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Run an FTP server

The easiest way to run an FTP server is to run a Python program as an FTP server.

Install required packages

SSH into your server as root and install the Python pyftpdlib library.

Terminal window
sudo apt-get install python3-pyftpdlib

After installing the required package, log out of the server as root. The rest of the steps in this guide should be performed while logged in as an app’s system user.

Create and start the FTP server

Now, SSH into your server as your app’s system user and create a file named ftpserver.py in the system user’s home directory.

In the file, copy the script shown below. Change the FTP_USER, FTP_PASSWORD, and FTP_DIRECTORY defined near the top of the file.

ftpserver.py
from pyftpdlib.authorizers import DummyAuthorizer
from pyftpdlib.handlers import FTPHandler
from pyftpdlib.servers import FTPServer




# The port the FTP server will listen on.
# This must be greater than 1023 unless you run this script as root.
FTP_PORT = 2121


# The name of the FTP user that can log in.
FTP_USER = "myuser"


# The FTP user's password.
FTP_PASSWORD = "change_this_password"


# The directory the FTP user will have full read/write access to.
FTP_DIRECTORY = "/srv/users/SYSUSER/apps/APPNAME/public/"




def main():
    authorizer = DummyAuthorizer()


    # Define a new user having full r/w permissions.
    authorizer.add_user(FTP_USER, FTP_PASSWORD, FTP_DIRECTORY, perm='elradfmw')


    handler = FTPHandler
    handler.authorizer = authorizer


    # Define a customized banner (string returned when client connects)
    handler.banner = "pyftpdlib based ftpd ready."


    # Optionally specify a range of ports to use for passive FTP connections.
    #handler.passive_ports = range(60000, 65535)


    address = ('', FTP_PORT)
    server = FTPServer(address, handler)


    server.max_cons = 256
    server.max_cons_per_ip = 5


    server.serve_forever()




if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

You can now start the FTP server.

Terminal window
python3 /srv/users/SYSUSER/ftpserver.py >>/srv/users/SYSUSER/ftpserver.log 2>&1 &

The above command will start the FTP server and will log to a file named ftpserver.log in the system user’s home directory.

For more information on customizing the FTP server, see the pyftpdlib documentation.

You can verify your FTP server is listening for connections with the following command.

Terminal window
netstat -npl --inet | grep 2121

The output will look like the following.

tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:2121            0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      29972/python

To stop the FTP server, first get the PID of the FTP server.

Terminal window
ps -ef | grep ftpserver | grep -v grep | awk '{print $2}'

Then use the kill command to kill the process.

Terminal window
kill PID_FROM_OUTPUT_OF_ABOVE_COMMAND

Open the FTP port in the firewall

Open the FTP port you configured in the above script in your server’s firewall. By default, the above script is using port 2121. Additionally, if you uncommented the passive port range line in the script to enable passive FTP, you also need to open ports 60000-65535 in your server’s firewall.

Learn more about customizing a server’s firewall.

You may also need to open the ports in your cloud provider’s firewall.

Start the FTP server on boot

To start your FTP server automatically when your server is rebooted, SSH into the server as your app’s system user and create the following cron job.

@reboot python3 /srv/users/SYSUSER/ftpserver.py >>/srv/users/SYSUSER/ftpserver.log 2>&1

Learn more about how to use cron.