How to Install ProFTPD on CentOS 6

Posted on August 30, 2014 by J. Mays

Category: Tutorials | Tags: CentOS, CentOS 6, centos 6.5, FTP, Proftpd

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FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is probably the most popular method of uploading files to a server; a wide array of FTP servers, such as ProFTPD, and clients exist for every platform.

Pre-Flight Check

These instructions are intended specifically for installing the ProFTPD on CentOS 6.
I’ll be working from a Liquid Web Core Managed CentOS 6.5 server, and I’ll be logged in as root.

Step 1: Add the EPEL Repository

ProFTPD is part of Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL), which is a community repository of non-standard packages for the RHEL distribution. First, we’ll install the EPEL repository:

rpm -iUvh http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/6/x86_64/epel-release-6-8.noarch.rpm

Step 2: Install ProFTPD

Warning: FTP data is insecure; traffic is not encrypted, and all transmissions are clear text (including usernames, passwords, commands, and data). Consider securing your FTP connection with SSL/TLS.

As a matter of best practice we’ll update our packages:

yum -y update

Then let’s install ProFTPD and any required packages:

yum -y install proftpd

Step 3: Configure ProFTPD

For a refresher on editing files with vim see: New User Tutorial: Overview of the Vim Text Editor

Let’s edit the configuration file for ProFTPD:

vim /etc/proftpd.conf

Change the ServerName to the hostname of your server. In the case below, ftp.thebestfakedomainnameintheworld.com is an example:

ServerName “ftp.thebestfakedomainnameintheworld.com”

Exit and save the file with the command :wq .

Restart the ProFTPD service:

service proftpd restart

Then set the ProFTPD service to start at boot:

chkconfig proftpd on

About the Author: J. Mays

As a previous contributor, JMays shares his insight with our Knowledge Base center. In our Knowledge Base, you'll be able to find how-to articles on Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora and much more!