Configuring Watchdog Settings

First, go to Extensions > My Extensions to check if Watchdog is
installed in Plesk . If it is not, install the Watchdog system
monitoring component (it is located under “Plesk
extensions”).

After you install it, you should configure the settings common for all
Watchdog services, and then switch on each specific type of service you
need.

To configure Watchdog settings common for all services:

1. Go to Extensions > Watchdog. A list of Plesk services will be
   displayed.
2. Go to the Preferences tab.
3. Specify the following settings:
   • Automatically refresh pages. Leave this option selected, if
     you wish to have the information presented on the screens
     automatically updated on each poll.
   • Monitor all services started by administrator. Leave this
     option selected if you wish the component to monitor all the Plesk
     services that you start. If you install a new system service later
     on, the component will automatically start looking after it. Clear
     this checkbox, if you are going to shut down some of the Plesk
     services and you do not want the component to bring them up
     automatically or bother you with any alert messages.
   • Polling interval. Specify the interval between service status
     queries in seconds.
   • Store resource usage statistics. Leave this option selected if
     you wish the system to keep reports on CPU and RAM usage for the
     amount of time you specify.
   • Repeat security scan. Specify how often Watchdog should scan
     the server for malicious code.
   • Send reports. Specify how often Watchdog should send you
     consolidated reports on CPU and RAM load, monitored services, disk
     space partitions and security scanning results.
   • Send e-mail to. Specify the email address where Watchdog
     should deliver alerts and reports. By default, the Plesk
     administrator’s email address is used.
   • Sender’s e-mail address. Email address on behalf of which the
     reports and alerts should be sent. By default, this email address
     is watchdog@your-host-name.
   • SMTP server for sending alerts. Specify local or remote SMTP
     server(s) that should be used for sending alert messages. You can
     specify several host names or IP addresses separated by commas.
     Leave the localhost entry to use your server’s SMTP service.
     If your Plesk server is not running SMTP service, be sure to
     specify another remote mail server, otherwise, Watchdog will not
     be able to send you alerts.
4. Click Apply to submit the settings.

You have specified the general settings, and now you can further
customize and run the Watchdog services you need. Monitoring of system
services and monitoring of disk space usage require fine tuning before
you can start them, however, regular security scanning requires no
additional setup and therefore will start immediately after you have
specified the general settings. By default, security scanning is started
at 2 a.m. local time at the beginning of the specified time period.