Applicable to:
- Plesk for Linux
- Plesk for Windows
Question
What Node.js versions are available in Plesk and how to choose the version for a specific domain?
Answer
Node.js versions that are available for installation via Plesk Installer:
- Node.js 12
- Node.js 10
- Node.js 8
The node.js extension now automatically installs and updates supported LTS versions and the current version (12, 14, 16, 17) of Node.js.
There is a scheduled task that checks and installs available updates weekly. Once a new major LTS (or current) version appears it will be installed by this task.
To turn this task off you may add the following lines to the panel.ini file:
CONFIG_TEXT: [ext-nodejs]
updateVersionsAutomatically = false
To find out what Node.js versions are already installed on a Plesk server use one of the following methods:
-
Go to Extensions > Node.js:
Version can be selected from a drop-down menu under Plesk > Domains > example.com > Node.js > by clicking a version:
Comments
32 comments
Hi! When can you enable NodeJS 10 on linux servers?
Hi @Luis Mendieta,
Currently, we don't have any particular ETA.
I'd recommend you following the article to receive notifications.
Be sure we'll update it as soon as NodeJS 10 for Linux servers is supported.
Please update to at least Node 10 ASAP - all the other node versions are insecure and end of live!
We can't really use Node on Linux this way.
@George Petrov
There is work in progress on adding the latest Node.js version to Plesk and to drop the ones that reached the end of life.
The article will be updated when any additional information is available.
ETA for this ?
Thanks
Hello,
Right now there is no exact ETA but as soon as there will be additional information, this article will be updated.
The information after new version being added will be also present at Plesk Change Log.
So the last NodeJS extension update is from 2017 ... are you serious? Do you know how much has changed since then in NodeJS and all old version are already deprecated and end of life...
This makes it impossible to run any decent NodeJS app on Plesk and make the support of it more a marketing joke then real production ready case.
Hello @George,
Thank you for the valuable feedback.
Indeed, current experience with Plesk for professional concentrated on Node.js is far from optimal.
According to the information I have, the current approach for updating supported Node.js versions is to be changed to be more up to date.
Please, stay tuned for this article updates and thank you for understanding.
Hello,
If you not see new version Node.JS (10,12) in Plesk , you must reinstall extension Node.JS after that all be fine!
Hello @Евгений,
Thank you for the comment.
It may be useful for other Pleskians!
Hello, I am new to this Plesk and currently I only see NodeJS Ver 8,10, & 12. But one of my component requires NodeJS ver 9.10. I don't see an option in Plesk with this version to select.
I went into Tools & Setting > Updates > Web hosting > NodeJS is already selected so no option to select my version.
How do I install NodeJS 9.10 to my account?
Any help is appreciated.
Hi, Rajesh Kannivadi!
In Plesk installer, "NodeJS" is not divided into versions like PHP. Once you install it, Plesk installs all the versions it provides. At this moment NodeJS 9 is not provided, only versions 8,10 and 12.
So I recommend upgrading your app to version 10.
Thank you!
Hi there,
Is there any update regarding NodeJS V14?
Also what is the last supported version of NodeJS V12?
I'm running on 12.4.0 but there is 12.18.3 already available
Is there an official way to install other NodeJS Versions like NodeJS 14 that are not yet automatically installed?
Thanks in advance!
Hello Lukas Weber
NodeJS 14 becomes LTS at the end of October, according to this document: https://nodejs.org/en/about/releases/
Shortly after this, we plan to include NodeJS 14 in Plesk.
NodeJS 12 is planned to be updated in one of the upcoming Plesk updates.
>Is there an official way to install other NodeJS Versions like NodeJS 14 that are not yet automatically installed?
It may be installed only automatically, please, wait for the upcoming updates.
Hello Ivan Postnikov
Thank you very much for your answer.
I would like to know three additional things:
The NodeJS support just seems a little half-hearted to me. I don't understand why there is no support for stable versions and why there are no frequent updates after a security patch gets released. I would really like the plugin to have a dropdown with all versions that are currently available and if it is not installed, it gets downloaded and installed automatically from the official NodeJS server. I don't understand the issues with that. Is it that much effort to make a new version available?
I'm not developing the plugin and there certainly are things that I do not know but it would be very nice if you guys would tell why it is like that...
Have a nice day and thanks for your patience
Hello Lukas Weber
It takes a bit more time to clarify. I will let you know once when receive the info.
Hello Ivan Postnikov
Thanks for your response. No worries - I'm happy to wait and looking forward to your response
Have a nice day
Lukas
Hello Lukas Weber
I've received answers to your questions:
> Are only LTS versions supported or is this subject to change in the future?
Current plans are to support LTS versions only.
> Will future security patches also be delayed for so long or is this updates policy changing in the near future? (e.g. 12.4.0 to 12.18.3)
Node.js 14 is now the latest LTS version with the “active LTS” phase started at Oct 27 2020. It's currently planned to deliver this version is Plesk Obsidian 18.0.33, which is expected at the beginning of Q1 2021. As for the update speed, our RnD team does its best to deliver updates as soon as possible. However, sometimes there may be delays.
> Are there plans to enable manual installation of nodejs versions to recieve the latest features introduced from stable versions in the future?
There are no plans to enable manual installations for Node.js so far.
Thank you for understanding.
Hello Ivan Postnikov
Although this was not the result I was hoping for I really appreciate the communication and openness regarding my questions.
Thank you very much for taking the time to answer and providing more background on how the support of NodeJS will continue in the future.
