Have you ever wanted to setup a simple FTP server so that you can upload files to your remote server for yourself, or a few users? VSFTPd is the perfect option for you. It’s a powerful, open source FTP server that is designed to be quickly and easily configured.

In this article, we’ll show you how to setup VSFTPd on Ubuntu so that you can create your own personal FTP server.

Prerequisites

In order to setup an FTP server, you’ll need a Hybrid, Cloud, or Dedicated Server from ServerMania. We have a variety of hosting solutions to choose from at ServerMania.com.

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This article was created using Ubuntu 16.04. Instructions may vary based on the version of Ubuntu you are running on your server.

Installing VSFTPd

Step 1: Login to the server via SSH

ssh ubuntu@SERVER-IP

Step 2: Change into the root user

sudo su

Step 3: Install VSFTPd

apt-get install vsftpd -y

Step 4: Start VSFTPd and set it to start on boot

systemctl start vsftpd

systemctl enable vsftpd

Step 5: Create a user for FTP access

adduser vsftp

Step 6: Make an FTP directory and set permissions

mkdir /home/vsftp/ftp

chown nobody:nogroup /home/vsftp/ftp

chmod a-w /home/vsftp/ftp

Step 7: Create an upload directory and set permissions

mkdir /home/vsftp/ftp/test

chown vsftp:vsftp /home/vsftp/ftp/test

Configuring VSFTPd

Step 1: Backup the configuration file

cp /etc/vsftpd.conf /etc/vsftpd.conf.bak

Step 2: Open the configuration file in your favourite text editor

vi /etc/vsftpd.conf

Step 3: Add the following lines to the file, then save and close the file:

listen=NO
listen_ipv6=YES
anonymous_enable=NO
local_enable=YES
write_enable=YES
local_umask=022
dirmessage_enable=YES
use_localtime=YES
xferlog_enable=YES
connect_from_port_20=YES
chroot_local_user=YES
secure_chroot_dir=/var/run/vsftpd/empty
pam_service_name=vsftpd
pasv_enable=Yes
pasv_min_port=10000
pasv_max_port=11000
user_sub_token=$USER
local_root=/home/$USER/ftp
userlist_enable=YES
userlist_file=/etc/vsftpd.userlist
userlist_deny=NO
rsa_cert_file=/etc/cert/vsftpd.pem
rsa_private_key_file=/etc/cert/vsftpd.pem
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
require_ssl_reuse=NO
ssl_ciphers=HIGH

Step 4: Add the FTP user to VSFTP

vi /etc/vsftpd.userlist

Add the following line, then save and close the file:

vsftp

Step 5: Create a certificate to connect via SSL

mkdir /etc/cert

openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout /etc/cert/vsftpd.pem -out /etc/cert/vsftpd.pem

Step 6: Restart VSFTP

systemctl restart vsftpd

Connecting to the FTP Server

You can now visit ftp://YOUR-SERVER-IP and login using the username and password you created earlier in order to view files uploaded.

In order to upload files, you can use an FTP client such as Filezilla. Remember to require explicit SSL connections when configuring Filezilla, otherwise the connection will fail.

Conclusion

Your Ubuntu server is now setup with a simple FTP server for you to upload and store files. Congratulations!