How to install and configure an FTP server with Pure-FTPd + virtual users

I am one of those who likes to innovate and learn new things, not long ago I had to install and configure an FTP server and I decided to do it differently than I always did.

In this case I opted for an FTP service with virtual users, users that will be stored in an encrypted file (user, password, settings, etc.), all with pure ftpd.

Here I will show you how to do it ... well, let's get started 😉

First of all, specify that the commands in this tutorial are intended for distros like Debian or based on them, however if someone uses another distro on their server they must install the same packages and use the settings set below, the only thing that needs to change is the install command.

1. First we must install Pure FTPd:

apt-get install pure-ftpd

The output will end something like this:

2. The service is already activated, but it is of no use to us if we have not configured it properly, let's put an extensive configuration file but it is almost standard, it contains the normal, establishing that anonymous users are not allowed, etc. etc.

cd /etc/pure-ftpd/ && wget http://ftp.desdelinux.net/pure-ftpd.conf

3. Well, suppose our FTP folder is / var / www / ftp / and we want to create a user that can upload information to the / var / www / ftp / sysadmin / folder, let's put the following in a terminal:

pure-pw useradd sysadmin -u 2001 -g 2001 -d /var/www/ftp/sysadmin/

This means the following:

pure-pw: Command used to manipulate Pure-FTPd users
useradd: We indicate that we will add a user
sysadmin: The user I want to create
-u 2001: UserID of that user
-g 2001: GroupID of that user
-d / var / www / ftp / sysadmin /: The folder that will be the home of that user, that is, where they will upload things

When you enter the previous line, it will ask you the password of that user.

4. Now they must refresh the user database file, for this we enter the folder / etc / pure-ftpd / (cd / etc / pure-ftpd) and put in the terminal:

pure-pw mkdb

5. Now we must start Pure-FTPd but indicating that we will use the virtual users file, first let's stop the service:

/etc/init.d/pure-ftpd stop

Then we will make sure that it will not start by default normally:

chmod -x /etc/init.d/pure-ftpd

And now we start the service our way:

/usr/sbin/pure-ftpd -j -lpuredb:/etc/pure-ftpd/pureftpd.pdb

6. If they try using an application like Filezilla they will see that they can connect without problems with the created user, however they will not be able to copy anything or create directories, this is because the / var / www / ftp / sysadmin / folder (the user's home as per the example) does not have the appropriate permissions, it will be fixed with a:

chown -R 2001:2001 /var/www/ftp/sysadmin/

Remember, the Uid and Gid 2001 is the one of the user that we created, we created it with the command in the previous step 3 😉

7. To stop the service, just press [Ctrl] + [C] in the same terminal or do a:

killall pure-ftpd

Now we will indicate that the service will start automatically with the system when the server starts, for this we modify the /etc/rc.local file and before the last line that says "exit 0" we put the command with which we start the FTP service:

/usr/sbin/pure-ftpd -j -lpuredb:/etc/pure-ftpd/pureftpd.pdb

In other words, it would look like this:

You can edit the file with nano, vi or your preferred editor, or if you prefer, copy and paste this command that will make your work easier:

perl -pi -e "s[exit 0][/usr/sbin/pure-ftpd -j -lpuredb:/etc/pure-ftpd/pureftpd.pdb]g" /etc/rc.local && echo "exit 0" >> /etc/rc.local

... yes yes ... as you read, «facilitate», it is an extensive command yes, but it is simply to replace text with perl and a harmless echo 🙂

8. Once this is done, restart the server and you will see that the pure-ftpd service is started and ready to work 😀

How to delete users?

As I told you before, the command pure-pw is what we need to manipulate users, to delete a user (for example, sysadmin) let's put the following:

cd /etc/pure-ftpd/
pure-pw userdel sysadmin
pure-pw mkdb

Remember that whenever you make a change to any user, you must regenerate the virtual database file of the users, it is located in / etc / pure-ftpd / and it is generated / updated with pure-pw mkdb

Anyway friends I think there is not much more to add, invite you to read the help of pure-pw because it allows us much more than the ones I showed you here (this is just a short and almost basic tutorial).

One or two years ago I was one of those who linked everything to OpenLDAP or MySQL, but as time went by I realized that so many connections to databases that are servers as such generate a consumption that many times we cannot afford, For this reason, the use of completely viable alternatives such as using databases in the application's own files, as in this case of Pure-FTPd's .pdb 🙂

Any doubt or question I will try to help as much as I can.

Greetings and… happy hacking!