proftp-user — User support list for ProFTPD

Re: [Proftpd-user] Performance Help - Take 2

[John S. <jo...@st...>]

>>>>> "Brad" == Brad Knorr <br...@kn...> writes:

> OK, thanks for the reply, after doing some googling and AI, I found
> some tunable kernel parameters.

Great!  

> # RECOMMENDED TUNING FOR HIGH-BANDWIDTH SERVERS (Optimized for SFTP)
> #
> # Increased to 16MB max buffers for high-latency/high-speed links.
> net.core.rmem_max = 16777216
> net.core.wmem_max = 16777216

> # Set TCP read/write memory (min, default, max)
> net.ipv4.tcp_rmem = 4096 87380 16777216
> net.ipv4.tcp_wmem = 4096 65536 16777216

> # Enable Google's BBR Congestion Control
> net.core.default_qdisc = fq
> net.ipv4.tcp_congestion_control = bbr

> After a few queries to people, this seems to have helped.  However as you
> mentioned, it is really hard to know as we are at the mercy of the internet.
> I think I have done everything I can.  Again thank you for the reply.

I strongly suspect you might be better off testing by spinning up some
VMs in AWS around the world and testing out how it works.  But you
also don't give any information about your server's hardware and
network configuration.  So again, it's hard to help.

Anyway, glad you've made progress.  

John


> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Stoffel <jo...@st...>
> Sent: November 30, 2025 1:11 PM
> To: pro...@li...
> Subject: Re: [Proftpd-user] Performance Help - Take 2

>>>>> "Brad" == Brad Knorr <br...@kn...> writes:

>> I realise my first post asking for help, wasn’t really helping myself,
>> I didn’t really provide much context.  So after some testing, here are
>> the results I am getting.

> Brad,
> You still don't provide enough details to help.  What type of server are you
> running proftpd on?  What OS?  What does the system load look like when the
> problem(s) are reported?

> Have you spun up a new host in a new datacenter (or even another host in the
> same datacenter) and tried having those users connect to your new test
> instance?

> Can they download from other places at a high speed?

> Honestly, from the sound of it, your customers might have bad local
> networks, but you nee to get them to run some tests to other known good
> sites to see what their performance is as a comparison.

>> Many of my customers are complaining about the download speed from
>> proftpd.  Here Is the testing I have done.  This user is in Tampa Bay,
>> Florida.

> No, they're complaining about slow download speeds from your site.
> And there's a multitude of possible bottlenecks here.   Why have your
> turned off SFTP compression?  Does that help?

> When you're downloading from other sites, how is the performance of your
> sftp server?  Is the system load high?  Can you see the traffic flows and
> measure your WAN/LAN performance?

> What OS are you running proftpd on?

> This is a tough problem to solve, because you don't have any control outside
> of your system, so problems could be anywhere.  Especially if your customer
> is on a residential network.  Who knows what they have and what they're
> trying to do?

> Also, speedtest isn't really a good test, I would suggest you have these
> people try to download a smallish ISO file from ubuntu.com as a comparision.
> Or maybe spin up a test linode instance in the cloude running a stripped
> down copy of your setup, and have the users try that new system as a test.

> If they're paying, then it's worth spending some money on trying to figure
> out what's going wrong.  But otherwise... it's a horrible rat hole to dive
> down.

> John


>> iperf3 from

>> 1. from France: 141 Mbits/sec
>> 2. from nyc 249 Mbits/sec
>> 3. from sfo 598 Mbits/sec
>> 4. From Tampa (users come computer) 52.4 Mbits/sec  5. From inside my
>> infrastructure, out to the gateway ip and back: 9.18 Gbits/sec

>> 

>> The user is using Filezilla is sftp mode and is getting  .5 Mbits/sec on a
>> 10 GB file.

>> 

>> When he does a speed check to the city where my data center is via
>> speedtest.org he gets 200Mbits/ s

>> 

>> When I do a scp from France on a 1GB file I get around 250 Mbits/s

>> 

>> What am I running into here?  Is this a limitation of Filezilla?  I
>> have done disk speed tests on the file server and get 3.2 GB/s on a 1G
>> file read.

>> 

>> Any thoughts on where to look next?

>> 

>> Thanks for the awesome product btw.

>> 

>> Proftpd version:

>> root@nfs1:/home/truenorth# proftpd --version

>> ProFTPD Version 1.3.9rc3

>> 

>> Config file:

>> ServerName "File Transfer Server"

>> ServerType standalone

>> DefaultServer on

>> Port 2222

>> UseIPv6 off

>> Umask 003

>> MaxInstances 30

>> User nobody

>> Group nogroup

>> DefaultRoot ~

>> AllowOverwrite on

>> MaxLoginAttempts 3

>> AllowRetrieveRestart on

>> DeferWelcome on

>> HiddenStores on

>> DeleteAbortedStores on

>> 

>> #sFTP config

>> SFTPEngine on

>> SFTPAuthMethods password

>> SFTPOptions IgnoreSFTPUploadPerms IgnoreSCPUploadPerms
>> IgnoreSFTPSetOwners IgnoreSFTPSetExtendedAttributes
>> IgnoreSFTPUploadExtendedAttributes

>> SFTPCompression off

>> SFTPMaxChannels 10

>> RequireValidShell off

>> SFTPHostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key

>> SFTPHostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key

>> 

>> # logging

>> SyslogLevel warn

>> SystemLog /var/log/proftpd/system.log

>> TransferLog none

>> 

>> # Bar use of SITE CHMOD by default

>> <Limit SITE_CHMOD>

>> DenyAll

>> </Limit>

>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> ProFTPD Users List   <pro...@pr...>
>> Unsubscribe problems?
>> http://www.proftpd.org/list-unsub.html


> _______________________________________________
> ProFTPD Users List   <pro...@pr...>
> Unsubscribe problems?
> http://www.proftpd.org/list-unsub.html


> _______________________________________________
> ProFTPD Users List   <pro...@pr...>
> Unsubscribe problems?
> http://www.proftpd.org/list-unsub.html

Re: [Proftpd-user] Performance Help - Take 2

[Brad K. <br...@kn...>]

OK, thanks for the reply, after doing some googling and AI, I found some
tunable kernel parameters.

# RECOMMENDED TUNING FOR HIGH-BANDWIDTH SERVERS (Optimized for SFTP)
#
# Increased to 16MB max buffers for high-latency/high-speed links.
net.core.rmem_max = 16777216
net.core.wmem_max = 16777216

# Set TCP read/write memory (min, default, max)
net.ipv4.tcp_rmem = 4096 87380 16777216
net.ipv4.tcp_wmem = 4096 65536 16777216

# Enable Google's BBR Congestion Control
net.core.default_qdisc = fq
net.ipv4.tcp_congestion_control = bbr

After a few queries to people, this seems to have helped.  However as you
mentioned, it is really hard to know as we are at the mercy of the internet.
I think I have done everything I can.  Again thank you for the reply.

Brad

-----Original Message-----
From: John Stoffel <jo...@st...>
Sent: November 30, 2025 1:11 PM
To: pro...@li...
Subject: Re: [Proftpd-user] Performance Help - Take 2

>>>>> "Brad" == Brad Knorr <br...@kn...> writes:

> I realise my first post asking for help, wasn’t really helping myself,
> I didn’t really provide much context.  So after some testing, here are
> the results I am getting.

