So after several tries we find that it is not possible to remove the domain from the plesk interface. So the problem needs to be dealt at the root level. So what is the root of all the entries in plesk? Of course the plesk’s DB ! Here are the steps to follow for the troubleshoot:

1) Since plesk uses different DBs we shall now try to find what DB server it uses.
Go to Start>All Programs>Plesk?Plesk Reconfigurator. In the pop up window obtained, select ‘Switch DB provider’. Note the field for ‘Server Type’. It will show the DB type plesk is currently using. You may find that it supports MySQl,MSSQL and Jet. I shall now continue the article with refernce to Jet DB.

2) Now we have our target clear: editing plesk’s Jet DB to remove all instances of a particular domain. We shall now try to find a frontend GUI tool for editing plesk’s Jet DB tables. I used ‘MDB Viewer Plus’. It is a DB viewer combined and an editor software. You can download the file from:

http://www.alexnolan.net/software/MDBPlus.exe

Then proceed with the installation.

3)Run the program. Navigate to File>Open. Now search for the DB location. It will usually be in %Program Files\Parallels\Plesk\admin\db\psa.mdb. Open the particular db.

4)Open the ‘Query’ from the toolbar. This helps us to execute MSSQL queries from this program. Into the space for query, enter:

SELECT d.name FROM domains d LEFT JOIN dns_zone z ON d.dns_zone_id=z.id WHERE z.id IS NULL;

and click ‘Execute’. It will display the list of domains having missing or inappropriate IDs in psa.mdb.

The meaning and reason for the error is that in the DB file psa.mdb, the ‘dns_zone_id’ record in the table ‘domains’ points to inexistent ‘id’ record in ‘dns_zone’ table for one or several domains. It may happen because of Plesk internal issues, broken database, incomplete domain deletion. We shall verify this now.

5) In the toolbar for the list of tables of the psa.mdb, navigate to the table ‘dns_zone’. You will find multiple entries for the domain in question. Remove the latest entries and then note the ‘id’ record for the particular domain.

6)From the toolbar navugate to the table ‘domains’. Click on the domain in question. Then move the scroll bar below to search for the record(or coloumn ‘dns_zone_id’). Note the this id. You will note that this will be different from the ‘id’ record in step 5. This mismatch had led to the dns zone being NULL for the particular domain.

7)We can verify this by running commnads in ‘Query’ toolbar also. Open ‘Query’ from the toolbar and run the commands:

a. to verify step 5: Select id from [dns_zone] where name=’domainname’
b. to verify step 6: Select dns_zone_id from [domains] where name=’domainname’

We can see the two different id results.

8)So we need to eliminate this mismatch. For that we will need to provide the correct id for the table: ‘domains’. For this we will replace the result of  7)b with 7)a. Run the following command:

UPDATE domains SET dns_zone_id=’dns-zone-id’ WHERE name=’domainname’;

Replace dns-zone-id with the result of  7)a.

The issue is fixed !

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C:\> %systemroot%\system32\inetsrv\APPCMD.EXE migrate config "domain_name.com/virtual_directory"
Successfully migrated section "system.web/httpModules".
Successfully migrated section "system.web/httpHandlers".

Now if you are going to migate the web.config inside the WEB_ROOT directory itself and not inside any virtual directory don’t miss a forward slash, / after the domain name.

eg:

C:\> %systemroot%\system32\inetsrv\APPCMD.EXE migrate config "domain_name.com/"
Successfully migrated section "system.web/httpModules".
Successfully migrated section "system.web/httpHandlers".

Otherwise you may get an error like below,

ERROR ( message:Cannot find APP object with identifier “domainame.com”. )

A good article to refer is available at http://blogs.msdn.com/tmarq/archive/2007/08/30/iis-7-0-asp-net-pipelines-modules-handlers-and-preconditions.aspx

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Suspend and quickly unsuspend the domain works around 20% of situations and if that also fails, we may need to work in the Plesk PSA database. Before you work on this, please make sure that the plesk psa database is backed up.

cd %plesk_bin%
cd ..\..\MySQL\bin
mysql -u admin -pPASSWORD -P 8306

In most cases, Plesk MySQL server’s admin PASSWORD will be the Plesk password itself. If it isn’t reset the plesk password again, but with “%plesk_bin%\plesksrvclient.exe” -set NEW_PASSWORD_HERE true (true parameter will reset the MySQL admin password as well)

Assuming you are now in the plesk mysql server prompt, follow the below steps in mysql prompt.

mysql> use psa;
mysql> select * from dns_zone where name like 'domain_name.com';

In the output shown similar to below, check the status of the zone. I have seen only the values 0 and 2. Not sure whether there is a status value of 1 even.

If DNS for some domain is managed in Plesk Control Panel, the status for this domain in dns_zone table is temporary setting to value 2 (to lock it for any changes) and sets it to 0 value when the transaction is over. If for some reason the transaction is interrupted during DNS managing (Plesk restarts for example) the status field value is not changed to 0 and stays as 2. Domains with that status value are not recorded in named.conf file during any DNS management.

Now check to see whether there is only one such record for the ID shown for the above sql query. Chances are there could be two and if there are two, you should delete the record which is orphan or has no reference back to dns_zone.

mysql> select * from dns_recs where dns_zone_id=`the_id_you_got_from_the_above_mysql_query`;

The results you get should be matching with the DNS_Zone_ID and the domainname in question.

