I just set up Arch Linux on a VM and was surprised to see a large number of services enabled in systemd during the first boot, including ftpd! I have set up several Arch Linux installations before, and have never encountered this before.

To be sure, I installed a second time. While still booted in the install ISO, I checked and verified that only a few services were enabled. After the first boot into the system, sure enough, a large number of services were enabled.

Any ideas as to what might be causing this?

Edit #1: found the following in journalctl. It looks like a bunch of packages are missing systemd preset files, and services that are missing preset files are enabled by default.

Edit #2: filed a bug report: https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/41711

Edit #3: until this is fixed, a workaround is to get systemd-214-2 from ARM and downgrade to that before your first boot into the new installation. After you've booted, you should be able to upgrade back to the current systemd and have everything work out.

Edit #4: Fixed in systemd-216-3. If you installed and rebooted prior to 216-3 hitting [core], see here for a proper fix.