Symptoms
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Fail2Ban is installed and enabled in Plesk
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When opening Plesk or a website or logging in to an email account from a specific IP address (for example, 203.0.113.2), the connection fails:
ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT
ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED
Can't reach site
This site can’t be reached
203.0.113.2 took too long to respond. -
From other IP addresses Plesk, websites and email accounts are accessible
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The IP address 203.0.113.2 can be found in Plesk at Tools & Settings > IP Address Banning (Fail2Ban) > Banned IP Addresses or via CLI:
# plesk bin ip_ban –banned
Banned IP addresses:
203.0.113.2 plesk-panel Jan 1, 2020 -
Some operations in Plesk might fail with the error:
PLESK_ERROR: Request to backend API failed with error: Network error
Cause
The user’s IP address has been banned by Fail2Ban.
Resolution
Unban the IP-address or add it to trusted IP-addresses
Unbanning the blocked IP address via Plesk
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Note: It should be accessed from a different IP address (another device).
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Go to Tools & Settings > IP Address Banning (Fail2Ban) > Banned IP Addresses
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Select the user’s IP address and click Unban or Move to Trusted IPs
Unbanning the blocked IP address via a command-line interface
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Connect to the Plesk server via SSH
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Unban the user’s IP address:
# plesk bin ip_ban –unban 203.0.113.2
SUCCESS: The selected IP addresses were unbanned. -
Add the IP address to the list of trusted IP addresses:
# plesk bin ip_ban –add-trusted 203.0.113.2
with