Thursday, May 28, 2009

Updating Apache Zaps Plesk 8 Suexec

Boy did I hit the panic button tonight when I did a server software update and suddenly everything running in a CGI-BIN folder started generating 500 errors.

I remembered this problem with earlier versions of the Plesk control panel I use, but it seems that back then it was a simple CHMOD problem, took a look and the SUEXEC group, owner and flags were all still proper.

Lots of stuff down, clock ticking, trying this and that, mild panic setting in...

Turns out the stock Apache SUEXEC isn't compatible with Plesk 8 whatsoever which is why everything was coughing up 500 errors.

Luckily for me there is a second copy of it laying around in a Plesk folder so a quick copy and everything is back running just fine.

cp /usr/local/psa/suexec/psa-suexec /usr/sbin/suexec
Most of you won't have a clue what any of this Linux gibberish is about so don't worry about it but if this happens to some other nerd using Plesk out there perhaps in his moment of nerd panic he'll find my post and know how to solve the problem quickly.

2 comments:

Doug Alder said...

Bill - Don't know if you were doing this or not but no upgrades should be done on a Plesk system that do not come directly from Parallels or http://www.atomicrocketturtle.com - otherwise something nearly always breaks due to the proprietary versions of a number of programs that Plesk creates.

Personally you couldn't pay me to use Plesk again - cPanel is a much better control panel and you never run into those kind of problems as it uses only standard versions of apps. At work we've basically stopped offering Plesk as its users generate a much higher rate of trouble tickets.

Bonus for cPanel users is the ability to have the ConfigServer Security & Firewall script incorporated right into the WHM GUI.

IncrediBILL said...

Doug,

That's the problem, Plesk said it was already up-to-date and the Apache module clearly wasn't.

The options are to sit around and pray it's not hackable until Plesk gets that mod in their update or pull the trigger and pray.

I pulled the trigger ...