Brad,
You still don't provide enough details to help.  What type of server are you
running proftpd on?  What OS?  What does the system load look like when the
problem(s) are reported?

Have you spun up a new host in a new datacenter (or even another host in the
same datacenter) and tried having those users connect to your new test
instance?

Can they download from other places at a high speed?

Honestly, from the sound of it, your customers might have bad local
networks, but you nee to get them to run some tests to other known good
sites to see what their performance is as a comparison.

> Many of my customers are complaining about the download speed from
> proftpd.  Here Is the testing I have done.  This user is in Tampa Bay,
> Florida.

No, they're complaining about slow download speeds from your site.
And there's a multitude of possible bottlenecks here.   Why have your
turned off SFTP compression?  Does that help?

When you're downloading from other sites, how is the performance of your
sftp server?  Is the system load high?  Can you see the traffic flows and
measure your WAN/LAN performance?

What OS are you running proftpd on?

This is a tough problem to solve, because you don't have any control outside
of your system, so problems could be anywhere.  Especially if your customer
is on a residential network.  Who knows what they have and what they're
trying to do?

Also, speedtest isn't really a good test, I would suggest you have these
people try to download a smallish ISO file from ubuntu.com as a comparision.
Or maybe spin up a test linode instance in the cloude running a stripped
down copy of your setup, and have the users try that new system as a test.

If they're paying, then it's worth spending some money on trying to figure
out what's going wrong.  But otherwise... it's a horrible rat hole to dive
down.

John


> iperf3 from

>  1. from France: 141 Mbits/sec
>  2. from nyc 249 Mbits/sec
>  3. from sfo 598 Mbits/sec
>  4. From Tampa (users come computer) 52.4 Mbits/sec  5. From inside my
> infrastructure, out to the gateway ip and back: 9.18 Gbits/sec

>

> The user is using Filezilla is sftp mode and is getting  .5 Mbits/sec on a
> 10 GB file.

>

> When he does a speed check to the city where my data center is via
> speedtest.org he gets 200Mbits/ s

>

> When I do a scp from France on a 1GB file I get around 250 Mbits/s

>

> What am I running into here?  Is this a limitation of Filezilla?  I
> have done disk speed tests on the file server and get 3.2 GB/s on a 1G
> file read.

>

> Any thoughts on where to look next?

>

> Thanks for the awesome product btw.

>

> Proftpd version:

> root@nfs1:/home/truenorth# proftpd --version

> ProFTPD Version 1.3.9rc3

>

> Config file:

> ServerName "File Transfer Server"

> ServerType standalone

> DefaultServer on

> Port 2222

> UseIPv6 off

> Umask 003

> MaxInstances 30

> User nobody

> Group nogroup

> DefaultRoot ~

> AllowOverwrite on

> MaxLoginAttempts 3

> AllowRetrieveRestart on

> DeferWelcome on

> HiddenStores on

> DeleteAbortedStores on

>

> #sFTP config

> SFTPEngine on

> SFTPAuthMethods password

> SFTPOptions IgnoreSFTPUploadPerms IgnoreSCPUploadPerms
> IgnoreSFTPSetOwners IgnoreSFTPSetExtendedAttributes
> IgnoreSFTPUploadExtendedAttributes

> SFTPCompression off

> SFTPMaxChannels 10

> RequireValidShell off

> SFTPHostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key

> SFTPHostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key

>

> # logging

> SyslogLevel warn

> SystemLog /var/log/proftpd/system.log

> TransferLog none

>

> # Bar use of SITE CHMOD by default

> <Limit SITE_CHMOD>

>   DenyAll

> </Limit>

>
> _______________________________________________
> ProFTPD Users List   <pro...@pr...>
> Unsubscribe problems?
> http://www.proftpd.org/list-unsub.html


_______________________________________________
ProFTPD Users List   <pro...@pr...>
Unsubscribe problems?
http://www.proftpd.org/list-unsub.html

Re: [Proftpd-user] Performance Help - Take 2

[John S. <jo...@st...>]

>>>>> "Brad" == Brad Knorr <br...@kn...> writes:

> I realise my first post asking for help, wasn’t really helping
> myself, I didn’t really provide much context.  So after some
> testing, here are the results I am getting.

Brad,
You still don't provide enough details to help.  What type of server
are you running proftpd on?  What OS?  What does the system load look
like when the problem(s) are reported?  

Have you spun up a new host in a new datacenter (or even another host
in the same datacenter) and tried having those users connect to your
new test instance? 

Can they download from other places at a high speed?  

Honestly, from the sound of it, your customers might have bad local
networks, but you nee to get them to run some tests to other known
good sites to see what their performance is as a comparison.  

> Many of my customers are complaining about the download speed from
> proftpd.  Here Is the testing I have done.  This user is in Tampa
> Bay, Florida.

No, they're complaining about slow download speeds from your site.
And there's a multitude of possible bottlenecks here.   Why have your
turned off SFTP compression?  Does that help?

When you're downloading from other sites, how is the performance of
your sftp server?  Is the system load high?  Can you see the traffic
flows and measure your WAN/LAN performance?  

What OS are you running proftpd on?  

This is a tough problem to solve, because you don't have any control
outside of your system, so problems could be anywhere.  Especially if
your customer is on a residential network.  Who knows what they have
and what they're trying to do?  

Also, speedtest isn't really a good test, I would suggest you have
these people try to download a smallish ISO file from ubuntu.com as a
comparision.  Or maybe spin up a test linode instance in the cloude
running a stripped down copy of your setup, and have the users try
that new system as a test.  

If they're paying, then it's worth spending some money on trying to
figure out what's going wrong.  But otherwise... it's a horrible rat
hole to dive down.  

John


> iperf3 from

>  1. from France: 141 Mbits/sec
>  2. from nyc 249 Mbits/sec
>  3. from sfo 598 Mbits/sec
>  4. From Tampa (users come computer) 52.4 Mbits/sec
>  5. From inside my infrastructure, out to the gateway ip and back: 9.18 Gbits/sec

>  

> The user is using Filezilla is sftp mode and is getting  .5 Mbits/sec on a 10 GB file.

>  

> When he does a speed check to the city where my data center is via speedtest.org he gets 200Mbits/
> s

>  

> When I do a scp from France on a 1GB file I get around 250 Mbits/s

>  

> What am I running into here?  Is this a limitation of Filezilla?  I have done disk speed tests on
> the file server and get 3.2 GB/s on a 1G file read.

>  

> Any thoughts on where to look next?

>  

> Thanks for the awesome product btw.

>  

> Proftpd version:

> root@nfs1:/home/truenorth# proftpd --version

> ProFTPD Version 1.3.9rc3

>  

> Config file:

> ServerName "File Transfer Server"

> ServerType standalone

> DefaultServer on

> Port 2222

> UseIPv6 off

> Umask 003

> MaxInstances 30

> User nobody

> Group nogroup

> DefaultRoot ~

> AllowOverwrite on

> MaxLoginAttempts 3

> AllowRetrieveRestart on

> DeferWelcome on

> HiddenStores on

> DeleteAbortedStores on

>  

> #sFTP config

> SFTPEngine on

> SFTPAuthMethods password

> SFTPOptions IgnoreSFTPUploadPerms IgnoreSCPUploadPerms IgnoreSFTPSetOwners
> IgnoreSFTPSetExtendedAttributes IgnoreSFTPUploadExtendedAttributes

> SFTPCompression off

> SFTPMaxChannels 10

> RequireValidShell off

> SFTPHostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key

> SFTPHostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key

>  

> # logging

> SyslogLevel warn

> SystemLog /var/log/proftpd/system.log

> TransferLog none

>  

> # Bar use of SITE CHMOD by default

> <Limit SITE_CHMOD>

>   DenyAll

> </Limit>

>  
> _______________________________________________
> ProFTPD Users List   <pro...@pr...>
> Unsubscribe problems?
> http://www.proftpd.org/list-unsub.html

Re: [Proftpd-user] Performance Help - Take 2

[John S. <jo...@st...>]

>>>>> "Brad" == Brad Knorr <br...@kn...> writes:

> I realise my first post asking for help, wasn’t really helping
> myself, I didn’t really provide much context.  So after some
> testing, here are the results I am getting.

