Problem connecting to plesk panel

[PolitisP]

Hello,
I haven't used plesk for some time and now I try to connect typing https://IP:8443
It says something like 'this page is not available -- 102 (net::ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED):' in my browser, although the sites hosted there are working perfectly. Any idea about what could be the problem?

 

[Faris Raouf]

It is possible that the Plesk GUI has stopped.

Try using netstat -avnlp to see what's listening.

You can just try to restart it if it isn't listening.

If it is listening, check your firewall.


Faris.

 

[PolitisP]

Thanks for you anwser.
1) I tried restart but no luck.
2) I'm not using a firewall
3) I tried netstat -avnlp but I didn't see plesk there (does it run as plesk, psa or as httpd?)
4) I tried:

[root@xxx]# /etc/init.d/psa status
psa is stopped

So I tried to start it:

[root@xxx]# /etc/init.d/psa start
Starting xinetd service... done
Starting named service... done
Starting mysqld service... done
Starting postgresql service... done
Starting psa-spamassassin service... not installed
Plesk: Starting Mail Server... already started
Starting mail handlers tmpfs storage
Starting Plesk... failed
Starting drwebd service... failed

What else could I do?

 

[Faris Raouf]

OK. We need to find the cause of the problem.

The Parallels httpd (which is not starting) has its own log files which you need to check.

Take a look in /usr/local/psa/admin/logs and you'll find lots of logs

httpsd_error_log is likely to be the one you need to check, but look at anything else you might think is important too.

At the back of my mind I seem to recall some issue in the past to do with SSL that caused problems like the one you are having, but it might not be that.

Anyway, check that log (and also /var/log/messages just in case) to see what might be going on.

Faris.

 

[PolitisP]

Unfortunately the only files I could find there were httpsd_access_log files. It seems the problem started on January since there aren't new logs since 30 Jan and I only see "POST /login_up.php3 HTTP/1.1" attemps in the last one.

In /var/log/messages most messages are about updates on drweb:


Jul 31 20:00:02 xxx update.pl[26766]: Dr.Web (R) Updater ($Revision: 1.7.2.32.2.5 $) started ...
Jul 31 20:00:02 xxx update.pl[26766]: Path to bases : /var/drweb/bases/
Jul 31 20:00:02 xxx update.pl[26766]: Path to URL list : /var/drweb/bases/
Jul 31 20:00:02 xxx update.pl[26766]: Path to blacklists : /var/drweb/dws/
...
Jul 31 20:00:04 xxx update.pl[26766]: /var/drweb/bases/drw50011.vdb - drw50011.vdb with such CRC32 already exists, downloading has been skipped
Jul 31 20:00:04 xxx update.pl[26766]: /var/drweb/bases/drw50012.vdb - drw50012.vdb with such CRC32 already exists, downloading has been skipped
Jul 31 20:00:04 xxx update.pl[26766]: /var/drweb/bases/drw50013.vdb - drw50013.vdb with such CRC32 already exists, downloading has been skipped
Jul 31 20:00:04 xxx update.pl[26766]: /var/drweb/bases/drw50014.vdb - drw50014.vdb with such CRC32 already exists, downloading has been skipped
Jul 31 20:00:04 xxx update.pl[26766]: /var/drweb/bases/drw50015.vdb - drw50015.vdb with such CRC32 already exists, downloading has been skipped

And this is from the file /usr/local/psa/admin/conf/php.ini :

short_open_tag = On
y2k_compliance = Off
output_buffering = Off
allow_call_time_pass_reference = On
max_execution_time = 600
max_input_time = 600
memory_limit = 128M

error_reporting = E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE
log_errors = On
display_errors = Off
warn_plus_overloading = Off
expose_php = Off

variables_order = "ECGPS"
register_argc_argv = On
auto_globals_jit = Off
post_max_size = 2147483647
magic_quotes_gpc = On
magic_quotes_runtime = Off

include_path = "/usr/local/psa/admin/plib:/usr/local/psa/admin/javascripts:/usr/local/psa/admin/plib/locales:/usr/local/psa/admin/auto_prepend:/usr/local/psa
/admin/htdocs/domains/databases/phpMyAdmin:/usr/local/psa/admin/htdocs/domains/databases/phpPgAdmin"
upload_tmp_dir = "/tmp"
upload_max_filesize = 2147483647

apc.stat = 0
apc.shm_size = 40
apc.include_once_override = 1

swkey.repository_dir = "/etc/sw/keys"

What else could I try?

 

[Faris Raouf]

There has to be a log entry somewhere. Even just one showing the failed startup.

Have you tried checking for disk space problems/checking for anything interesting in /tmp

What about rebooting the server? When mysterious problems happen that have no obvious solution, I occasionally get tempted to do this and 9 times out of 10 is solves the problem. Obviously doing this can cause even more problems if you are very unlucky, and really a solution should be possible without a reboot, so be careful.

Incidentally, which version of Plesk are we talking about? And which OS? The location of the log files I mentioned only apply to 8.x, I think. 9.x and later put them somewhere different.


Faris.

 

[PolitisP]

I was wrong. I was thinking that I had version 8.xxx, but I had 9.2.2. My OS is CentOs 5. I found the error log file and I think the problem was this: http://kb.odin.com/8338

In the link it says that: "The problem has been fixed since version 9.5.0.", so I updated to this version. Unfortunately, the server still doesn't start and I see the same error:

2011-08-08 15:51:24: (log.c.75) server started
2011-08-08 15:51:24: (network.c.336) SSL: error:00000000:lib(0):func(0):reason(0)
2011-08-08 15:51:25: (log.c.75) server started
2011-08-08 15:51:25: (network.c.336) SSL: error:00000000:lib(0):func(0):reason(0)

I also received this email:

################# SSL Certificate Warning ################

Certificate for hostname 'plesk', in file:
/usr/local/psa/var/certificates/certLm12104

The certificate needs to be renewed; this can be done
using the 'genkey' program.

Browsers will not be able to correctly connect to this
web site using SSL until the certificate is renewed.

##########################################################
Generated by certwatch(1)


I tried running 'genkey', generating a new key but plesk still doesn't start. What else could I do?

 

[Faris Raouf]

Ah. Right. The problem is almost certainly the one mentioned in the KB.

I would not worry too much about the SSL certificate issue at this stage - until you get the other issue sorted. I don't think the certificatye error would cause a problem - it would just cause a certificate error to be shown (I think!). But at the moment we just want the darned panel up and running.

Is your OS up to date as well as Plesk?

Which version of Plesk are you now on? 9.5.4? Is Plesk showing any other updates for you to install (other than Plesk 10, I mean)?

Also which version of sw-cp-server is being shown as installed on your system? I'm asking because it is possible that you may somehow still have the old one.

Faris.