Issue with new domains and www prefix - URGENT

[xomatech]

Hello there! I've had this installation of Plesk since it was on version 7 and have been upgrading periodically over the years without any major problems. I am now at the latest version, 11.0.9, Update #9.

I've noticed that over the last couple months (cannot pinpoint exactly when), whenever I add a domain/subscription, it is supposed to be added with the 'www' prefix, and it is supposed to be working perfectly with the 'www' prefix.

HOWEVER, that is not the case. For some reason, even though there is a CNAME in the DNS showing the 'www' prefix for the domain, and even though the 'https_include' file for the domain-name DOES mention the full 'www' domain, it does not load.

Whenever you try to access a site, if you don't put in the 'www', it comes up right away, if you do put it, the browser just sits there and eventually times out. It's like it reaches the server, but the server simply doesn't respond. If I try to ping the server using the the URL with the 'www', it responds, meaning that it's not a DNS issue. It is, rather, some kind of a configuration issue of Apache or something else.

The domain I'm currently working on is twoaddisonplace.com. If you attempt to access that without the 'www' at http://twoaddisonplace.com/ it works, if you do so with the 'www', however, (http://www.twoaddisonplace.com/) it just sits there and eventually times out.

I honestly do not know what it could be, or how we can go about resolving this. It's a bizarre problem that does not get fixed EVEN when I reconfigure the apache install using the following command:

/usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/httpdmng --reconfigure-domain twoaddisonplace.com

Has anyone experienced this issue with newer updates of Plesk? Like I said, I can't pinpoint when it started, although from the domains that it seems to be affecting, it's been probably over the last month.

 

[abdi]

Please try repairing ALL vhosts with

/usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/httpdmng --reconfigure-all

Let me know if that does not help, and after you can also restart apache.

 

[xomatech]

Done that already to no avail. :-(

And restarted apache, rebooted, etc. I have over 100 domains on there, all of them work...only the last three new ones that I added (now that I remember, since upgrading to 11), are the ones failing to work with 'www'.

Thanks for the reply...if you have any other ideas, please let me know!

 

[abdi]

Skype: TheGreatSeven

When creating these subscriptions, I hope you didnt add the www as part of the domain, did you?

 

[xomatech]

No....but just to make sure, I deleted the domain, re-added it making sure I didn't include the 'www', and same result. :-(

 

[abdi]

Been here already?

http://kb.parallels.com/9289

 

[xomatech]

Yes, unfortunately. The server is behaving correctly, as far as creating the CNAME properly within the DNS and creating the Apache configuration file referencing the 'www' prefix.

There is a difference between that KB article and what's going on here. The article says:

However, the default page of Parallels Plesk Panel is shown when http://www.DOMAIN.TLD is but not when http://DOMAIN.TLD is open.

In my case nothing's opening...not the default Plesk page, not the correct page....it just times out. It does not seems to be DNS issue because I'm not getting a "server not found" error...the server is found, but it does not seem to respond to the request whenever the 'www' is used as part of the domain-name.

 

[abdi]

Anything in the apache logs that could give a clue to the timeouts? Any filters, firewalls..really unlikely but well, you never know!

 

[xomatech]

Well, for what it's worth, I purchased a support incident from these people....let's see if they can resolve it....once they do, and tell me what they did, I'll post it here in case anybody else encounters this issue.

 

[abdi]

Have they resolved your issue?

 

[xomatech]

Yes, and it turns out that the problem had nothing to do with Plesk or the server. Instead, the client didn't configure the DNS properly with the registrar. Instead of just changing the name servers to point to the server, he kept them at the registrar but did not configure the 'www' CNAME properly on there.

I can't believe I had to pay $75 to support for them to tell me that, but I guess it was better to do it that way than spend hours myself trying to troubleshoot a server that wasn't broken.

Note to self (and anyone else reading this)....always make sure the DNS is configured properly...this is not the first time it's caused me headaches. When in doubt, check the DNS. LOL!