Brad,
You still don't provide enough details to help.  What type of server
are you running proftpd on?  What OS?  What does the system load look
like when the problem(s) are reported?  

Have you spun up a new host in a new datacenter (or even another host
in the same datacenter) and tried having those users connect to your
new test instance? 

Can they download from other places at a high speed?  

Honestly, from the sound of it, your customers might have bad local
networks, but you nee to get them to run some tests to other known
good sites to see what their performance is as a comparison.  

> Many of my customers are complaining about the download speed from
> proftpd.  Here Is the testing I have done.  This user is in Tampa
> Bay, Florida.

No, they're complaining about slow download speeds from your site.
And there's a multitude of possible bottlenecks here.   Why have your
turned off SFTP compression?  Does that help?

When you're downloading from other sites, how is the performance of
your sftp server?  Is the system load high?  Can you see the traffic
flows and measure your WAN/LAN performance?  

What OS are you running proftpd on?  

This is a tough problem to solve, because you don't have any control
outside of your system, so problems could be anywhere.  Especially if
your customer is on a residential network.  Who knows what they have
and what they're trying to do?  

Also, speedtest isn't really a good test, I would suggest you have
these people try to download a smallish ISO file from ubuntu.com as a
comparision.  Or maybe spin up a test linode instance in the cloude
running a stripped down copy of your setup, and have the users try
that new system as a test.  

If they're paying, then it's worth spending some money on trying to
figure out what's going wrong.  But otherwise... it's a horrible rat
hole to dive down.  

John


> iperf3 from

>  1. from France: 141 Mbits/sec
>  2. from nyc 249 Mbits/sec
>  3. from sfo 598 Mbits/sec
>  4. From Tampa (users come computer) 52.4 Mbits/sec
>  5. From inside my infrastructure, out to the gateway ip and back: 9.18 Gbits/sec

>  

> The user is using Filezilla is sftp mode and is getting  .5 Mbits/sec on a 10 GB file.

>  

> When he does a speed check to the city where my data center is via speedtest.org he gets 200Mbits/
> s

>  

> When I do a scp from France on a 1GB file I get around 250 Mbits/s

>  

> What am I running into here?  Is this a limitation of Filezilla?  I have done disk speed tests on
> the file server and get 3.2 GB/s on a 1G file read.

>  

> Any thoughts on where to look next?

>  

> Thanks for the awesome product btw.

>  

> Proftpd version:

> root@nfs1:/home/truenorth# proftpd --version

> ProFTPD Version 1.3.9rc3

>  

> Config file:

> ServerName "File Transfer Server"

> ServerType standalone

> DefaultServer on

> Port 2222

> UseIPv6 off

> Umask 003

> MaxInstances 30

> User nobody

> Group nogroup

> DefaultRoot ~

> AllowOverwrite on

> MaxLoginAttempts 3

> AllowRetrieveRestart on

> DeferWelcome on

> HiddenStores on

> DeleteAbortedStores on

>  

> #sFTP config

> SFTPEngine on

> SFTPAuthMethods password

> SFTPOptions IgnoreSFTPUploadPerms IgnoreSCPUploadPerms IgnoreSFTPSetOwners
> IgnoreSFTPSetExtendedAttributes IgnoreSFTPUploadExtendedAttributes

> SFTPCompression off

> SFTPMaxChannels 10

> RequireValidShell off

> SFTPHostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key

> SFTPHostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key

>  

> # logging

> SyslogLevel warn

> SystemLog /var/log/proftpd/system.log

> TransferLog none

>  

> # Bar use of SITE CHMOD by default

> <Limit SITE_CHMOD>

>   DenyAll

> </Limit>

>  
> _______________________________________________
> ProFTPD Users List   <pro...@pr...>
> Unsubscribe problems?
> http://www.proftpd.org/list-unsub.html

Re: [Proftpd-user] Performance Help - Take 2

[John S. <jo...@st...>]

>>>>> "Brad" == Brad Knorr <br...@kn...> writes:

> I realise my first post asking for help, wasn’t really helping
> myself, I didn’t really provide much context.  So after some
> testing, here are the results I am getting.

Brad,
You still don't provide enough details to help.  What type of server
are you running proftpd on?  What OS?  What does the system load look
like when the problem(s) are reported?  

Have you spun up a new host in a new datacenter (or even another host
in the same datacenter) and tried having those users connect to your
new test instance? 

Can they download from other places at a high speed?  

Honestly, from the sound of it, your customers might have bad local
networks, but you nee to get them to run some tests to other known
good sites to see what their performance is as a comparison.  

> Many of my customers are complaining about the download speed from
> proftpd.  Here Is the testing I have done.  This user is in Tampa
> Bay, Florida.

No, they're complaining about slow download speeds from your site.
And there's a multitude of possible bottlenecks here.   Why have your
turned off SFTP compression?  Does that help?

When you're downloading from other sites, how is the performance of
your sftp server?  Is the system load high?  Can you see the traffic
flows and measure your WAN/LAN performance?  

What OS are you running proftpd on?  

This is a tough problem to solve, because you don't have any control
outside of your system, so problems could be anywhere.  Especially if
your customer is on a residential network.  Who knows what they have
and what they're trying to do?  

Also, speedtest isn't really a good test, I would suggest you have
these people try to download a smallish ISO file from ubuntu.com as a
comparision.  Or maybe spin up a test linode instance in the cloude
running a stripped down copy of your setup, and have the users try
that new system as a test.  

If they're paying, then it's worth spending some money on trying to
figure out what's going wrong.  But otherwise... it's a horrible rat
hole to dive down.  

John


> iperf3 from

>  1. from France: 141 Mbits/sec
>  2. from nyc 249 Mbits/sec
>  3. from sfo 598 Mbits/sec
>  4. From Tampa (users come computer) 52.4 Mbits/sec
>  5. From inside my infrastructure, out to the gateway ip and back: 9.18 Gbits/sec

>  

> The user is using Filezilla is sftp mode and is getting  .5 Mbits/sec on a 10 GB file.

>  

> When he does a speed check to the city where my data center is via speedtest.org he gets 200Mbits/
> s

>  

> When I do a scp from France on a 1GB file I get around 250 Mbits/s

>  

> What am I running into here?  Is this a limitation of Filezilla?  I have done disk speed tests on
> the file server and get 3.2 GB/s on a 1G file read.

>  

> Any thoughts on where to look next?

>  

> Thanks for the awesome product btw.

