vsftpd: Local And Virtual Users With Bash Scripts For User Maintainance (CentOS 6.0)

vsftpd is the most popular FTP server in the Linux world and is secure and fast. Recently I had to configure a FTP server quickly onto a CentOS server setup built using the minimal ISO and the server was up and running in a snap.

The server being used here is a Linux Cent OS Minimal installation build.

CentOS 6
vsftpd 2.2.2

Follow these instructions:

  $ su - root

At the root shell:

  # yum install vsftpd

This installs the daemon from the distribution's repository. A default config file is placed with the most basic and necessary options. Now edit the config file at /etc/vsftpd/config using your favourite editor e.g. vi.

# cd /etc/vsftpd/
# vi config

In this file comment/add or uncomment the following and leave the rest as is.

anonymous_enable=NOThis is set to YES by default.

local_enable=YES This is set to NO by default and change when you want the local users to have ftp access.

xferlog_enable=Yes This is set to NO by default. Your logs will be written to /var/log/xferlog.

Common Pitfalls & Panic Areas

Most Linux's have SELinux installed by default and this gives an error when the installer does not take care of the Selinux policy's. The error is as follows:

  500 OOPS: cannot change directory:/home/someuser

This can be fixed by either disabling the selinux or setting the selinux boolean option.

Disabling SELinux:

# vi /etc/selinux/config

In this file set the option to disabled.

SELINUX=disabled

Setting SELinux for ftp access:

  # getsebool -a | grep ftp

This will list a group of ftp boolean options, ftp_home_dir will by default be off. Set it on by

  # setsebool -P ftp_home_dir on

This might take a min or two, wait till the prompt comes back. You can check by using the getsebool command again. If you need both local and virtual users then use the instructions in the next section.