Installing and configuring VSFTPD in Ubuntu is easy. VSFTPD stands for Very Secure File Transfer Protocol Daemon (VSFTPD). It’s a popular and secure opensource FTP server used by millions of webmasters and developers. If you’ll be using FTP services on your websites or blogs, then installing VSFTPD is something you want to do.
Another popular FTP server is ProFTPD. If you can’t get VSFTPD installed or configured correctly, then you may want to settle on ProFTPD. Like VSFTPD, ProFTPD is also secure, stable and used by millions of opensource webmasters and developers.
This brief tutorial is going to show you how to install VSFTPD in Ubuntu 15.04. New users will find this post handy and easy to read and understand.
To get started with installing VSFTPD in Ubuntu, run the commands below to update your system. You don’t have to update before installing, but updating Ubuntu systems before installing any software or application is a wise thing to do.
To update your system, run the commands below.
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade && sudo apt-get autoremove
After running the above commands, you may want to restart your machine. After restarting, run the commands below to install VSFTPD.
sudo apt-get install vsftpd
After successfully installing VSFTPD, continue to its configuration file. That file is located at /etc/vsftpd.conf in Ubuntu.
Run the commands below to open and edit it.
sudo vi /etc/vsftpd.conf
One of the first things to change is the line below. Change anonymous login to no. This disables anyone with email address login rights to your system.
anonymous_enable=NO
The next lines allow local users to login and allow them to write and save files into their own directory. Without enabling or adding the lines below in the configuration file, users may not be able to save content to their directory. They may only be able to download stuff from the server.
local_enable=YES
write_enable=YES
The few changes above are just basic settings to enable basic functionality of the program. You can enable more advanced configurations by enabling and disabling features listed in the file. For example, if you which to enable secure transmission of files to the FTP server, configure these lines in the file as shown below.
ssl_enable=YES
allow_anon_ssl=NO
force_local_data_ssl=YES
force_local_logins_ssl=YES
ssl_tlsv1=YES
ssl_sslv2=NO
ssl_sslv3=NO
The settings above allows secure access to your server. Using FileZilla FTP client, use port 21 if you didn’t specify a port in the configuration file.
Then for server or host encrypotion type, choose FTP over explicit TLS/SSL.
Type your username and password and connect. If everything was setup correct, you’ll be prompted to accept the server encryption certificate eventhough it’s not trusted. Except it to continue.
Restarted VSFTPD server by running the commands below
sudo /etc/init.d/vsftpd restart
That’s it! This is how you install and configure VSFTPD in Ubuntu 15.04 (Vivid Vervet).
Enjoy!