Enable the Watchdog in Plesk

This article will go over installing and enabling the Watchdog module in Plesk. This module is used to monitor services, disks, basic security of the server, and will provide basic statistics as well. The reports can be setup to be emailed daily, weekly, or monthly to your email address.

1. Open a web browser and connect to your Plesk Control Panel located at https://ip address:8443.  Accept the self-signed certificate in your browser.
2. Login as the Administrator using the information sent to in the initial setup email.
3. Click the Modules link on the left hand side of the screen. If you see an icon on the next screen that is Watchdog, click it to setup Watchdog alerts. Otherwise, follow the steps below to install the Watchdog module.

   

   

4. To install the Watchdog module, go to Server > Updater.

   

5. This will list the available updates for Plesk. Click the link that matches your current Plesk version. There is a green check mark next to the version you have current installed.

   

6. You will then see a list of all services that are installed and can be installed. Scroll down to the service named Watchdog (System monitoring module) and check the checkbox next to it. Then click the Install link.

   

7. A confirmation page will then be shown. Check the box for Yes, I wish to install these components and click OK.

   

8. After a few minutes, the system administrator will receive an email stating the success or failure of the install. If successful, the icon for Watchdog under Server > Modules will be available.

   

9. The first screen of the Watchdog module will show what services are being monitored. Click the service you wish to monitor and click the checkboxes next to Monitor the Service and Save Service Statistics. Configure the other options as you see fit. Click OK.

   

   

10. Do this for each service you wish to monitor and then make sure the icon at the top of the Services tab states Disabled (therefore the service is enabled).

    

11. Click the Disks tab. Enable Disk monitoring in the same fashion by clicking the Enable icon.
12. Click the Security tab. This will perform a live scan of the server immediately. The server will be scanned for rootkits, backdoors, local exploits, and other malicious items. It will not check insecure code, however. Click Start to begin the scan and a progress bar will appear and results will show. Keep in mind this often returns false positives and that not all items reported are technically an issue or security hole. If you wish to not scan at the current time, move on to the next step

    

13. Click the Statistics tab. The real time statistics at page load will be shown for the server. In the drop down at the bottom of the page, you may choose to show the last 24 hours statistics, past week, past month, or past year

    

14. Lastly, click the Preferences tab. Here you may setup email alerts for all of the monitored services that are setup. You can also configure the limits to poll the services for a heartbeat and can set the full security scan times (daily, weekly, or monthly) as well as when to send email reports.