proFTPD unable to determine IP address

Question

When starting the server this error is returned

Starting ftp server: proftpd2014-08-03 18:39:22,045 web-amd-3700-2gb proftpd[22126]: warning: unable to determine IP address of 'web-amd-3700-2gb'
2014-08-03 18:39:22,045 web-amd-3700-2gb proftpd[22126]: error: no valid servers configured
2014-08-03 18:39:22,045 web-amd-3700-2gb proftpd[22126]: fatal: error processing configuration file '/etc/proftpd/proftpd.conf'
 failed!

/etc/proftpd/proftpd.conf

#
# /etc/proftpd/proftpd.conf -- This is a basic ProFTPD configuration file.
# To really apply changes, reload proftpd after modifications, if
# it runs in daemon mode. It is not required in inetd/xinetd mode.
# 

# Includes DSO modules
Include /etc/proftpd/modules.conf

# Set off to disable IPv6 support which is annoying on IPv4 only boxes.
UseIPv6             off
# If set on you can experience a longer connection delay in many cases.
IdentLookups            off

ServerName          "Debian"
ServerType          standalone
DeferWelcome            off

MultilineRFC2228        on
DefaultServer           on
ShowSymlinks            on

TimeoutNoTransfer       600
TimeoutStalled          600
TimeoutIdle         1200

DisplayLogin                    welcome.msg
DisplayChdir                .message true
ListOptions                 "-l"

DenyFilter          \*.*/

# Use this to jail all users in their homes 
# DefaultRoot           ~

# Users require a valid shell listed in /etc/shells to login.
# Use this directive to release that constrain.
# RequireValidShell     off

# Port 21 is the standard FTP port.
Port                21

# In some cases you have to specify passive ports range to by-pass
# firewall limitations. Ephemeral ports can be used for that, but
# feel free to use a more narrow range.
# PassivePorts                  49152 65534

# If your host was NATted, this option is useful in order to
# allow passive tranfers to work. You have to use your public
# address and opening the passive ports used on your firewall as well.
# MasqueradeAddress     1.2.3.4

# This is useful for masquerading address with dynamic IPs:
# refresh any configured MasqueradeAddress directives every 8 hours
<IfModule mod_dynmasq.c>
# DynMasqRefresh 28800
</IfModule>

# To prevent DoS attacks, set the maximum number of child processes
# to 30.  If you need to allow more than 30 concurrent connections
# at once, simply increase this value.  Note that this ONLY works
# in standalone mode, in inetd mode you should use an inetd server
# that allows you to limit maximum number of processes per service
# (such as xinetd)
MaxInstances            30

# Set the user and group that the server normally runs at.
User                proftpd
Group               nogroup

# Umask 022 is a good standard umask to prevent new files and dirs
# (second parm) from being group and world writable.
Umask               022  022
# Normally, we want files to be overwriteable.
AllowOverwrite          on

# Uncomment this if you are using NIS or LDAP via NSS to retrieve passwords:
# PersistentPasswd      off

# This is required to use both PAM-based authentication and local passwords
# AuthOrder         mod_auth_pam.c* mod_auth_unix.c

# Be warned: use of this directive impacts CPU average load!
# Uncomment this if you like to see progress and transfer rate with ftpwho
# in downloads. That is not needed for uploads rates.
#
# UseSendFile           off

TransferLog /var/log/proftpd/xferlog
SystemLog   /var/log/proftpd/proftpd.log

# Logging onto /var/log/lastlog is enabled but set to off by default
#UseLastlog on

# In order to keep log file dates consistent after chroot, use timezone info
# from /etc/localtime.  If this is not set, and proftpd is configured to
# chroot (e.g. DefaultRoot or <Anonymous>), it will use the non-daylight
# savings timezone regardless of whether DST is in effect.
#SetEnv TZ :/etc/localtime

<IfModule mod_quotatab.c>
QuotaEngine off
</IfModule>

<IfModule mod_ratio.c>
Ratios off
</IfModule>


# Delay engine reduces impact of the so-called Timing Attack described in
# http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/11430/discuss
# It is on by default. 
<IfModule mod_delay.c>
DelayEngine on
</IfModule>

