Scanning Server for Malware

Note

Watchdog is only available in Plesk for Linux, and is not available on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9, AlmaLinux 9, Debian 11, and Ubuntu 20.04 and later.

Start or Stop Scanning

To set up and start regular security scanning:

  1. Go to Extensions > Watchdog > the Preferences tab.

  2. Specify how often Watchdog should scan the server for malicious code in the Repeat security scan menu.

  3. Click Apply.

    Security scanning will start immediately and will repeat in accordance with the settings you defined. By default, security scanning is started at 2 a.m. local time.

To run on demand scanning:

  1. Go to Extensions > Watchdog > the Security tab.

  2. Click the Start icon in the Tools group.

    Watchdog will update its knowledge base and start scanning. Upon completion, a detailed report will be presented on the screen.

    image-76227.png

To switch off regular security scanning:

  1. Go to Extensions > Watchdog > the Preferences tab.
  2. Select the disabled value from the Repeat security scan menu.
  3. Click Apply.

View Scanning Report

To view the report for the last system scan:

  1. Go to Extensions > Watchdog > the Security tab.

  2. The detailed report will be presented on the screen. If you wish to run a new scan, click the Refresh icon in the Tools group.

    image-76228.png