Error in Plesk interface: New configuration files for the Apache web server were not created: cannot create temp file

Symptoms

• Subscription system user exists in Plesk, but does not exist in operating system:

  # grep johndoe /etc/passwd
  (empty output)

• The following error is displayed in Plesk interface when trying to rebuild web server configuration files:

  PLESK_ERROR: New configuration files for the Apache web server were not created due to the errors in configuration templates: mkdir: cannot create directory `/var/www/vhosts/system/example.com/conf': No such file or directory mktemp: cannot create temp file /var/www/vhosts/system/example.com/conf/httpd.conf.XXXXXX: No such file or directory Can not create temporary file
  ...

• When trying to create configuration files from console, the following error will be shown:

  # /usr/local/psa/admin/bin/httpdmng --reconfigure-all
  mkdir: cannot create directory /var/www/vhosts/system/example.com/conf': No such file or directory mktemp: failed to create file via template/var/www/vhosts/system/example.com/conf/httpd.conf.XXXXXX': No such file or directory
  Can not create temporary file

Cause

Virtual host's directory has been removed, but a domain/subdomain hosting settings still exist in Plesk. As a result, the tool httpdmng fails to create configuration files.

Resolution

1. Connect to the server using SSH.
2. Download, unpack, make executable, and run the following script:

   # wget https://support.plesk.com/hc/article_attachments/115004516465/fix_vhosts.sh.zip
   # unzip fix_vhosts.sh.zip
   # chmod +x fix_vhosts.sh
   # bash fix_vhosts.sh

   The script does the following things:

   • finds all domains with enabled physical hosting that have missing virtual host directories
   • recreates the basic v  irtual host structure for these domains.
   • If the sub-directories "conf" or "statistics/logs" are missing, directories will also be recreated with the correct permissions/ownerships.
   • rebuilds web server configuration will then be rebuilt from scratch

   Example output of the script:

   # bash /fix_vhosts.sh
   sub1.domain.test: no physical hosting definition in database.
   customer1.tld: creating basic virtual host structure: ok
   customer1.tld: creating 'conf' directory: ok
   customer1.tld: creating 'logs' directory: ok
   Rebuilding Apache configuration:ok