Apache / PHP-FPM service fails to start on the Plesk server: "bad user name john_doe" or "cannot get uid for user 'john_doe'"

Symptoms

• Apache service fails to start. Configuration checker shows this error:

  • on AlmaLinux / CloudLinux / RHEL

    # httpd -t
    AH00543: httpd: bad user name john_doe

  • on Debian / Ubuntu

    # apache2 -t
    AH00543: apache2: bad user name john_doe

• PHP-FPM XX service (XX is a PHP version) is in the 'activating' state. The following error message is logged in service error log /var/log/plesk-phpXX-fpm/error.log:

  CONFIG_TEXT: ERROR: [pool example.com] cannot get uid for user 'john_doe'

• One of the following error messages may appear on the Home page in Plesk:

  PLESK_ERROR: New configuration files for the Apache web server were not created due to the errors in configuration templates: AH00543: httpd: bad user name john_doe

  PLESK_ERROR: Unable to create system user: vhostmng-structure failed: Fatal error: std::runtime_error(cannot find user with name john_doe: Success)

• The system user, mentioned in the error, exists in the Plesk database:

  # plesk db "select login,home from sys_users where login='john_doe'"
  +----------+-----------------------------+
  | login      | home                        |
  +----------+-----------------------------+
  | john_doe | /var/www/vhosts/example.com |
  +----------+-----------------------------+

• The domain from the home path exists in Plesk:

  # plesk bin site --list | grep example.com
  example.com

Cause

System user of a subscription does not exist in the system.

Resolution

Recreate the missing system user:

1. Connect to your Plesk server via SSH.

2. Restore the missing system user:

   # plesk repair sysusers -y example.com

3. Repair the web server configuration:

   # plesk repair web -y