Understanding Plesk logs is crucial for troubleshooting issues, monitoring server activity, and ensuring the smooth operation of your hosting environment. Plesk generates various logs, including access logs, error logs, and mail logs. Here's an overview of each type of log:

1. Access Logs:

   • Access logs record all incoming requests to your web server, including HTTP and HTTPS requests.

   • They provide valuable information about website traffic, such as the IP addresses of visitors, requested URLs, HTTP status codes, user-agents, and more.

   • Access logs are useful for analyzing website traffic patterns, identifying potential security threats, and troubleshooting website performance issues.

   • Location: Access logs are typically stored in the /var/www/vhosts/<domain>/logs/ directory, where <domain> represents the domain name of your website.

   • File Names: Access logs are often named access_log or access_ssl_log for HTTPS traffic.

   • Accessing Logs: You can view access logs directly from the Plesk interface or access them via SSH using command-line tools like cat, tail, or less.

2. Error Logs:

   • Error logs contain information about server errors, warnings, and other issues encountered by your web server or applications.

   • They provide details about specific errors, including error messages, timestamps, and the context in which the errors occurred.

   • Error logs are essential for diagnosing and troubleshooting website or server-related problems.

   • Location: Error logs are typically stored in the /var/www/vhosts/<domain>/logs/ directory alongside access logs.

   • File Names: Error logs are often named error_log.

   • Accessing Logs: You can view error logs directly from the Plesk interface or access them via SSH using command-line tools.

3. Mail Logs:

   • Mail logs record information about incoming and outgoing email messages processed by the mail server.

   • They include details such as sender and recipient addresses, delivery status, timestamps, and any errors encountered during mail delivery.

   • Mail logs are useful for diagnosing email delivery issues, tracking message activity, and monitoring mail server performance.

   • Location: Mail logs are typically stored in the /usr/local/psa/var/log/ directory.

   • File Names: Mail logs are often named maillog or maillog.processed.

   • Accessing Logs: You can view mail logs directly from the Plesk interface or access them via SSH using command-line tools.

Understanding and regularly reviewing these logs can help you identify and address issues promptly, maintain server security, and optimize performance. It's essential to monitor logs regularly and take appropriate action based on the information they provide. Additionally, consider implementing log rotation and archival strategies to manage log file sizes and ensure efficient log file storage.