Trouble transferring files via FTP to vsftpd running on AWS EC2 instance

[Kevin Price-Ward]

Hi,

I'm having real trouble getting fullsync working with vsftpd on a small Amazon EC2 instance. I'm able to connect to it fine with FileZilla and other FTP clients, but fullsync is proving problematic.

I'm doing a publish/update from a local directory on my Mac to a FTP server which I've set up on AWS EC2 with vsFTPd.

I'm trying to do this over old style, non-TLS FTP connection, I have enabled the correct ports on EC2 and I think I have my vsftpd conf file configured correctly.

I have managed to connect, I think, but no files are being transferred to my FTP server, here is the log file from fullsync:

---

6873059 [Thread-83] DEBUG org.apache.commons.vfs2.cache.SoftRefFilesCache - putFile: file:///Users/kevin.price-ward/Documents/4x4tyres/test
6873611 [Thread-83] DEBUG org.apache.commons.vfs2.cache.SoftRefFilesCache - putFile: ftp://ec2-3-19-185-105.us-east-2.compute.amazonaws.com/
6873616 [Thread-83] DEBUG org.apache.commons.vfs2.cache.SoftRefFilesCache - putFile: file:///Users/kevin.price-ward/Documents/4x4tyres/test/04-wheel-detail-page.png
6873886 [Thread-83] DEBUG StateDecider - 04-wheel-detail-page.png; 1197819 Bytes Fri Nov 22 17:02:50 GMT 2019 vs. 04-wheel-detail-page.png; -
6873886 [Thread-83] DEBUG StateDecider - destination missing
6873886 [Thread-83] DEBUG TaskGeneratorImpl - 04-wheel-detail-page.png: [Add(Destination) BU: Destination; Rec: true - Add]
6896410 [ActionPerformer] INFO FullSync - Synchronization started
6896410 [ActionPerformer] INFO FullSync -   source:      /Users/kevin.price-ward/Documents/4x4tyres/test
6896410 [ActionPerformer] INFO FullSync -   destination: ftp://ec2-3-19-185-105.us-east-2.compute.amazonaws.com:21/
6896423 [ActionPerformer] DEBUG org.apache.commons.vfs2.cache.SoftRefFilesCache - putFile: ftp://ec2-3-19-185-105.us-east-2.compute.amazonaws.com/04-wheel-detail-page.png
6896693 [ActionPerformer] ERROR FullSync - Exception
org.apache.commons.vfs2.FileSystemException: Could not write to "ftp://ec2-3-19-185-105.us-east-2.compute.amazonaws.com/04-wheel-detail-page.png".
    at org.apache.commons.vfs2.provider.AbstractFileObject.getOutputStream(AbstractFileObject.java:1439)
    at org.apache.commons.vfs2.provider.DefaultFileContent.getOutputStream(DefaultFileContent.java:461)
    at org.apache.commons.vfs2.provider.DefaultFileContent.getOutputStream(DefaultFileContent.java:441)
    at net.sourceforge.fullsync.fs.connection.CommonsVfsConnection.writeFile(CommonsVfsConnection.java:134)
    at net.sourceforge.fullsync.fs.connection.AbstractFile.getOutputStream(AbstractFile.java:180)
    at net.sourceforge.fullsync.impl.FileCopyEntryDescriptor.getOutputStream(FileCopyEntryDescriptor.java:64)
    at net.sourceforge.fullsync.buffer.BlockBuffer.flush(BlockBuffer.java:89)
    at net.sourceforge.fullsync.impl.FillBufferTaskExecutor.flush(FillBufferTaskExecutor.java:165)
    at net.sourceforge.fullsync.Synchronizer.performActions(Synchronizer.java:122)
    at net.sourceforge.fullsync.ui.TaskDecisionPage$2.run(TaskDecisionPage.java:219)
    at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:844)
Caused by: org.apache.commons.vfs2.FileSystemException: Cant open output connection for file "ftp://ec2-3-19-185-105.us-east-2.compute.amazonaws.com/04-wheel-detail-page.png". Reason: "550 Permission denied.
".
    at org.apache.commons.vfs2.provider.ftp.FtpFileObject.doGetOutputStream(FtpFileObject.java:648)
    at org.apache.commons.vfs2.provider.AbstractFileObject.getOutputStream(AbstractFileObject.java:1431)
    ... 10 more
6896695 [ActionPerformer] DEBUG org.apache.commons.vfs2.cache.SoftRefFilesCache - close fs: file:///
6896695 [ActionPerformer] DEBUG org.apache.commons.vfs2.cache.SoftRefFilesCache - close fs: ftp://ec2-3-19-185-105.us-east-2.compute.amazonaws.com/
6896696 [ActionPerformer] INFO FullSync - synchronization successful
6896696 [ActionPerformer] INFO FullSync - ------------------------------------------------------------
GUIUpdateQueue<TaskFinishedEvent>::doUpdate: 1
6899242 [main] DEBUG org.apache.commons.vfs2.cache.SoftRefFilesCache - close fs: file:///
6899242 [main] DEBUG org.apache.commons.vfs2.cache.SoftRefFilesCache - close fs: ftp://ec2-3-19-185-105.us-east-2.compute.amazonaws.com/

---

To me it looks like a permission error? But the FTP user I am connecting with has full write access so I'm not sure.

Also here is my vsftpd.conf file in case there's an issue with the way I have it configured:

---

# 
# 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=NO 
# 
# This directive enables listening on IPv6 sockets. By default, listening 
# on the IPv6 "any" address (::) will accept connections from both IPv6 
# and IPv4 clients. It is not necessary to listen on *both* IPv4 and IPv6 
# sockets. If you want that (perhaps because you want to listen on specific 
# addresses) then you must run two copies of vsftpd with 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 

pasv_enable=NO 
pasv_min_port=1024 
pasv_max_port=1048 
pasv_address=3.19.185.105 
allow_writeable_chroot=YES 

rsa_cert_file=/etc/ssl/private/vsftpd.pem 
rsa_private_key_file=/etc/ssl/private/vsftpd.pem 

#ssl_enable=YES 
#allow_anon_ssl=NO 
#force_local_data_ssl=YES 
#force_local_logins_ssl=YES 

#ssl_tlsv1=YES 
#ssl_sslv2=NO 
#ssl_sslv3=NO 
#require_ssl_reuse=NO 
#ssl_ciphers=HIGH

---

Can anyone provide any insight here?
Thanks in advance
Kevin

[Christoph]

Hi Kevin,
have you tried uploading files with FileZilla or just tried to connect? From the log it looks like FullSync is able to connect but fails to upload a file because the server denies that.

BUT: FTP is a horrible protocol. If at all possible use SFTP (filetransfer over SSH - not to be confused with FTPS which is just horrible FTP with TLS).

I assume that you can SSH into your EC2 instance already, so using SFTP would remove an additional service that you need to expose to the internet.

BR,
Christoph