Best Linux FTP Server

[DaCurryman]

Hey guys,

I currently have an FTP server that's running on WinXP Pro w/ Serv-U Corporate Edition FTP Server software. I like Serv-U a lot and think it's great. I am also thinking of dabbling in the Linux world again (did it freshman year of college ~ 7 years ago). I have CDs for the Ubuntu distro of linux and am thinking of installing that as the OS for the FTP server. A couple of questions...

1. What do you think of running an FTP server on Linux over Windows XP? Please don't site crashes of OS since the Windows box hasn't had a major crash in the year+ it's been running...only the occasional reboot for patches/updates. I'm looking at things like system resources, speed of server, etc.

2. If you guys decide Linux, then how hard is the FTP server to maintain? Also, with WinXP I can remote desktop to the machine to get in on it. How would that work with Linux? Would I need to use a RealVNC type application? I'd prefer something on the OS level.

3. Since I don't believe Serv-U has a version for Linux, which FTP server software do you guys recommend for a Linux box. I'm looking for something that has much the same functionality as Serv-U and is user friendly. I'd also prefer something that is free (open-source) or easily attainable (torrents).

Thanks again for all your help...

 

[n0cmonkey]

1. It shouldn't really matter. If what you have is working... Over all, don't use FTP if you can help it. sFTP is much much better.
2. It's cake. Set it up and let it run. You can SSH into it, which is a million times better. What's the OS level for this type of thing?
3. Pure, Pro, anything but wu.

 

[DaCurryman]

Main reason I was considering a switch to Linux was because WinXP is a resource hog it seems. The machine has 512mb RAM in it and I don't feel like investing any more money into the machine...except maybe a GigE card later on.

PureFTP looks pretty good, but does it support the sFTP method you mentioned? Is there a different app I should consider for sFTP. What will be the impact of sFTP on my users? Will they need to reconfigure their clients? Also, will they be able to access it over the web like you can with IE?

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: DaCurryman
Main reason I was considering a switch to Linux was because WinXP is a resource hog it seems. The machine has 512mb RAM in it and I don't feel like investing any more money into the machine...except maybe a GigE card later on.

If you run a minimal installation it shouldn't be too bad. Don't turn on X and it's pretty nice actually.

PureFTP looks pretty good, but does it support the sFTP method you mentioned? Is there a different app I should consider for sFTP. What will be the impact of sFTP on my users? Will they need to reconfigure their clients? Also, will they be able to access it over the web like you can with IE?

OpenSSH does sFTP. I don't think IE does sFTP. WinSCP does though, and it's free. You only really have to worry about it if you care about authentication and privacy.

 

[Czar]

install vmware ace, and download the premade ubuntu vmware install on vmware.com / communities or something or the other,

 

[sourceninja]

FileZilla also can do sftp. I would never use ftp if I could help it. I would use sftp all the way.

 

[DaCurryman]

Originally posted by: Czar
install vmware ace, and download the premade ubuntu vmware install on vmware.com / communities or something or the other,

A few questions about this:

1. Why do I need to use VMWare since I don't need both Operating Systems?
2. What's the use of VMWare ACE? It seems like I just need to download the VMWare Player as shown here.

 

[DaCurryman]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
If you run a minimal installation it shouldn't be too bad. Don't turn on X and it's pretty nice actually.

Are you referring to a minimal install of WinXP or Linux? And what do you mean by not turning on "X"?

OpenSSH does sFTP. I don't think IE does sFTP. WinSCP does though, and it's free. You only really have to worry about it if you care about authentication and privacy.

It seem like if I have a Linux OS, then I can run OpenSSH as the sFTP server (altho I guess I need to use the "portable" version). And since most of my friends' client machines will be Windows machines, I guess they'll use WinSCP. Does that sound right? Would it be better for everyone to use FileZilla?

Also, is there any performance degredation (speed loss) in having all the transmissions encrypted?

 

[Czar]

Originally posted by: DaCurryman

Originally posted by: Czar
install vmware ace, and download the premade ubuntu vmware install on vmware.com / communities or something or the other,

A few questions about this:

1. Why do I need to use VMWare since I don't need both Operating Systems?
2. What's the use of VMWare ACE? It seems like I just need to download the VMWare Player as shown here.

1. easier since you are just going to try this out, snapshots if its supported in that version of vmware
2. sorry, meant vmware player

overall I think this would be your quickest and best way to get your hands dirty

 

[DaCurryman]

Originally posted by: Czar
1. easier since you are just going to try this out, snapshots if its supported in that version of vmware
2. sorry, meant vmware player

overall I think this would be your quickest and best way to get your hands dirty

Ahh I see. Now do I download the VMPlayer for Windows, since that's what the OS has right now, or do I download the Player for Linux because that's what I want to install? I know it sounds like a stupid question, but I just want to be sure.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: DaCurryman

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
If you run a minimal installation it shouldn't be too bad. Don't turn on X and it's pretty nice actually.

Are you referring to a minimal install of WinXP or Linux? And what do you mean by not turning on "X"?

Linux, and by "X" I mean X11, the X Window System, the gui, whatever you want to call it.

It seem like if I have a Linux OS, then I can run OpenSSH as the sFTP server (altho I guess I need to use the "portable" version). And since most of my friends' client machines will be Windows machines, I guess they'll use WinSCP. Does that sound right? Would it be better for everyone to use FileZilla?

OpenSSH comes with almost every OS out there, and I believe every Linux distribution.

Also, is there any performance degredation (speed loss) in having all the transmissions encrypted?

Yes, possibly, it depends. How big is your pipe? How big is the machine? How many concurrent users? Latency?

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: DaCurryman

Originally posted by: Czar
1. easier since you are just going to try this out, snapshots if its supported in that version of vmware
2. sorry, meant vmware player

overall I think this would be your quickest and best way to get your hands dirty

Ahh I see. Now do I download the VMPlayer for Windows, since that's what the OS has right now, or do I download the Player for Linux because that's what I want to install? I know it sounds like a stupid question, but I just want to be sure.

Windows. It's not stupid, this type of thing can be confusing for newbies.

 

[Trizzian]

I just heard via Serv-U's mailing list that they actually have developed a Linux build of Serv-U, and it's up for public beta at serv-u.com/beta. It's pretty neat, from what I can tell they're still using the same engine and core, just porting some bare-minimum OS-specific stuff. It's free to run for the beta period, so if anyone here's still looking this, go give it a look! I ran it on Fedora 14 but they claim to have tested it successfully on Ubuntu 10.10, Linux Mint, Amazon's EC2 base image, and some others.