Monitoring System and Mail Server Logs

summary

Troubleshooting issues with various Plesk services can be made easier by studying the information found in those services’ log files. The Log Browser extension assists you by making it easy to see and search through logs of many different services via a single interface.

Note that while the extension makes it easier to access information useful for troubleshooting, it cannot fix issues automatically or provide additional assistance in troubleshooting an issue. If you are experiencing an issue and are not comfortable fixing it hands-on, use the plesk repair utility or contact support.

Log Browser is a free extension, and can only be used by the Plesk administrator. The extension is only available in Plesk for Linux.

Prerequisites

The extension is included in the “Recommended” preset and is likely already installed in your Plesk. If not, install the extension from the Extensions Catalog.

When the extension is installed, you can see the Log Browser icon in Extensions > My Extensions.

image-my-extensions-icon

Troubleshooting Issues Using Log Browser

With Log Browser, you can troubleshoot issues related to mail, and also to many other Plesk services (by manually configuring the source(s) of log entries to see).

Troubleshooting an issue with mail

  1. Log in to Plesk.

  2. Go to Tools & Settings, and then click Log Browser (under “Assistance and Troubleshooting”).

  3. Go to the “Mail” tab.

  4. The next step differs depending on whether you are troubleshooting an issue that took place in the past or one that can be reliably reproduced:

    • If the issue took place in the past, click the “Select date” field and specify the date and time the issue took place. You will only see log entries from that date/time onwards. The more accurately you do this, the less log entries you will need to sift through.
    • If the issue can be reliably reproduced, instead click the Real-time update toggle button so that it shows “Enabled”, and then click Clear. Reproducing the issue should fill the list with the relevant log entries.

  5. Click the image-funnel-icon icon to configure the filter.

  6. Under “Priority”, configure what kinds of messages you want to see. Priority levels range from 0 (“Emergency”, highest) to 7 (“Debug”, lowest). You can select multiple priority levels at once, but must select at least one.

    Note

    When troubleshooting an issue, messages with a priority level lower than four (“Warning”) are more likely to distract than to help. However, if troubleshooting the issue proves difficult, we recommend adding messages with priority level seven (“Debug”) to the list.

  7. (Optional) Under “Source”, select one or more services to only see log entries related to those services. By default, messages related to all mail services are shown.

  8. Click the image-funnel-icon icon once again to close the filter.

You should now see all log entries for the specified services created during the specified time frame.

Troubleshooting an issue with a different service

  1. Log in to Plesk.

  2. Go to Tools & Settings, and then click Log Browser (under “Assistance and Troubleshooting”).

  3. The next step differs depending on whether you are troubleshooting an issue that took place in the past or one that can be reliably reproduced:

    • If the issue took place in the past, click the “Select date” field and specify the date and time the issue took place. You will only see log entries from that date/time onwards. The more accurately you do this, the less log entries you will need to sift through.
    • If the issue can be reliably reproduced, instead click the Real-time update toggle button so that it shows “Enabled”, and then click Clear. Reproducing the issue should fill the list with the relevant log entries.

  4. Click the image-funnel-icon icon to configure the filter.

  5. Under “Priority”, configure what kinds of messages you want to see. Priority levels range from 0 (“Emergency”, highest) to 7 (“Debug”, lowest). You can select multiple priority levels at once, but must select at least one.

    Note

    When troubleshooting an issue, messages with a priority level lower than four (“Warning”) are more likely to distract than to help. However, if troubleshooting the issue proves difficult, we recommend adding messages with priority level seven (“Debug”) to the list.

  6. (Optional) Select the source of the messages to see. By default, all messages that meet the date/time and priority level criteria are shown. You can narrow the list down by specifying the source of the desired messages:

    • To see messages from one or more broad categories (for example, “Mail system” or “FTP daemon”), select them under “Facility”.
    • To see messages from one or more specific services (for example, “nginx” or “dovecot”), select them under “Source”.

    Note

    Only use either “Facility” or “Source”, never both. Selecting incompatible “Facility” and “Source” combinations (for example, “Mail system” and “nginx”) will result in an empty filter.

  7. Click the image-funnel-icon icon once again to close the filter.

You should now see all log entries for the specified services created during the specified time frame.