Hi.
What’ I’ve noticed is that virtualmin’s scheduled backup using FTP will try to send the files with random ports.
But my FTP server has csf installed, and since I can’t open up random ports, it won’t upload. It says that the upload has failed and connection timed out.
I also added the ip address in csf.ignore but it’s not working.
Is there a way for virtualmin to use the consistent port number?
Or should I set something up in csf?
Thank you!
Howdy,
Well, it’s not using random ports… the ports you’re seeing are part of the FTP protocol – the FTP server and Virtualmin server negotiate the port to use for which to perform the file transfer.
Could you use, say, SSH rather than FTP? It’s a simpler protocol, you’d only need to open port 22.
Alternatively, you can specify a specific range of ports to use for the FTP protocol – and then open up that range of ports.
I’m not familiar with how CSF works, but I do see some documentation on the subject here:
http://www.configserver.com/techfaq/index.php?faqid=67
Of particular interest are #1 and #4 in that FAQ entry.
-Eric
I also had to change the csf.conf to enable the csf.ignore.
SSH feels insecure if the account ever gets hacked.
But I shall try it one day if it really is more secure.
Thank you so much!
SSH feels insecure if the account ever gets hacked. But I shall try it one day if it really is more secure.
The issue with FTP is that it is a clear-text protocol… so anyone able to sniff the traffic can see what’s being transmitted.
That makes it somewhat simple for someone to obtain your backups.
It’s harder to lock a user into a single directory with SSH – but it’s otherwise a much more secure protocol, and the transmissions are all encrypted.
One thing you could do is use the “scponly” shell, which limits users to accessing the account for file transfers. I think that would work with the Virtualmin backups, though I haven’t tested that 
Also, if this isn’t a public server your pushing the backups to, some folks change the port SSH runs on to increase security.
-Eric
I’m trying to use the Virtualmin backup to another server and am also getting the dreaded message “425 Unable to build data connection: No route to host”
I’ve checked FTP settings and firewall (ftp and ftp-data are in iptables) and can’t determine why.
I can FTP using Total Commander but can’t ftp between servers,
I wonder if its to do with source ftp-data required in iptables?
I’m a bit confused about using SSH to do the FTp so I need to investigate to see if I can set that up
cheers Brian
solved this problem very easily on this thread. FTP now working
https://www.virtualmin.com/node/19990
thank you very much !