Plesk for Linux services logs and configuration files

Question

Where to find Plesk for Linux services logs and configuration files?

Answer

This article's sole purpose is to provide information regarding the services that Plesk interacts with. Below you will find the configuration and log file locations of the services, which may be useful during a troubleshooting procedure.

For Plesk on Windows see this article.

PLESK_WARN: Plesk company does NOT recommend manually editing or modifying the below-mentioned configuration or system files. If however, you decide to do it, please keep in mind that you do it at your own risk, and the changes may cause unexpected behavior.

Services

• Plesk
• Plesk Installer
• Plesk System Packages Update Manager (PUM)
• Web Presence Builder
• Backup Manager
• Plesk Migrator
• Plesk Migration Manager
• Website & Mail Import
• Health Monitor
• Health Monitor Notification Daemon
• MySQL
• PostgreSQL
• Apache
• nginx
• Tomcat
• FTP
• cron
• Task Manager
• Xinetd
• Named / BIND
• Courier-IMAP
• Dovecot
• Postfix
• qmail
• Horde
• RoundCube
• Mail forwarding
• Mailman
• SpamAssassin
• Premium Antivirus (Dr.Web)
• Kaspersky antivirus
• phpMyAdmin
• phpPgAdmin
• Logrotate
• Webalizer
• AWstats
• Watchdog (monit)
• Watchdog (rkhunter)
• Plesk Firewall
• Plesk Firewall (IP forwarding)
• IP Address Banning (Fail2Ban)
• ModSecurity
• Let's Encrypt
• Plesk-PHP
• Acronis Backup
• Node.JS
• WP Toolkit

Plesk

• Logs
  • Error log: /var/log/sw-cp-server/error_log and /var/log/sw-cp-server/sw-engine.log
  • Access log: /var/log/plesk/httpsd_access_log
  • Panel log: /var/log/plesk/panel.log
• Services
  • Stop: service psa stop
  • Start: service psa start
  • Restart: service psa restart
• Configuration
  • PHP config on RHEL-based: /usr/local/psa/admin/conf/php.ini
  • PHP config on Debian-based: /opt/psa/admin/conf/php.ini
  • Panel config on RHEL-based: /usr/local/psa/admin/conf/panel.ini
  • Panel config on Debian-based: /opt/psa/admin/conf/panel.ini
  • Web server config: /etc/sw-cp-server/conf.d/plesk.conf
• User actions logging:
  • Tools & Settings > Action log

Plesk Installer

• Logs
  • /var/log/plesk/install/autoinstaller3.log
  • /tmp/autoinstaller3.log

Plesk System Packages Update Manager (PUM)

• Logs
  • /var/log/plesk/systemupdatestool.log

Web Presence Builder

• Logs
  • Error log: /usr/local/psa/admin/logs/sitebuilder.log
  • Install/upgrade logs: /usr/local/sb/tmp/
• No service control (working via the sw-cp-server service)
• Configuration
  • /usr/local/sb/config
  • /etc/sw-cp-server/conf.d/plesk.conf
  • /usr/local/psa/admin/conf/php.ini

Backup Manager

• Logs
  • Backup logs: /usr/local/psa/PMM/logs/backup-<datetime> Plesk Onyx; /var/log/plesk/PMM/ Plesk Obsidian
  • Restore log: /usr/local/psa/PMM/logs/restore-<datetime> or /usr/local/psa/PMM/rsessions and /var/log/plesk/PMM/restore-TIMESTAMP
• Functionality is controlled by the Plesk control panel service
• Configuration
  • /etc/psa/psa.conf

Plesk Migrator

• Configuration
  • /usr/local/psa/var/modules/panel-migrator/conf/
  • /usr/local/psa/admin/plib/modules/panel-migrator/backend/conf/
• Logs
  • /usr/local/psa/var/modules/panel-migrator/logs/
  • /usr/local/psa/var/modules/panel-migrator/sessions/

Migration Manager

• Logs
  • /usr/local/psa/PMM/logs/migration-<datetime>
• Functionality is controlled by the Plesk control panel service.

