Configure local network Redhat package repository with vsftpd

by

Objective

The objective is to configure network Redhat package repository accessible via FTP protocol. This guide uses vsftpd as a means to provide FTP access to the package repository.

Operating System and Software Versions

  • Operating System: – Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 7.3 (Maipo)
  • Software: – vsftpd: version 3.0.2

Requirements

Privileged access to your RHEL server system will be required.

Difficulty

EASY

Conventions

  • # – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command
  • $ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user

Instructions

Install vsftpd

First, step is to install and start vsftpd daemon. 

# yum install vsftpd

Enable vsftpd daemon to start after reboot:

# systemctl enable vsftpd
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/vsftpd.service to /usr/lib/systemd/system/vsftpd.service.

Start vsftpd daemon:

# systemctl start vsftpd

vsftpd daemon should now be running:

# systemctl status vsftpd
● vsftpd.service - Vsftpd ftp daemon
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/vsftpd.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (running) since Fri 2017-04-07 21:21:08 AEST; 3min 3s ago
  Process: 11630 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/vsftpd /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 11632 (vsftpd)
   CGroup: /system.slice/vsftpd.service
           └─11632 /usr/sbin/vsftpd /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf

Configure Firewall

If you have firewall enabled, add a new rule to allow inbound firewall connections to FTP service:

# firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=ftp
# firewall-cmd --reload

Include Packages

What remains is to copy Redhat package repository from ISO image or DVD drive to /var/ftp/pup directory. Mount your CDROM:

# mount /dev/cdrom /media

or RHEL iso image:

# mount -ro loop rhel-server-7.3-x86_64-dvd.iso /media

and copy all source files using cp:

# cp -a /media/* /var/ftp/pub/

If SELinux is enabled on your system set appropriate SELinux context recursively for entire directory:

# chcon -R -t public_content_t /var/ftp

Your FTP server should now be accessible from any remote system via ftp://SERVER-IP/pup/

Related Linux Tutorials: