Installation and configuration FTP server in RHEL 7

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a most popular way to transfer files from one machine to another machine across a network in heterogeneous environment. If you take an example of NFS (Network File system) it has an restriction to it can’t be access from other platform such as windows. FTP server does not have such a restriction it can be accessed from Linux OR windows OR OSx. Let’s see installation and configuration FTP server in RHEL 7.

  • Whenever we install vsftpd package installed then ftp user will be created
  • ftp user home directory will be set as /vat/ftp ftp’s document root path.
  • Vsftpd has been very popular because it is a very fast.
  • Lightweight FTP server and very easy to configure.

 

Server profile:
Packages : vsftpd
Daemon : vsftpd
Port Numbers : 20, 21
Config file path : /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf

Features:

  1. It is very secure and fast
  2. Bandwidth throttling
  3. IPv6 ready
  4. Encryption support through SSL integration
  5. Virtual IP configurations
  6. Virtual users
  7. Per-user configuration
  8. Per-source-IP configuration and limits

Installation and Configuration FTP server in RHEL 7

Before going to install the vsftpd packages, ensure that the server has access to internet. If it doesn’t have, configure local YUM repository for vsftpd packages installation.

Install vsftpd yum command

[root@Tech Tutorials ~]# yum install -y vsftpd*

Edit the configuration file. /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf is the main configuration file of ftp server.

[root@Tech Tutorials ~]# vi /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf
#Disable anonymous user Access to secure FTP server
 anonymous_enable=NO
 Allow local users to login in vsftpd.
 local_enable=YES
 Enable write access to local users.
 write_enable=YES
 Uncomment the line chroot_local_user
 chroot_local_user=YES
 Enable writable chroot.
 allow_writeable_chroot=YES

:wq

Restart and enable the vsftpd service

 [root@Tech Tutorials~]# systemctl restart vsftpd.service
[root@Tech Tutorials~] # systemctl enable vsftpd.service

Create a rule for Firewall to allow FTP ports
Now need to allow default FTP port 20 and 21 through firewall.

[root@Tech Tutorials~]# firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-port=21/tcp
[root@Tech Tutorials~]# firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-port=21/tcp
[root@Tech Tutorials~]# firewall-cmd --reload

Apply SELinux context to ftp directory. Enable write permission on home directories.

[root@Tech Tutorials~]# semanage fcontext -a -t public_content_rw_t "/var/ftp/pub(/.*)?"
[root@Tech Tutorials~]# restorecon -R /var/ftp/pub
[root@Tech Tutorials~]# setsebool -P ftpd_anon_write 1 OR on

Edit configuration file for enable upload files.

[root@Tech Tutorials~]# vim /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf
 anon_upload_enable=yes #     <-- #Un-Comment this line

:wq!

[root@Tech Tutorials~]# systemctl restart vsftpd
[root@Tech Tutorials~]# chown ftp /var/ftp/pub

Client Side configuration

Install ftp package through yum command

[root@Client ~]# yum install ftp

Test the ftp server and downloading files.

[root@Client ~]# ftp ftp.server.com

ftp> ls
 ftp> cd pub
 ftp> get file1
 ftp>!ls
 ftp> bye

 

 

For files uploading. Test the FTP server

[root@Client~]# ftp ftp.server.com
 ftp> cd pub
 ftp> ls
 ctp>!ls
 ftp> put file1
 ftp>bye

Conclusion

Installation and configuration FTP server is completed. FTP protocol is not an platform independent which support multiple platforms.

Please do comment your feedback

Thanks for your wonderful Support and Encouragement

Ravi Kumar Ankam

My Name is ARK. Expert in grasping any new technology, Interested in Sharing the knowledge. Learn more & Earn More

23 Responses

  1. akash kawale says:

    it’s good but you have to give example over there and plz explain briefly bcoz you just configure ftp server and also not explain about configuration file so plz I request you to edit and do it again. thankyou

    • Hi Akash, This article is about configuring the FTP server. I have explained the configuration file also in a simple way. No need to do anything more then this for basic FTP server. Below are the configuration lines which you have to uncomment in /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf

