Plesk is not accessible: Exception: Unable to get PSADb administrator password

Nikita Zubovich

Updated June 02, 2022 19:01

Plesk for Windows kb: technical

Applicable to:

Plesk panel is not accessible with the following error:

ERROR: Exception: Unable to get PSADb administrator password: The system cannot find the file specified. (Error code 2) on Cannot connect to pipe
Plesk Management Service is absent from the Services list in Windows or it cannot be started

The Plesk Management Service is corrupted or misconfigured

Connect to the server via RDP
Check whether the plesksrv.exe is present in %plesk_bin% directory and apply the appropriate steps:

If the plesksrv.exe file is present

2. Run the following commands to reinstall the missing service:

C:\> cd %plesk_bin%

C:\> plesksrv -install

If the plesksrv.exe file is missing

2. Run the following command to create a temporary directory for extracting the MSI package:

C:\> mkdir C:\pleskmsi

3. Find the Plesk Installer directory - it can be either of these two locations:

CONFIG_TEXT: C:\ProgramData\Plesk\Installer\cache\pool\release\

CONFIG_TEXT: C:\ParallelsInstaller\cache\pool\release\pool\release\

4. Switch to the current Plesk version's directory via CMD. In the example below, path for Plesk Obsidian 18.0.41 is used:

C:\> cd C:\ParallelsInstaller\cache\pool\release\PLESK-WIN_18.0.41_8021\dist-windows

5. Unpack the MSI with the plesksrv.exe file and copy it to %plesk_bin% directory:

C:\> msiexec /a plesk-backend.msi /qb TARGETDIR=C:\pleskmsi

C:\> copy "C:\pleskmsi\Program Files\Parallels\Plesk\admin\bin\plesksrv.exe" "%plesk_bin%"

6. Reinstall Install the missing service:

C:\> cd %plesk_bin%

C:\> plesksrv -install