Enabling ftp on a LINUX (RedHat) host

Remember that in RedHat the ftp package is called vsftpd …… on other LINUX distribution this name could vary(?) . Next, this package could be installed but the ftpservice is not activated …..

To start, check if ftp is setup to run on your box. Execute the following command to see ifftp has been loaded and set to execute.

$ chkconfig --list | grep -i vsftpd
vsftpd     0:off  1:off  2:off  3:off  4:off  5:off  6:off

It looks like it is installed but not activated. Make it run at level 3, 4 and 5.

$ chkconfig --level 345 vsftpd on

$ chkconfig --list | grep -i vsftpd
vsftpd     0:off  1:off  2:off  3:on  4:on  5:on  6:off

Either bounce the box or start the service by hand.

$ service vsftpd start

If the package is not installed (rpm -qa | grep -i ftp) than installed it with yum install vsftp – to download it directly from RedHat online repository. To identify users prohibited from using this service view the file shown bellow:

$ cat /etc/vsftpd/ftpusers
# Users that are not allowed to login via ftp
root
bin
daemon
adm
lp
sync
shutdown
halt
mail
news
uucp
operator
games
nobody

If you want to allow root to use ftp remove the appropriate entry from/etc/vsftpd/ftpusers.