Website is not accessible: 403 Forbidden AH01797: client denied by server configuration

Symptoms

• The website shows the error similar to below one in browser screen:

  403 Forbidden

• The log file /var/www/vhosts/system/example.com/logs/error_log contains errors like the following:

  AH01797: client denied by server configuration: /var/www/vhosts/example.com/index.php

•  IP is being banned by Fail2Ban after browsing WordPress Admin dashboard.

Cause

Custom Apache configuration does not allow access to the website. 

Resolution

1. Login into Plesk;

2. Go to Domains > example.com > Apache & nginx Settings > Additional HTTP directives and add “#” sign before directives similar to below ones:

   Deny from all

   <Location /example>
   Require all denied
   </Location>

3. Check If there .htaccess files on the server:

   NOTE: Replace example.com with the actual domain name

   # find /var/www/vhosts/example.com/httpdocs/ -name “.htaccess”
   /var/www/vhosts/example.com/httpdocs/example/.htaccess
   /var/www/vhosts/example.com/httpdocs/example2/.htaccess
   /var/www/vhosts/example.com/httpdocs/.htaccess

4. Review the content of all .htaccess files and disable settings that prevents access to the site by adding the “#” sign before the directives containing words “Deny” in text editor.