Website & Mail Import

• Logs
  • /usr/local/psa/var/modules/site-import/sessions/

Task Manager

• Log
  • /var/log/plesk/task-manager.log
• Configuration
  • /usr/local/psa/admin/conf/task-manager.yml

Health Monitor Manager

• Logs
  • /usr/local/psa/admin/logs/health-alarm.log
• Services
  • Stop: service sw-collectd stop
  • Start: service sw-collectd start
  • Restart: service sw-collectd restart
• Configuration
  • /usr/local/psa/admin/conf/health-config.xml
  • /usr/local/psa/var/custom-health-config.xml
  • /etc/sw-collectd/collectd.conf

MySQL

• Logs

  Note: Starting from MariaDB 10.5 packages from MariaDB Foundation (either for RHEL-based, or for Debian-based distributions) have error_log set to empty value. Therefore, log file can be accessed via journalctl.

  Debian 11/Ubuntu 22

  # journalctl -xeu mariadb.service

  Debian 10/Ubuntu 20

  # grep -ri log_error /etc/my* | cut -d ':' -f2
  log_error = /var/log/mysql/error.log

  CentOS/RHEL/Almalinux

  # grep -ri log-error /etc/my* | cut -d ":" -f 2
  log-error=/var/log/mariadb/mariadb.log

• Services

• Stop: service mysqld stop

• Start: service mysqld start

• Restart: service mysqld restart

Note: Service name differs on different Linux distributives:

• mysqld on CentOS/RHEL 5 and 6

• mariadb on CentOS 7/RHEL 7/Almalinux

• mysql on Debian/Ubuntu

• Configuration

  • /etc/my.cnf
  • /etc/my.cnf.d/mariadb-server.cnf
  • /etc/mysql/my.cnf (Debian/Ubuntu)
  • /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/50-server.cnf (Debian/Ubuntu)

PostgreSQL

• Logs

  • /var/lib/pgsql/pgstartup.log
  • /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-x.x-main.log

• Services

  • Stop: service postgresql stop
  • Start: service postgresql start
  • Restart: service postgresql restart

• Configuration

  • /var/lib/pgsql/data/postgresql.conf

• CentOS/CloudLinux
  /var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf

• Ubuntu/Debian
  /etc/postgresql/x.x/main/pg_hba.conf

Apache

RHEL/CentOS

• Logs
  • Global logs:
    • Access log: /var/log/httpd/access_log
    • Error log: /var/log/httpd/error_log
    • Requests to IP addresses: /var/log/httpd/other_vhosts_access_log
  • Domain logs:
    • Access logs:
      • HTTP log: /var/www/vhosts/system/<domain_name>/logs/access_log
      • HTTPS log: /var/www/vhosts/system/<domain_name>/logs/access_ssl_log
    • Error log: /var/www/vhosts/system/<domain_name>/logs/error_log
• Services
  • Stop: service httpd stop
  • Start: service httpd start
  • Restart: service httpd restart
• Configuration
  • /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
  • /etc/httpd/conf.d/zz010_psa_httpd.conf (includes generated configuration files with the rest of the vhosts and the server configuration)
  • /etc/httpd/conf/plesk.conf.d/

