Cannot remove IP address: The IP address 203.0.113.2 is already used for hosting

Symptoms

• An attempt to remove IP address in Tools & Settings > IP Addresses fails:

  PLESK_ERROR: The IP address 203.0.113.2 is already used for hosting

• This address is not used by any domains or resellers:

  # plesk bin ipmanage –ip_list
  State Type IP Clients Hosting PublicIP
  0 S eth0:203.0.113.2/255.255.255.255 0 0
  0 S eth0:203.0.113.3/255.255.255.255 0 3

• The articles Cannot remove IP address: The IP address 203.0.113.2 is already used for hosting or Unable to remove IP address without any assigned domains: The IP address is already used for hosting have been applied and didn’t fix the issue.

• DNS service is not installed or disabled on the server:

  # plesk bin server_dns –info
  The DNS service is not installed.

• This IP address is used for mail hosting for some domains:

  # plesk db “SELECT d.name,ip.ip_address FROM DomainServices ds INNER JOIN IpAddressesCollections ipac ON ds.ipCollectionId = ipac.ipCollectionId INNER JOIN domains d ON d.id = ds.dom_id JOIN IP_Addresses ip on ipac.ipaddressid=ip.id WHERE ds.type = ‘mail’ and ipac.ipAddressId = (select id from IP_Addresses where ip_address=’203.0.113.2‘) GROUP BY d.name ASC;”
  +————-+—————-+
  | name        | ip_address     |
  +————-+—————-+
  | example.com | 203.0.113.2    |
  +————-+—————-+

Cause

2 Plesk bugs PPPM-5911 and PPPM-11183, which will be fixed in one of the next Plesk updates.
Plesk doesn’t update the records in its database in case the DNS service is disabled/not installed.

Resolution

Until this bug is fixed, use the following workaround to switch mail to another IP address and be able to remove the IP address:

1. Find the domains using the IP address to be removed:

   # plesk db “SELECT d.name,ip.ip_address FROM DomainServices ds INNER JOIN IpAddressesCollections ipac ON ds.ipCollectionId = ipac.ipCollectionId INNER JOIN domains d ON d.id = ds.dom_id JOIN IP_Addresses ip on ipac.ipaddressid=ip.id WHERE ds.type = ‘mail’ and ipac.ipAddressId = (select id from IP_Addresses where ip_address=’203.0.113.2‘) GROUP BY d.name ASC;” 
   +————-+—————-+
   | name        | ip_address     |
   +————-+—————-+
   | example.com | 203.0.113.2    |
   +————-+—————-+

2. Find the IP address used for web hosting on this domain:

   # plesk bin domain –info example.com | grep -i “IP address”
   IP address: 203.0.113.3

3. Select the option Send from domain IP addresses in Tools & Settings > Mail Server Settings > Send mail from specific IP (and remember the value set).

4. Update the domain to use the same IP for web and mail hosting:

   # plesk bin domain -u example.com -mail-service-ip 203.0.113.3

5. Roll back to the previous setting in Tools & Settings > Mail Server Settings > Send mail from specific IP.

   Note: The step 4 can be done with one single command…