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I'm getting frequent errors in /var/log/messages and the ftp service is getting stopped and started over and over. I haven't got any clue behind this error message and what is happening during these errors is logged.

May  4 04:11:23 node1 inetd[1587]: ftp/tcp server failing (looping), service terminated
May  4 04:51:13 node1 inetd[1587]: ftp/tcp server failing (looping), service terminated
May  8 04:12:10 node1 inetd[1587]: ftp/tcp server failing (looping), service terminated
May 15 04:14:56 node1 inetd[1587]: ftp/tcp server failing (looping), service terminated
May 16 04:15:28 node1 inetd[1587]: ftp/tcp server failing (looping), service terminated
May 16 04:37:38 node1 inetd[1587]: ftp/tcp server failing (looping), service terminated

SuSE SLES-8 (i386)
PATCHLEVEL = 4

Could you please any one help me to get rid of this error.

Bart De Vos
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Vel
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1 Answers1

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inetd is stopping your ftp-service for some reason. This happens a lot when you have too much open connections at any given time. It assumes you are under attach.

Have a look at /etc/inetd.conf. There should be an option called protocol for the ftp-service followed by a number, try setting this higher.

ftp     stream  tcp     nowait/3/10  root    /usr/libexec/ftpd       ftpd -l

The 3 stands for the max number of child processes and 10for the max number of connections. Removing this or changing it to 0 will make this unlimited.

Some FTP clients open a load of separate connections for each transfer, this might cause this behavior.

Don't forget to restart inetd after making the changes.

Bart De Vos
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  • Yes, but did you need to edit them? – Bart De Vos May 16 '12 at 16:30
  • I have these two lines in inetd.conf. ftp stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd in.ftpd, ftp stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd vsftpd... How will I edit them? – Vel May 21 '12 at 18:39