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How to set up Apache to restart daily in Plesk

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George Alibegashvili
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Plesk for Linux kb: how-to ABT: Group B

Applicable to:

  • Plesk for Linux

Question

Websites become temporarily unavailable when applying configuration changes. How to set up Apache restart every day at a certain time?

Answer

Plesk does not have a direct functionality to schedule Apache restarts at a particular time of the day.
There are two options to implement it:

  1. Configure Apache to keep established HTTP connections when applying new configuration:
    - configure Apache graceful restart
    - set Apache restart interval to 0 in Tools & Settings > Apache Web Server
    mceclip1.png
    - install Watchdog extension to monitor Apache
  2. Create a scheduled task to restart Apache every day:
    - log in to Plesk
    - set Apache restart interval to 9999 in Tools & Settings > Apache Web Server
    - go to Tools & Settings > Schedule Tasks and add the task, for example, for CentOS/RHEL/CloudLinux:

    mceclip0.png

    Note: for Debian/Ubuntu, the command should be "/usr/sbin/service apache2 restart".

In case the first option is applied, the websites will always stay accessible. However, in certain environments, Apache graceful restart may not be stable. For this reason, Watchdog service monitor should be installed.

Comments

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  • Avatar
    Robert Tucker

    A cron job in Ubuntu to restart the apache2 service fails:

     

    Task "service apache2 restart" completed with error in 0 seconds, output:

    /bin/sh: 1: service: not found

    This work perfectly from the command line.

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  • Avatar
    Robert Tucker

    In addition a domain with webmail disabled keeps popping up in the tempate errors. e.g.

    Error: Can not reconfigure web server configurations: Unable to execute httpdmng: [2020-09-20 21:01:01.767] ERR [util_exec] proc_close() failed ['/opt/psa/admin/bin/apache_control_adapter' '--restart' '--restart-interval' '0' '--http-port' '7080' '--https-port' '7081'] with exit code [255]
    [2020-09-20 21:01:02.860] ERR [panel] Apache config (16006355310.09269600) generation failed: Template_Exception: Can not restart web server:
    file: /opt/psa/admin/plib/Service/Driver/Web/Server/Apache.php
    line: 122
    code: 0
    Can not restart web server:

    And then all apache driven sites fail.  I cant add a cron job to restart it as I get the error above.  This problem is causing MAJOR disruption as all webmail sites go offline.

    I have rebuilt the templates, I have removed the templates - they keep coming back

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    Julian Bonpland Mignaquy

    Robert Tucker Hi!, please open a support ticket with us so i can work on this issue https://support.plesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/213608509-How-to-submit-a-request-to-Plesk-support-

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    Fernando

    Hello Rbbert Tucker,

    You need to provide the full path to service.

     

    /usr/sbin/service apache2 restart

     

    This worked for me

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