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Troubleshooting FTP

Note

It seems that greater than 90% of FOG FTP problems are caused by
bad/mismatched credentials. Because of this, we recommend skipping
straight to the #Credentials / Passwords section first.

FTP's roles in FOG

The primary purpose is moving & renaming image files in the /images/dev
folder to the /images folder at the end of an image capture. FTP is not
used for image capture or deployment because NFS is faster. FTP is also
used to download kernels and delete images. FTP is also used to report
"Image Size: ON SERVER". FTP is also used to ensure the image you wish
to deploy exists before starting an image deployment. FTP is also
what's used for image replication in multi-server setups.

FTP should be able to read, write, and delete in /images/dev and
/images.

Testing FTP

Try to get a file with Linux

These commands are NOT done on your FOG server, they are done on another
Linux machine (this example uses Fedora).

To explain what's happening below in the code box...

  • Create a test file with some data in it to send later.
  • Start ftp (may need installed first).
  • Open connection to FOG server.
  • Provide username (found in Web Interface Storage Management
    [NodeName] Management Username).
  • Provide password (found in Web Interface Storage Management
    [NodeName] Management Password).
  • Change to /images directory.
  • List directory contents.
  • Upload file.
  • List directory contents to verify.
  • Download the file.
  • Delete the file.
  • Exit ftp.

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[administrator@D620 ~]$ echo 'some text here to send later' > test.txt
[administrator@D620 ~]$ ftp
ftp> open 10.0.0.3
Connected to 10.0.0.3 (10.0.0.3).
220 (vsFTPd 3.0.2)
Name (10.0.0.3:administrator): fog
331 Please specify the password.
Password:
230 Login successful.
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
ftp> cd /images
250 Directory successfully changed.
ftp> ls
227 Entering Passive Mode (10,0,0,3,204,176).
150 Here comes the directory listing.
drwxrwxrwx 2 0 0 4096 Apr 10 03:38 Optiplex745WinXPconfiguredApril2015
drwxrwxrwx 2 0 0 4096 Apr 10 03:39 dev
drwxrwxrwx 2 0 0 16384 Apr 07 01:58 lost+found
drwxrwxrwx 2 0 0 4096 Apr 08 00:59 postdownloadscripts
226 Directory send OK.
ftp> put test.txt
local: test.txt remote: test.txt
227 Entering Passive Mode (10,0,0,3,132,59).
150 Ok to send data.
226 Transfer complete.
29 bytes sent in 0.000114 secs (254.39 Kbytes/sec)
ftp> ls
227 Entering Passive Mode (10,0,0,3,118,48).
150 Here comes the directory listing.
drwxrwxrwx 2 0 0 4096 Apr 10 03:38 Optiplex745WinXPconfiguredApril2015
drwxrwxrwx 2 0 0 4096 Apr 10 03:39 dev
drwxrwxrwx 2 0 0 16384 Apr 07 01:58 lost+found
drwxrwxrwx 2 0 0 4096 Apr 08 00:59 postdownloadscripts
-rw-r--r-- 1 1000 1000 29 Apr 30 00:29 test.txt
226 Directory send OK.
ftp> get test.txt
local: test.txt remote: test.txt
227 Entering Passive Mode (10,0,0,3,190,81).
150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for test.txt (29 bytes).
226 Transfer complete.
29 bytes received in 0.000529 secs (54.82 Kbytes/sec)
ftp> delete test.txt
250 Delete operation successful.
ftp> exit
421 Timeout.
[administrator@D620 ~]$

Try to get a file with Windows

Explanation of the code below:

  • Create a file with some data
  • Start FTP
  • Open connection to FOG server
  • Enter username (found in Web Interface Storage Management
    [NodeName] Management Username).
  • Enter password (found in Web Interface Storage Management
    [NodeName] Management Password).
  • Upload file
  • List directory to verify
  • Download file
  • Close connection
  • Close FTP.

<!-- -->

c:\SomeFolder>echo This is a bit of text to throw into a file > text.txt

c:\SomeFolder>ftp
ftp> open 10.0.0.3
Connected to 10.0.0.3.
220 (vsFTPd 3.0.2)
User (10.0.0.3:(none)): fog
331 Please specify the password.
Password:
230 Login successful.
ftp> put text.txt
200 PORT command successful. Consider using PASV.
150 Ok to send data.
226 Transfer complete.
ftp: 45 bytes sent in 0.00Seconds 22.50Kbytes/sec.
ftp> ls
200 PORT command successful. Consider using PASV.
150 Here comes the directory listing.
text.txt
226 Directory send OK.
ftp: 10 bytes received in 0.00Seconds 10.00Kbytes/sec.
ftp> get text.txt
200 PORT command successful. Consider using PASV.
150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for text.txt (45 bytes).
226 Transfer complete.
ftp: 45 bytes received in 0.00Seconds 45000.00Kbytes/sec.
ftp> close
221 Goodbye.
ftp> quit

c:\SomeFolder>

FTP Service

Fedora 20/21/22/23

  • Check the status of FTP with

<!-- -->

systemctl status vsftpd.service

(Should be on and green, no errors, and enabled)

  • stop, start, disable and enable FTP service.

