Monitoring in Plesk Obsidian

Monitoring, previously known as Advanced Monitoring, is an essential tool for maintaining the smooth operation of your Plesk server. It diligently tracks server resource usage and provides timely notifications when predefined thresholds for one or more resources are met or exceeded. This comprehensive guide will walk you through effectively monitoring server resource usage and configuring its notification system in Plesk Obsidian.

Plesk Obsidian comes with Monitoring installed by default, offering two distinct operational modes. Upon your initial access to the Monitoring section, you will be prompted to select and activate your preferred mode:

• Built-in Monitoring: Often referred to simply as "Monitoring," this mode seamlessly integrates with the Grafana extension. It leverages Grafana to visually present server metrics through intuitive graphs. Should you opt for Built-in Monitoring, the system will guide you through the necessary Grafana extension installation process.

  Note: This article primarily focuses on the features and functionalities of Built-in Monitoring.

• 360 Monitoring: This innovative feature is provided by the cloud service Plesk 360. 360 Monitoring offers deep integration with Plesk and features dual dashboards: an external dashboard accessible via Plesk 360, and an internal one directly within your Plesk interface. Selecting 360 Monitoring will initiate a prompt to connect your Plesk instance to Plesk 360, followed by the activation of the 360 Monitoring service.

  Note: 360 Monitoring is compatible with Plesk Obsidian 18.0.36 and subsequent versions.

For users managing multiple servers or requiring advanced website availability monitoring, activating 360 Monitoring is highly recommended. To make an informed decision on which mode best suits your needs, refer to the detailed comparison between Built-in Monitoring and 360 Monitoring.

Note: You have the flexibility to switch between these two monitoring modes at any time, adapting to your evolving requirements.

Tracking Monitoring Graphs

You can locate Monitoring within the Navigation Pane of your Plesk interface. Monitored resources and services are logically categorized across five distinct tabs, each dedicated to a specific set of parameters. The "Overview" tab, by default, presents graphs for the most critical system parameters, though you have the flexibility to customize this view to display your preferred metrics.

Customizing the "Overview" Tab

To tailor the "Overview" tab to your specific monitoring needs, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to Monitoring, then click on Settings > Customize.
2. Here, you can select which graphs to display on the "Overview" tab and adjust their arrangement:
   • To include a graph, click the icon next to its name.
   • To remove a graph from the display, click the icon next to its name.
   • To modify the graph layout, click "Rearrange" next to "Overview," then drag and drop the graph names into your desired positions. Conclude by clicking "Complete the arrangement."

   Note: At any point, you can revert all Monitoring tabs to their default graph layout by clicking Restore defaults.

3. Once your customization of the "Overview" tab is complete, click OK to save your changes.

It is important to note that the values displayed by Monitoring reflect resource usage at the exact moment the page was loaded, rather than real-time current usage. You can configure the frequency at which Monitoring automatically refreshes its data, with options ranging from every five seconds to hourly. Alternatively, you can disable auto-refresh and manually update the data by clicking the refresh icon. By default, Monitoring automatically refreshes its data every two minutes.

Note: Monitoring data is not updated in real-time. If your server experiences a continuous high load, you may observe discrepancies between Monitoring's display and a real-time system resource usage monitor (such as 'top' in Linux or Task Manager in Windows).

By default, graphs across all Monitoring tabs present data generated over a single day. Adjusting this default time range can be highly beneficial for understanding various trends, such as:

• How specific parameters fluctuate over extended periods.
• Identifying peak and minimal resource usage times.

Changing the Time Range for Monitoring Graphs

To modify the time range for which Monitoring graphs display data, follow these instructions:

1. Access Monitoring and select the specific tab for which you wish to adjust the time range.
2. Locate and click on the time period displayed next to the clock icon (which is "Last 1 day" by default).
3. You can then change the time range using one of the following methods:
   • Select a predefined time range, such as "Last 5 minutes," "Last 1 hour," or other available options.
   • Specify a custom time range. For example, you might set a range from October 12, 2021, 01:00:00 to October 14, 2021, 22:50:04. To do this, under "Absolute time range," enter the desired start and end dates and times in the "From" and "To" fields, then click Apply time range.

   For more detailed information on defining custom time ranges, please refer to the Grafana documentation on time range controls.

Note: Monitoring does not permanently save changes made to its graph settings. For instance, if you select a "Last 6 hours" time range and disable auto-refresh, Monitoring will revert to its default graph settings once you refresh your browser page.

Tracking Monitoring Notifications

Beyond visual graph analysis, server health can be effectively tracked through Monitoring notifications and alerts. These alerts provide crucial insights into your server's status, ensuring you are promptly informed of any critical changes.

Monitoring displays notifications directly within the Plesk interface whenever resource usage surpasses a predefined threshold or, conversely, when it returns to normal operational values.

It's important to note that notifications are generated only for resources that have been explicitly enabled and have their respective thresholds configured within the Monitoring settings. By default, several key resources come with notifications pre-enabled and thresholds already set. When resource usage exceeds these default thresholds, it signifies that the resource is approaching a critical state, potentially indicating a problematic high load on your server.

