Overview
ProFTPd is a highly configurable, open-source FTP server for Unix and Linux systems. While Xitoring doesn't have a dedicated ProFTPd agent integration, you can comprehensively monitor your FTP server using a combination of FTP uptime checks and server-level monitoring via Xitogent.
What Can You Monitor?
Via FTP Uptime Checks
- FTP Service Availability — Is the FTP server responding to connections?
- Authentication Status — Can clients authenticate successfully?
- Response Time — How quickly the FTP server responds
- Connection Errors — Detect authentication failures and connectivity issues
Via Server Monitoring (Xitogent)
- CPU Usage — Server CPU utilization
- Memory Usage — RAM consumed by ProFTPd processes
- Disk Usage — Storage space on FTP directories
- Network I/O — Bandwidth used by file transfers
- Process Status — Is the ProFTPd service running?
Setting Up FTP Uptime Monitoring
Create an FTP Check
- Navigate to Uptime → Add Check in your dashboard
- Select FTP as the check type
- Enter your FTP server hostname or IP address
- Configure the port (default:
21) - Provide credentials for authentication testing (optional)
- Select check interval (30 seconds to 15 minutes)
- Choose probing nodes for global coverage
What Gets Tested
Xitoring connects to your FTP server and performs:
- TCP connection to the FTP port
- Authentication with provided credentials
- Response time measurement
- Service availability verification
If any issue arises, Xitoring sends an incident notification with severity level, affected server, and root cause analytics.
Setting Up Server-Level Monitoring
Install Xitogent on your ProFTPd server to monitor system resources:
curl -s https://xitoring.com/install.sh | sudo bash -s -- --key YOUR_API_KEY
This gives you CPU, memory, disk, and network metrics that directly impact FTP server performance.
Setting Up Triggers
FTP Check Triggers
- Service Down — Alert when FTP server stops responding
- Response Time — Alert when response time exceeds threshold
- Authentication Failure — Alert on login failures
Server Triggers
- Disk Usage — Critical for FTP servers to prevent storage exhaustion
- CPU / Memory — Detect resource constraints affecting transfers
- Network I/O — Monitor bandwidth for large file transfers
Tips
- Combine FTP uptime checks with server monitoring for complete visibility
- Set Disk Usage alerts at 80% — FTP servers fill up fast with uploads
- Monitor Network I/O to detect unusual transfer patterns
- Use multiple probing nodes to verify FTP accessibility from different regions
- Set up escalation policies for FTP service downtime — file transfer failures impact business operations