How To Setup and Configure VsFTPd Server on Debian 8/7/6 Linux Systems

VsFTPd stands for Very Secure FTP Daemon. VSFTPD is the most popular ftp server. Also probably the most secure and fastest FTP server for UNIX-like systems. If you are searching an FTP server which can provide you Security, Performance and Stability then your searching is finished here, vsFTPd can be best suitable option for you.

This article will help you to setup vsFTPd server on Debian/Ubuntu Linux systems

Features of vsFTPd

Despite being small for purposes of speed and security, many more complicated FTP setups are achievable with vsftpd! By no means an exclusive list, vsftpd will handle:

• Configure Virtual users
• Virtual IP configurations
• Standalone or inetd operation
• Per-user configuration
• Bandwidth throttling
• Source-IP based configuration
• Limit per source ip
• IPv6 enabled
• Encryption support through SSL integration

Step 1: Install vsFTPd

VsFTPd is already available under Debian default repositories, so, all you need is use apt-get to install it. Now execute following command.

# apt-get update 
# apt-get -y install vsftpd

Step 2: Configure vsFTPd

VsFTPd has a long list of configuration, here we are making few required configuration now. Edit VsFTPd configuration file /etc/vsftpd.conf in your favorite editor (eg: vim or nano) and update following values

1- Allow anonymous FTP? Set this value to NO to disable anonymous login. default value is YES

anonymous_enable=NO

2- Uncomment below line to allow local system users to log in via ftp

local_enable=YES

3- Uncomment below line to enable any form of FTP write command like, creating or uploading files and directory.

write_enable=YES

4- Set this configuration to restrict local users to there home directories.

chroot_local_user=YES

Hints:

1. The above configuration's directive are the basic ones
2. To allow a certain user to move outside his home directory there is additional step, follow the following step.

Step 3: Exclude certain users from jailed home

This is an extra step. If you need to give a certain user the freedom to move outside his home directory, you should use this steps:

First, Uncomment below lines to enable users listed in it to move outside their home in vsftpd configuration file.

chroot_list_enable=YES
chroot_list_file=/etc/vsftpd.chroot_list

Second, edit the below file and add the users you need to move over their home directory, here’s I added one user, as follow:

# vim /etc/vsftpd.chroot_list

# add users you allow to move over their home directory
msemari

Step 4: Start VsFTPd Service

• For Debian 8 / latest Ubuntu releases

To start vsftp service use following command:

# systemctl start vsftpd

In order to stop or restart service use following commands:

# systemctl stop vsftpd
# systemctl restart vsftpd

To enable service start on system boot running following command:

# systemctl enable vsftpd

• For Debian 7/6 and Ubuntu 14.04 and earlier

VsFTPd provides init script to start stop service. To start vsftp service use following command:

# service vsftpd start

In order to stop or restart service use following commands:

# service vsftpd stop
# service vsftpd restart

To enable service start on system boot running following command:

# chkconfig vsftpd on