Knowledge Base

How to open a website that exists in Plesk, but is not yet resolving to the Plesk server?

Question

How to access a website or webmail that exists in Plesk, but is not yet resolving to the Plesk server? For example, when a website was created for tests, recently migrated or its DNS zone has not propagated through the internet yet.
How to preview a website migrated to a Plesk server before switching its DNS records?

Answer

Accessing a website using Plesk Preview feature

Accessing a website / webmail using a local hosts file

Accessing a website using a public server IP address

Log into Plesk
Go to Websites & Domains > example.com.
Click Preview under the domain.

Note: Preview feature requires nginx reverse proxy. Otherwise, the Preview button will be unavailable.

Modifying the 'hosts' file allows overriding DNS for a domain on a particular machine and causes local machine to look directly at the IP address specified.

For example, the domain example.com is hosted on a server with IP address 203.0.113.2, but is not resolved to this IP from the Internet. To make your PC/Mac resolve this website to this particular IP address, add the line below to your local 'hosts' file:

203.0.113.2 example.com www.example.com

Modifying the 'hosts' file...

on Windows OS
1. Start a command prompt as an Administrator.
2. Run the following command to open the 'hosts' file in Windows Notepad:
  
  C:> notepad C:WindowsSystem32Driversetchosts
3. Add domain's IP address and a domain name on a new line.
4. Click File > Save to save your changes.
on macOS
1. Open Applications > Utilities > Terminal.
2. Open the hosts file by typing the following line in a terminal window:
  
  # sudo nano /private/etc/hosts
  
  Type your domain user password when prompted.
3. Add domain's IP address and a domain name on a new line.
  
  Note: The file contains some comments (lines starting with a hash "#" symbol) and some default hostname mappings (for example, 127.0.0.1 – local host). Add your new mappings after the default mappings.
4. Save the hosts file by pressing 'Control+x' and answering y.
5. Make changes take effect by flushing the DNS cache with the following command:
  
  # dscacheutil -flushcache
on Linux OS
1. In Linux terminal, open the 'hosts' file in a text editor:
  
  # vi /etc/hosts
2. Add domain's IP address and a domain name on a new line.
3. Save the changes and close the file.

Log into Plesk
Go to Tools & Settings > IP Addresses > click on a public IP address, to which the required domain is assigned in Plesk > select an offline website as a Default site from the drop-down menu.
Now, to access the domain, type in the public IP address chosen above in a web-browser: http://203.0.112.2:80.

Note: example.com should be assigned to this IP address in Plesk at Domains > example.com > Hosting Settings. Otherwise, it will not appear in the list.