How to use your ESX server as an FTP server.

1. Within the VI3 client go to Configuration tab

2. Go to Security Profile

3. Click Properties

4. Enable FTP Server, NIS Client and EMC AAM Client in the Firewall

5. If you are running ESX 3.5 the EMC AAM Client is not an available service

You need to open up the firewall ports manually for ESX 3.5.

esxcfg-firewall -o 2050:5000,tcp,in,ftp

esxcfg-firewall -o 2050:5000,tcp,out.ftp

6. Download vsftpd-1.2.0-4.i386.rpm

7. Copy vsftpd-1.2.0-4.i386.rpm to your ESX server

8. SSH to your ESX server console

9. Become the root user (su -)

10. Install the FTP server rpm -i vsftpd-1.2.0-4.i386.rpm

11. vi /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf o Change anonymous_enable=NO (for security)

o You need to add the following lines to force passive mode to only use

ports 2050-5000.

pasv_min_port=2050

pasv_max_port=5000 12. Start the FTP server with service vsftpd start

13. Create a user. Do not use 'anonymous' or 'ftp'.

User and Pass cannot contain symbols like @ (single quote)

o adduser mybackups.

o passwd mybackups. 14. To have the ftp server automatically start on boot, type:

chkconfig --level 3 vsftpd on 15. Remember you will probably have to change the permissions on the

/vmfs/volume you are using as a FTP destination.

chmod 1777 /vmfs/volumes/(UUID of Folder) You can also link the path to a simpler name, such as:

ln -s /vmfs/volumes/UUID-NAME/backups /backups Then use just '/backups' in the client configuration.

Why use the ESX Host as a FTP Server?

In a simple environment with 2 ESX Hosts, with VSFTPD installed on both ESX Hosts

and configured to backup to both FTP and VMFS would allow a completely redundant

system. Each Host would backup to it's local VMFS and to the VMFS on the other ESX

Host through FTP (at the same time).

This is a great setup for branch locations.