>  

> Proftpd version:

> root@nfs1:/home/truenorth# proftpd --version

> ProFTPD Version 1.3.9rc3

>  

> Config file:

> ServerName "File Transfer Server"

> ServerType standalone

> DefaultServer on

> Port 2222

> UseIPv6 off

> Umask 003

> MaxInstances 30

> User nobody

> Group nogroup

> DefaultRoot ~

> AllowOverwrite on

> MaxLoginAttempts 3

> AllowRetrieveRestart on

> DeferWelcome on

> HiddenStores on

> DeleteAbortedStores on

>  

> #sFTP config

> SFTPEngine on

> SFTPAuthMethods password

> SFTPOptions IgnoreSFTPUploadPerms IgnoreSCPUploadPerms IgnoreSFTPSetOwners
> IgnoreSFTPSetExtendedAttributes IgnoreSFTPUploadExtendedAttributes

> SFTPCompression off

> SFTPMaxChannels 10

> RequireValidShell off

> SFTPHostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key

> SFTPHostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key

>  

> # logging

> SyslogLevel warn

> SystemLog /var/log/proftpd/system.log

> TransferLog none

>  

> # Bar use of SITE CHMOD by default

> <Limit SITE_CHMOD>

>   DenyAll

> </Limit>

>  
> _______________________________________________
> ProFTPD Users List   <pro...@pr...>
> Unsubscribe problems?
> http://www.proftpd.org/list-unsub.html

[Proftpd-user] Performance Help - Take 2

[Brad K. <br...@kn...>]

I realise my first post asking for help, wasn’t really helping myself, I
didn’t really provide much context.  So after some testing, here are the
results I am getting.



Many of my customers are complaining about the download speed from
proftpd.  Here Is the testing I have done.  This user is in Tampa Bay,
Florida.

iperf3 from

   1. from France: 141 Mbits/sec
   2. from nyc 249 Mbits/sec
   3. from sfo 598 Mbits/sec
   4. From Tampa (users come computer) 52.4 Mbits/sec
   5. From inside my infrastructure, out to the gateway ip and back: 9.18
   Gbits/sec



The user is using Filezilla is sftp mode and is getting  .5 Mbits/sec on a
10 GB file.



When he does a speed check to the city where my data center is via
speedtest.org he gets 200Mbits/s



When I do a scp from France on a 1GB file I get around 250 Mbits/s



What am I running into here?  Is this a limitation of Filezilla?  I have
done disk speed tests on the file server and get 3.2 GB/s on a 1G file read.



Any thoughts on where to look next?



Thanks for the awesome product btw.



Proftpd version:

root@nfs1:/home/truenorth# proftpd --version

ProFTPD Version 1.3.9rc3



Config file:

ServerName "File Transfer Server"

ServerType standalone

DefaultServer on

Port 2222

UseIPv6 off

Umask 003

MaxInstances 30

User nobody

Group nogroup

DefaultRoot ~

AllowOverwrite on

MaxLoginAttempts 3

AllowRetrieveRestart on

DeferWelcome on

HiddenStores on

DeleteAbortedStores on



#sFTP config

SFTPEngine on

SFTPAuthMethods password

SFTPOptions IgnoreSFTPUploadPerms IgnoreSCPUploadPerms IgnoreSFTPSetOwners
IgnoreSFTPSetExtendedAttributes IgnoreSFTPUploadExtendedAttributes

SFTPCompression off

SFTPMaxChannels 10

RequireValidShell off

SFTPHostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key

SFTPHostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key



# logging

SyslogLevel warn

SystemLog /var/log/proftpd/system.log

TransferLog none



# Bar use of SITE CHMOD by default

<Limit SITE_CHMOD>

  DenyAll

</Limit>

[Proftpd-user] transfer performance

[Brad K. <br...@kn...>]

Hello,



I am getting customer complaints about the transfer speeds.  I need some
help to try to diagnose what is going on. Proftp has a public ip address,
so there are no NATs and is firewalled on the host with ufw.  The host is a
nfs server with user home dir.  Proftpd allows pam users to access the
files in their home dir.  I am not sure how to diagnose this.  The internet
feed is a 1Gb/s.  I get an upload speed of 34.9 MiB/s. on a 620 M file.  I
realize there are a lot of factors that can play a role in this transfer.
For now I want to focus on proftpd and see if it is performing like it
should.  Thoughts on how to go about this?



TY

Brad







Build Config:



./configure \

--sysconfdir=/etc/proftpd \

--disable-ident \

--enable-dso \

--with-modules=mod_tls:mod_sftp



Config:

ServerName "File Transfer Server"

ServerType standalone

DefaultServer on



# Port 21 is the standard FTP port.



Port 2222



# Don't use IPv6 support by default.



UseIPv6 off



Umask 003



MaxInstances 30



# Set the user and group under which the server will run.



User nobody

Group nogroup



# To cause every FTP user to be "jailed" (chrooted) into their home
directory



DefaultRoot ~



# Normally, we want files to be over writeable.



AllowOverwrite on



MaxLoginAttempts 3

AllowRetrieveRestart on

DeferWelcome on

HiddenStores on

DeleteAbortedStores on



#sFTP config

SFTPEngine on

SFTPAuthMethods password

SFTPOptions IgnoreSFTPUploadPerms IgnoreSCPUploadPerms IgnoreSFTPSetOwners
IgnoreSFTPSetExtendedAttributes IgnoreSFTPUploadExtendedAttributes

SFTPCompression off

SFTPMaxChannels 10

RequireValidShell off

SFTPHostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key

SFTPHostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key



# logging



SyslogLevel warn

SystemLog /var/log/proftpd/system.log

TransferLog none



# Bar use of SITE CHMOD by default



<Limit SITE_CHMOD>

  DenyAll

</Limit>

Re: [Proftpd-user] Proftpd, mod_Sql and unknown file owners

[TJ S. <tj...@ca...>]

> We have a proftpd setup with mod_sql + unixodbc that authenticates users 
> against a oracle database with a named query. This works great and users 
> can login no problem.
>
> Recently I noticed that if a directory contains files created from 
> windows, getting the 1000254 or something uid, proftpd or mod_sql does a 
> "default" query which fail since we don't have any "users" table in the 
> database. This makes mod_sql error out and the user is disconnected.
>
> The users in question have access to the files through the gid anyway 
> but gets disconnected so.

I'm assuming that your mod_sql configuration looks something like this:

  SQLNamedQuery get-user-by-name SELECT "... WHERE userid = '%U'"
  SQLUserInfo custom:/get-user-by-name

specifically, that you're using only one custom query, that looks up user info by name.

If so, then you are encountering the situation mentioned in the SQLUserInfo docs:

  http://www.proftpd.org/docs/contrib/mod_sql.html#SQLUserInfo

under the "Custom Queries" section, where it mentions also needing a custom query for retrieving user info by UID, lest you encounter a "Table not found" error (which sounds like the case).

> Any idea why this happends? And what to do about it? We have users 
> accessing the filearea from both Windows and Linux so it's hard to keep 
> those pesky uid's away. Any way to disable this or work around it?

This happens because most directory listings want to see the file ownership by name (user and group), rather than showing the ownership by IDs.  In order to look up the given user/group names for file ownership IDs (which are all that are stored in the filesystem), ProFTPD needs to query the database for the names, given the IDs.

