Plesk Monitoring Plugin

Overview

The Server Scout Plesk monitoring plugin provides comprehensive oversight of your Plesk control panel installation, tracking service health, subscription metrics, and backup status. This plugin automatically activates when Plesk is detected on your server and operates on the glacial tier, collecting data hourly to provide essential insights without impacting performance.

Automatic Detection

Server Scout automatically detects Plesk installations by checking for:

• The presence of /usr/local/psa/version file
• Availability of the plesk command in the system PATH

When either condition is met, the Plesk plugin activates automatically—no manual configuration required.

Metrics Collected

Subscription Management

The plugin monitors your Plesk subscriptions to help you track resource utilisation:

• Total subscription count: Overall number of active subscriptions
• Suspended subscription count: Number of currently suspended subscriptions

This data helps you understand your hosting capacity and identify potential issues with client accounts.

Service Status Monitoring

Server Scout monitors critical Plesk services to ensure your hosting environment remains operational:

• sw-engine: Core Plesk service engine
• sw-cp-server: Plesk control panel web interface
• mariadb/mysqld: Database service (MariaDB or MySQL)
• nginx: Web server (if configured)
• apache2/httpd: Alternative web server monitoring
• postfix: Mail transfer agent
• dovecot: IMAP/POP3 mail server
• named: DNS service (BIND)

Each service displays as either "running" or "stopped" on your dashboard.

Backup Status Tracking

Backup monitoring is crucial for disaster recovery planning. The plugin checks:

• Last backup age: Time elapsed since the most recent backup
• Backup status: Determined by examining files in /var/lib/psa/dumps/

The backup status appears as either "OK" or "Unknown" depending on whether recent backup files are detected.

Viewing Plesk Data

Server Detail Page

Navigate to your server's detail page to access Plesk monitoring information. The data appears in dedicated sections:

1. Service Status Panel: Displays real-time status of all monitored Plesk services
2. Subscription Overview: Shows total and suspended subscription counts
3. Backup Information: Presents backup age and status

Service Status Display

The service status section uses clear visual indicators:

• Green indicators: Services running normally
• Red indicators: Services that are stopped or experiencing issues
• Service names: Clearly labelled for quick identification

This layout allows you to quickly assess your Plesk environment's health at a glance.

Setting Up Alerts

Plesk Service Failure Alerts

To configure alerts for Plesk service failures:

1. Navigate to Alerts in your Server Scout dashboard
2. Select Create New Alert
3. Choose your Plesk server from the dropdown
4. Select Service Status as the metric type
5. Configure alert conditions:

- Set trigger when services change to "stopped" - Choose specific services to monitor (e.g., sw-engine, mariadb)

1. Configure notification preferences (email, Slack, etc.)
2. Save your alert configuration

Backup Age Monitoring

Set up backup freshness alerts:

1. Create a new alert for your Plesk server
2. Select Backup Age as the metric
3. Set threshold values (e.g., alert if backup is older than 24 hours)
4. Configure notification channels
5. Activate the alert

Data Collection Schedule

The Plesk plugin operates on Server Scout's glacial tier, meaning:

• Data collection occurs every hour
• Suitable for monitoring services that don't require minute-by-minute oversight
• Balances monitoring needs with system resource conservation
• Provides sufficient granularity for most hosting environments

This schedule ensures you receive timely notifications about critical issues whilst maintaining optimal server performance.

Best Practices

Monitor your Plesk environment effectively by focusing on core services like sw-engine and your database service, as these are essential for control panel functionality. Regular backup monitoring helps maintain robust disaster recovery capabilities, whilst subscription tracking supports capacity planning and client management.