Have a nice day
Lukas
Hi
Any downsides of just pasting in the node binaries and adding them like so ?
plesk sbin nodemng register /opt/plesk/node/14.x.x/bin/node
Thank you
Any updates on this? Thanks!
This is really getting ridiculous. You guys keep changing the release of node14 support.
Hello everyone,
After waiting over 5 months for any release, I think it is necessary to underline the urgency to get a NodeJS update.
You currently claim to support NodeJS LTS V12 - However, you only released V12.4.0.
The current version on the V12 branch is 12.22.1.
This might seem not important for you, but here's a list of all vulnerabilities that were patched AFTER V12.4.0.
So to be clear: Every customer of you, using NodeJS, is affected by ALL of these Vulnerabilities, not to mention the countless bugfixes and enhancements that were released after V12.4.0:
Feel free to look it up yourself by checking every post after December 2019 on the official NodeJS website.
The vulnerabilities are very diverse, containing SSL validation vulnerabilities, DNS vulnerabilities, HTTP-Protocol vulnerabilities, TLS vulnerabilities, possible Denial of Service vulnerabilities and many more.
If you want to delay NodeJS V14 that's okay with me - I will happily wait until it is finally released.
But what I highly urge you to do from a security standpoint is, that you release security updates to the Node-Branches you claim to support as soon as possible (and I'm speaking from weeks, not months).
Because right now all I'm seeing is that you take forever to release a new version and are unwilling to provide necessary security patches, consoling every concerned user with a maybe upcoming release that probably will also not receive any security patches after the first support.
This is unacceptable from the standpoint of your customers and it should also be from the standpoint of your team.
This issue is not about getting new features, but about being at risk to have a Denial of Service Attack, get exploited or worse.
I can understand that this may be too much work for you - But then you will need to drop NodeJS-Support at a whole. Because the current way you are ignoring critical security issues is unacceptable.
Following the update instructions, i could pull in newer node versions to the plesk extension, but still, scripts where not using the selected version.
I wrote a short article on Medium how i got things to really work, and maybe some people find that helpfull. I'm no expert, but it works..
https://anton-lugtenburg.medium.com/how-to-update-nodejs-on-plesk-e782fb2fa7d7
when will you release support for node16?
Hello everyone,
Today I was very pleased to see the updated article regarding NodeJS versions. Having a background task installing security updates automatically is a step in the absolute right direction.
Supporting NodeJS 14 finally is also very nice to see! (Although the changes are currently only for the Linux version of Plesk I hope it will be available for the Windows version very soon too)
So thank you! Thank you for listening and making your extension up to date with the current NodeJS versions.
Looking in the not so far future with NodeJS 16 becoming LTS at the end of October 2021:
Will this new version become installed automatically by the background task as well or will it need manual approval from you (and if so why)?
Have a nice day
Lukas
Autoupdate skipped update from 12.4.0 to 12.22.5 on one of our hosts. How to debug this?
Hello @Sebastian Thomas,
Try to check the logs and enable debug (if needed) as described here: https://support.plesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360021105674
Now we have a (server) customer who need NodeJS 16.x. Unfortunately Plesk does not update / maintain newer releases.
The same happened with a very, very outdated tutorial on Varnish, until I took the time and effort (time consuming) to create a support ticket and inform them about their 4-year old Varnish 4.x tutorial!
These things should have top priority, along with security fixes and so on. Instead of pestering customers/clients with (very) annoying GUI changes. The GUI was already good; it worked fast (not just the speed, but the easy way you had all fields shown and also the clean look and feel). Now it's a complete mess, especially the "Customer creation"-part. You now get a (very) small side-screen, where several fields are now merged into "pull-downs" (or whatever the word for that is). Simply H-O-R-R-I-B-L-E!
It's not just me... Also our (bigger) server customers send us email and support tickets about this change, which they clearly do not like. We create numerous accounts during a week and this is really, really becoming a pain to work with. The other day I had the worst experience with creating a new customer; I had to create a new customer, so I had to expand stuff (on a very small screens) and just when I hit the button "Add customer" it went to the next screen and said failed...
The result:
The specified domain name is not valid. You need to specify a valid domain name like domain.com.
The username must be no longer than 32 characters and contain only lowercase alphanumeric characters, the dash, and the underscore.
As a result of that, I had to redo all steps again, as nothing was saved. So creating his customer took at least twice the time it normally needed (at least on the old GUI interface). So fix this as soon as possible or at least give your (loyal and long standing) customers a choice in regards to the interface and control of it. It's becoming quite ridiculous now.
Sidenote; also the interface for the customer's themselves changed inside their hosting. Though I personally do not like this change either (and a few customers reported the same as well, not many though), it's something I do not care about as it does not affect met directly that much. But the "Customer creation"-part is currently a pain to work with!
And yes, I contacted Plesk support about this and voiced my concerns about this several/many times, but they simply do not care. Apparently you have to abide with Plesk's law. Creating customers has always been fast en was perfect the way it was, especially when you have to do this numerous of times during a business week. Now it's really a time consuming job...
Let's make Plesk a better product, instead of goofing around with the interface, shall we?
For your information; here are two screenshots I took with the old and new customer creation interface.
Old interface: https://imgur.com/a/mLvteQG
New interface: https://imgur.com/a/GNKzQXZ
The old interface may have looked a bit outdated (which could have been easily solved), however the new interface is simply horrible to work with!
Hello @Michel,
The most effective way of providing your feedback on the Node.js support is by voting on our UserVoice portal for that feature: https://plesk.uservoice.com/forums/184549-feature-suggestions/suggestions/44085210
You may also leave a comment with any useful information regarding that feature.
Please sign in to leave a comment.