High CPU load on Plesk server caused by Log Browser extension

Sergey Senko

Updated April 28, 2025 08:36

kb: bug Plesk for Linux kb: technical

Symptoms

There are processes with high CPU load related to the sw-engine service:

CONFIG_TEXT: psaadm 27219 56.2 1.0 356796 87564 ? Rs 13:37 2:49 /usr/bin/sw-engine -c /opt/psa/admin/conf/php.ini /opt/psa/admin/plib/scripts/task-async-executor.php -task-id 4597
The Log Browser extension is installed.
There are many long-running tasks related to the Log Browser extension with the 'ext-log-browser-parse-maillog' type when checking using the following query:

CONFIG_TEXT: plesk db "SELECT id,type,status,finishTime FROM longtasks WHERE status <> 'done'"

Plesk extension bug with ID EXTPLESK-5686. The bug was fixed in August, 2024.

Workaround 1:

Edit panel.ini file, appending the following lines to it:

CONFIG_TEXT: [ext-log-browser]
mailQueue.customerAccess = false

Workaround 2:

Connect to the server via SSH.
Flush the journalctl logs, for example, based on size:

# journalctl --vacuum-size=500M

or based on time:

# journalctl --vacuum-time=2d
Re-enable the Log Browser extension:

# plesk bin extension --disable log-browser && plesk bin extension --enable log-browser

Workaround 3:

Connect to the server via SSH.
Move the extension database file to another directory:

# mv /usr/local/psa/var/modules/log-browser/log-browser.sqlite3 /root/log-browser.sqlite3_bak
Run the extension utility as follows:

# plesk bin extension --upgrade log-browser