HowTo: Setu FTP Server on Ubunut 16.04 with virual Users

FTP Server, the File Transfer Protocol server work for file transfter through network between a client and server. It is faster, secure and conveinent to move files. Here we will show how to install, configure and FTP server with Virtual users in Ubuntu.

$ sudo apt-get update

$ sudo apt-get install vsftpd libpam-pwdfile

$ sudo cp /etc/vsftpd.conf /etc/vsftpd.conf.bak

Open the configuration and replace the file content with follows:

anonymous_enable=NO
local_enable=YES
chroot_local_user=YES
user_config_dir=/etc/vsftpd/vsftpd-virtual-user/
virtual_use_local_privs=YES
dual_log_enable=YES
connect_from_port_20=YES
listen=YES
pam_service_name=ftp
tcp_wrappers=YES
allow_writeable_chroot=YES

Restart vsftpd service:

$ sudo service vsftpd restart

Then create a new directory for file with virtual users:

$ sudo mkdir -p /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd-virtual-user/

And create a blank file where we will add users with passwords a bit later:

$ sudo touch /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd-virtual-user/vsftpd_user

Copy yet another configuration file:

$ sudo cp /etc/pam.d/vsftpd /etc/pam.d/vsftpd.bak

And replace its content by the next one:

session optional        pam_keyinit.so  force   revoke
auth   required        pam_listfile.so item=user sense=deny file=/etc/ftpusers onerr=succeed
auth   required        pam_shells.so
auth    include system-auth
account include system-auth
session include system-auth
session required pam_loginuid.so

Now we can create a new system user. It user will have an own separate home directory but will not allow to login via ssh. Replace USERNAME with something you want, like ftp-myproject for example.

$ sudo useradd --home /home/USERNAME --gid nogroup -m --shell /bin/false USERNAME

Then setup a password for newly created user:

$ echo USERNAME:PASSWORD|sudo chpasswd

Now we have to add the name of new user to the vsftpd_user file:

$ sudo nano /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd-virtual-user/vsftpd_user

Just add the name of the user to this file as a separate line.

Create the separate file for our user in the directory /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd-virtual-user

$ sudo nano /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd-virtual-user/USERNAME

And put the next content inside it:

local_root=/home/USERNAME
cmds_allowed=USER,PASS,SYST,FEAT,OPTS,PWD,TYPE,PASV,LIST,STOR,CWD,MKD,SIZE,MDTM,CDUP,RETR,RNFR,RNTO,QUIT
local_umask=022
write_enable=YES

If you want to give a permission for deleting files to your new user than just add DELE to the argument cmds_allowed.

If the server unable to start comment IPV6 settings and try restart vsftpd server
#listen_ipv6=YES