Getting Started with SFTPPlus on Linux

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1. Download and installation steps.

Open your terminal and change the directory to where you downloaded the SFTPPlus package.

$ ls
sftpplus-lnx-x64-trial.tar.gz
$ tar -xf sftpplus-lnx-x64-trial.tar.gz

To complete the installation, SFTPPlus will generate an initial configuration file. This initialization only needs to be done once and is not required for future upgrades. Choose a secure administrator password.

$ cd sftpplus-lnx-x64-trial
$ ./bin/admin-commands.sh initialize --init-password «ADMIN_PASSWORD»

2. Adjust the default configuration file and start the service.

In order to explore the SFTPPlus features, we will use the default configuration file in which we enable a test account named test_user with the password test_password. The files for this account are stored in /tmp/test_user-files. SFTPPlus comes with extensive documentation for all of the sections:

You can fully configure the SFTPPlus server using the configuration file available at configuration/server.ini.

You also have the option of configuring SFTPPlus from a web based management console. The web console is available by default on https://127.0.0.1:10020.

To help with testing and quick troubleshooting we will start the service in debugging mode. On start SFTPPlus will provide detailed information about the services, connections and errors if there will be any.

$ ./bin/admin-commands.sh debug

3. Enable the test account.

The SFTPPlus Local Manager is the web console available over HTTPS on port 10020. It comes with a default administration account. The username is admin and the password is the one chosen for «ADMIN_PASSWORD» during initialization. Use the credentials to log in before proceeding with the next step.

If you get the This site is not secure message, click on the Details and then Go on to the webpage. This message is due to your self-signed SSL certificate, which SFTPPlus generates as part of the installation process.

The default configuration also provides a test account test_user with the password test_password. For security reasons, this account is disabled by default. To enable this account, find the Accounts section and click on the test_user.

Next we will enable the account. Change the home folder. And finally enable SFTPPlus to create the missing new home folder. You can find all the options we need to change below:

  • Enabled: Yes
  • Account home folder: /tmp/test_user-files/
  • Create missing home folder: Yes
SFTPPlus Account Configuration
SFTPPlus Account Home Folder Configuration
SFTPPlus Account Home Folder Creation

In order to apply the changes, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Review and apply. SFTPPlus will show all the changed configurations to be applied and show which components require a restart. To proceed, click Apply all changes.

SFTPPlus Review Configuration Changes

4. Connect to the server and upload a file.

You can use any SFTP client to connect and upload or download the files from the SFTPPlus server. We will be using FileZilla to upload a test file. Open FileZilla and fill in the following values:

  • Host: sftp://127.0.0.1
  • Username: test_user
  • Password: test_password
  • Port: 10022

Next click Quickconnect. Please accept the SSH key fingerprint warning that FileZilla will show. The SSH fingerprint is derived from the SSH keys generated as part of the SFTPPlus installation. Use the Local site panel in FileZilla to point to a location with a file for upload. In the screenshot, we created and uploaded an empty text file from the Desktop folder.

SFTPPlus FileZilla Upload

Upon completion, this file should be available in the earlier defined home folder location.

You can use a graphical SFTP client or the command line sftp(1) remote file copy program provided by most of the modern Linux distributions to upload and download the files. In the example below, the transferred file will be stored at /tmp/test_user-files/README-sftp-test, to run it, open a new console window.

$ sftp -P 10022 test_user@127.0.0.1
test_user@127.0.0.1's password:
Connected to 127.0.0.1.
sftp> put docs/README README-sftp-test
sftp> quit
$ ls -l /tmp/test_user-files/

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