For users without extensive server administration experience, it is generally recommended to maintain the default Monitoring configuration. The preconfigured thresholds and enabled notifications are optimized for most environments. However, experienced administrators have the option to customize thresholds and manage notifications for specific resources as needed.

Setting Custom Thresholds and Managing Resource Notifications

To configure custom thresholds or to enable/disable notifications for particular resources, follow these steps:

1. Go to Monitoring and click Settings.
2. In this section, you can:
   • Enable or disable notifications for individual resources.
   • Customize existing thresholds. A threshold can only be customized for a resource that is currently enabled. If necessary, activate the resource first before setting its threshold. Some resources may offer two types of thresholds: an absolute value (in units of measurement) and a relative value (as a percentage). In such cases, select your preferred threshold type before specifying its value.
3. Click Apply to save your customized settings.

Disabling All Monitoring Notifications

Should you wish to completely disable all Monitoring notifications across all resources, you can do so by:

1. In the upper-right corner of the screen, click the bell icon, then click "Settings" next to it.
2. From here, you can enable or disable various types of Monitoring notifications globally:
   • Notifications for when a resource usage value returns to normal.
   • Notifications for when a resource usage threshold has been exceeded.
   • Notifications if the Monitoring agent detects an issue.

Updating Monitoring After Hardware Changes

Upon its initial installation, Monitoring meticulously records the hardware configuration of your Plesk server. Following this, the system is designed to automatically scan for any modifications to the server hardware on a daily basis.

However, if you have recently upgraded or altered your server hardware and require Monitoring to reflect these changes immediately, rather than waiting for the automated daily scan, you have the option to trigger a manual update.

Manually Updating Monitoring After Hardware Modifications

To manually refresh Monitoring's hardware detection:

1. Navigate to Monitoring and click Settings.
2. Then, click the Detect Hardware Changes button to initiate the update process.

Differences Between Built-in Monitoring and 360 Monitoring

To assist you in choosing the most suitable monitoring solution for your environment, the table below provides a comprehensive comparison between the two available Monitoring modes: Built-in Monitoring and 360 Monitoring.

(Plesk for Linux) Limiting the Number of Websites 360 Monitoring Monitors per Server

360 Monitoring offers the capability to oversee multiple websites distributed across various servers. The precise number of websites and servers that can be monitored is determined by your specific license type, along with any additional website and server capacities purchased under that license.

By default, the 360 Monitoring license does not impose a per-server limit on the number of websites it can monitor. For instance, if your license permits monitoring a total of 20 websites across 4 servers, 360 Monitoring could theoretically monitor all 20 websites on a single server, or distribute them as 5 websites across each of the 4 servers, consuming the total license limit in either scenario.

For hosting providers who offer 360 Monitoring services to their customers, it can be advantageous to enforce a limit on the number of websites monitored per server. This preventative measure ensures that a single customer's server does not inadvertently consume the entirety of your overarching license limit, allowing for fair distribution across your client base.

Steps to Limit 360 Monitoring Websites Per Server

To implement a per-server limit on the number of websites 360 Monitoring can monitor:

1. Access the panel.ini file for editing. This file is typically located at /usr/local/psa/admin/conf/panel.ini. As an alternative, you can conveniently edit this file within the Plesk interface using the Panel.ini Editor extension.
2. Add the following configuration lines to the panel.ini file and then save your changes:

   [ext-monitoring]
   cloudMaxWebsites = <the desired website limit>

   For example, if you set cloudMaxWebsites = 5, 360 Monitoring will not monitor more than 5 websites on any single server, regardless of whether the overall license limit has been reached.

Note: Be aware that your customers may be able to bypass this website limit if they possess the ability to edit the panel.ini file (either via the Panel.ini Editor extension or through SSH access to the server). To safeguard your modifications within panel.ini, it is advisable to restrict root SSH access to the Plesk server and to blacklist the Panel.ini Editor extension.

(Plesk for Linux) Hiding the 360 Monitoring License Panel From Customers

360 Monitoring includes a dedicated panel that displays comprehensive information regarding the license type and its associated limits. This includes the total number of servers and websites that both you and your customers are authorized to monitor under your current license. By default, this license panel is visible to all users.

For hosting providers who offer 360 Monitoring services to their clientele, there may be a desire to conceal this panel from customer view. Since customers typically do not manage the license limits, this information is often irrelevant to their operations and can be hidden to streamline their interface.

How to Hide the 360 Monitoring License Panel

To prevent the 360 Monitoring license panel from being displayed to your customers, implement the following configuration:

1. Open the panel.ini file for editing. This file is located at /usr/local/psa/admin/conf/panel.ini. You may also choose to edit this file conveniently within the Plesk interface by utilizing the Panel.ini Editor extension.
2. Add the subsequent lines to the panel.ini file and then save the file:

   [ext-monitoring]
   cloudShowLicensePanel = false

Note: Customers who have the ability to modify the panel.ini file (either via the Panel.ini Editor extension or through SSH server access) can potentially revert this change and make the license panel visible again. To ensure the permanence of your `panel.ini` modifications, it is recommended to restrict root SSH access to the Plesk server and to blacklist the Panel.ini Editor extension.