FTP stands for “file transfer protocol”, and it allows you to transfer files to a remote computer. The most common FTP server software for Ubuntu is the vsftpd package, which stands for “very secure FTP daemon.” It’s the default FTP package for Ubuntu, and most other Linux distributions as well.
This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple. I will show you through the step by step installation vsftpd on Ubuntu 14.04.
In this tutorial we will show you how to install and configuration of vsftpd on your Ubuntu 14.04 server.
Install and Configure VSFTPD on Ubuntu 14.04
Step 1. Install vsftpd (Very Secure FTP Deamon) package.
apt-get install vsftpd
Step 2. Configure vsftpd.
Let’s edit the configuration file for vsftpd:
#nano /etc/vsftpd.conf listen=YES anonymous_enable=NO local_enable=YES write_enable=YES local_umask=022 nopriv_user=vsftpd virtual_use_local_privs=YES guest_enable=YES user_sub_token=$USER chroot_local_user=YES hide_ids=YES guest_username=vsftpd
Step 3. Creating and applying the SSL certificate.
Lets go and create our encryption key or certificate to use to connect to the server. First, create a folder that will be used to store the keys.
mkdir /etc/ssl/certificates
Then run the commands below to create the encryption key that will last for 365 days.
sudo openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout /etc/ssl/certificates/vsftpd.pem -out /etc/ssl/certificates/vsftpd.pem
Once creating the key, go and change add and change these parameters in the default VSFTPD configuration file.
#nano /etc/vsftpd.conf rsa_cert_file=/etc/ssl/certificates/vsftpd.pem rsa_private_key_file=/etc/ssl/certificates/vsftpd.pem ssl_enable=YES allow_anon_ssl=NO force_local_data_ssl=YES force_local_logins_ssl=YES ssl_tlsv1=YES ssl_sslv2=YES ssl_sslv3=YES require_ssl_reuse=NO ssl_ciphers=HIGH
Step 4. Restart the vsftpd service.
service vsftpd restart
Step 5. Configuring user access.
With the vsftpd FTP server you have the option to leave the FTP service authentication for only anonymous access or you can allow users , defined in /etc/passwd or in relevant access list, to login.
Step 6. Configure the user’s home directory.
With certain version of vsftpd you may receive the following error: 500 OOPS: vsftpd: refusing to run with writable root inside chroot(). Not to worry! Create a new directory for the user receiving the error(wpcademy in this case) that is a subdirectory of their home directory (/home/wpcademy). For example:
Fix permissions for wpcademy home directory:
chmod a-w /home/wpcademy/
Make a new directory for uploading files:
mkdir /home/wpcademy/files chown wpcademy:wpcademy/home/wpcademy/files/
Congratulation’s! You have successfully installed vsftpd. Thanks for using this tutorial for installing vsftpd in Ubuntu 14.04 system. For additional help or useful information, we recommend you to check the official vsftpd web site.
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