The installation and configuration of proftpd FTP Server under RedHat Linux
The proftpd server verification
The proftpd server installation
The proftpd server configuration
The proftpd server verification
First of all it is necessary to check if proftpd server is installed and if has IPv6 support.. The best way is to use a specific command from the super user mode:
proftpd -V
In the "configure" section there shoud be an "--enable-ipv6" option. In the "Features" section there should be found "+ IPv6 support". There is even information about the main configuration file named proftpd.conf (the "Configuration File" section). If this command returns an answer about not finding such command, install the proftpd server.
The proftpd server installation
Enter from command line of the super user:
yum install proftpd
The instalation from the system repositories includes an "--enable-ipv6" parameter by default. In this case installed application has IPv6 support (it is possible to communicate using this protocol).
The proftpd server configuration
The main configuration is located in /etc/proftpd.conf by default.
<here should be screenshots from the knowledge contained in "In migration to IPv6 context it is necessary to remember">
ProFTPD (Proffesional FTP Daemon) is one of the most popular implementation of FTP (File Transfer Protocol) server for many unix platforms such as: Linux, Solaris and FreeBSD. It is used by FTP servers of many projects and institutions such as SourceForge, samba.org or CI TASK. As the name suggests, the destination of this application is to exchange (transfer) of files between a server and a client. The source code of the ProFTPD is open.
The principle of how does FTP protocol work is simple. First a user is connecting with the server application through the client application (Web browser e.g. FireFox or dedicated client application e.g. LFTP). This means establishing two connections through TCP/IP - one for controlling (exchanging of requests and anwsers by exchanging of commands), one for data transfers.
There are two connection modes through the FTP protocol:
- active mode: for exchanging commands there is used port 21 (a connection established by the client) and for data transmission there is used port 20 (a connection established by the server),
- passive mode: for exchanging commands there is used port 21 and for data transmission there is used port above 1024 (both connections are established by the client).
In migration to IPv6 context it is necessary to remember:
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In case of by hand compilation from sources, there is a need of giving an "--enable-ipv6" parameter (the installation with a packet manager system includes this parameter by default). For checking if this parameter is already included in present installation of proftpd server, type: "proftpd -V" from the command line. Then find in the "configure" section the "--enable-ipv6" parameter. In the "Features" section should be "+ IPv6 support".
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By default there is an "UseIPv6 on" definition in proftpd.conf. The "UseIPv6 off" deffinition must be changed. In case of no "UseIPv6" definition, application assumes value "on" by default.
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By default proftpd listens on every single IP address it finds on the operation system. To change that, there is the "DefaultAddress" definition. If an administrator wants to configure proftpd to listen only on one chosen IP address, in case of Native IPv6 migration, he must declare an IPv6 addres after "DefaultAddres" definition.
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In case of virtaul servers, to declare on which addresses such servers should listen, there is used following definition:
<VirtualHost ip_address>
For Native IPv6 migration the "ip_address" must be replaced by chosen IPv6 addres. In case of Dual Stack migration in the definition "VirtualHost" there should be found two IP addresses: one IPv4 and one IPv6 e.g.:
<VirtualHost ipv4_address ipv6_address>
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There is useful "SocketBindTight on" declaration. It causes listening only on chosen IP adresses, not on every single IP address found on the operation system. In case of Native IPv6 migration, this declaration with the "VirtualHost" or "Default Address" definitions will cause the requested effect of listening only on IPv6 adresses.
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