Debian/Ubuntu

• Logs
  • Global logs:
    • Access log: /var/log/apache2/access.log
    • Error log: /var/log/apache2/error.log
  • Domain logs:
    • Access logs:
      • HTTP log: /var/www/vhosts/system/<domain_name>/logs/access_log
      • HTTPS log: /var/www/vhosts/system/<domain_name>/logs/access_ssl_log
      • Requests to IP addresses: /var/log/apache2/other_vhosts_access.log
    • Error log: /var/www/vhosts/system/<domain_name>/logs/error_log
• Services
  • Stop: service apache2 stop
  • Start: service apache2 start
  • Restart: service apache2 restart
• Configuration
  • /etc/apache2/apache2.conf
  • /etc/apache2/conf-enabled/zz010_psa_httpd.conf(includes generated configuration files with the rest of the vhosts and the server configuration)
  • /etc/apache2/plesk.conf.d/

nginx

• Logs
  • Global logs:
    • Access log: /var/log/nginx/access.log
    • Error log: /var/log/nginx/error.log
  • Domain logs:
    • Access logs:
      • HTTP log: /var/www/vhosts/system/<domain_name>/logs/proxy_access_log
      • HTTPS log: /var/www/vhosts/system/<domain_name>/logs/proxy_access_ssl_log
    • Error log: /var/www/vhosts/system/<domain_name>/logs/proxy_error_log
• Services
  • nginx
    • Stop: service nginx stop
    • Start: service nginx start
    • Restart: service nginx restart
  • nginx as a reverse-proxy
    • Stop: /usr/local/psa/admin/bin/nginxmng --disable
    • Start: /usr/local/psa/admin/bin/nginxmng --enable
    • Status: /usr/local/psa/admin/bin/nginxmng --status
• Configuration
  • /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
  • /etc/nginx/conf.d/zz010_psa_nginx.conf (includes generated configuration files with the rest of the vhosts' and server configuration)
  • /etc/nginx/plesk.conf.d/

Tomcat

• Logs
  • /var/log/tomcat/*
• Services
  • Stop: service tomcat stop
  • Start: service tomcat start
  • Restart: service tomcat restart
• Configuration
  • /etc/tomcat/server.xml
  • /etc/tomcat/tomcat.conf
• Application configuration
  • /var/lib/tomcat/application_name/

FTP

• Logs
  • /var/log/plesk/xferlog (or /var/log/xferlog)
  • /var/log/plesk/ftp_tls.log
• Authentication logs
  • /var/log/secure - CentOS/RHEL-based distributions
  • /var/log/auth.log - Debian/Ubuntu-based distributions
• No service control (works via the Xinetd service)
• Configuration
  • /etc/xinetd.d/ftp_psa
  • /etc/proftpd.conf
  • /etc/proftpd.d/

cron

• Logs
  /var/log/cron
• Configuration:
  Debian/Ubuntu:
  /etc/crontab
  RHEL/Almalinux:
  /etc/cron.d/dailyjobs
  
  

xinetd

• Logs
  • /var/log/messages
• Services
  • Stop: service xinetd stop
  • Start: service xinetd start
  • Restart: service xinetd restart
• Configuration
  • /etc/xinetd.conf
  • /etc/xinetd.d/* (files with "." in the name are ignored)

BIND

• Logs
  • /var/log/messages
  • /var/log/syslog
• Services
  • Stop: service named stop
  • Start: service named start
  • Restart: service named restart
• Configuration
  • /etc/named.conf

Note: The service is called bind9 on Debian/Ubuntu and named-chroot on CentOS 7.

Courier-IMAP

• Logs
  • /var/log/maillog
• Services
  • Stop: service courier-imap stop
  • Start: service courier-imap start
  • Restart: service courier-imap restart
• Configuration
  • /etc/courier-imap/imapd
  • /etc/courier-imap/imapd-ssl
  • /etc/courier-imap/pop3d
  • /etc/courier-imap/pop3d-ssl

Dovecot

• Logs
  • Logs can be found using the /usr/sbin/dovecot log find command
• Services
  • Stop: service dovecot stop
  • Start: service dovecot start
  • Restart: service dovecot restart
• Configuration
  • /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
  • /etc/sysconfig/dovecot (CentOS/RHEL)
  • /etc/dovecot/conf.d/11-plesk-security-ssl.conf

Postfix

• Logs
  • /var/log/maillog
• Services
  • Stop: service postfix stop
  • Start: service postfix start
  • Restart: service postfix restart
• Configuration
  • /etc/postfix/master.cf
  • /etc/postfix/main.cf

