Virtual Host Structure (Linux)

The table below shows the list of directories that Plesk creates for each virtual host. Note that Plesk does not add all the directories by default. It creates some of the directories only when the website owner needs them. Such directories are marked as created On demand. For example, after a customer adds a website, it does not have the /web_users directory. Plesk will create it only after the customer adds his first web user.

The following table lists subdirectories of a virtual host directory /var/www/vhosts/<vhost>:

 

Directories Tree

User

Group

Permissions

Description

Created

/<VHOST>

 

 

user

psaserv

755

 

Always

 

/anon_ftp

 

user

psaserv

750

Anonymous FTP files

On demand

 

/error_docs

 

user

psacln

755

Error message files

Always

 

 

<doc>.html

user

psaserv

755

 

 

 

/httpdocs

 

user

psaserv

750

HTTP documents

Always

 

 

/cgi-bin

user

psaserv

755

CGI scripts

Always

 

/logs

 

user

root

700

Link to ../system/<vhost>/logs

Always

 

/bin

 

root

root

755

Chroot environment directories

 

On demand

 

/dev

 

root

root

755

 

/etc

 

root

root

755

 

/lib

 

root

root

755

 

/tmp

 

root

root

755

 

/usr

 

root

root

755

 

/var

 

root

root

755

 

/web_users

 

root

root

755

Web users' directory

On demand

 

 

/<web_user>

user

psaserv

750

Web user directory

On demand

 

/<subdomain>

 

user

psaserv

750

HTTP and HTTPs documents of a subdomain

On demand

 

/<domain>

 

user

psaserv

750

HTTP and HTTPs documents of an additional domain

On demand

Note: The /httpdocs directory and the /cgi-bin directory inside it should have the owner:psaserv ownership. All other files and directories inside the /httpdocs directory should have the owner:psacln ownership.

The following table lists directories created for a virtual host in the /var/www/vhosts/system/<vhost>:

 

 Directories Tree

User

Group

Permissions

Description

Created

/<VHOST>

 

 

root

psaserv

744

 

Always

 

/conf

 

root

psaserv

750

Configuration files.

Always

 

/etc

 

root

root

755

Configuration files

Always

 

/logs

 

psaadm

root

700

Virtual host logs

Always

 

/pd

 

root

psaserv

710

Passwords to protected directories

Always

 

 

d..<dir1>@<dir2>

root

psaserv

310

 

Always

 

/statistics

 

root

psaserv

550

Statistics directory

Always

 

 

/anon_ftpstat

root

root

755

Anonymous FTP statistics.

Always

 

 

/ftpstat

root

root

755

FTP user statistics

Always

 

 

/logs

root

root

777

Link to /logs

Always

 

 

/webstat

root

root

755

HTTP user statistics

Always

 

 

/webstat-ssl

root

root

755

HTTPS user statistics

Always

Differences from Previous Versions

The structure described above was introduced in Plesk 11.5. It has the following differences compared to the structure of earlier Plesk versions:

Old Location

New Location

Comment

/<VHOST>/conf

/system/<VHOST>/conf

Configuration files

/<VHOST>/pd

/system/<VHOST>/pd

Passwords to protected directories

 

/<VHOST>/statistics

/system/<VHOST>/statistics

Statistics directory

 

/<VHOST>/statistics/logs

/system/<VHOST>/logs

Virtual host logs