Unable connect to the Plesk server via FTP: 421 Service not available

Symptoms

• In an attempt to connect to the Plesk server via FTP, the following error is shown:

  PLESK_ERROR: Failed to connect to FTP server: 421 Service not available

• The command below shows the following messages:

  # proftpd -nd10
  ...............
   hostname proftpd[27768]: mod_auth_file/1.0: unable to use world-writable AuthGroupFile '/etc/group' (perms 0777): Operation not permitted
  hostname proftpd[27768]: fatal: AuthGroupFile: unable to use /etc/group: Operation not permitted on line 92 of '/etc/proftpd.conf'

Cause

Incorrect permissions for the/etc/group file.

Resolution

1. Log into the server via SSH.

2. Execute the command below to set the correct permissions and ownerships to the/etc/group file:

   # chmod 644 /etc/group
   # chown root:root /etc/group

3. Restart the xinetd service:

   # service xinetd restart

4. Try to connect to the FTP server again.