Qmail

• Logs
  • /var/log/maillog
• Services
  • Stop: service qmail stop
  • Start: service qmail start
  • Restart: service qmail restart
• Configuration
  • Control files in /var/qmail/control/
  • /etc/xinetd.d/smtp_psa
  • /etc/xinetd.d/smtps_psa
  • /etc/xinetd.d/submission_psa

Horde

• Logs
  • Error log: /var/log/psa-horde/psa-horde.log
• No service control (works via the Apache web-server)
• Configuration
  • /etc/psa-webmail/horde/horde.conf
  • /etc/psa-webmail/horde/horde/conf.php

Roundcube

• Logs
  • Error log: /var/log/plesk-roundcube/errors
• No service control (works via the Apache web-server)
• Configuration
  • /etc/psa-webmail/roundcube/*
  • /usr/share/psa-roundcube/config/defaults.inc.php
  • Customizations: /usr/share/psa-roundcube/config/config.inc.php

Mail forwarding

• Configuration
  • /var/qmail/mailnames/<domain_name>/<user_name>/.qmail

Mailman

• Logs
  • /var/log/mailman/*
• Services
  • Stop: service mailman stop
  • Start: service mailman start
  • Restart: service mailman restart
• Configuration
  • /usr/lib/mailman/Mailman/mm_cfg.py
  • /etc/mailman/sitelist.cfg
  • /etc/httpd/conf/plesk.conf.d/server.conf - web config for Mailman on RHEL/CentOS
  • /etc/apache2/plesk.conf.d/server.conf - web config for Mailman on Debian/Ubuntu

SpamAssassin

• Logs
  • /var/log/maillog
  • /var/log/messages or /var/log/syslog
• Services
  • Stop: service spamassassin stop
  • Start: service spamassassin start
  • Restart: service spamassassin restart
• Configuration
  • /etc/mail/spamassassin/local.cf or /etc/spamassassin/local.cf
  • /var/qmail/mailnames/<domain_name>/<mailbox>/.spamassassin/user_prefs

Premium Antivirus

• Logs
  • /var/log/maillog
  • /var/drweb/log/*
• Service control
  • Stop: service drwebd stop
  • Start: service drwebd start
  • Restart: service drwebd restart
• Configuration
  • /etc/drweb/*

phpMyAdmin

• Logs
  • Error log: /var/log/sw-cp-server/error_log
• No service control (working via the sw-cp-server service).
• Configuration
  • /usr/local/psa/admin/htdocs/domains/databases/phpMyAdmin/libraries/config.default.php
  • Starting from Plesk 18.0.30: /usr/local/psa/phpMyAdmin/libraries/vendor_config.php

phpPgAdmin

• Logs
  • Error log: /var/log/sw-cp-server/error_log
• No service control (working via the sw-cp-server service).
• Configuration
  • /usr/local/psa/admin/htdocs/domains/databases/phpPgAdmin/conf/config.inc.php

Logrotate

• No service control. Executed by the daily maintenance task: /etc/cron.daily/50plesk-daily
• Configuration
  • /usr/local/psa/etc/logrotate.conf
  • /usr/local/psa/etc/logrotate.d/*
  • /etc/logrotate.conf
  • /etc/logrotate.d/*

Webalizer

• No service control. Executed by the daily maintenance task: /etc/cron.daily/50plesk-daily
• Configuration
  • /var/www/vhosts/system/<domain_name>/conf/webalizer.conf

AWstats

• No service control. Executed by the daily maintenance task: /etc/cron.daily/50plesk-daily
• Configuration
  • /usr/local/psa/etc/awstats/awstats.<domain_name>-*.conf

Watchdog (monit)

