MyCloud FTP server gives 550 error to "MLST /" command

My Cloud OS 3 Personal & Network Attached Storage My Cloud
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The Acronis True Image FTP support sends “MLST /” if the FTP server supports the MLST command. The MyCloud FTP server responds with “550 Can’t check for file existence” and Acronis breaks the connection. (The MyBookLive FTP server does not support MLST so Acronis TI works fine with it.)

I have seen nothing in the RFC describing MLST that says MLST against the root directory should be rejected. Is this a bug?

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Hi, I have never tried this, lets see if another user is able to provide some information.

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A bit more information: I’ve found some public FTP sites. About 5 supported MLST and all of them handled MLST / with not problem. These were all anonymous connections but I don’t see how that would matter.

I’m beginning to feel certain this is a WD bug.

4

Well, a bug in the version of FTP that was included in the snapshot of Debian or BusyBox they’re using… I don’t think WD wrote their FTP implementation…

But it’s still their problem, if it is the FTP implementation they’re using that’s at fault.

5

Depends on how you look at it. Is it a bug in the Acronis software or a bug in the WD My Cloud? Using FileZilla I have no problems accessing the My Cloud using FTP. So I’d lean towards it being a Acronis’s problem for the way they are using the FTP protocol and potentially not having an option to modify the True Image software to not use the MLST and MLSD commands. Of course one could blame WD for not having the same ability to enable or disable the MLST and MLSD commands.

Acronis has a specific knowledge base article covering this:

https://kb.acronis.com/content/1843

Acronis indicates that the inability to access FTP servers that do not support “MLST and MLSD commands” is as they state: “… an issue in the product.”

1 Like
6

That was a different problem and no longer exists in Acronis True Image 2016 (and probably earlier). When Acronis TI establishes (by issuing the FEAT command) that the FTP server does not support MLST, TI simply does not issue the command. For instance, the FTP server in MyBookLive does not support MLST but Acronis has no problem using it.

The FTP server in MyCloud says (via the FEAT response) that it does support MLST. As I say earlier, I have not seen how an FTP server is supposed to respond to MLST /, but I don’t think a 550 error is appropriate.

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Until your reply you didn’t indicate which version of True Image you were using. That KB doc indicates earlier versions up to True Image 2011.

It appears the My Cloud (edit to add: v4.x firmware) uses “vsftpd” and the configuration file for it is located (using SSH) at /etc/vsftpd.conf. Unknown if vsftpd supports the MLST command, nothing coming up in a quick internet search, but perhaps that option can be enabled through the vstfpd.conf file.

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The MLST command is enabled in the MyCloud FTP, and works fine in general, It just doesn’t work for the root directory (“/”).

On the other hand, maybe MLST can be disabled via /etc/vsftpd.conf. That would probably not be a good idea in general, but but it would get me out of this problem.

At this point, I seem to have wasted my money getting the MyCloud. I want it only an FTP server for use by Acronis TI and as a place for Safepoint copies of my MyBookLive to live. A 2nd MyBookLive would have been a better choice.

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What firmware level are you using? It looks like the FTP server on my MyCloud is pureftpd. I’m using the v2.21.111 firmware. If you are Gen1 firmware (v4…) then you may have a different server.

I found a list of sites that (12 years ago!) were using the vsftpd server. Only one out of about a dozen I connected to supported MLST. I suspect that one site had changed servers.

Maybe I’ll be able to find a list of sites using pureftpd.

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Yes I’m using v4.x editing my post above to indicate that. Once again the two different versions of the My Cloud causes confusion and appear use different FTP server programs.

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After spending over an hour on the phone with WD tech support I realize that my initial description of the problem was wrong. And we got it working. Briefly. Long enough to end the phone call. Now the Acronis-to-Mycloud is failing again, but it’s not due to the 550 response to MLST. Therefore, I’m going to start a new thread.