Vsftpd (Very Secure File Transfer Protocol Daemon )
ftp server is used to transfer files between server and clients. All major operating system supports ftp. ftp is the most used protocol over internet to transfer files. Like most Internet operations, FTP works on a client/ server model. FTP client programs can enable users to transfer files to and from a remote system running an FTP server program.
Any Linux system can operate as an FTP server. It has to run only the server software—an FTP daemon with the appropriate configuration. Transfers are made between user accounts on client and server systems. A user on the remote system has to log in to an account on a server and can then transfer files to and from that account's directories only.
A special kind of user account, named ftp, allows any user to log in to it with the username “anonymous.” This account has its own set of directories and files that are considered public, available to anyone on the network who wants to download them.
The numerous FTP sites on the Internet are FTP servers supporting FTP user accounts with anonymous login. Any Linux system can be configured to support anonymous FTP access, turning them into network FTP sites. Such sites can work on an intranet or on the Internet.
Configuring the Vsftpd Server
The vsftpd RPM package is required to configure a Red Hat Enterprise Linux system as an ftp server. If it is not already installed, install it with rpm commands as described in our pervious article. After it is installed, start the service as root with the command service vsftpd start. The system is now an ftp server and can accept connections. To configure the server to automatically start the service at boot time, execute the command chkconfig vsftpd on as root. To stop the server, execute the command service vsftpd stop. To verify that the server is running, use the command service vsftpd status.