• Logs
  • /usr/local/psa/var/modules/watchdog/log/wdcollect.log
  • /var/log/wdcollect.log
  • /usr/local/psa/var/modules/watchdog/log/monit.log
  • /var/log/plesk/modules/wdcollect.log
• Service control
  • Stop: /usr/local/psa/admin/bin/modules/watchdog/wd --stop
  • Start: /usr/local/psa/admin/bin/modules/watchdog/wd --start
  • Restart: /usr/local/psa/admin/bin/modules/watchdog/wd --restart
• Configuration
  • /usr/local/psa/etc/modules/watchdog/monitrc
  • /usr/local/psa/etc/modules/watchdog/wdcollect.inc.php

Watchdog (rkhunter)

• Logs:
  • /var/log/rkhunter.log
• Service control:
  • Start: /usr/local/psa/admin/bin/modules/watchdog/rkhunter
• Configration:
  • /usr/local/psa/etc/modules/watchdog/rkhunter.conf

Plesk Firewall

• Service control
  • Stop: service psa-firewall stop
  • Start: service psa-firewall start
  • Restart: service psa-firewall restart
• Configuration
  • /usr/local/psa/var/modules/firewall/firewall-active.sh
  • /usr/local/psa/var/modules/firewall/firewall-emergency.sh
  • /usr/local/psa/var/modules/firewall/firewall-new.sh

Plesk Firewall (IP forwarding)

• Service control
  • Stop: service psa-firewall-forward stop
  • Start: service psa-firewall-forward start
  • Restart: service psa-firewall-forward restart
• Configuration
  • /usr/local/psa/var/modules/firewall/*

IP Address Banning (Fail2Ban)

• Logs:
  • /var/log/fail2ban.log
• Service control
  • Stop: service fail2ban stop
  • Start: service fail2ban start
  • Restart: service fail2ban restart
• Configuration: A set of IPTables rules. By default:
  • iptables -N fail2ban-plesk-login
  • iptables -A fail2ban-plesk-login -j RETURN
  • iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -m multiport --dports 8880,8443 -j fail2ban-plesk-login

ModSecurity

• Logs
  • /var/log/modsec_audit.log
  • /var/www/vhosts/<domain_name>/logs/error_log
    

    Note: ModSecurity also has a debug log that can be configured by adding SecDebugLog directive with the specified path for it in the Apache configuration file.

• Services
  • Disable: /usr/local/psa/admin/bin/modsecurity_ctl -d
  • Enable: /usr/local/psa/admin/bin/modsecurity_ctl -e

Let's Encrypt

• Logs
  • /usr/local/psa/admin/logs/panel.log

Plesk-PHP

• php.ini
  • /opt/plesk/php/7.x/etc/php.ini
• .ini files:
  • /opt/plesk/php/7.x/etc/php.d/
• Modules:
  • /opt/plesk/php/7.x/lib64/php/modules/
• Logs:
  • /var/log/plesk-php7x-fpm/

Acronis Backup

• Service Control
  • acronis_mms: Acronis Managed Machine Service is responsible for backup and recovery operations.
  • /usr/local/psa/var/modules/acronis-backup/python/python -m acronis_backup_srv.app_daemon --config=/usr/local/psa/var/modules/acronis-backup/srv/config.ini: Extension frontend is implemented with a separate persistent process, running in the background.
  • /opt/plesk/php/7.x/etc/php.ini
• Logs:
  • /var/log/plesk/panel.log
  • /var/log/trueimage-setup.log
  • /usr/local/psa/var/modules/acronis-backup/srv/log/

Node.js

• Logs:
  • Global log
    • /var/log/httpd/error_log CentOS/RHEL-based distributions
    • /var/log/apache/error_log Debian/Ubuntu-based distributions
    • /var/log/nginx/error.log On nginx-only hosting
  • Domain's log
    • /var/www/vhosts/system/example.com/logs/

WP Toolkit

• Log:
  • /var/log/plesk/panel.log with Debug mode enabled
• User actions logging:
  • Tools & Settings > Action log