Unable to start Apache/nginx on a Plesk server: AH02291: Cannot access directory for error log of vhost

Symptoms

• All websites hosted in Plesk are not accessible.

• The following error message is shown on the Home page in Plesk:

  PLESK_ERROR: New configuration files for the Apache web server were not created due to the errors in configuration templates: (2)No such file or directory: AH02291: Cannot access directory '/var/www/vhosts/system/example.com/logs/' for error log of vhost defined at /etc/httpd/conf/plesk.conf.d/vhosts/example.com.conf:104

• Apache/nginx web-servers cannot be started. The following error messages appear in the system logfile (/var/log/messages on CentOS/RHEL, /var/log/syslog on Debian/Ubuntu):

  • Apache

    CONFIG_TEXT: httpd: (2)No such file or directory: AH02291: Cannot access directory '/var/www/vhosts/system/example.com/logs/' for error log of vhost defined at /etc/httpd/conf/plesk.conf.d/vhosts/example.com.conf:10

  • nginx

    CONFIG_TEXT: nginx: [emerg] open() "/var/www/vhosts/system/example.com/logs/proxy_access_ssl_log" failed (2: No such file or directory

Cause

The domain's logs directory does not exist on the server.

Resolution

1. Connect to the Plesk server via SSH.

2. Create the missing directories with the command:

   # plesk repair fs example.com -y

3. Re-link the logfiles:

   3.1. Remove the logs directory inside domain's directory:

   # rm -rf /var/www/vhosts/example.com/logs

   3.2. Find the system user of a subscription using the command below:

   # plesk db "select name, login from domains join hosting on domains.id=hosting.dom_id join sys_users on hosting.sys_user_id=sys_users.id where name='example.com'";
   +-------------+-------+
   | name        | login |
   +-------------+-------+
   | example.com | jdoe  |
   +-------------+-------+

   3.3. Re-link the logfiles:

   # plesk sbin relink-vhost-logs --domain-name example.com --sys-user-login jdoe --create

4. Start the Apache web-server:

   • on CentOS/RHEL-based distributions:

     # service httpd start

   • on Debian/Ubuntu-based distributions:

     # service apache2 start

5. Start the nginx web-server:

   # service nginx start