Cannot rename domain in Plesk: Internal Server Error

Symptoms

• Trying to rename a domain on the Plesk Control Panel returns:

  PLESK_ERROR: Internal Server Error

• Updating the domain on the command line returns:

  CONFIG_TEXT: # plesk bin site –u example.com -new_name new.example.com
  An error occurred during domain update: Unable to rename the domain:
  
  exit status 1

• The following entry is in /var/log/plesk/panel.log:

  CONFIG_TEXT: ERR [panel] Unable to rename the domain: A virtual directory with the specified name already exists.

• In the %plesk_dir%admin\logs\php_error.log in Plesk for Windows:

  CONFIG_TEXT: (Error code 1)
  [2023-02-21 14:53:51] 318352:63f4936fd2b38 ERR [panel.ui] Site example.com already exists

Cause

There's an existing directory with the new domain name already in the /var/www/vhosts/system/ or /var/www/vhosts/ directory.

Resolution

Rename the existing directory:

# mv /var/www/vhosts/system/new.example.com/ /var/www/vhosts/system/new.example.com_renamed/
# mv /var/www/vhosts/new.example.com/ /var/www/vhosts/new.example.com_renamed/