine is a matter of seconds, so just change the VM size (a nice exercise, by the way, to get familiar with Azure).

b) € 54 euro per month can get you a little bit more "oompf" (a better server), if you buy a dedicated server somewhere else, but you will not have the fancy and nice Azure environment

c) the D1 has a 60MB/s (from the top of my head, I can be mistaken) and that is enough, even a little bit too much, since the disk IOPS are not that large (500)

Note that, whenever using a D or D v2 series VM, it is recommend to go for the so-called Premium Storage, since normal storage can be somewhat slow and hence a bottleneck.

d) you had RHEL (apparentely), which is not necessary (it only drives the price up) and changed to CentOS.......but you really should consider Ubuntu: it is one of the Linux distributions with an OS image that is provided by the OS vendor. And Canonical does an excellent job supporting Ubuntu on Azure.

e) you have a free trial at Azure, with some credits: monitor expenses thoroughly, since a buck will be charged very fast

f) you should consider to get familiar with Azure Powershell (it enables you to write scripts and automate all common Azure related tasks, including launching a machine)

and all of the above is just the tip of the iceberg.

Naturally, many suggestions and tips can be given for working with Azure, which is a very mature Cloud platform, that keeps on growing in functionality and convenience.

However, it takes some time to get the hang of Azure, so investment some time in "playing around".

If you have questions about Plesk on Azure, just ask (been there, done that many times).

Regards!

 

[trialotto]

@Michaela Strotmann

Forgot to mentioning the following "practical" recommendations:

1) always use swap on a Linux based Azure VM: at create time, just go to extensions, search for swap an click on the extension.

Note: this way, the swap is persistent. If you do create swap manually, you will run into trouble, in the sense that swap is not persistent at all.

Note: a good swap size is depending on the size of memory. However, normal rules of "good swap practice" cannot be applied, unless you have some decent knowledge of swap partitions and the place on the (ephemeral or attached) disk(s), at which the swap preferably has to reside. So, just go for the extension at creation time (i.e. resulting in swap on the ephemeral disk, which satisfies at least one criterium of "good swap practice").

Note: a good rule of thumb for swap size on Azure VMs can be given, just take one or two times the memory associated with the VM (certainly not more).

2) it is preferred to use attached disks for logrotated files and other "static" content, with low read/write demands.

Note: the ephemeral disk gets erased when you stop an Azure VM, so only use that disk for cache, temporary files, swap (and everything else of temporary nature)

Note: use the OS disk for the Plesk installation (in every Azure VM, there is enough space), in order to prevent that this data gets erased sooner or later

Note: use attached disks for all other data and preferably use file storage, since file storage can be shared across VMs by simply adding it to /etc/fstab


As a final remark, (almost) every Linux based Azure VM is relying on cloud-init, which is a Canonical/Ubuntu thing.

It is nice to have the OS being pre-configured with cloud-init (instead of only using the Azure agent scripts), since that gives you a lot of flexibility and reliability.

For that reason alone, it is strongly recommend to consider Ubuntu (and not Debian) and, to a lesser degree, CentOS (not really recommended, also not strongly adviced against it).

In short, try some of the OS flavours in Azure and make a solid choice for one and the same OS (on every Azure VM).


Hope the above helps a bit.

Regards......

 

[Michaela Strotmann]

@trialotto

First, I created a Ubuntu 14.04 LTS based Azure VM on DS1_V2 machine. (OS image that is provided by the OS vendor, DS1_V2 is cheaper then the D1 machine).

I set/configured all Plesk related ports, otherwise most of the Plesk services will not work.

I re-configured the DNS zone template (got some problems before with the dynamic/static - mean public IP configurations), otherwise most of the services/apps will not work.

Now, everything works really smooth. I created a new domain, installed a Wordpress blog, usually things that make fun and engage

Thank you for the "practical" recommendations, i.e. swap. powershell, ....will have a look asap.

P.S. Pls give me a like It will be my first....

Cheers
Michaela

 

[trialotto]

@Michaela Strotmann

The like is granted.

First, note that you can choose to use Plesk as a primary nameserver or not: the DNS template settings are not or barely relevant if Plesk is not a primary nameserver.

It is recommended to use the DNS Management system at your registrar (or if that is rather buggy or inconvenient, use Azure DNS or lightning fast and free CloudFlare DNS).

Second and more important, note that you are building a Plesk instance, not an image as such.

In my experience, it often is more easy and faster to launch a VM (with an Azure extension, automatically installing but not running the Plesk autoinstaller) than to create "Plesk images".

The creation and maintenance of "Plesk images" would only be worthwhile if you have some intricate design structure with multiple subnets for Plesk instances, a subnet for MySql servers and subnet for specific server tasks (such as Nginx proxy servers, Fail2Ban server, mail servers, etc.), with each of the subnets containing multiple VMs.

This could become quite expensive, you can imagine that.

However, it is worthwhile to consider various subnets (for various reasons), but that is a more advanced topic for "Plesk on Azure".

Hope the above helps!

Regards....

 

[trialotto]

@Michaela Strotmann

By the way, I did send you a PM, have a look at your inbox.

Regards