Installing an ftp server on your esxi host itself

Andreas Peetz setup a way to install a ftp server on you esxi hostitself.
<http://www.v-front.de/2012/11/release-proftpd-ftp-server-for-vmware.html>




Why is there no ftp service on a esxi host?
It isn't advised to keep an ftp service on your actual host.
It leaves another security hole on your host.
Like Peetz says, if you want to upload files, you have many other options available, like the datstore browser or winscp




So why install an ftp service on the host itself?
It is just a proof of concept that it can be done, if for no other reason than it being a learning experience adding offline bundles to your host.


For Peetz's instructions and updates go to his site:  http://www.v-front.de/2012/11/release-proftpd-ftp-server-for-vmware.html




1. Download Proftpd for esxi
ProFTPD 1.3.3 for VMware ESXi 5.x




2. Upload it to your datastore









3. SSH into your host
4. Run this command
esxcli software vib install --no-sig-check -d /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/ProFTPD-1.3.3-8-offline_bundle.zip
What the options mean:
 --no-sig-check     Bypasses acceptance level verification.
-d    Specifies full remote URLs of the depot index.xml or  server file path pointing to an offline bundle. In our case I uploaded the file to datastore1 but it could be any datastore.









Check the security profile for proftp install
You see it listed in the Services as well as the firewall.









Not working?
Port commands keep failing?





 Answer:
Use a program like filezilla.
ProFTPd's default TLS handling rules requires SSL sessions to be re-used. Windows command line ftp doesn’t do that.
<http://www.ateamsystems.com/blog/FireFTP-ProFTPd-Unable-to-build-data-connection-Operation-not-permitted-TLS-negotiation>











Final verdict: works but I wouldn’t use it in production. But it’s a good exercise !