Website uses old certificate or IP address on the Plesk server: nginx dead but pid file exists

Symptoms

• If an SSL certificate has been changed, it is not returned by the web server, and the old one is used instead.

• New domains and subscriptions return Plesk Default Page.

• The cloned website shows 404 error on most content

• If an IP address has been added recently, domains assigned to it return the following error:

  ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED

• Newly created subdomains shows Plesk login page

Cause

Stuck nginx process cannot receive a reload signal from Plesk.

• plesk repair web example.com command fails with the following error:

  # plesk repair web example.com
  ...
  - httpdmng failed: [2018-12-04 12:33:44.242] ERR [util_exec] proc_close() failed ['/usr/local/psa/admin/bin/nginx_control' '--restart'] with exit code [1]
  Can not reload proxy server:
  Error messages: 0; Warnings: 0; Errors resolved: 0
  exit status 1

• nginx service status is reported as follows:

  # service nginx status
  nginx dead but pid file exists

Resolution

1. Connect to the server via SSH.

2. Kill all nginx processes:

   # killall nginx

3. Start nginx back:

   # service nginx start