Applicable to:
- Plesk for Linux
Symptoms
-
Website is not accessible with the
403 Forbidden
error in a browser. -
The website may work incorrectly, e.g. some images may not load.
-
In the
/var/www/vhosts/system/example.com/logs/error_log
one of the following errors appear:CONFIG_TEXT: AH00037: Symbolic link not allowed or link target not accessible: /var/www/vhosts/example.com/httpdocs/index.php
CONFIG_TEXT: AH00670: Options FollowSymLinks and SymLinksIfOwnerMatch are both off, so the RewriteRule directive is also forbidden due to its similar ability to circumvent directory restrictions : /var/www/vhosts/example.com/httpdocs/, referer: https://servername.com/
- The domain may have been restored from a backup recently.
Cause
Symbolic links are not allowed in Apache configuration.
Resolution
-
Go to Domains > example.com > hosting & DNS tab > Apache & nginx Settings.
-
Disable the option Restrict the ability to follow symbolic links and apply changes.
-
Go to Domains > example.com > File Manager and add the following directive to the
.htaccess
file of the website:CONFIG_TEXT: Options +FollowSymlinks
-
Make sure that the symbolic link has correct ownership and permissions or add the following directive into
.htaccess
file of the website to disable symbolic link owner check:CONFIG_TEXT: Options -SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
Comments
7 comments
In my case, it was file permissions that were the issue. See my answer here: https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/620603/307386
this didnt worked to me.
i cant use symbolic links with my laravel app.
everything was working until i used a backup restore to merge 2 different servers, at the same domain
i had at old server the same domain, when i used the backup to add all those files, databases and emails... something went wrong since my laravel app stopped working with the following error:
You don't have permission to access /public/index.php on this server.
Additionally, a 403 Forbidden error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
And i got the apache error:
AH00037: Symbolic link not allowed or link target not accessible
@Filipe Brito
Hi! Please check this article:
https://support.plesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/213939685-Website-hosted-on-Plesk-for-Linux-is-not-accessible-with-403-Forbidden-AH00529-pcfg-openfile-unable-to-check-htaccess-file-ensure-it-is-readable
Also check whether symlink is pointing to an existing file.
thanks @Alisa
I already tried that article too and i had no luck with it.
i cant understand why this isnt working but its very frustrating because before i used the plesk-backup-manager, this website was working properly :(
@Filipe Brito
Seems that the issue is quite complicated and needs further investigation. Please submit a request to our support as per https://support.plesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/213608509-How-to-submit-a-request-to-Plesk-support- and we will happily help.
i finally fixed it.
2 things i did:
1) removed all the imported ftp users from the backup
2) fixed the <home>/private permissions. seems plesk did something at the /private/ directory permissions and i couldnt reach it via http/symbolic_link
after i fixed the permissions at /private everything was working properly.
Maybe the ftp removal accounts werent needed afterall.
thanks for your help =)
@Filipe Brito,
Glad to know that you have managed to fix the issue! Maybe your experience will be helpful for other Pleskians.
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