Linux – How to limit ftp speed

bandwidthftplimitlinux

I have multiple users on a server. They upload and download their files through FTP. Sometimes some heavy transfer causes high load on the server. I am wondering, if there is any way to limit the ftp speed to avoid high load.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Best Answer

The keyword is bandwidth management and the Linux Kernel has direct support of it. I dealed with this long time ago and have forgotten much about that but there is a great online book that covers the topic extensively. It's called

Linux Advanced Routing & Traffic Control.

To get a foretaste of what you want to achieve take a look at

Chapter 9. Queueing Disciplines for Bandwidth Management.

Perhaps there are (software) servers which support bandwidth control directly!?

Supplement:

In the pureftpd FAQ it is explained how to enable bandwidth limitation on the system level. On the first sight it seems to be applicable to other ftp servers as well.
There is another freely available book called

How to Accelerate Your Internet: A Practical Guide to Bandwidth Management and Optimisation Using Open Source Software

that deals with the topic. At first glance it seems to worth a look.

Related Solutions

Speeding up Recursive FTP

Here's how I ended up doing solving this using the advice from others. The NOAA in this case has an FTP and an HTTP resource for this, so what I wrote a script that does the following:

ncftpls to get a list of files
sed to complete the filepaths to a full list of http files
aria2c to quickly download them all

Example script:

# generate file list
ncftpls ftp://path/to/ftp/resources > /tmp/remote_files.txt

# append the full path, use http
sed -i -e 's/^/http:\/\/www1\.website\.gov\/pub\/data\//' /tmp/remote_files.txt

# download using aria2c
aria2c -i /tmp/remote_files.txt -d /filestore/2015

This runs much faster and is probably kinder to the NOAA's servers. There's probably even a clever way to get rid of that middle step, but I haven't found it yet.

FTP on Linux RH — stuck at 150 Ascii

You have to do FTP in passive mode and not active mode.

If using a text client, you have to use the command:

PASV

If using another piece of software, you will have to find the menu for PASSIVE mode transmission.

see Active FTP vs. Passive FTP, a Definitive Explanation

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Speeding up Recursive FTP

FTP on Linux RH — stuck at 150 Ascii

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