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:

• Some directories are created on demand. Previously, all the directories were created by default.
• The following directories were moved from /var/www/vhosts/<VHOST> to /var/www/vhosts/system/<VHOST>:

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

• The following directories are not included in Plesk virtual hosts:
  • /httpsdocs
  • /subdomains
  • /private