How to change the Web Server's Default Page for domains with no hosting and in disabled status in Plesk

Stefan Yakubov

Updated June 13, 2022 13:47

Plesk for Windows Plesk for Linux kb: how-to ABT: Group A

Applicable to:

Plesk for Linux
Plesk for Windows

Question

How to change the Web Server's Default Page for domains with no hosting and in disabled status?

Answer

Customizing the Web Server's Default Page

Connect to a Plesk server via SSH (Linux) / RDP (Windows Server).
Edit the index.html file or replace it with your own. The file is located in:
- on Linux:
  
  /var/www/vhosts/default/htdocs/
- on Windows Server:
  
  %plesk_vhosts%default\htdocs\
  Note: Only index.html is supported as index file.

Setting up an existing domain to be shown when opening domains with no hosting and in disabled status

Log in to Plesk .
Go to Tools & Settings > IP Addresses and click on an IP address.
Set Default Site to a desired domain.
Navigate to Tools & Settings > Customize Plesk URL and set "No custom URLs":

Setting up the Plesk login page to be shown when opening domains with no hosting and in disabled status

Log in to Plesk.
Go to Tools & Settings > Customize Plesk URL.
Select the option All domains and subdomains that resolve to the server IP address but are not used for hosting.
Click OK.

Comments

10 comments

Luis Zubeldia June 21, 2017 15:18

How can add support php in /var/www/vhosts/default/htdocs/

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Artyom Baranov July 04, 2017 19:52

Hello, Luis

Plesk does not have such functionality at the moment, however, you can suggest php support for the Default Server Page by referring to the following link: https://plesk.uservoice.com/forums/184549-feature-suggestions

The top-ranked suggestions are likely to be included in the next versions of Plesk.

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Iain Hunneybell March 16, 2018 15:21
The comment about php support is important. My case was...

I wanted to change the default behaviour of the default site to redirect to another site, and so I renamed the default <index.html> to <index.html.old> and dropped in a .php file. This lead me quickly discovering php wasn't supported for the default site, so...

I created a small <index.html> to use a META REFRESH plus a JavaScript window.location.replace to do the same job and removed the index.php, BUT... the default site continued try and serve <index.php>, so I was left with either:
1. 404 becasue I'd rememved <index.php>, or
2. Being asked if I wanted to save/download the <index.php> (if I put it back) as the box wasn't parsing the file
Even if I explicitly requested /index.html, the default site INSISTED on trying to serve <index.php> with one of the above outcomes depending on whether the file existed or not.

Is this caching by nginx causing the problem? I cured it by creating a subscription in the name of the default site, but I can't understand why the server be 'fixated' on serving <index.php> even when the file no longer existing and there was an <index.html>. Not even the original default <index.html> would work...only one of the two error in trying to serve <index.php>!
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Alexander Tsmokalyuk March 23, 2018 18:03

@Lain Could you provide the OS and Plesk version details?

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Iain Hunneybell March 23, 2018 18:29

Hi @Alexander

OS ‪CentOS Linux 7.4.1708 (Core)‬

Product Plesk Onyx
Version 17.5.3 Update #43, last updated on Mar 11, 2018 04:30 PM

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Alexander Tsmokalyuk April 07, 2018 18:50

Hi Lain, I have reproduced this behavior on a test server and discussed it with the developers. It is not recommended to replace default index.html with index.php at /var/www/vhosts/default/htdocs as we cannot guarantee Plesk functionality in that case. I have updated the article.

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Iain Hunneybell April 07, 2018 19:44

Strange that using a php page as the default server page should cause problems with the Plesk instalation. It's not as if it does much other than say it's a default page on a Plesk machine.

I presume you can change the html without causing Plesk problems?

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hostnamaste October 18, 2019 11:51

Hi,

I want change single domain PHP version in command line. Could you please help how to change php version in command line in single domain

We have using plesk linux

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Bulat Tsydenov October 30, 2019 15:55
@hostnamaste

Hi,

You can do it with help of this command:
```
plesk bin site -u example.com -php_handler_id fastcgi
```
fastcgi - ID of the corresponding PHP handler. You can get the list of all of the available PHP handlers IDs on your server with this command:
```
plesk bin php_handler --list
```
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georges jean-denis November 26, 2021 18:57

" Warning: it's not recommended to place index.php to default web server website document root as it may break Plesk installation "

Why not?

This article was somewhat useful, however, it could have been much better. I would have loved to find out why it's not permitted to have index.php as the default page, OR RATHER, I would have loved to find out HOW TO CONFIGURE the default HTTP PAGE ( not the https one ).

This article fails to point out that there can be 2 different default webpages, one in htdocs, and the other in httpsdocs. OR RATHER, the article fails to mention that the possibility even exists. Am I missing something? Isn't Plesk trying to help people who use it on a regular/semi-regular basis???

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