After saving the wrong configuration, the server does not start

DracoBlue

It would be nice if, after entering the wrong configuration, the server reset to factory settings and started.

When I input an incorrect configuration for the Nginx server and restart it, the web server along with the control panel does not start at all. In my opinion, the server should automatically restore the configuration to default settings and start itself. This currently prevents access to the enhanced panel.

twest

-1

That's not logical behavior, a lot of people would be upset to lose their entire custom config due to a single typo they made making a single update to config. The typo can be fixed easily by updating the config. Replacing an entire custom config is not easy.

Also, if a default config were to go live on my server it was be just as bad as the server being down - the entire server would crash on default config. So the server would still be crashed, and I'd have my entire config file that needs updating - rather than just the last thing that was updated on it. The difference in fixing would be an hour vs a minute.

DracoBlue

twest
In that case, the nginx configuration editor should provide error notifications and prevent the saving of incorrect configurations. Otherwise, after restarting the server, there is no access to the Enhance panel, which is highly inconvenient.

twest

DracoBlue what I do for Apache configs is add updates to a test server first, then roll it out to other individual servers, adding to the main control panel server last. I follow that process for all config file updates wether it be webserver, DB, php, mpm.

I'll usually also keep an ftp app (filezilla for me) open and connected to servers ready to go in case I need to manually adjust the config files.

It would be nice if Enhance could hold people's hands and coddle their code, but it's also pretty unrealistic. All panels will crash if configs are setup wrong.

DracoBlue

twest Not all of them. In Plesk, I have it set up so that you simply can't save an incorrect configuration, so I was surprised to see this in the Enhance panel.

Rich

Likewise break/fix is the best method of learning, at least for me. I break my server because of a typo or a mistake, I'll sure learn what I did wrong. Whereas a guardrail tool, yes helps production, but doesn't help you learn or fix things in an emergency.

I love control panels they make life MUCH easier, building out mail servers from the CLI isn't fun, working with DNS forward and reverse zones by config etc... but sure teaches you how to administrate servers. That said I was forced to learn this 15 years ago when control panels where not as feature full. Webmin you literally setup the configs yourself for mail and DNS, then had a minimal GUI on top.

+1 to @twest for keeping an active connection open. I have my SSH details always at hand for fast access, else I'd do what you do.

DracoBlue

But I didn't make a typo in the configuration, I just added it:
location / { try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php$is_args$args; }

And after restarting the server, the control panel no longer starts.

twest

DracoBlue did you try taking that line out of your config to see if that would fix it? Did command nginx -t show any problems with syntax?

DracoBlue

Yes, after removing it, the server started. I did not use the nginx -t command