VPS & Cloud Servers support - Page 2 of 3 - Get your Linux, Plesk or cPanel problem resolved quickly

Setting up the server hostname in cPanel/WHM

From the WHM main panel click on “Change Hostname” and enter the desired value in the “New Hostname” field:

The server hostname has to use a registered domain name and has to point to your server IP address.

Setting up the server hostname in Plesk 11.05

Tools & Settings -> Server settings -> Full hostname

The hostname that you should choose has to be relevant for your server. If you have more than one domain hosted on your server, then you should choose the most important/defining one.

Ubuntu 8.04 alternative repositories – “Failed to fetch” error

Since Ubuntu 8.04 is no longer supported, the original repositories no longer work.

Ubuntu users will get an error like:

Err http://mirrors.xx.com hardy/universe mc 1:4.6.1-8ubuntu1
404 Not Found [IP: xx.xx.xx.xx]
Failed to fetch http://mirrors.xx.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/m/mc/mc_4.6.1-8ubuntu1_amd64.deb 404 Not Found [IP: xx.xx.xx.xx 80]
E: Unable to fetch some archives, maybe run apt-get update or try with –fix-missing?

Or from Plesk:

Failed to fetch http://mirrors.xxx.com//ubuntu/dists/hardy/main/binary-amd64/Packages 404 Not Found [IP: xx…

Ubuntu 8.04 users should upgrade to the latest version but in case that for whatever reason, this is not an option for them, they can try these:

# Required

deb http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic main restricted universe multiverse

deb http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic-updates main restricted universe multiverse

deb http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic-security main restricted universe multiverse

# Optional

#deb http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic-backports main restricted universe multiverse

To change these, access your server via SSH and:

1) backup the current sources list

# cp /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.backup

2) # vi /etc/apt/sources.list

3) Hit “i” and delete the current lines

4) copy the new repositories at the beginning of the article and paste them by right clicking into the file

5) hit “Esc” key, type “:wq!” and hit “Return” key to save the file and exit the vi editor.

That’s it, good luck!

Configure FTP access in Dreamweaver CS6

I will try to explain in this article how to set up the FTP connection to your hosting space in Adobe Dreamweaver in order to start building your website or edit your existing one’s files.

1) From the main menu, click on “Site”:

dreamweaver ftp settings - site

2) Select “New Site”:

dreamweaver ftp settings - new site

3) Set the name of your website as you want it to appear later in the “Manage Sites” section:

dreamweaver ftp settings - site name

4) From the same section, go to “Servers”:

dreamweaver ftp settings - add server

5) Set up the FTP connection using the details received from your hosting provider or the ones set up by you if you’re on a self managed server:

dreamweaver ftp settings - set up FTP server

Use the “Test” button to check if the details are correct.

Most connections issues are caused by the incorrect path to the root directory, in our example, there is no specific one set so there is only a slash “/” as in this case, we are using a 123-reg Linux based hosting package which has “public_html” as default root for FTP.

If we were to be using a Windows package from the same provider, then the root directory would have had to be defined as “/web/content/”.

If using only the slash “/” you should encounter any issues, contact your hosting provider to ask in what folder on your hosting space should the website files be placed in and what this path should be.

6) Once the settings saved, click on the “Connect” button to access the server and view the hosting space contents.

dreamweaver ftp settings - connect

That’s it folks :), good luck with your new website!

Find out Apache/Mysql/PHP versions via SSH

Apache:

#httpd –v

If Ubuntu try:
#apache2 -v

MySQL:

On a server running Plesk:

#mysql -uadmin -p`cat /etc/psa/.psa.shadow`
>SELECT version();

On a server running WHM/cPanel:

#mysql
SELECT version();

PHP:

#php –v

Perl:

#perl -v

Python:

#python -v

Move a WordPress based website from Shared to VPS

There comes a time when the website you’ve built has grown to big or you’ve added some features to it that a shared type of hosting package simply cannot cope with.

The next step in these situations is to have the website moved over to a more powerful platform, in most cases this would be a VPS.

We will try to cover in this article all the aspects related to such a task and we will use as example a website hosted by 123-reg on their shared hosting platform which we will be moving to one of their VPSs.

Preparation

We will be moving the website files, the database, the mailboxes and finally have the domain name pointed to the VPS IP address via its DNS settings.

