How to Start, Stop or Restart System Services on a Plesk Server?
Maintaining the system services running on a server is one of the key responsibilities of the system administrator or hosting professional. Plesk is a popular web hosting control panel that provides a simple visual interface to manage your server and the system services.
This guide will explain how to start, stop, or restart a system service on your Plesk server. Let’s take a look at it!
What is Plesk and Why Service Management is Important?
Plesk is commercial web hosting and server data center automation software with a graphical interface for managing websites, DNS registration, mail accounts, databases, etc. In addition to that, the traditional server services have been a staple in system administration for decades, such as Apache/Nginx for web hosting, MySQL for databases, Postfix for mail, and BIND for DNS.
There are times when you will need to start, stop, or restart services when you require the following:
1. Apply configuration changes.
2. Fix issues resulting in sites not responding or delivery of mail.
3. Reduce resource utilization or resolve stuck processes.
4. Secure your server after a software installation or after installation patches.
5. Manage the load during a particularly busy period or if you have a maintenance window.
Without appropriate management of services, your server can run poorly or worse because of too many processes at a time.
How to Access Plesk for Services Management?
To log into your Plesk server, you simply require admin credentials. Let’s go through a few simple steps to access Plesk for service management!
- Move to the browser and open https://your-domain.com:8443.
- Enter your admin username and password.
- After getting into the dashboard, navigate to Tools & Settings > Services Management.
That’s it! Finally, you’ve reached a central page to check and keep track of important services and to start, stop, or restart them with ease.
How to Start a Service in Plesk?
Moreover, the services are stopped either manually, with an error, or after a reboot of your server. Follow the steps below to start a service!
- Go to Tools & Settings > Server Management > Services Management.
- Find the service you need to start.
- Click the Start icon next to the service i.e. the play/arrow icon.
Once the service is started, Plesk will either show a green check or a success message.
How to Stop a Service in Plesk?
Stopping a service is usually done for maintenance, troubleshooting, or disabling features not being used temporarily. Carry out the steps mentioned below to stop the service!
- Move to Tools & Settings > Server Management > Services Management.
- Click the stop icon next to the service.
- Verify once if the service has stopped.
It is advisable to use this option carefully on production servers. Stopping services like Apache or MySQL can ultimately take down your website, database, or mail.
How to Restart a Service in Plesk?
Restarting is carried out after configuration changes, adding SSL certificates, after mail server changes or while updating the database. Let’s follow a few simple steps to do so!
- Navigate to Tools & Settings > Server Management > Services Management.
- Then, click the restart icon next to the service.
As a result, it will stop the service and start it again!
Steps to Manage Services via SSH
To manage services via SSH, run the following set of commands!
Leverage using an SSH client like PuTTY or terminal and log into your server as root:
ssh root@your-server-ip
To Start a Service
systemctl start apache2
To Stop a Service
systemctl stop apache2
To Restart a Service
systemctl restart apache2
To Check Status
systemctl status apache2
Conclusion
Managing servers for services like Apache, MySQL, and mail is essential. It can be applying configuration changes, troubleshooting issues, or improving performance. Thus, knowing how to safely and correctly start, stop, and restart services can help increase the uptime and reliability of your server. Be careful, when making any changes with your server and when in the production environment.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it possible to restart all services in Plesk all at once?
Plesk does not have a single button that restarts all services. However, you can reboot your server or create a shell script to execute under SSH to carry this out.
What happens if I accidentally turn off a service?
Most services restart without risking data loss. Some services, like mail or databases, may incur a minor disruption. Always check the logs after stopping the service and monitor them properly.
Is it safe to restart services during work hours?
It can be, but it is not preferred. It is best to restart all services during off-peak hours whenever possible.
How do I know if a service failed after I restart?
Plesk usually displays a red icon or error message in the GUI. You can also quickly verify by reviewing logs in the Plesk interface and/or by SSH into the server:
systemctl status servicename
Where do I find more detailed errors?
Generally, service errors are logged in /var/log/. You can even check with:
journalctl -u servicename