There's no easy way to disable this ID-to-name lookup, no.  There are a couple of workarounds.  First, you can use the AuthOrder directive, to tell ProFTPD to use both mod_sql and mod_auth_unix (the /etc/passwd, /etc/group files) for such name/ID resolution:

  AuthOrder mod_sql.c mod_auth_unix.c

Second, you can supply another custom query, and hardcode its values (thus not needing an "ftpusers" table):

  SQLNamedQuery get-user-by-name SELECT "... WHERE userid = '%U'"

  # We return a hardcoded user name of "unknown", an empty password, and a hardcoded
  # group name of "unknown", and hardcoded numeric UID/GID values.
  SQLNamedQuery get-user-by-id SELECT "'unknown', '', 1001, 1001, '', ''"

  SQLUserInfo custom:/get-user-by-name/get-user-by-id

You may need to tweak the ID-specific custom query, but hopefully this gives you some ideas of how you might address the situation.

Hope this helps,
TJ

[Proftpd-user] Proftpd, mod_Sql and unknown file owners

[Mattias L. <spa...@gm...>]

Hello.

We have a proftpd setup with mod_sql + unixodbc that authenticates users 
against a oracle database with a named query. This works great and users 
can login no problem. The users gets their own root and a static (and 
same) uid and gid from the query. The only useful parts are username, 
password and rootdir basicly.

Recently I noticed that if a directory contains files created from 
windows, getting the 1000254 or something uid, proftpd or mod_sql does a 
"default" query which fail since we don't have any "users" table in the 
database. This makes mod_sql error out and the user is disconnected.

The users in question have access to the files through the gid anyway 
but gets disconnected so.

I have never noticed this before, maybe because it rarely happends and 
the user doesn't report it, or maybe because of something new.

Any idea why this happends? And what to do about it? We have users 
accessing the filearea from both Windows and Linux so it's hard to keep 
those pesky uid's away. Any way to disable this or work around it?

// Mattias

[Proftpd-user] Lots of idle processes

[Lists <li...@se...>]

So I’m seeing lots of idle processes in ps output for proftpd.  Most are only a few minutes old.  Seems a concern.  Thoughts?
Sent from my iPhone

Re: [Proftpd-user] ProFTPd - virtual users + single ftp location

[Metal S. <me...@sl...>]

> I suspect that this Include -- which says to read all files in '/etc/proftpd/conf.d/' as if they each contained more ProFTPD configuration directives -- is the source of this reported behavior:
>
>    > Starting up gives me the following errors:"fatal: unknown configuration
>    > directive" followed by the first line in the virtual users password file
>    > (/etc/proftpd/ftpd.passwd).

Hi TJ,

You are correct! I put the files ftpd.passwd and ftpd.group intp 
/etc/proftpd, restarted proftpd and the errors disappeared!

Additionally, your observation about the owner's UID of /srv/ftp was 
spot on! I suddenly realized that the directory I wanted to use 
(/srv/ftp) was owned by user ftp, while proftpd was running as user 
proftpd! I don't know why this didn't register in my mind when I was 
working on this last week! My brain is tofu sometimes!

Thanks very much again, TJ!!

Regards,

pascal chong

Re: [Proftpd-user] SFTP + PAM + winbind

[Mathias M. <ma...@gm...>]

FTR:
I needed to add back keyboard-interactive in SFTPAuthMethods 
 
"Mathias MICHEL via Proftp-user" pro...@li... – 18 juillet 2025 00:50
> Hello,
>  
> I'm trying to setup an SFTP server on a RedHat 9 machine where users authenticate with winbind.
>  
> I have those settings enabled:
>         SFTPPAMEngine on
>        SFTPPAMServiceName proftpd
>        AuthOrder mod_auth_pam.c mod_auth_unix.c
>  
> So local users can also connect (mostly for tests)
>  
> My current proftp PAM file looks like:
> #%PAM-1.0
> session    optional     pam_keyinit.so force revoke
> auth       required     pam_listfile.so item=user sense=deny file=/etc/ftpusers onerr=succeed
> auth       required     pam_shells.so
> auth       include      password-auth
> account    include      password-auth
> session    required     pam_loginuid.so
> session    include      password-auth
>  
> Local users can connect (I guess thanks to mod_auth_unix.c)
> Network users cannot.
> I tried replacing password-auth with system-auth but that did not  help.
>  
> My guess is that some changes are needed in the PAM config file, but I have no clue what to change, and with which value. 
>  
> Any help welcome.
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> ProFTPD Users List <pro...@pr...>
> Unsubscribe problems?
> http://www.proftpd.org/list-unsub.html
> 
>

Re: [Proftpd-user] ProFTPd - virtual users + single ftp location

[TJ S. <tj...@ca...>]

> Corrected the config file to this:
>
> DefaultRoot /srv/ftp
> RequireValidShell off
> AuthPAM off
> AuthUserFile /etc/proftpd/ftpd.passwd
> AuthGroupFile /etc/proftpd/ftpd.group 
>
>> Here, you are creating an AuthUserFile, using the `ftpassswd` utility, located at '/etc/proftpd/conf.d/ftpd.passwd'.  However, above you have configured AuthUserFile to point to '/etc/proftpd/ftpd.passwd', which is a different path.  Which is correct?

> Good catch! I found duplicates. Now I have deleted the ftpd.passwd and 
> ftpd.group files inside /etc/proftpd. I will only be using the 
> ftpd.passwd and ftpd.group inside /etc/proftpd/conf.d

Hmm.  I would recommend keeping '/etc/proftpd/ftpd.passwd' and '/etc/proftpd/ftpd.group', to match your configuration:

  AuthUserFile /etc/proftpd/ftpd.passwd
  AuthGroupFile /etc/proftpd/ftpd.group 

and removing the copies in '/etc/proftpd/conf.d/'.  Why?  Because of this line, at the bottom of the default '/etc/proftpd/proftpd.conf' file installed by the "proftpd-core" package:

  # Include other custom configuration files
  # !! Please note, that this statement will read /all/ file from this subdir,
  # i.e. backup files created by your editor, too !!!
  # Eventually create file patterns like this: /etc/proftpd/conf.d/*.conf
  # 
  Include /etc/proftpd/conf.d/

I suspect that this Include -- which says to read all files in '/etc/proftpd/conf.d/' as if they each contained more ProFTPD configuration directives -- is the source of this reported behavior:

  > Starting up gives me the following errors:"fatal: unknown configuration 
  > directive" followed by the first line in the virtual users password file 
  > (/etc/proftpd/ftpd.passwd).

Hope this helps,
TJ

Re: [Proftpd-user] ProFTPd - virtual users + single ftp location

[Metal S. <me...@sl...>]

Thanks very much, TJ! My goodness, I made so many mistakes! I don't know 
what I was even thinking when I was working on this.

>> 2. Modified proftpd.conf
>>
>> DefaultRoot /srv/ftp
>> RequireValidShell off
>> AuthUserFile /etc/proftpd/ftpd.passwd
>> AuthGroupFile /etc/proftpd/ftpd.group<https://ftpd.group>
>> AuthOrder mod_auth_file.c

Corrected the config file to this:

DefaultRoot /srv/ftp
RequireValidShell off
AuthPAM off
AuthUserFile /etc/proftpd/ftpd.passwd
AuthGroupFile /etc/proftpd/ftpd.group

> Here, you are creating an AuthUserFile, using the `ftpassswd` utility, located at '/etc/proftpd/conf.d/ftpd.passwd'.  However, above you have configured AuthUserFile to point to '/etc/proftpd/ftpd.passwd', which is a different path.  Which is correct?

