Blank page is shown while opening a website

Symptoms

• A blank page is shown while opening a site or queries to a database are shown instead of the domain’s content.

• When accessing the website, an error 500 from the PHP is shown in the log files:

  # tail -f /var/www/vhosts/system/example.com/logs/*log
  ==> /var/www/vhosts/system/example.com/logs/access_log <==
  203.0.113.2 – – [25/Jun/2019:13:25:14 +0200] “GET /index.php HTTP/1.1” 500 219 “-” “Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:67.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/67.0”

• There are invalid PHP settings in Domains > example.com > Websites & Domains > PHP Settings, as the following examples:

  • Invalid error_reporting parameter:

    

  • Invalid memory_limit parameter:

    

Cause

Incorrect PHP settings assigned in the domain.

Resolution

1. Log in to Plesk GUI

2. Go to Domains > example.com > PHP Settings

3. Correct the PHP settings:

   • For invalid error_reporting parameter:

     1. Enable short open tags setting short_open_tag to On

     2. Set default error reporting parameter setting error_reporting to E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE & ~E_STRICT & ~E_DEPRECATED

   • For invalid memory_limit parameter: Type in an integer number and a shorthand character in memory_limit parameter (K for kilobyte, M for megabyte, G for gigabyte), for example: 256M