Add ProFTPD to ESXi 5.1

Uploading files to an ESXi datastore ist terrible slow using the build-in upload mechanism. However if you add FTP to your ESXi server, and use an ftp client to upload/download files, the upload/download will be much faster.

ProFTPD runs good in ESXi 5.x and offers high transfer rate over normal transfers.

To add ProFTPD Service, do the following.

Enable SSH in ESXi.

  • Connect to your ESXi host
  • Goto Configuration
  • Goto Security Profiles
  • Click on Properties
  • Select SSH from the list of services
  • Click Options end start the service

Connect to your ESXi host using any ssh client like putty.
Navigate to your datastore folderĀ  cd /vmfs/volumes/datastore/
[Replace “datastore” to match your datastore name]

Create any folder where your FTP Service files can be downloaded from the internet or any other source.

mkdir install
cd install

Now download ProFTPD using wget

wget http://esxi-customizer.googlecode.com/files/ProFTPD-1.3.3-8-offline_bundle.zip

install ProFTPD using esxcli

esxcli software vib install --no-sig-check 
-d /vmfs/volumes/datastore/install/ProFTPD-1.3.3-8-offline_bundle.zip

I needed to restart the ESXi system to activate ProFTPD in the Security Profiles.