Nessus Professional, Nessus Manager, and Tenable.io
Linux

1. Stop the Nessus service:

   service nessusd stop

2. Update the Plugins:

   /opt/nessus/sbin/nessuscli update --plugins-only

   /opt/nessus/sbin/nessusd -R

3. Start Nessus:

   service nessusd start

Windows

1. Stop the Nessus service:

   net stop "Tenable Nessus"

2. Update the Plugins:

   C:\Program Files\Tenable\Nessus\nessuscli.exe update --plugins-only
   C:\Program Files\Tenable\Nessus\nessusd.exe -R

3. Start Nessus

   net start "Tenable Nessus"

Tenable Appliance

1. Login to Tenable Appliance on port 8000 as admin
2. Navigate to Applications > Nessus. Under Manage Nessus, click Stop Nessus
3. Click on Additional Nessus Action and then Remove Plugins
4. Start Nessus and then Navigate to Nessus on port 8834
5. Nessus will now compile plugins. This process can take up to 30 minutes.

Nessus Managed by Tenable.sc
Instructions for Tenable.sc. NOTE: If these steps do not work, you may need to do a rebuild of the managed scanner. See Reset and rebuild of Nessus scanners managed by Tenable.sc (Formerly SecurityCenter)

1. Log in as Admin
2. Navigate to System > Configuration > Plugins/Feed > Update Active Plugins
3. Navigate to Resources -> Nessus Scanners. Select the Options box on the top right hand corner and then select Update Status.
4. Proceed to 'Steps for managed Nessus scanners' below, depending on the OS the scanner is installed on.

Steps for managed Nessus scanners

Linux

1. Stop the Nessus service

   service nessusd stop

2. Rebuild the Plugins DB:

   /opt/nessus/sbin/nessusd -R

3. Start Nessus:

   service nessusd start

   Tenable.sc will push out new Plugins the next time it checks in with Nessus, which should be every 15 minutes

Windows

1. Stop the Nessus service:

   net stop "Tenable Nessus"

2. Rebuild the plugins DB:

   C:\Program Files\Tenable\Nessus\nessusd.exe -R

3. Start Nessus:

net start "Tenable Nessus"