A client contacted us with an issue: the website was not loading at all.
The server was running on Hestia, and when trying to access the control panel, we encountered unusual behavior — after entering the login and password, the system kept redirecting back to the login form. If the credentials had been incorrect, the system would have displayed an error message. However, that did not happen. Conclusion: the issue was not related to access credentials.
We suspected a server resource problem. After connecting via FTP, we checked the backups folder — it was empty.
Then we found the real cause: the debug.log file had grown to 52 GB.
If the website is not working and Hestia does not allow access to the control panel, check the available disk space on the server. A full disk may be the cause.
After deleting this file, we were able to log in to Hestia, but the website was still not working. Next, we restarted the Apache, Nginx, MySQL, and PHP services through the Hestia admin panel. After that, the website started working again.
How to Restart Services in Hestia
To restart nginx, mysql, and php in Hestia:
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Log in to the Hestia panel as an administrator.
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Click the settings icon (gear icon) at the top of the panel.
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This will open the page with the services installed on the server.
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Locate the required services.
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Click the restart icon next to each service.
In this case, we restarted:
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Apache
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Nginx
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MySQL
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PHP
After that, the website was up and running.
How to Prevent This in the Future
To avoid similar issues, we updated the wp-config.php file by changing the WP_DEBUG and WP_DEBUG_LOG constants from true to false, so WordPress would no longer write detailed logs to the debug.log file.