If everything is done right, there will be absolutely no downtime for the website or the e-mail services.

You need:

1) FTP access to your current hosting package;

2) Access to your current database;

3) The VPS to be up and running;

4) A subscription/account on your VPS for the new website;

5) FTP access to the above subscription/account

The process

Each hosting provider provides some type of automation for creating backups, both for the website files and the database, however, we will describe how to do this manually which we consider to be the safest way.

1) Copy all the website files onto your computer using an FTP client such as FileZilla (check: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag3tC1eYU6M)

2) Create a database backup using the tools your hosting provider offers for this purpose, most of them offer PhpMyAdmin and this is what we will be using in this example:

a) Once you’ve accessed/logged in to phpMyAdmin select the database your website uses:

b) Select “Export” from the top menu:

c) Configure the export (use the default settings if unsure):

d) Hit the “Go” button to create the .sql file:

123-reg specific shortcuts:

Backup the website files
Create database backup

Once you have the website files and the database dump on your computer we can move over to the VPS.

Plesk

If you’ve chosen Plesk as control panel for your VPS and your subscription has already been created we can get to work:

1) Upload your website files via FTP:

When creating the subscription, you have been asked to chose an username and a password. These are also the FTP details you will be using to upload your website.

Use any FTP client to access your VPS and upload the files into the httpdocs folder. I would recommend removing the existing files/folders you will find there.

2) Create a database

3) Create a user for the database

4) Import the database content

5) Alter the wp-config.php file to match the new database connection details

After all these, you’re almost done. Use the Plesk website preview feature to check on your website or have the IP address of your VPS set as the default one for your website (if not already set this way) to simply access the website like this: http://ipaddress (eg http://192.168.1.15)

TROUBLESHOOTING

Fix the 404 errors

If while trying to browse your website almost all links are returning a 404 Not found error, go to your WordPress dashboard -> Settings -> Permalinks -> Save Changes (without actually changing anything).

What this will do is to have the .htaccess file regenerated.

Fix redirect loops

Have a look at the Plesk settings for the preferred domain name: Subscriptions -> select subscription -> Open in control panel -> Hosting settings -> Preferred domain: select ‘none’.

Fix WordPress redirect loops in Plesk

Have you just moved a WordPress based website onto your VPS running Plesk and can’t get rid of the redirect loop even after changing everything you can think of both in your WordPress settings and .htaccess?

Well worry not my friend because this simple solution will most likely fix your website.

1) From your Plesk Panel select “Subscriptions”:

2) Select the domain you’re currently using and click on “Open in control panel”:

3)Go to “Hosting settings”:

4) Look for “Preferred domain” and select ‘none’:

That should do it, save your settings and reload your website (hit CTRL+R a couple of times to make sure the website is not loaded from cache).

Finding out the databse details for WordPress based website

Most CMSs such as WordPress or Joomla store the database details in their default configuration files.

The WordPress configuration file is called wp-config.php and can be found in your website root folder. This is usually called public_html or httpdocs however, if your website is located in a subfolder (http://domain.tld/wordpress for example) then the root folder for the website will be /public_html/wordpress or /httpdocs/wordpress.

Open the wp-config.php to check or alter the database connection details, they look like this:

define(‘DB_NAME’, ‘a_database_name’);

/** MySQL database username */
define(‘DB_USER’, ‘a_database_username’);

/** MySQL database password */
define(‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘password);

/** MySQL hostname */
define(‘DB_HOST’, ‘cust-mysql-123-07’);

Plesk failed upgrades

One of the main reasons that can cause upgrades to fail is “named” (the DNS Bind program), having its permissions changed so it cannot run. Check this and correct as below:

[root@vps16505916 ~]# ls -la /etc/init.d/named
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 7478 Jan 7 12:17 /etc/init.d/named
[root@vps16505916 ~]# chmod 755 /etc/init.d/named

Once done, try and run the update process again. This can be done by selecting ‘Updates and Upgrades’ from the ‘panel’ menu that is on the ‘Server’ tab or the Tools & Settings page if you are logged in as full administrator.

Once you select the Upgrade link this will open another tab. On this page select the option to ‘Upgrade the Components’.