      #Disable anonymous user Access to secure FTP server
      anonymous_enable=NO

      # Allow local users to login in vsftpd.
      local_enable=YES

      # Enable write access to local users.
      write_enable=YES

      # Uncomment the line chroot_local_user
      chroot_local_user=YES

      # Enable writable chroot.
      allow_writeable_chroot=YES

  2. blank Liu Chan says:

    FTP has several of security risks. Binfer is a more secure alternative. See Binfer as FTP alternative

  3. blank Jack Wilson says:

    The FTP installation and configuration procedure on an openSUSE server is somewhat different, so anyone looking on how to do it may find this article useful: https://www.rosehosting.com/blog/install-and-configure-pureftpd-with-mysql-on-an-opensuse-linux-vps/

  4. blank Ananda Bhattacharjee says:

    Thanks for you knowledge sharing its working.
    I have configured it & I am using filezilla as clients.
    if I enable Transfer mode= default/Passive its giving

    Response: 257 “/” is the current directory
    Command: TYPE I
    Response: 200 Type set to I
    Command: PASV
    Error: Connection timed out after 20 seconds of inactivity
    Error: Failed to retrieve directory listing
    Status: Disconnected from server
    Status: Connecting to X.X.X.X:21…
    Status: Connection established, waiting for welcome message…
    Status: Insecure server, it does not support FTP over TLS.
    Status: Connected
    Status: Retrieving directory listing…
    Command: PWD
    Response: 257 “/” is the current directory
    Command: TYPE I
    Response: 200 Type set to I
    Command: PASV
    Error: Connection timed out after 20 seconds of inactivity
    Error: Failed to retrieve directory listing

    But if I set Transfer mode= Active its working . Could you please suggest me what I need to change in vsftpd.con file.

    Thanking You
    Ananda Bhattacharjee.

  5. blank Tuan Nguyen says:

    I attempted to add a new tcp port so that httpd can connect using this command and it fails, please help me to resolve it. Many thanks.

    # semanage fcontext -a -t public_content_rw_t “/var/ftp/pub(/.*)?”
    SELinux: Could not downgrade policy file /etc/selinux/targeted/policy/policy.29, searching for an older version.
    SELinux: Could not open policy file <= /etc/selinux/targeted/policy/policy.29: No such file or directory
    /sbin/load_policy: Can't load policy: No such file or directory
    libsemanage.semanage_reload_policy: load_policy returned error code 2.
    SELinux: Could not downgrade policy file /etc/selinux/targeted/policy/policy.29, searching for an older version.
    SELinux: Could not open policy file <= /etc/selinux/targeted/policy/policy.29: No such file or directory
    /sbin/load_policy: Can't load policy: No such file or directory
    libsemanage.semanage_reload_policy: load_policy returned error code 2.
    ValueError: Could not commit semanage transaction

  6. blank Srinivas says:

    Great thankful to u ravi

  7. blank Rakesh says:

    Thanks for sharing this document but from client side files are not uploading it is showing 553 could not create file and 550 could not open file.
    server side i have configured successfully but transferring files between two machines not happnening

  8. Thanks for sharing the details,,,But after configuring ftp server i was getting error as change to fail directory when i tried to access my home directory that from client side..
    After that i changed chroot_local_user=NO (server side),,, Now its working fine..!!!

  9. blank Amol says:

    Thanks for sharing article. But i am new user of Linux and i want to learn ftp in details so please share any useful link.

  10. blank bhas says:

    Note, selecting ‘vsftpd’ for glob ‘vsftpd*’
    Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
    requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
    distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
    or been moved out of Incoming.
    The following information may help to resolve the situation:

    The following packages have unmet dependencies:
    vsftpd : Depends: upstart-job
    E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

  11. blank bhas says:

    i am getting above error please help me on this

  12. two user on same linux server…one has full permission to access whole server and has beend access only own (home dir)…

    please guide command for centos / ubuntu server.

  13. blank Ganesan says:

    in which user, i have to login FTP from client,

  14. blank Naresh says:

    i have opened both the ports 20 & 21 but ‘ls’ command is not working it is showing “entering into passive mode” “No route to host”

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