<!-- -->

systemctl stop vsftpd.service
systemctl start vsftpd.service
systemctl disable vsftpd.service
systemctl enable vsftpd.service

  • Test that it's functioning by using the testing instructions at the
    top of this article additionally, if you open a web browser and go
    to

<!-- -->

ftp://x.x.x.x

  • Use fog / your-fog-account-Password for the credentials
  • You should see "Index of /"

Ubuntu

  • Restart FTP service.

<!-- -->

service vsftpd restart

  • Enable and disable are not available due to this service being in
    the Upstart scripts.
  • Test that it's functioning by using the testing instructions at the
    top of this article additionally, if you open a web browser and go
    to

<!-- -->

ftp://x.x.x.x

  • Use fog / your-fog-account-Password for the credentials (Since v.
    1.5.6, the default username is 'fogproject.')
  • You should see "Index of /"

FTP Settings File

In Fedora 20/21/22/23

Location:

/etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf

To display file:

cat /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf

It should look a lot like this:

anonymous_enable=NO
local_enable=YES
write_enable=YES
local_umask=022
dirmessage_enable=YES
xferlog_enable=YES
connect_from_port_20=YES
xferlog_std_format=YES
listen=YES
pam_service_name=vsftpd
userlist_enable=NO
tcp_wrappers=YES
seccomp_sandbox=NO

To edit:

vi /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf

Explanation of settings:

man vsftpd.conf

In Ubuntu

Location:

/etc/vsftpd.conf

To display file:

cat /etc/vsftpd.conf

It should look a lot like this:

anonymous_enable=NO
local_enable=YES
write_enable=YES
local_umask=022
dirmessage_enable=YES
xferlog_enable=YES
connect_from_port_20=YES
xferlog_std_format=YES
listen=YES
pam_service_name=vsftpd
userlist_enable=NO
tcp_wrappers=YES
seccomp_sandbox=NO

To edit:

vi /etc/vsftpd.conf

Explanation of settings:

man vsftpd

Instructions for using vi text editor

Disable and Verify Firewall

For Fedora 20/21/22/23

Disable/stop Firewall

systemctl disable firewalld.service
systemctl stop firewalld.service

Can be undone with "start" and "enable". Check Firewall in Fedora
20/21/22/23

systemctl status firewalld.service

Fedora 16

Add /bin/bash to /etc/shells as the vsftpd yum install does not do it
correctly causing tftp timeout message

Debian/Ubuntu

Check the status of the firewall:

sudo iptables -L

If disabled, the output should look like this:

Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination

Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination

Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination

Disable Ubuntu Firewall

sudo ufw disable

Disable Debian Firewall

iptables -F
iptables -X
iptables -t nat -F
iptables -t nat -X
iptables -t mangle -F
iptables -t mangle -X
iptables -P INPUT ACCEPT
iptables -P OUTPUT ACCEPT
iptables -P FORWARD ACCEPT

Other debian settings:

/etc/hosts.deny

This setting in the above file will deny traffic from any source except
locally:

ALL:ALL EXCEPT 127.0.0.1:DENY

Comment out this line like so:

# ALL:ALL EXCEPT 127.0.0.1:DENY

Windows 7

Start Control Panel View by "Small icons" Windows Firewall
Turn Windows Firewall On or Off (Turn off all three.)

Configuring Firewall on Linux

To set the firewall for Linux to only allow what is necessary, please
see the FOG Security article

Credentials / Passwords

There are a few places where all the credentials (on a standard install)
should match exactly.

  • There are a few places where all the credentials (on a standard
    install) should match exactly.
  • Web Interface Storage Management [Your storage node]
    Management Username & Management Password
  • Web Interface FOG Configuration FOG Settings TFTP Server
    FOG_TFTP_FTP_USERNAME & FOG_TFTP_FTP_PASSWORD
  • The local 'fogproject' user's password on the Linux FOG server
  • Server file: /opt/fog/.fogsettings password (For FOG Trunk
    versions 1.3.0 and higher)
  • Server file: /opt/fog/.fogsettings username (For FOG Trunk
    versions 1.3.0 and higher)

All of those should match (again, on a standard installation).

To change the password of the local fog user: :

sudo passwd fog

To edit /opt/fog/.fogsettings: :

vi /opt/fog/.fogsettings

Instructions for using vi text editor

Note

For FOG Trunk/FOG 1.3.0 users, if the password field inside of the
/opt/fog/.fogsettings file is set incorrectly, every time you re-run the
FOG installer, it will set the local fog user's password to this
incorrect password. It's important to set the password correctly in all
of the above listed areas.

Last update: 2023-07-24