If the problem still persists:

Run bootstrapper.sh”‘

A utility of the Parallels Plesk control panel, “bootstrapper.sh” is a SSH command which can repair a failed Plesk upgrade. To begin, change directory into “/usr/local/psa/bootstrapper/” and then run a directory list command:

#cd /usr/local/psa/bootstrapper/
#ls -la

The directory listing will present you with a list of folders, the number varying between how many upgrades of Plesk have been applied in the past:

drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Apr 22 2011 pp10.10.1-bootstrapper
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Jul 30 20:24 pp10.12.0-bootstrapper
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Dec 08 06:39 pp10.13.4-bootstrapper

In this example, the failed upgrade was for Plesk 10.4, so the newest folder “pp10.13.4-bootstrapper” would be used. Change in that directory, and again perform a directory listing:

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 269303 Dec 08 05:00 bootstrapper.sh
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Dec 08 06:39 db
rw-r–r– 1 root root 2515 Dec 08 04:35 psa.conf.default

The “bootstrapper.sh” file will repair the Plesk databases, and reapply the patches as part of repairing the failed Plesk upgrade. To kick off the repair, simply run the following command:

#./bootstrapper.sh repair

Wait a few moments while the repair takes place, and once it is done you should be able to log into Plesk with your newest upgrade successfully applied!

Plesk Panel for Linux – location of services logs and configuration files

APPLIES TO:
Parallels Plesk Panel 11.5 for Linux

Services

Control Panel

Logs
- Error log: /var/log/sw-cp-server/error_log and /var/log/sw-cp-server/sw-engine.log
- Access log: /usr/local/psa/admin/logs/httpsd_access_log
- Panel log: /usr/local/psa/admin/logs/panel.log
Services
- Stop: /etc/init.d/psa stop
- Start: /etc/init.d/psa start
- Restart: /etc/init.d/psa restart
Configuration
- PHP config: /usr/local/psa/admin/conf/php.ini
- Panel config: /usr/local/psa/admin/conf/panel.ini
- Web server config: /etc/sw-cp-server/conf.d/plesk.conf

Web Presence Builder

Logs
- Error log: /usr/local/psa/admin/logs/sitebuilder.log
- Install/upgrade logs: /usr/local/sb/tmp/
No service control (working via sw-cp-server service)
Configuration
- /usr/local/sb/config
- /etc/sw-cp-server/conf.d/plesk.conf
- /usr/local/psa/admin/conf/php.ini

SSO

Logs
- Error log: /var/log/sw-cp-server/error_log
- SSO log: /var/log/sso/sso.log
Services
- No service control (works via sw-cp-server service)
- Manage settings: /usr/local/psa/bin/sso
Configuration
- /etc/sso/sso_config.ini
- /etc/sw-cp-server/conf.d/sso.inc

Backup Manager

Logs
- Backup logs: /usr/local/psa/PMM/logs/backup-<datetime>
- Restore log: /usr/local/psa/PMM/logs/restore-<datetime>
Functionality is controlled by Plesk control panel service
Configuration
- /etc/psa/psa.conf

Migration Manager

Logs
- /usr/local/psa/PMM/logs/migration-<datetime>
Functionality is controlled by Plesk control panel service.

Health Monitor manager

Logs
- /usr/local/psa/admin/logs/health-alarm.log
Services
- Stop: /etc/init.d/sw-collectd stop
- Start: /etc/init.d/sw-collectd start
- Restart: /etc/init.d/sw-collectd restart
Configuration
- /usr/local/psa/admin/conf/health-config.xml
- /usr/local/psa/var/custom-health-config.xml
- /etc/sw-collectd/collectd.conf

Health Monitor Notification Daemon

Logs
- /usr/local/psa/admin/logs/health-alarm.log
Services
- Stop: /etc/init.d/psa-health-monitor-notificationd stop
- Start: /etc/init.d/psa-health-monitor-notificationd start
- Restart: /etc/init.d/psa-health-monitor-notificationd restart
Configuration
- /usr/local/psa/admin/conf/health-config.xml
- /usr/local/psa/var/custom-health-config.xml

MySQL

Logs
- /var/log/mysqld.log
Services
- Stop: /etc/init.d/mysqld stop
- Start: /etc/init.d/mysqld start
- Restart: /etc/init.d/mysqld restart
Configuration
- /etc/my.cnf
- /etc/mysql/my.cnf (Debian/Ubuntu)