Good catch! I found duplicates. Now I have deleted the ftpd.passwd and 
ftpd.group files inside /etc/proftpd. I will only be using the 
ftpd.passwd and ftpd.group inside /etc/proftpd/conf.d

> Could you provide the contents of your '/usr/lib/systemd/system/proftpd.service' file?  I ask because sometimes the systemd unit file provided by a distribution may point to a different ProFTPD config file than the one edited, and/or provide other unexpected options.

My file looks like this:

root@ftp-ub-1:~# cat /usr/lib/systemd/system/proftpd.service
[Unit]
Description=ProFTPD FTP Server
Documentation=man:proftpd(8)
Wants=network-online.target
After=network-online.target nss-lookup.target local-fs.target 
remote-fs.target

[Service]
Type=forking
Environment=OPTIONS= CONFIG_FILE=/etc/proftpd/proftpd.conf
EnvironmentFile=-/etc/default/proftpd
ExecStartPre=/usr/sbin/proftpd --configtest -c $CONFIG_FILE $OPTIONS
ExecStart=/usr/sbin/proftpd -c $CONFIG_FILE $OPTIONS
ExecReload=/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID
PIDFile=/run/proftpd.pid

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

>
> Using an Ubuntu 24.04 Docker image, it looks to be:
>
>    # cat /usr/lib/systemd/system/proftpd.service
>    [Unit]
>    Description=ProFTPD FTP Server
>    Documentation=man:proftpd(8)
>    Wants=network-online.target
>    After=network-online.target nss-lookup.target local-fs.target remote-fs.target
>
>    [Service]
>    Type=forking
>    Environment=OPTIONS= CONFIG_FILE=/etc/proftpd/proftpd.conf
>    EnvironmentFile=-/etc/default/proftpd
>    ExecStartPre=/usr/sbin/proftpd --configtest -c $CONFIG_FILE $OPTIONS
>    ExecStart=/usr/sbin/proftpd -c $CONFIG_FILE $OPTIONS
>    ExecReload=/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID
>    PIDFile=/run/proftpd.pid
>
>    [Install]
>    WantedBy=multi-user.target

I'll try again tomorrow morning. Too tired to think tonight and I don't 
want to mess things up again.

Thanks very much again, TJ!!

Re: [Proftpd-user] ProFTPd - virtual users + single ftp location

[TJ S. <tj...@ca...>]

> 2. Modified proftpd.conf
>
> DefaultRoot /srv/ftp
> RequireValidShell off
> AuthUserFile /etc/proftpd/ftpd.passwd
> AuthGroupFile /etc/proftpd/ftpd.group <https://ftpd.group>
> AuthOrder mod_auth_file.c

The AuthGroupFile directive only takes a single path; '/etc/proftpd/ftpd.group' in this case.  Any additional parameters may cause config parsing errors.

> 3. Create user using ftpasswd:
> ftpasswd --passwd --file=/etc/proftpd/conf.d/ftpd.passwd --name=user1 
> --uid=105 --gid=65534 --shell=/bin/false

Here, you are creating an AuthUserFile, using the `ftpassswd` utility, located at '/etc/proftpd/conf.d/ftpd.passwd'.  However, above you have configured AuthUserFile to point to '/etc/proftpd/ftpd.passwd', which is a different path.  Which is correct?

> 4. Start proftpd: systemctl start proftpd

Could you provide the contents of your '/usr/lib/systemd/system/proftpd.service' file?  I ask because sometimes the systemd unit file provided by a distribution may point to a different ProFTPD config file than the one edited, and/or provide other unexpected options.

Using an Ubuntu 24.04 Docker image, it looks to be:

  # cat /usr/lib/systemd/system/proftpd.service 
  [Unit]
  Description=ProFTPD FTP Server
  Documentation=man:proftpd(8)
  Wants=network-online.target
  After=network-online.target nss-lookup.target local-fs.target remote-fs.target

  [Service]
  Type=forking
  Environment=OPTIONS= CONFIG_FILE=/etc/proftpd/proftpd.conf
  EnvironmentFile=-/etc/default/proftpd
  ExecStartPre=/usr/sbin/proftpd --configtest -c $CONFIG_FILE $OPTIONS
  ExecStart=/usr/sbin/proftpd -c $CONFIG_FILE $OPTIONS
  ExecReload=/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID
  PIDFile=/run/proftpd.pid

  [Install]
  WantedBy=multi-user.target

> Starting up gives me the following errors:"fatal: unknown configuration 
> directive" followed by the first line in the virtual users password file 
> (/etc/proftpd/ftpd.passwd). This error occurs twice, but the weird thing 
> is I am still able to login as user1.

Could you provide the exact errors you see on startup, please?

> Reddit's AI says that proftpd is looking for a format in 
> Apache format <User>....</User>

In this case, Reddit's AI is incorrect.  ProFTPD does not use that Apache format; see:

  http://www.proftpd.org/docs/howto/AuthFiles.html

> The main problem though, is that after logging in successfully, I can 
> download files from /srv/ftp, but I cannot upload ("Permission denied"). 
> The directory ownership of /srv/ftp is the same as the user running 
> proftpd (ftp:nogroup), but I suspect that I am missing some directive in 
> proftpd.conf, but I have no idea. Am I missing a step perhaps?

If you are able to run ProFTPD in debugging mode (which can itself be more challenging than expected, when dealing with systemd), it should log more details about why the uploads are not working as expected:

  http://www.proftpd.org/docs/howto/Debugging.html

Cheers,
TJ

Re: [Proftpd-user] ProFTPd - virtual users + single ftp location

[TJ S. <tj...@ca...>]

On Thu, Aug 14, 2025, at 13:48, TJ Saunders wrote:
>> 2. Modified proftpd.conf
>>
>> DefaultRoot /srv/ftp
>> RequireValidShell off
>> AuthUserFile /etc/proftpd/ftpd.passwd
>> AuthGroupFile /etc/proftpd/ftpd.group <https://ftpd.group>
>> AuthOrder mod_auth_file.c
>
> The AuthGroupFile directive only takes a single path; 
> '/etc/proftpd/ftpd.group' in this case.  Any additional parameters may 
> cause config parsing errors.
>
>> 3. Create user using ftpasswd:
>> ftpasswd --passwd --file=/etc/proftpd/conf.d/ftpd.passwd --name=user1 
>> --uid=105 --gid=65534 --shell=/bin/false
>
> Here, you are creating an AuthUserFile, using the `ftpassswd` utility, 
> located at '/etc/proftpd/conf.d/ftpd.passwd'.  However, above you have 
> configured AuthUserFile to point to '/etc/proftpd/ftpd.passwd', which 
> is a different path.  Which is correct?
>
>> 4. Start proftpd: systemctl start proftpd
>
> Could you provide the contents of your 
> '/usr/lib/systemd/system/proftpd.service' file?  I ask because 
> sometimes the systemd unit file provided by a distribution may point to 
> a different ProFTPD config file than the one edited, and/or provide 
> other unexpected options.
>
> Using an Ubuntu 24.04 Docker image, it looks to be:
>
>   # cat /usr/lib/systemd/system/proftpd.service 
>   [Unit]
>   Description=ProFTPD FTP Server
>   Documentation=man:proftpd(8)
>   Wants=network-online.target
>   After=network-online.target nss-lookup.target local-fs.target remote-fs.target
>
>   [Service]
>   Type=forking
>   Environment=OPTIONS= CONFIG_FILE=/etc/proftpd/proftpd.conf
>   EnvironmentFile=-/etc/default/proftpd
>   ExecStartPre=/usr/sbin/proftpd --configtest -c $CONFIG_FILE $OPTIONS
>   ExecStart=/usr/sbin/proftpd -c $CONFIG_FILE $OPTIONS
>   ExecReload=/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID
>   PIDFile=/run/proftpd.pid
>
>   [Install]
>   WantedBy=multi-user.target
>
>> Starting up gives me the following errors:"fatal: unknown configuration 
>> directive" followed by the first line in the virtual users password file 
>> (/etc/proftpd/ftpd.passwd). This error occurs twice, but the weird thing 
>> is I am still able to login as user1.
>
> Could you provide the exact errors you see on startup, please?
>
>> Reddit's AI says that proftpd is looking for a format in 
>> Apache format <User>....</User>
>
> In this case, Reddit's AI is incorrect.  ProFTPD does not use that 
> Apache format; see:
>
>   http://www.proftpd.org/docs/howto/AuthFiles.html
>
>> The main problem though, is that after logging in successfully, I can 
>> download files from /srv/ftp, but I cannot upload ("Permission denied"). 
>> The directory ownership of /srv/ftp is the same as the user running 
>> proftpd (ftp:nogroup), but I suspect that I am missing some directive in 
>> proftpd.conf, but I have no idea. Am I missing a step perhaps?
>
> If you are able to run ProFTPD in debugging mode (which can itself be 
> more challenging than expected, when dealing with systemd), it should 
> log more details about why the uploads are not working as expected:
>
>   http://www.proftpd.org/docs/howto/Debugging.html

