Resolved Site Doesn't Update -Old Revision Prevails...

[goturbo]

Hello,
I'm looking for some assistance with an issue related to updating my site. Sorry for the long post and likely misuse of technical terminology -I'm not a professional programmer or web developer; the site I maintain is used for a charity providing news updates and directing folks to the other related sites. It has worked great for that purpose, however periodic updates are necessary. I have not updated the site since GoDaddy moved to the Plesk platform so some of this was new.

The issue that I am experiencing is related to uploading a new/updated site and not seeing changes. My web development tool has a preview function (Chrome, Explorer, Firefox, etc...) which I have used prior to publishing the site updates to Plesk and everything looks good. However, every time I re-load the site the updates don't seem to 'get loaded'.

I'm using FTP host address as the upload gateway.

Here's what I've done so far;
1. Used the development tool preview function and viewed with multiple browsers and uploaded the new site/changes to Plesk
2. Cleared cache, cookies, etc, and viewed the site from multiple devices to confirm that the changes 'did not get loaded'
3. Looked at the HTML files in the FTP folder in Plesk to see changes (I'm not a programmer, but I can look at the HTML code and verify that the words I changed with my development tool are correct) and confirmed that the HTML does indeed reflects the changes I made to the site with my development tool prior to publishing.
4. Repeated step 2 above with the same results
5. Researched similar issues on forums
6. Using advice from the forums I've 'nuked' the data within Plesk by toggling between 'local' hosing and 'redirect'. This sure looked like it removed all data...
7. Re-created the FTP and re-published the site
8. Repeated Step 2 above... with the same results

This looks like a chicken/egg situation; Is there some issue with my development tool that isn't allowing me to see what is actually being published, or is there still an old backup that is lurking somewhere within Plesk that is not allowing the new/updated site to operate? Other than the 'nuclear' option referenced above, can someone provide a handy way to data mine in Plesk to confirm that some 'previous' version of my site isn't somehow still living through all this?

Other advice is welcome, but help with looking for a hidden backup file in Plesk would likely be a good start.

Thank you !

 

[Monty]

It may sound silly, but did you check the DNS records of your domain, do they really point to your server? Do you see your accesses to the website in the log files of your domain?

 

[goturbo]

Monty, Thanks for the reply.

That isn't a silly question. I looked high an low for my DNS settings -there are 'none' to be found. I found the below on a Plesk Doc:

Note: If your Plesk does not use its own DNS service and does not allow configuring DNS settings on a remote DNS server, you can only view the information about your registered domain name. The link DNS Settings in Websites & Domains will be replaced with Whois Information.

Interestingly, I found the Whois clicky in the Websites & Domains Control panel. Gave it a click, then I was met with this:

Warning: Whois is unavailable for xxxxxxxxxxxxx.org
Unable to open socket (10060): A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond.

Also peeked in the log files:



I'm confused by this. I see the uploaded files within the file manager; the date and time match my most recent upload. Why isn't that in the log?

I had two calls with Plesk support and they gave the 'all clear' for the functionality of the site and recommended a 'YouTube' search if troubles continued. I could not find any helpful videos.

Any further suggestions are appreciated.

 

[Monty]

Just perform the following two tests on another Linux machine:

# dig yourdomainname.tld A

and

# dig www.yourdomainname.tld A

Do you get the IP of your Plesk server in the output?

 

[goturbo]

I'm using a Windows 10 machine and don't have access to a Linux system.

I'm wading onto pretty deep water with my lack of understanding on the inner working of a web server, however I found a site called mxtoolbox.com with a DNS lookup tool.

Typed in the web address and it returned an IP Address that did NOT match that of my hosing IP. As a second data point I found another lookup tool at dig.whois.com and verified that it matched the first IP address found at mxtoolbox.

I don't see that IP address anywhere in my Plesk hosting manager.

 

[Monty]

So we can conclude: Your website is not pointing to your Plesk server. Any changes you do on your Plesk server will have no effect on your website. That explains why you keep seeing your old content after you've updated the website on your Plesk server.

You should find out who owns the IP of your domain and contact them for further assistance.

 

[goturbo]

Monty,
Thank you very much for your assistance with troubleshooting this situation. The issue is on its way to being corrected; as soon as the Domain merge propagation is complete.

Here is what happened. There were in fact two separate IP's; one for the domain and one for the hosting, both GoDaddy accounts. The reason for this relates to the diversification of fiscal responsibility among members of the board of the charity. This wasn't a problem until recently. I can't say that it related to the migration of GoDaddy hosting to Plesk, so I won't. In any case, once I dialed-in on the fact that there were different IP's (with your help) I was able to speak to Tech Assistance at GoDaddy and they merged the IP's to the new, Plesk address. Fortunately, I had all the account information for both accounts so the process was easy.

Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction.

 

[ChainWalker]

Monty,
Thank you very much for your assistance with troubleshooting this situation. The issue is on its way to being corrected; as soon as the Domain merge propagation is complete.

Here is what happened. There were in fact two separate IP's; one for the domain and one for the hosting, both GoDaddy accounts. The reason for this relates to the diversification of fiscal responsibility among members of the board of the charity. This wasn't a problem until recently. I can't say that it related to the migration of GoDaddy hosting to Plesk, so I won't. In any case, once I dialed-in on the fact that there were different IP's (with your help) I was able to speak to Tech Assistance at GoDaddy and they merged the IP's to the new, Plesk address. Fortunately, I had all the account information for both accounts so the process was easy.

Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction.

Your website is not pointing to your Plesk server. Any changes you do on your Plesk server will have no effect on your website. That explains why you keep seeing your old content after you've updated the website on your Plesk server.