Pure-FTPd on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

Pure-FTPd on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

A production-ready, secure FTP file transfer server built on Pure-FTPd, a small, fast and security-focused open source FTP daemon. The service is fully configured and hardened, so you can move files securely within minutes of launch without hand-editing the daemon configuration.

Secure by default

• FTPS only: explicit FTP over TLS is required for both authentication and data, so credentials and file contents are never sent in the clear. Anonymous access is disabled.
• Virtual users, chroot-jailed: FTP users are virtual accounts held in a compact Pure-FTPd database (not real Linux logins), each locked into its own home directory.
• No shared credentials: on first boot every VM generates its own self-signed TLS certificate and its own FTP user with a strong random password, recorded in a root-only file.
• Dedicated data disk: user home directories live on a separate 50 GiB Azure data disk mounted at /srv/ftp, provisioned with every VM.

What is included

• Pure-FTPd (Ubuntu 24.04 noble main), explicit FTPS required, passive port range preconfigured (30000-30009)
• Virtual user database (PureDB) with per-user chroot jails on the dedicated data disk
• Management tools in /usr/local/sbin: pureftpd-adduser, pureftpd-listusers (plus pure-pw)
• Per-VM TLS certificate and per-VM FTP user created automatically at first boot
• 24/7 cloudimg support and ongoing security patching

Licensing and pricing

Pure-FTPd is free open source software (BSD-style / ISC licence). The cloudimg charge of $0.04 per vCPU hour covers packaging, security patching, image maintenance and 24/7 expert support.

Getting started

Deploy the VM, open TCP 21 and the passive range 30000-30009 in your network security group, then read the per-VM credentials from /root/pure-ftpd-credentials.txt. Full deployment guide: https://www.cloudimg.co.uk/guides/pure-ftpd-on-ubuntu-24-04-azure/