PostgreSQL

Logs
- /var/lib/pgsql/pgstartup.log
Services
- Stop: /etc/init.d/postgresql stop
- Start: /etc/init.d/postgresql start
- Restart: /etc/init.d/postgresql restart
Configuration
- /var/lib/pgsql/data/postgresql.conf

Apache

Logs
- Global Access and Error logs: /var/log/httpd/
- Domain logs: /var/www/vhosts/<domain>/logs
Services
- Stop: /etc/init.d/httpd stop
- Start: /etc/init.d/httpd start
- Restart: /etc/init.d/httpd restart
Configuration
- /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
- /etc/httpd/conf.d/zz010_psa_httpd.conf (includes generated configuration files with the rest of vhosts’ and server configuration)
NOTE: On SuSE, Debian, and Ubuntu, the service is called “apache2”; the path to logs is /var/log/apache2 and the path to configs is /etc/apache2.

NGINX

Logs
- Error log: /var/log/nginx/error.log
- Access log: /var/log/nginx/access.log
- Domain logs: /var/www/vhosts/<domain>/logs/proxy_access*_log
Services
- Stop: /etc/init.d/nginx stop
- Start: /etc/init.d/nginx start
- Restart: /etc/init.d/nginx restart
- NOTE: To disable nginx, go to “Tools & Settings > Services Management” and stop nginx from there.
Configuration
- /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
- /etc/nginx/conf.d/zz010_psa_nginx.conf (includes generated configuration files with the rest of the vhosts’ and server configuration)

Tomcat

Logs
- /var/log/tomcat5/*
Services
- Stop: /etc/init.d/tomcat5 stop
- Start: /etc/init.d/tomcat5 start
- Restart: /etc/init.d/tomcat5 restart
Configuration
- /etc/tomcat5/server.xml

FTP

Logs
- /usr/local/psa/var/log/xferlog
No service control (works via xinetd service)
Configuration
- /etc/xinetd.d/ftp_psa
- /etc/proftpd.conf
- /etc/proftpd.include

Xinetd

Logs
- /var/log/messages
Services
- Stop: /etc/init.d/xinetd stop
- Start: /etc/init.d/xinetd start
- Restart: /etc/init.d/xinetd restart
Configuration
- /etc/xinetd.conf
- /etc/xinetd.d/* (files with “.” in the name are ignored)

BIND

Logs
- /var/log/messages
Services
- Stop: /etc/init.d/named stop
- Start: /etc/init.d/named start
- Restart: /etc/init.d/named restart
Configuration
- /etc/named.conf
NOTE: In Debian/Ubuntu, the service is called “bind9.”

Courier-IMAP

Logs
- /usr/local/psa/var/log/maillog
Services
- Stop: /etc/init.d/courier-imap stop
- Start: /etc/init.d/courier-imap start
- Restart: /etc/init.d/courier-imap restart
Configuration
- /etc/courier-imap/imapd
- /etc/courier-imap/imapd-ssl
- /etc/courier-imap/pop3d
- /etc/courier-imap/pop3d-ssl

Postfix

Logs
- /usr/local/psa/var/log/maillog
Services
- Stop: /etc/init.d/postfix stop
- Start: /etc/init.d/postfix start
- Restart: /etc/init.d/postfix restart
Configuration
- /etc/postfix/master.cf
- /etc/postfix/main.cf

Qmail

Logs
- /usr/local/psa/var/log/maillog
Services
- Stop: /etc/init.d/qmail stop
- Start: /etc/init.d/qmail start
- Restart: /etc/init.d/qmail restart
Configuration
- Control files in /var/qmail/control/
- /etc/xinetd.d/smtp_psa
- /etc/xinetd.d/smtps_psa
- /etc/xinetd.d/submission_psa

Horde

Logs
- Error log: /var/log/psa-horde/psa-horde.log
No service control (works via Apache web-server)
Configuration
- /etc/psa-webmail/horde/horde.conf

Roundcube

Logs
- Error log: /var/log/plesk-roundcube/errors
No service control (works via Apache web-server)
Configuration
- /etc/psa-webmail/roundcube/*

