PLESK Server: Mastering Supernal Secrets & Best Practices

Why Plesk?

Plesk is one of the most widely-used commercial hosting control panels, powering over 380,000 servers worldwide. It provides a web-based interface for managing web hosting services on Linux and Windows servers.

Initial Server Hardening

Before anything else, secure your Plesk installation:

# Update Plesk to the latest version
plesk installer update

# Enable automatic security updates
plesk bin server_pref -u -autoupdates true

# Restrict admin access by IP
plesk bin ip_ban --add-trusted 203.0.113.50

# Enable Fail2Ban integration
plesk bin ip_ban --enable
plesk bin ip_ban --ban-time 3600 --max-retries 5

# Force HTTPS for Plesk panel
plesk bin admin --set-admin-ssl true

Essential CLI Commands

# Domain management
plesk bin domain --list
plesk bin domain --create example.com -ip 93.184.216.34 \
    -login admin -passwd SecureP@ss

# Subscription management
plesk bin subscription --list
plesk bin subscription --info example.com

# Database operations
plesk bin database --list --domain example.com
plesk bin database --create mydb -domain example.com \
    -type mysql -server localhost

# SSL/TLS certificate management
plesk bin extension --exec letsencrypt cli.php \
    -d example.com -d www.example.com

# Backup and restore
plesk bin pleskbackup domains-only --output-file /backup/domains.tar
plesk bin pleskrestore --restore /backup/domains.tar

Performance Optimization

PHP-FPM Configuration

# Per-domain PHP-FPM settings
plesk bin domain -u example.com \
    -php_handler_id plesk-php83-fpm

# Tune FPM pool settings via Plesk UI or directly:
# /opt/plesk/php/8.3/etc/php-fpm.d/
pm = dynamic
pm.max_children = 50
pm.start_servers = 10
pm.min_spare_servers = 5
pm.max_spare_servers = 20
pm.max_requests = 500

Nginx Caching

# Enable nginx caching per-domain
# In Plesk: Domains > example.com > Apache & nginx Settings
# Add to Additional nginx directives:

proxy_cache_path /var/cache/nginx levels=1:2
    keys_zone=example:10m max_size=1g inactive=60m;

location ~* \.(css|js|jpg|jpeg|png|gif|ico|svg|woff2)$ {
    expires 30d;
    add_header Cache-Control "public, immutable";
}

Monitoring and Maintenance

# Check service status
plesk bin service --status-all

# View Plesk logs
tail -f /var/log/plesk/panel.log
tail -f /var/log/sw-cp-server/error_log

# Repair permissions
plesk repair fs -y
plesk repair web -y

# Database integrity check
plesk repair db -y

Plesk is a powerful tool when configured correctly. These fundamentals will serve as your foundation for running a secure, performant hosting infrastructure.

Nginx Apache Sysadmin