Configure vsFTPd on GNU/Linux

vsFTPd (short for Very Secure FTP Daemon) is a popular FTP server among Unix and Linux systems. It is licensed under the GPL and supports IPv6 and SSL. Additionally, it supports both explicit and implicit FTP. vsFTPd can be used on GNU/Linux distributions such as Ubuntu, CentOS, or Debian.

Installing vsFTPd

To install vsFTPd on your Clouding server, run the following command if you are using Debian or Ubuntu:

# apt-get install vsftpd

And if you are working on CentOS:

# yum install vsftpd

Once the installation is complete, the service will be installed on your server. However, some configuration changes are still necessary.

Configuring vsFTPd

Once vsFTPd is installed, you can begin configuring the FTP server. By default, anonymous sessions are disabled, and users are not jailed, meaning that any logged-in user can move through all directories. So the first step is to enable user chroot (jailing):

# vi /etc/vsftpd.conf

Uncomment the following parameters:

chroot_list_enable=YES
chroot_list_file=/etc/vsftpd.chroot_list
write_enable=YES
allow_writeable_chroot=YES
# chroot_local_user=YES # Uncomment to jail the user

Once these changes are made, save and exit. Then restart the vsftpd service:

# systemctl restart vsftpd

Now you can connect via a web browser by entering the following in the address bar: ftp://Server_IP

Also, if you create a new user, you can log in using Filezilla:

# adduser clouding

Configuring Passive FTP in vsFTPd

By default, passive mode is not enabled in vsFTPd, so it needs to be configured. In the following article, we explain how to do it: Configuring Passive FTP in vsFTPd on GNU/Linux

We hope this article has been helpful! 🙂 Remember, if you have any questions about this or any other issue related to your servers at Clouding, don't hesitate to contact us at soporte@clouding.io. We're here to help you with whatever you need!