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Plesk Firewall cannot be started after 18.0.52 update

Plesk for Linux kb: technical

Applicable to:

  • Plesk for Linux

Symptom

Cause

The start of iptables on the server's Linux OS is very slow due to hardware issues. Due to this, the majority of time is spent communicating with the kernel subsystem. The following is a comparison between the speed of execution for iptables-related commands on a properly working system versus the same on a server that has some hardware-related issue.

The test you may run in order to compare the time it takes to execute changes is the following:

1. Save iptables rules to a regular txt file:

# iptables-save > rules-saved-4.txt

2. Check the time it would take to restore these same rules to iptables by executing the following command:

# time strace -f -c iptables-restore < rules-saved-4.txt

Example output for server with hardware issues that are causing the slowdown:

% time seconds usecs/call calls errors syscall
------ ----------- ----------- --------- --------- ----------------
99.74 0.384871 128290 3 sendmsg
0.05 0.000198 8 23 recvmsg
0.05 0.000186 13 14 sendto
0.02 0.000095 1 54 mmap
0.02 0.000083 1 55 1 openat
0.02 0.000081 0 87 read
0.02 0.000072 1 42 mprotect
0.02 0.000065 0 73 close
0.01 0.000045 0 61 lseek
0.01 0.000037 0 55 fstat
0.01 0.000027 1 18 socket
0.01 0.000027 2 13 1 connect
0.00 0.000016 5 3 munmap
0.00 0.000014 0 21 getsockname
0.00 0.000011 0 13 6 stat
0.00 0.000010 0 13 bind
0.00 0.000008 2 3 select
0.00 0.000006 1 5 brk
0.00 0.000004 2 2 setsockopt
0.00 0.000001 0 2 1 arch_prctl
0.00 0.000000 0 2 rt_sigaction
0.00 0.000000 0 1 rt_sigprocmask
0.00 0.000000 0 1 1 access
0.00 0.000000 0 1 execve
0.00 0.000000 0 2 futex
0.00 0.000000 0 1 set_tid_address
0.00 0.000000 0 1 set_robust_list
0.00 0.000000 0 1 prlimit64
------ ----------- ----------- --------- --------- ----------------
100.00 0.385857 676 570 10 total

real 0m13.340s
user 0m0.011s
sys 0m0.398s

Example output for server that is not experiencing hardware issues:

% time seconds usecs/call calls errors syscall
------ ----------- ----------- --------- --------- ----------------
21.18 0.000591 39 15 socket
11.11 0.000310 6 50 mmap
10.46 0.000292 292 1 execve
6.84 0.000191 3 56 read
6.84 0.000191 63 3 sendmsg
6.49 0.000181 8 22 openat
5.66 0.000158 3 40 mprotect
5.37 0.000150 13 11 sendto
5.12 0.000143 13 11 4 stat
4.48 0.000125 3 38 close
3.98 0.000111 3 31 lseek
3.51 0.000098 4 20 recvmsg
2.65 0.000074 5 13 1 connect
2.01 0.000056 2 24 fstat
1.50 0.000042 2 18 getsockname
1.22 0.000034 3 10 bind
0.64 0.000018 18 1 1 access
0.32 0.000009 1 5 brk
0.25 0.000007 3 2 setsockopt
0.18 0.000005 2 2 1 arch_prctl
0.18 0.000005 2 2 futex
0.00 0.000000 0 2 munmap
0.00 0.000000 0 2 rt_sigaction
0.00 0.000000 0 1 rt_sigprocmask
0.00 0.000000 0 3 select
0.00 0.000000 0 1 set_tid_address
0.00 0.000000 0 1 set_robust_list
0.00 0.000000 0 1 prlimit64
------ ----------- ----------- --------- --------- ----------------
100.00 0.002791 7 386 7 total

real 0m0.030s
user 0m0.007s
sys 0m0.013s

Resolution

Note: If the server is a virtual machine, you should check the hypervisor that controls it in order to determine a proper root cause

Due to the slow execution caused by hardware issues, as a workaround, you should increase the timeout of the Plesk Firewall extension to a higher value (for example 200 or 300 seconds) by doing the following:

1. Log into your server via SSH
2. Open the /usr/local/psa/admin/conf/panel.ini file for editing with your favorite command-line text editor

3. Place the following section at the bottom of the file:

CONFIG_TEXT: [ext-firewall]
confirmTimeout = 300

4. Save the changes

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Comments

2 comments
Date Votes
  • This is absolutely not the reason Firewall doesn't start. I can't start the firewall, but my iptables time is negligible, about 0.081s 

    It has everything to do with the Extension instead of being a core service.

    % time     seconds  usecs/call     calls    errors syscall
    ------ ----------- ----------- --------- --------- ----------------
    29.29    0.000902          23        38           mmap
    22.40    0.000690         690         1           execve
     5.75    0.000177          14        12           sendto
     5.75    0.000177          19         9           openat
     5.36    0.000165          11        14           close
     4.19    0.000129           8        15           recvmsg
     4.09    0.000126          42         3           sendmsg
     3.96    0.000122          12        10           read
     3.77    0.000116          16         7         3 newfstatat
     3.41    0.000105          10        10           fstat
     2.73    0.000084          21         4           socket
     2.31    0.000071           7        10           mprotect
     1.49    0.000046          11         4           bind
     1.23    0.000038           9         4           getsockname
     0.78    0.000024           4         6           munmap
     0.71    0.000022          11         2           pread64
     0.49    0.000015          15         1         1 access
     0.49    0.000015           5         3           setsockopt
     0.32    0.000010           2         4           brk
     0.32    0.000010          10         1           rseq
     0.29    0.000009           9         1           arch_prctl
     0.29    0.000009           9         1           set_tid_address
     0.29    0.000009           3         3           pselect6
     0.29    0.000009           9         1           set_robust_list
     0.00    0.000000           0         1           getuid
     0.00    0.000000           0         1           geteuid
     0.00    0.000000           0         1           prlimit64
     0.00    0.000000           0         1           getrandom
    ------ ----------- ----------- --------- --------- ----------------
    100.00    0.003080          18       168         4 total

    real    0m0.062s
    user    0m0.008s
    sys     0m0.019s

    -1
  • If the situation described in this article does not apply to your specific server environment, submit a ticket to Plesk support, so that proper investigation for your specific situation can be carried out.

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