<IfModule mod_ctrls.c>
ControlsEngine        off
ControlsMaxClients    2
ControlsLog           /var/log/proftpd/controls.log
ControlsInterval      5
ControlsSocket        /var/run/proftpd/proftpd.sock
</IfModule>

<IfModule mod_ctrls_admin.c>
AdminControlsEngine off
</IfModule>

#
# Alternative authentication frameworks
#
#Include /etc/proftpd/ldap.conf
#Include /etc/proftpd/sql.conf

#
# This is used for FTPS connections
#
#Include /etc/proftpd/tls.conf

#
# Useful to keep VirtualHost/VirtualRoot directives separated
#
#Include /etc/proftpd/virtuals.conf

# A basic anonymous configuration, no upload directories.

# <Anonymous ~ftp>
#   User                ftp
#   Group               nogroup
#   # We want clients to be able to login with "anonymous" as well as "ftp"
#   UserAlias           anonymous ftp
#   # Cosmetic changes, all files belongs to ftp user
#   DirFakeUser on ftp
#   DirFakeGroup on ftp
# 
#   RequireValidShell       off
# 
#   # Limit the maximum number of anonymous logins
#   MaxClients          10
# 
#   # We want 'welcome.msg' displayed at login, and '.message' displayed
#   # in each newly chdired directory.
#   DisplayLogin            welcome.msg
#   DisplayChdir        .message
# 
#   # Limit WRITE everywhere in the anonymous chroot
#   <Directory *>
#     <Limit WRITE>
#       DenyAll
#     </Limit>
#   </Directory>
# 
#   # Uncomment this if you're brave.
#   # <Directory incoming>
#   #   # Umask 022 is a good standard umask to prevent new files and dirs
#   #   # (second parm) from being group and world writable.
#   #   Umask               022  022
#   #            <Limit READ WRITE>
#   #            DenyAll
#   #            </Limit>
#   #            <Limit STOR>
#   #            AllowAll
#   #            </Limit>
#   # </Directory>
# 
# </Anonymous>

# Include other custom configuration files
Include /etc/proftpd/conf.d/

ifconfig

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:11:6b:3c:61:b9
          inet addr:88.198.61.237  Bcast:88.198.61.255  Mask:255.255.255.224
          inet6 addr: fe80::211:6bff:fe3c:61b9/64 Scope:Link
          inet6 addr: 2a01:4f8:131:2a::2/64 Scope:Global
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:44239400 errors:375 dropped:391 overruns:375 frame:0
          TX packets:41717433 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:1 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:12419358975 (11.5 GiB)  TX bytes:16170232918 (15.0 GiB)
          Interrupt:17 Base address:0x6000

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:19799205 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:19799205 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:3252682909 (3.0 GiB)  TX bytes:3252682909 (3.0 GiB)

hostname

web-amd-3700-2gb

cat /etc/hosts

### Hetzner Online AG installimage
# nameserver config
# IPv4
127.0.0.1 localhost
88.198.61.237  Debian-70-wheezy-64-minimal
#
# IPv6
::1 ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
fe00::0 ip6-localnet
ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix
ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
ff02::2 ip6-allrouters
ff02::3 ip6-allhosts
2a01:4f8:131:2a::2  Debian-70-wheezy-64-minimal

Solution

Please change /etc/hosts from

88.198.61.237  Debian-70-wheezy-64-minimal
2a01:4f8:131:2a::2  Debian-70-wheezy-64-minimal

to

88.198.61.237  web-amd-3700-2gb
2a01:4f8:131:2a::2  web-amd-3700-2gb

or (better) fix the setup to have a proper FQDN and naming scheme.

Comments

[clarkk]

By FQDN do you then mean a full domain name instead of web-amd-3700-2gb in /etc/hots ??

[zhenech]

@clarkk I meant having a line like <IP> <fqdn> <aliases>, so in your case maybe 88.198.61.237 web-amd-3700-2gb.example.com web-amd-3700-2gb and web-amd-3700-2gb.example.com should resolve from the internet too :)