Unable to access Plesk: Unknown database 'psa'

Kuzma Ivanov

Updated February 17, 2026 06:03

Plesk for Windows Plesk for Linux kb: technical ABT: Group B

Applicable to:

Plesk is not accessible with the following error messages in a web-browser:

PLESK_INFO: Unknown database 'psa'

The Plesk system database psa is missing.

Restore the psa database from a daily dump:

Plesk on Linux

Connect to the Plesk server via SSH.
Switch to the directory with daily dumps:

# cd /var/lib/psa/dumps
Find the most recent dump that contains the psa database:

# zgrep "Current Database:" mysql.daily* | grep psa
mysql.daily.dump.0.gz:-- Current Database: `psa`
mysql.daily.dump.1.gz:-- Current Database: `psa`
mysql.daily.dump.2.gz:-- Current Database: `psa`
mysql.daily.dump.3.gz:-- Current Database: `psa`
...
- where mysql.daily.dump.0.gz is the most recent daily dump.
Restore the psa database from the most recent daily dump. In this example, the psa database is restored from mysql.daily.dump.0.gz:

# zcat mysql.daily.dump.0.gz | sed -n '/-- Current Database: `psa`/,/-- Current Database:*/p' | MYSQL_PWD=`cat /etc/psa/.psa.shadow` mysql -uadmin

Plesk on Windows Server

Connect to the Plesk server via RDP.
Start a command prompt as an Administrator.
Connect to MySQL:

Note: MySQL admin password is required for this operation. In Plesk Onyx 17.8 and later, retrieve the password with the command plesk sbin psadb --get-admin-password.

C:\> "%plesk_dir%\Mysql\bin\mysql.exe" apsc -uadmin -p -P8306
Once connected, create a new database with the name psa:

MYSQL_WIN: mysql> create database psa;
Exit MySQL:

MYSQL_WIN: mysql> quit
Switch to the directory with daily dumps:

C:\> cd %plesk_dir%Mysql\Backup
List a name of a Plesk dump with the psa database:

C:\> dir psa*
...
Directory of C:\Program Files (x86)\Plesk\MySQL\Backup

03/27/2019 08:33 PM 468,888 psa-20181018020721.sql
Restore the psa database using the dump file name from the previous step:

Note: MySQL admin password is required for this operation.

C:\> "%plesk_dir%"\Mysql\bin\mysql.exe -uadmin -p -P8306 psa < psa-20181018020721.sql