Using the same Ubuntu 24.04 Docker image, I think I found another issue you may be encountering:

  # ls -aldn /srv/ftp/            
  drwxr-x--- 2 101 65534 4096 Aug 14 20:45 /srv/ftp/

This says that only the UID 101 has write permissions (thus upload permissions) to create files in this directory.

In the command to create your AuthUserFile:

  # ftpasswd --passwd --file=/etc/proftpd/conf.d/ftpd.passwd --name=user1 --uid=105 --gid=65534 --shell=/bin/false

You assigned UID 105, GID 65534 to the user that is logging in.  Thus your session will use UID 105 when attempting to upload the file -- not UID 101.  This might be why you see "Permission denied" errors for your uploads.

Hope this helps,
TJ

[Proftpd-user] ProFTPd - virtual users + single ftp location

[Metal S. <me...@sl...>]

Hi all,

I haven't used ProFTPd in more than a decade, and things seem to have 
changed a lot, or maybe I have forgotten most of what I learned back 
then! Hoping that someone can help me out here!

I started with a plain vanilla setup on Ubuntu, with a PAM user with a 
shell, and that worked well, as expected. Then I configured it for 
virtual user and a single FTP location, and I was getting a bunch of 
errors. I used several websites as reference, but some seem to be 
outdated. And I used Reddit's AI, and it gave me more weird advice, but 
it made me think that maybe some things may have changed in the past few 
years.

Anyway, this is the main website I used as reference: 
https://www.mybluelinux.com/proftpd-server-with-virtual-users-and-in-sftp-mode/ 
(but I was not interested in the SFTP part)

This is what I have:

OS: Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS

proFTPd version: 1.3.8b

This is what I did:

1. Install proftpd : sudo apt install proftpd-core

2. Modified proftpd.conf

DefaultRoot /srv/ftp
RequireValidShell off
AuthUserFile /etc/proftpd/ftpd.passwd
AuthGroupFile /etc/proftpd/ftpd.group <https://ftpd.group>
AuthOrder mod_auth_file.c

3. Create user using ftpasswd:
ftpasswd --passwd --file=/etc/proftpd/conf.d/ftpd.passwd --name=user1 
--uid=105 --gid=65534 --shell=/bin/false

4. Start proftpd: systemctl start proftpd

===

Starting up gives me the following errors:"fatal: unknown configuration 
directive" followed by the first line in the virtual users password file 
(/etc/proftpd/ftpd.passwd). This error occurs twice, but the weird thing 
is I am still able to login as user1. I tried using a wrong password, 
and it blocked me, so proftpd is accepting the format of the users 
password file. Reddit's AI says that proftpd is looking for a format in 
Apache format <User>....</User>

The main problem though, is that after logging in successfully, I can 
download files from /srv/ftp, but I cannot upload ("Permission denied"). 
The directory ownership of /srv/ftp is the same as the user running 
proftpd (ftp:nogroup), but I suspect that I am missing some directive in 
proftpd.conf, but I have no idea. Am I missing a step perhaps?

Thanks in advance!!

pascal chong

[Proftpd-user] SFTP + PAM + winbind

[Mathias M. <ma...@gm...>]

Hello,
 
I'm trying to setup an SFTP server on a RedHat 9 machine where users authenticate with winbind.
 
I have those settings enabled:
        SFTPPAMEngine on
       SFTPPAMServiceName proftpd
       AuthOrder mod_auth_pam.c mod_auth_unix.c
 
So local users can also connect (mostly for tests)
 
My current proftp PAM file looks like:
#%PAM-1.0
session    optional     pam_keyinit.so force revoke
auth       required     pam_listfile.so item=user sense=deny file=/etc/ftpusers onerr=succeed
auth       required     pam_shells.so
auth       include      password-auth
account    include      password-auth
session    required     pam_loginuid.so
session    include      password-auth
 
Local users can connect (I guess thanks to mod_auth_unix.c)
Network users cannot.
I tried replacing password-auth with system-auth but that did not  help.
 
My guess is that some changes are needed in the PAM config file, but I have no clue what to change, and with which value. 
 
Any help welcome.

Re: [Proftpd-user] Unknown configuration

[Lists <li...@se...>]

We customize the location of the config file as well. 

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jul 11, 2025, at 6:32 PM, christian.audebert--- via Proftp-user <pro...@li...> wrote:
> 
> Encountered similar problem just today.
> 
> mod_sftp.c  wasn't loaded, because It wasn't present with the install like
> apt -y install proftpd proftpd-mod-mysql
> 
> after fighting to resolve, founded that just add proftpd-mod-crypto on install resolve the problem.
> So now, i use
> apt -y install proftpd proftpd-mod-mysql proftpd-mod-crypto
> and mod_sftp.c  and mod_sftp.so are presents and usable.
> 
> Claude.ai helped me a lot to find the solution.
> 
> 
> -----Message d'origine-----
> De : Matus UHLAR - fantomas <uh...@fa...>
> Envoyé : vendredi 11 juillet 2025 20:13
> À : pro...@li...
> Objet : Re: [Proftpd-user] Unknown configuration
> 
>> On 11.07.25 13:52, Lists wrote:
>> I was missing:
>> 
>> LoadModule mod_sftp.c
>> 
>> From my config.
>> 
>> Sorry for the bother.
> 
> No problem.
> I just don't know where RH/clones do put their configs.
> in debian it's /etc/proftpd/modules.conf
> 
> it's not on mine but I often hugely modify my configs so it may be installed in original
> 
>>>> On Jul 11, 2025, at 1:41 PM, Lists <li...@se...> wrote:
>>> Odd.  Proftpd -l does not list the module. Makes sense. But on my rhel8 sftp works yet proftpd does not list it either. Am I missing something?
> 
>>>>> On 11.07.25 10:08, Lists wrote:
>>>>> I see that mod_sftp.so is installed via proftpd rpm on rhel9, but I get unknown configuration directive ‘SFTPEngine’ error when starting proftpd.
> 
>>>>> On Jul 11, 2025, at 12:40 PM, Matus UHLAR - fantomas <uh...@fa...> wrote:
>>>> it might not be loaded in modules.conf or other included config
> 
> --
> Matus UHLAR - fantomas, uh...@fa... ; http://www.fantomas.sk/
> Warning: I wish NOT to receive e-mail advertising to this address.
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Re: [Proftpd-user] Unknown configuration