Mailman

Logs
- /var/log/mailman/*
Services
- Stop: /etc/init.d/mailman stop
- Start: /etc/init.d/mailman start
- Restart: /etc/init.d/mailman restart
Configuration
- /etc/httpd/conf.d/mailman.conf
- /usr/lib/mailman/Mailman/mm_cfg.py
- /etc/mailman/sitelist.cfg

Spamassassin

Logs
- /usr/local/psa/var/log/maillog
Services
- Stop: /etc/init.d/spamassassin stop
- Start: /etc/init.d/spamassassin start
- Restart: /etc/init.d/spamassassin restart
Configuration
- /etc/spamassassin/local.cf
- /var/qmail/mailnames/<domain>/<mailbox>/.spamassassin/user_prefs

Parallels Premium Antivirus

Logs:
- /usr/local/psa/var/log/maillog
- /var/drweb/log/*
Service control:
- Stop: /etc/init.d/drwebd stop
- Start: /etc/init.d/drwebd start
- Restart: /etc/init.d/drwebd restart
Configuration:
- /etc/drweb/*

Kaspersky Antivirus

Logs:
- /usr/local/psa/var/log/maillog
Service control:
- Stop: /etc/init.d/kavehost stop
- Start: /etc/init.d/kavehost start
- Restart: /etc/init.d/kavehost restart
Configuration:
- /opt/kav/sdk8l3/etc/kav-handler.cfg
- /etc/kavehost.xml

phpMyAdmin

Logs:
- Error log: /var/log/sw-cp-server/error_log
No service control (working via sw-cp-server service).
Configuration:
- /usr/local/psa/admin/htdocs/domains/databases/phpMyAdmin/libraries/config.default.php

phpPgAdmin

Logs
- Error log: /var/log/sw-cp-server/error_log
No service control (working via sw-cp-server service).
Configuration:
- /usr/local/psa/admin/htdocs/domains/databases/phpPgAdmin/conf/config.inc.php

Logrotate

No service control. Executed by the daily maintenance task: /etc/cron.daily/50plesk-daily
Configuration
- /usr/local/psa/etc/logrotate.conf
- /usr/local/psa/etc/logrotate.d/*

Webalizer

No service control. Executed by the daily maintenance task: /etc/cron.daily/50plesk-daily
Configuration
- /srv/www/vhosts/system/<domain>/conf/webalizer.conf

AWstats

No service control. Executed by the daily maintenance task: /etc/cron.daily/50plesk-daily
Configuration
- /usr/local/psa/etc/awstats/awstats.<domain>-*.conf

Watchdog (monit)

Logs:
- /usr/local/psa/var/modules/watchdog/log/wdcollect.log
- /usr/local/psa/var/modules/watchdog/log/monit.log
Service control:
- Stop: /usr/local/psa/admin/bin/modules/watchdog/wd --stop
- Start: /usr/local/psa/admin/bin/modules/watchdog/wd --start
- Restart: /usr/local/psa/admin/bin/modules/watchdog/wd --restart
Configuration:
- /usr/local/psa/etc/modules/watchdog/monitrc
- /usr/local/psa/etc/modules/watchdog/wdcollect.inc.php

Watchdog (rkhunter)

Logs:
- /var/log/rkhunter.log
Service control:
- Start: /usr/local/psa/admin/bin/modules/watchdog/rkhunter
Configration:
- /usr/local/psa/etc/modules/watchdog/rkhunter.conf

Plesk Firewall

Service control:
- Stop: /etc/init.d/psa-firewall stop
- Start: /etc/init.d/psa-firewall start
- Restart: /etc/init.d/psa-firewall restart
Configuration:
- /usr/local/psa/var/modules/firewall/firewall-active.sh
- /usr/local/psa/var/modules/firewall/firewall-emergency.sh
- /usr/local/psa/var/modules/firewall/firewall-new.sh

Plesk Firewall (IP forwarding)

Service control:
- Stop: /etc/init.d/psa-firewall-forward stop
- Start: /etc/init.d/psa-firewall-forward start
- Restart: /etc/init.d/psa-firewall-forward restart
Configuration:
- /usr/local/psa/var/modules/firewall/ip_forward.active
- /usr/local/psa/var/modules/firewall/ip_forward.saved