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Old 12-18-2010, 09:58 AM   #1
0kinawawawa
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Dec 2010
Posts: 3

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VSFTPD - 553 Could not create file


Hi to everyone and thanks in advance for your help. I did find a few similar topics but nothing that resolved this, so I'm starting a new thread.

I am trying to use cron and FTP to backup files regularly from my main server to a backup server. The backup server was a "bare bones" setup with no control panel or even FTP. It is running CentOS 5.3.

I installed VSFTPD which appears to be running OK and I can connect via FTP from my other server, but when I try to run my backup script (it uses mput) I get a "553 Could not create file" error.

Some relevant info:

The user I have created for this is "ftz" with home directory /home/ftz/

Running ls -l shows:
drwxrwxrwx 3 ftz ftz 4096 Dec 18 07:46 ftz

so permissions and directory ownership don't seem to be the problem.

vsftpd.conf was left in default form:

Code:
# Example config file /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf
#
# The default compiled in settings are fairly paranoid. This sample file
# loosens things up a bit, to make the ftp daemon more usable.
# Please see vsftpd.conf.5 for all compiled in defaults.
#
# READ THIS: This example file is NOT an exhaustive list of vsftpd options.
# Please read the vsftpd.conf.5 manual page to get a full idea of vsftpd's
# capabilities.
#
# Allow anonymous FTP? (Beware - allowed by default if you comment this out).
anonymous_enable=YES
#
# Uncomment this to allow local users to log in.
local_enable=YES
#
# Uncomment this to enable any form of FTP write command.
write_enable=YES
#
# Default umask for local users is 077. You may wish to change this to 022,
# if your users expect that (022 is used by most other ftpd's)
local_umask=022
#
# Uncomment this to allow the anonymous FTP user to upload files. This only
# has an effect if the above global write enable is activated. Also, you will
# obviously need to create a directory writable by the FTP user.
#anon_upload_enable=YES
#
# Uncomment this if you want the anonymous FTP user to be able to create
# new directories.
#anon_mkdir_write_enable=YES
#
# Activate directory messages - messages given to remote users when they
# go into a certain directory.
dirmessage_enable=YES
#
# The target log file can be vsftpd_log_file or xferlog_file.
# This depends on setting xferlog_std_format parameter
xferlog_enable=YES
#
# Make sure PORT transfer connections originate from port 20 (ftp-data).
connect_from_port_20=YES
#
# If you want, you can arrange for uploaded anonymous files to be owned by
# a different user. Note! Using "root" for uploaded files is not
# recommended!
#chown_uploads=YES
#chown_username=whoever
#
# The name of log file when xferlog_enable=YES and xferlog_std_format=YES
# WARNING - changing this filename affects /etc/logrotate.d/vsftpd.log
#xferlog_file=/var/log/xferlog
#
# Switches between logging into vsftpd_log_file and xferlog_file files.
# NO writes to vsftpd_log_file, YES to xferlog_file
xferlog_std_format=YES
#
# You may change the default value for timing out an idle session.
#idle_session_timeout=600
#
# You may change the default value for timing out a data connection.
#data_connection_timeout=120
#
# It is recommended that you define on your system a unique user which the
# ftp server can use as a totally isolated and unprivileged user.
#nopriv_user=ftpsecure
#
# Enable this and the server will recognise asynchronous ABOR requests. Not
# recommended for security (the code is non-trivial). Not enabling it,
# however, may confuse older FTP clients.
#async_abor_enable=YES
#
# By default the server will pretend to allow ASCII mode but in fact ignore
# the request. Turn on the below options to have the server actually do ASCII
# mangling on files when in ASCII mode.
# Beware that on some FTP servers, ASCII support allows a denial of service
# attack (DoS) via the command "SIZE /big/file" in ASCII mode. vsftpd
# predicted this attack and has always been safe, reporting the size of the
# raw file.
# ASCII mangling is a horrible feature of the protocol.
#ascii_upload_enable=YES
#ascii_download_enable=YES
#
# You may fully customise the login banner string:
#ftpd_banner=Welcome to blah FTP service.
#
# You may specify a file of disallowed anonymous e-mail addresses. Apparently
# useful for combatting certain DoS attacks.
#deny_email_enable=YES
# (default follows)
#banned_email_file=/etc/vsftpd/banned_emails
#
# You may specify an explicit list of local users to chroot() to their home
# directory. If chroot_local_user is YES, then this list becomes a list of
# users to NOT chroot().
#chroot_list_enable=YES
# (default follows)
#chroot_list_file=/etc/vsftpd/chroot_list
#
# You may activate the "-R" option to the builtin ls. This is disabled by
# default to avoid remote users being able to cause excessive I/O on large
# sites. However, some broken FTP clients such as "ncftp" and "mirror" assume
# the presence of the "-R" option, so there is a strong case for enabling it.
#ls_recurse_enable=YES
#
# When "listen" directive is enabled, vsftpd runs in standalone mode and 
# listens on IPv4 sockets. This directive cannot be used in conjunction 
# with the listen_ipv6 directive.
listen=YES
#
# This directive enables listening on IPv6 sockets. To listen on IPv4 and IPv6
# sockets, you must run two copies of vsftpd whith two configuration files.
# Make sure, that one of the listen options is commented !!
#listen_ipv6=YES