[<chr...@wa...>]

Encountered similar problem just today. 

mod_sftp.c  wasn't loaded, because It wasn't present with the install like 
apt -y install proftpd proftpd-mod-mysql

after fighting to resolve, founded that just add proftpd-mod-crypto on install resolve the problem.
So now, i use 
apt -y install proftpd proftpd-mod-mysql proftpd-mod-crypto
and mod_sftp.c  and mod_sftp.so are presents and usable.

Claude.ai helped me a lot to find the solution. 


-----Message d'origine-----
De : Matus UHLAR - fantomas <uh...@fa...> 
Envoyé : vendredi 11 juillet 2025 20:13
À : pro...@li...
Objet : Re: [Proftpd-user] Unknown configuration

On 11.07.25 13:52, Lists wrote:
>I was missing:
>
>LoadModule mod_sftp.c
>
>From my config.
>
>Sorry for the bother.

No problem. 
I just don't know where RH/clones do put their configs.
in debian it's /etc/proftpd/modules.conf

it's not on mine but I often hugely modify my configs so it may be installed in original

>> On Jul 11, 2025, at 1:41 PM, Lists <li...@se...> wrote:
>> Odd.  Proftpd -l does not list the module. Makes sense. But on my rhel8 sftp works yet proftpd does not list it either. Am I missing something?

>>>> On 11.07.25 10:08, Lists wrote:
>>>> I see that mod_sftp.so is installed via proftpd rpm on rhel9, but I get unknown configuration directive ‘SFTPEngine’ error when starting proftpd.

>>>> On Jul 11, 2025, at 12:40 PM, Matus UHLAR - fantomas <uh...@fa...> wrote:
>>> it might not be loaded in modules.conf or other included config

--
Matus UHLAR - fantomas, uh...@fa... ; http://www.fantomas.sk/
Warning: I wish NOT to receive e-mail advertising to this address.
Varovanie: na tuto adresu chcem NEDOSTAVAT akukolvek reklamnu postu.
Atheism is a non-prophet organization.


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Re: [Proftpd-user] Unknown configuration

[Matus U. - f. <uh...@fa...>]

On 11.07.25 13:52, Lists wrote:
>I was missing:
>
>LoadModule mod_sftp.c
>
>From my config.
>
>Sorry for the bother.

No problem. 
I just don't know where RH/clones do put their configs.
in debian it's /etc/proftpd/modules.conf

it's not on mine but I often hugely modify my configs so it may be installed 
in original

>> On Jul 11, 2025, at 1:41 PM, Lists <li...@se...> wrote:
>> Odd.  Proftpd -l does not list the module. Makes sense. But on my rhel8 sftp works yet proftpd does not list it either. Am I missing something?

>>>> On 11.07.25 10:08, Lists wrote:
>>>> I see that mod_sftp.so is installed via proftpd rpm on rhel9, but I get unknown configuration directive ‘SFTPEngine’ error when starting proftpd.

>>>> On Jul 11, 2025, at 12:40 PM, Matus UHLAR - fantomas <uh...@fa...> wrote:
>>> it might not be loaded in modules.conf or other included config

-- 
Matus UHLAR - fantomas, uh...@fa... ; http://www.fantomas.sk/
Warning: I wish NOT to receive e-mail advertising to this address.
Varovanie: na tuto adresu chcem NEDOSTAVAT akukolvek reklamnu postu.
Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

Re: [Proftpd-user] Unknown configuration

[Lists <li...@se...>]

I was missing:

LoadModule mod_sftp.c

From my config.  

Sorry for the bother. 

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jul 11, 2025, at 1:41 PM, Lists <li...@se...> wrote:
> 
> Odd.  Proftpd -l does not list the module. Makes sense. But on my rhel8 sftp works yet proftpd does not list it either. Am I missing something?
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
>>> On Jul 11, 2025, at 12:40 PM, Matus UHLAR - fantomas <uh...@fa...> wrote:
>>> 
>>> On 11.07.25 10:08, Lists wrote:
>>> I see that mod_sftp.so is installed via proftpd rpm on rhel9, but I get unknown configuration directive ‘SFTPEngine’ error when starting proftpd.
>> 
>> it might not be loaded in modules.conf or other included config
>> 
>> --
>> Matus UHLAR - fantomas, uh...@fa... ; http://www.fantomas.sk/
>> Warning: I wish NOT to receive e-mail advertising to this address.
>> Varovanie: na tuto adresu chcem NEDOSTAVAT akukolvek reklamnu postu.
>> Spam is for losers who can't get business any other way.
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> ProFTPD Users List   <pro...@pr...>
>> Unsubscribe problems?
>> http://www.proftpd.org/list-unsub.html

Re: [Proftpd-user] Unknown configuration

[Lists <li...@se...>]

Odd.  Proftpd -l does not list the module. Makes sense. But on my rhel8 sftp works yet proftpd does not list it either. Am I missing something?


Sent from my iPhone

> On Jul 11, 2025, at 12:40 PM, Matus UHLAR - fantomas <uh...@fa...> wrote:
> 
> On 11.07.25 10:08, Lists wrote:
>> I see that mod_sftp.so is installed via proftpd rpm on rhel9, but I get unknown configuration directive ‘SFTPEngine’ error when starting proftpd.
> 
> it might not be loaded in modules.conf or other included config
> 
> --
> Matus UHLAR - fantomas, uh...@fa... ; http://www.fantomas.sk/
> Warning: I wish NOT to receive e-mail advertising to this address.
> Varovanie: na tuto adresu chcem NEDOSTAVAT akukolvek reklamnu postu.
> Spam is for losers who can't get business any other way.
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> ProFTPD Users List   <pro...@pr...>
> Unsubscribe problems?
> http://www.proftpd.org/list-unsub.html

Re: [Proftpd-user] Unknown configuration

[Matus U. - f. <uh...@fa...>]

On 11.07.25 10:08, Lists wrote:
>I see that mod_sftp.so is installed via proftpd rpm on rhel9, but I get unknown configuration directive ‘SFTPEngine’ error when starting proftpd.

it might not be loaded in modules.conf or other included config

-- 
Matus UHLAR - fantomas, uh...@fa... ; http://www.fantomas.sk/
Warning: I wish NOT to receive e-mail advertising to this address.
Varovanie: na tuto adresu chcem NEDOSTAVAT akukolvek reklamnu postu.
Spam is for losers who can't get business any other way.

[Proftpd-user] Unknown configuration

[Lists <li...@se...>]

I see that mod_sftp.so is installed via proftpd rpm on rhel9, but I get unknown configuration directive ‘SFTPEngine’ error when starting proftpd. 

Suggestions?

Thanks 
Geoffrey Myers
Sent from my iPhone