Installing ProFTPD

Time to convert all these decign decisions into the proftpd config file /etc/proftpd.conf. You may cut-and-paste the following into the file /etc/proftpd.conf:

perl -e 'print("userPassword: ".crypt("secret","salt")."\n");'

#!/bin/bash
# reference:
# http://www.castaglia.org/proftpd/doc/contrib/ProFTPD-mini-HOWTO-Stopping.html
#

# ProFTPD files
FTPD_BIN=/usr/sbin/proftpd
FTPD_CONF=/etc/proftpd.conf
PIDFILE=/var/run/proftpd.pid

# If PIDFILE exists, does it point to a proftpd process?

if [ -f $PIDFILE ]; then
   pid=`cat $PIDFILE`
fi

if [ ! -x $FTPD_BIN ]; then
    echo "$0: $FTPD_BIN: cannot execute"
    exit 1
fi

case $1 in

    start)
      if [ -n "$pid" ]; then
        echo "$0: proftpd [PID $pid] already running"
        exit
      fi

      if [ -r $FTPD_CONF ]; then
        echo "Starting proftpd..."
	rm -f /etc/shutmsg
        $FTPD_BIN -c $FTPD_CONF

      else
        echo "$0: cannot start proftpd -- $FTPD_CONF missing"
      fi
      ;;

    stop)
      if [ -n "$pid" ]; then
        echo "Stopping proftpd..."
        kill -TERM $pid

      else
        echo "$0: proftpd not running"
        exit 1
      fi
      ;;

    restart)
      if [ -n "$pid" ]; then
        echo "Rehashing proftpd configuration"
        kill -HUP $pid

      else
        echo "$0: proftpd not running"
        exit 1
      fi
      ;;

    *)
      echo "usage: $0 {start|stop|restart}"
      exit 1
      ;;
esac

exit 0

LOG ANALYSIS

Proftpd generates a log file that's similar to the log file wu-ftpd, ie /var/log/xferlog. That means, you can use the xferstats script in the /usr/src/proftpd-1.2.9/contrib directory of the proftpd source (or the one from wu-ftpd which has bugs) to analyze the log. I put the xferstats script in /usr/sbin. There is a newer version of xferstats. Search for it via google.com using keyword "xferstats" or try http://xferstats.off.net . For a graphical presentation, you may use awstats. In her website, he got an article teaching you how to modify the proftpd log format to suit her presentation.

# beginning of /etc/logrotate.d/ftpd
missingok

/var/log/xferlog {
  size=256k
  nocopytruncate
  postrotate
    /usr/bin/killall -HUP syslogd
  endscript
}

/var/log/ftp {
  daily
  rotate 7
  postrotate
    /usr/bin/killall -HUP syslogd
  endscript
}
# end of /etc/logrotate.d/ftpd

MONITOR

Just like wu-ftpd, the command ftpwho will tell you what users are currently connecting to your proftpd. For more detail, you can use ftpwho -v. With verbose mode, the transfer rate of each connection would be shown. And with the release of proftpd-1.2.7 and later, there is a new command called ftptop.

Alternatively, you may use SNMP tools like MRTG. One linux-sxs editor recommneded console tools pppstatus and ethstatus. I have found a tool called ifstat which is really simple.

root@server: init.d> ifstat
       eth0                eth1
 KB/s in  KB/s out   KB/s in  KB/s out
    0.67     16.96      0.00      0.00
    1.25     33.58      0.00      0.00
    0.67     16.81      0.00      0.00

There is also ntop, which is you can view its results via web browser (just like webmin). You can find them in http://freshmeat.net!

Useful References

• log analysis using awstats: http://awstats.sourceforge.net/docs/awstats_faq.html#FTP
• active vs passive ftp: http://slacksite.com/other/ftp.html
• documentation in source code directory: /usr/src/proftpd-1.2.9/doc
• documenetation for more advanced topics: http://www.castaglia.org/proftpd/
• another mod for proftpd: ftp://ftp.opaopa.org/pub/proftpd/proftpd-site_index-0.1.tar.gz
• chinese how-to: http://dns.bmes.tnc.edu.tw/notebook/proftp.htm