Plesk 8.0 causes server crash once every 1-3 days.

[renegadeavenger]

I am running Suse 10.0 and have Plesk 8.0 installed. I don't know why but my server keeps crashing once every 1-3 days. Based on logs the last crons that it executed was the drweb update and the backupmng. I have disabled drweb and removed it from the server but the server still seems to be crashing and the last line was executing backupmng. I am 100% sure there is nothing wrong with the installation of the Suse 10.0 or any hardware issues as I have moved the harddrive to a different server and yet it still crashes. Any ideas?

 

[DazTomkins]

My Plesk 8.0 server is also crashing every couple of days, i have no idea why, ive had it for just over a week now and its done it about 4 times, each time i have to get it rebooted to bring it back to life.

 

[renegadeavenger]

DazTomkins, did you fix this yet? If not can you try this? Disable the crontab from Plesk or even just remove it and then reboot the machine or restart cron.

*/15 * * * * /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/backupmng >/dev/null 2>&1

 

[DazTomkins]

Hi, I didnt actually do anything but it seems to have stop doing it, however, ive just now tried to login to plesk to check all is well, (as you reminded me), BUT i cant even get onto plesk now! i just get a 'page cannot be displayed', the server is pinging fine, and i can access web/email, but cant get into plesk. I shall investigate further..........

 

[renegadeavenger]

hehe at least you figured out that the crash is related to plesk somewhere If it was running it should still crash based on my experience with several servers now.

 

[NightStorm]

Lesser of two evils?
Are the sites still running, or is everything down? What, if anything, is showing up in your log files around the time of the crash?

 

[renegadeavenger]

last line executed was

/usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/backupmng >/dev/null 2>&1

the whole server becomes down. You cannot ping it either.
It is definitely not hardware as I've tried different servers and all the servers are crashing without any specific reason after running that line.

 

[DazTomkins]

Hi, i managed to get my plesk back up and running by starting it in ssh. that was 2 days ago, all has been fine since. Until just now... ive noticed the server is completely dead! I cannot ping it, cannot access plesk, cannot access any websites or email address.

Ive contacted 1&1 but they are useless, they say "its your server, so you fix it". .

Im convinced this has something to do with Plesk though, ever since i got this Plesk 8 it has been a nightmare.

 

[NightStorm]

Well, two options.
Request a reboot of the server, and be ready to log into SSH as soon as it comes up, to see if you can fix PSA... or kill the process.
Switch to a different Datacenter. While it's "Your server", it's on "Their rack", and part of the service should be rebooting the server if it is unresponsive. Ev1 has a little button in their control panel that allows you to powercycle your server easily... or you can submit a ticket and they will reboot it for you in anywhere from 1 to 60 minutes (depends on the time of day and how busy the place is).
Unless you're locked into a contract, I would suggest you start looking towards moving. It'll also give you a chance to start with a clean PSA install, and more reliable support.

 

[DazTomkins]

Ye there is a 6 month contract, 5 months remaining but i should be able to get out of it, they shouldnt sell a product that isnt fit for purpose,.

Ive been looking around for ages for a decent server, within the last year ive been around atleast 10 different providers, they all **** at something, its such a pain trying to find one that actually does its job! Thanks for the recommendation on EV1 - Im going to take a look at them now. Cheers.

 

[renegadeavenger]

Tomkins, what OS are you using? I am using Suse 10.0 and I am experiencing endless nightmares. Plesk 7.5+ didn't have any issues related to crashing.

 

[PE-Steve]

I've been having these problems as well.

I'm running CentOS 4.3 with Plesk 8.0.1. Some of my servers have been randomly crashing and there are no logs of anything going wrong before the crash. While this may be related to a motherboard or powersupply issue that we are looking into, it seems rather odd that others are having the same problem.

The servers reply to PING, although every service on the box is not accessible. Plesk, httpd, mysql, ssh, everything does not work.

Has anyone experience any issues related to the above paragraph (about only PING answering my requests)?

SWSoft, you are REALLY starting to piss people off, especially me, and I've been a HUGE supporter of your product since the day I started using it. Fix these stupid errors or you will have MANY people looking into other control panels. Direct Admin is definitely looking like a better option for me at this point. This is definitely not the only problem I've had. I'm about to vomit over the quality of products that you release.

EDIT: And yes, it never crashed while using Plesk 7.5.4 reloaded.

Regards,
Steve

 

[DazTomkins]

Well im glad its not just me having these problems.

Ive found out that the crashing is possibly due to my server using all of its available RAM, on the plesk desktop it currently says:

985.9 MB of 1002.6 MB used; 16.7 MB available

Im assuming, when it reaches the top, it just shut downs?

However, i want to find out why its using so much ram? what on earth could it be doing to use so much? If i restart the server then it drops to about 300mb, but it always goes back over 900.

Any ideas on this?

Btw, the server has got Fedora Core 4.

 

[jimroe]

I'm assuming, when it reaches the top, it just shut downs?

No. Unix doesn't release memory allocated to a program when the program exits (which is how Windows works) it doesn't launder the used memory pages until a new application requests memory. So if you run a Unix server long enough, it will end up using 100% of physical memory and this is normal behavior.

If you want to get a sense as to whether or not you have enough physical memory, or if a lack of memory is responsible for crashes, you have to look at the amount of swap memory used. If this is minimal (like 10% or less of installed physical) then you have enough memory.

 

[renegadeavenger]

guys, lets try to nail down to the cause of the problem since I have been trying to reach plesk email support it takes them ages to reply.

The following when I disable them seem to make the server a little more stable, can someone also test this and see if it helps?

disable the following cronjobs:
* * * * /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/statistics >/dev/null 2>&1
*/15 * * * * /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/backupmng >/dev/null 2>&1

I also on my machine have drweb uninstalled, but can someone try disabling those cronjobs and see if it makes the server more stable?

Thanks

 

[DazTomkins]

I dont mean to act thick, (although i probably am ) but how do i do disable those?

 

[DazTomkins]

Sorry! Me obviously being thick, i forgot about the page inside plesk that allows you to disable/enable the cronjobs, ive done it now, so lets see what happens....

 

[renegadeavenger]

make sure that you also restart cron in SSH

/etc/init.d/crond restart

 

[fishnyc22]

Hey guys. I'm also having problems with my server chashing every few days. I also see this call as one of the last things thats occured:

(/usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/backupmng >/dev/null 2>&1)

What exactly does backupmng do that it runs every 15 min? I'd just like to know before I disable it.

Also for those of you on 1and1 and experiencing crashes. You can reboot yourself by going to the 1and1 control panel http://admin.1and1.com (not plesk control panel) and choosing Recovery Tool and selecting Reboot Now in Normal Mode. Works like a charm. Though I wish I didnt have to do it.

 

[renegadeavenger]

fishey, thats exactly what I am experiencing.. what OS are you using??