If you see anything else, i.e orphans or else if you don’t see any entries in dns_recs corresponding to the dns_zone_id, delete it.

mysql> delete from dns_zone where id=[wrong_record_id];

And finally update the status from 2 to 0;

mysql> update dns_zone set status=0 where id=[the_dns_zone_id_you_got]

When it’s done update DNS records using dnsmng.exe utility:

cd %plesk_bin%
dnsmng.exe update domain.com

Finally there could be a few situations where the entire DNS service is down. Usually the monitoring should detect such situations. However I usually noticed that this happens only when it is the BIND server which is being used as the DNS server software. A switch of the DNS server to Microsoft DNS should fix the issue. You may need to check the versions supported at the release notes available at http://www.parallels.com/products/plesk/docs/ . On my investigation disabling the zone of an internationalized domain name solved the issue with one server though and let us continue using BIND server.

References : http://kb.parallels.com/en/5242

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You can edit default server backup repository directory path through registry. Go to

Regedit and then browse the keys
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\PLESK\PSA Config\Config

Right Click on variable “DUMP_D” select Modify and set the server backup repository path as you wish. Default Directory Path for Plesk Backup is “C:\Program Files\Parallels\Plesk\Backup\”. Go ahead and change it to a location of your wish, say “E:\Backup”

Windows 64 bit edition

Again it’s the registry only, but the location may be a bit different. You need to browse to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\PLESK\PSA Config\Config

And repeat the steps mentioned above. If you cant find these keys, search for the “DUMP_D” without quotes and update it.

Linux 32/64 bit editions

#vi /etc/psa/psa.conf

Find the following variable, DUMP_D and edit the server backup repository directory PATH as you wish. Default Directory Path for Plesk Backup is “/var/lib/psa/dumps” You may change it to /media/backups

# Backups directory
DUMP_D /var/lib/psa/dumps

Okay. Those were the steps of a sysadmin not so greenhorn. If you are not comfortable with running regedit, use Plesk Panel Reconfigurator.

By using Parallels Plesk Panel Reconfigurator you can move the Parallels Plesk Panel backup files storage directory to another location on the same or another partition.

To change location of the backup files directory, follow these steps:

1. Run Parallels Plesk Panel Reconfigurator and select the Change Plesk Backup Data location option.
2. Specify the destination directory name. If the directory does not exist, it will be created.
3. Click Next. During this operation all Parallels Plesk Panel services will be restarted.

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Situation becomes like this a static page wants to be read a dynamic page and process the values obtaining from POST method. Solution is to make the .html read as .asp with asp dll, just like we do html parse as php in Linux boxes Here are the steps to do it on a Windows 2003 machine

1. Start –> Run –> inetmgr
2. Websites –> website/domain name in question
3. Right Click on the domain –> Properties –> Home Directory –> Configuration
4. In the tab Mappings –> Add an extension for .html and .htm , if it is missing (most cases it will be missing) and edit to add all verbs (POST, GET, HEAD are needed)
5. Fields to be added are as below,

Executable : C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv\asp.dll
Extension : .html
Limit to : GET,HEAD,POST,TRACE

And Click Apply, OK All is well !!

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What I could get was “Bad Request (Invalid Hostname)” in bold letters. Here is what I did to fix the same.

Start -> Run -> inetmgr -> Expand the (+) -> Websites -> Right click on the domain name -> Take Properties -> Website -> IP Address (make sure that it has the dedicated IP assigned there) and then click “Advanced”

Add/Edit Web Site Identification

IP Address : Choose the dedicated IP from drop down list
TCP/IP Port : 80
Host Header Value : Leave it blank (Important)

Leaving the Host Header Value should fix the issue and fetch the website when accessing it using the IP.

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DNSZone::Table::select() failed: no such row in the table

Environment : Plesk 9.2 and Windows 2003 OS.

Solution

Identify the database which plesk uses. Now a days plesk choose MSAccess as the Database. Earlier days the choice was MSSQL and MySQL. Better choices now. Details on how to edit the database is at this KB url : http://kb.parallels.com/en/3472

Once you have it follow the next KB available at http://kb.parallels.com/en/1360 . This KB is meant for MySQL. But all other steps will work for MSAccess DB as well. Usually DB is at %plesk_bin%\admin\db\psa.mdb

Basically a few commands

find domains which have missed ID:

mysql> SELECT d.name FROM domains d LEFT JOIN dns_zone z ON d.dns_zone_id=z.id WHERE z.id IS NULL;

Then for each reported domain do the following:

1. create appropriate id records with following commands, do not forget to replace DOMAN-NAME with a real domain name and ADMIN-EMAIL with a correct email:

mysql> INSERT INTO dns_zone (name, displayName, email) VALUES ('DOMAIN-NAME', ‘DOMAIN-NAME', 'ADMIN-EMAIL');

2. know new zone ID:
mysql>  SELECT id, name FROM dns_zone where name='DOMAIN-NAME';

3. substitute correct ID into psa.domains table, don’t forget to replace DOMAN-NAME and DNS-ZONE-ID with correct values:

mysql> UPDATE domains SET dns_zone_id='DNS-ZONE-ID' WHERE name='DOMAIN-NAME';

Once it is done, take DNS Settings and then under the domain in question, do Restore Defaults. After that do the needed modification along with unsuspension of the domain. It should work!! Or else make it work

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