How to Set up SFTP Server on Ubuntu

In this article, we will learn how to use our Ubuntu system as an Sftp server; in my case, I will use my EC2 instance, which has Ubuntu preinstalled. We will access the server locally using one of many ftp clients and put some files to test.

Photo by Christopher Gower on Unsplash

FTP (file transfer protocol) is a protocol that allows anyone to transfer files over a network. When we make it secure, and the transferred data is encrypted, we call it secure file transfer protocol or SFTP.

Uses of SFTP:

1. In simple terms, you have a file on one system, say locally, and you want to put it on another. You can’t just CTRL C and CTRL V 😄.
2. If you were a developer, you would have used FTP to transfer your files from your local server to the server where your services are hosted.

Login to your system.

1. Update and upgrade it (that’s always the first step!)

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

2. Install ssh

Since we want to transfer files securely, we need SSH for FTP to be SFTP. This tool also allows using the SCP command (secure copy).

sudo apt install ssh

3. Enable and start the ssh service