pam_service_name=vsftpd
userlist_enable=YES
tcp_wrappers=YES
If anyone has any ideas on what the problem could be, I would love to hear from you. Please note that I am kind of a noob so speak sloooowly .

Thanks again to anyone that can offer some help.
 
Old 12-18-2010, 12:52 PM   #2
wpeckham
LQ Guru
 
Registered: Apr 2010
Location: Continental USA
Distribution: Debian, Ubuntu, RedHat, DSL, Puppy, CentOS, Knoppix, Mint-DE, Sparky, VSIDO, tinycore, Q4OS,Manjaro
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promblem creating file using ftp

Well, the first thing that you are doing wrong is using ftp.
My personal take would be to back up using 'rsync' over an OpenSSH tunnel. With recent versions of rsync this is the default, and it really only depends upon you having sshd listening on the remote end and rync and ssh available on the local end.
Naturally you must set up a key for password-free connection, but that is easy.

The first backup will take as long as ftp, or a bit longer. The second and subsequent runs only need to send differences rather than entire files, so they will go MUCH faster.

You can google for some detailed "how-to" documents, or post again here if you get stuck. I (and I am sure many others) would be glad to help.

Last edited by wpeckham; 12-18-2010 at 12:53 PM.
 
1 members found this post helpful.
Old 12-18-2010, 01:05 PM   #3
0kinawawawa
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Dec 2010
Posts: 3

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 0
Thanks for your help wpeckham. I'll definitely look into your suggestion as it sounds better from a security and efficiency point of view. I have a feeling it may take me a while to get that working though, so in the meantime, I would still like to get the FTP method up and running, just because I seem to be so close to getting it right. Once I have that working, I will be able to breathe a sigh of relief and get cracking on your method.

So, if anyone is up for helping me out on the FTP method, I would still love to hear from you.

Cheers.
 
Old 12-19-2010, 10:19 AM   #4
wpeckham
LQ Guru
 
Registered: Apr 2010
Location: Continental USA
Distribution: Debian, Ubuntu, RedHat, DSL, Puppy, CentOS, Knoppix, Mint-DE, Sparky, VSIDO, tinycore, Q4OS,Manjaro
Posts: 5,662

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vsftp

You are very welcome, but I think it will take longer to get vsftp working the way you want than just doing the rsync thing.

Of coourse, I use OpenSSH all the time and having that working is a prerequisite. Once your ssh is working, adding rsync is trivial. If you rarely use ssh there could be a slight learning curve involved.

Also, it is the ease and speed of setup that prompted my rsync comment. The security issue is just a bonus that may have no value on a secure and isolated local network.

When I had problems with VSFTP in a virtual environment, I installed PROFTP to replace it. It has fewer security settings and is not terribly compatible with OpenVZ, but is otherwise is just as solid as VSFTP and may be easier for you to get working.

Best of luck!
 
Old 12-21-2010, 12:58 PM   #5
0kinawawawa
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Dec 2010
Posts: 3

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 0
It turns out you were absolutely right. It took me about 15-20 min. to get the rsync method working, and it is much faster after the initial run. Thanks again for this tip, it was exactly what I needed.
 
  


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