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FTP service cannot be started by xinetd on Plesk server if IPv6 is disabled

Sergey Senko
Updated
DoNotDelete:docref Plesk for Linux kb: technical ABT: Group A ftp

Applicable to:

  • Plesk for Linux

Symptoms

FTP service fails to start on a Plesk server with the following error:

CONFIG_TEXT: xinetd[503]: socket creation failed (Address family not supported by protocol (errno = 97)). service = ftp
xinetd[503]: Service ftp failed to start and is deactivated.

Cause

The issue is caused by disabled IPv6 support on the host:

# grep -r ipv6 /etc/modprobe.d/
alias ipv6 off
options ipv6 disable=1

# grep -i v6 /etc/sysconfig/network
NETWORKING_IPV6=no
IPV6FORWARDING=yes

Resolution

  1. Connect to the server via SSH.

  2. Replace the IPv6 value by IPv4 in the /etc/xinetd.d/ftp_psa file as shown in the example below. For this, edit the file in any text editor, for example, in the vi editor:

    CONFIG_TEXT: service ftp
    {
    flags = IPv6 <== REMOVE
    flags = IPv4 <== ADD
    disable = no
    socket_type = stream
    protocol = tcp
    wait = no
    user = root
    instances = UNLIMITED
    server = /usr/sbin/in.proftpd
    server_args = -c /etc/proftpd.conf
    }

    Note: this change could be rewritten after the Plesk upgrade

  3. Save changes and close the file.

  4. Start the xinetd service:

    # systemctl start xinetd

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Comments

1 comment
Date Votes
  • Avatar
    Peter Brand

    Hello,

    I wanted to upgrade Plesk to the latest version and got the message that ProFTPD server could not be started if ipv6 was disabled. I applied the above solution and Plesk was upgraded to the latest version without any problems. Can I now leave the modified version of ftp_psa as it is or should I change it back to flags = IPv6 ? By the way, what is this flag for? I don't really have much knowledge yet, that's why I asked.

    Thanks,

    0

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