How to open a website that exists in Plesk, but is not yet resolving to the Plesk server?

Modifying the 'hosts' file allows overriding DNS for a domain on a particular machine and causes local machine to look directly at the IP address specified.

For example, the domain example.com is hosted on a server with IP address 203.0.113.2, but is not resolved to this IP from the Internet. To make your PC/Mac resolve this website to this particular IP address, add the line below to your local 'hosts' file:

CONFIG_TEXT: 203.0.113.2 example.com www.example.com

Modifying the 'hosts' file...

• on Windows OS

  1. Start a command prompt as an Administrator.

  2. Run the following command to open the 'hosts' file in Windows Notepad:

     C:\> notepad C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts

  3. Add domain's IP address and a domain name on a new line.

  4. Click File > Save to save your changes.

      

• on macOS

  1. Open Applications > Utilities > Terminal.

  2. Open the hosts file by typing the following line in a terminal window:

     # sudo nano /private/etc/hosts

     Type your domain user password when prompted.

  3. Add domain's IP address and a domain name on a new line.

     Note: The file contains some comments (lines starting with a hash "#" symbol) and some default hostname mappings (for example, 127.0.0.1 – local host). Add your new mappings after the default mappings.

  4. Save the hosts file by pressing 'Control+x' and answering y.

  5. Make changes take effect by flushing the DNS cache with the following command:

     # dscacheutil -flushcache

      

• on Linux OS

  1. In Linux terminal, open the 'hosts' file in a text editor:

     # vi /etc/hosts

  2. Add domain's IP address and a domain name on a new line.

  3. Save the changes and close the file.

1. Log into Plesk

2. Go to Tools & Settings > IP Addresses > click on a public IP address, to which the required domain is assigned in Plesk > select an offline website as a Default site from the drop-down menu.

3. Now, to access the domain, type in the public IP address chosen above in a web-browser: http://203.0.112.2:80.

   Note: example.com should be assigned to this IP address in Plesk at Domains > example.com > Hosting Settings. Otherwise, it will not appear in the list.