How-To Increase the amount of clients that can connect simultaneously in ProFTP

Introduction

This article demonstrates how to increase the maximum number of simultaneously connected clients when using ProFTP as an FTP server. The directive MaxClients configures the maximum number of authenticated or anonymous client connections.

Procedure

1. Access the server's command line as the 'root' user via SSH or "Terminal" in WHM.
2. Open the /etc/proftpd.conf file in your preferred text editor.
3. Locate the directive MaxClients for the hostname in question.

   <VirtualHost 192.0.2.2>
   ServerName ftp.example.tld
   AuthUserFile /etc/proftpd/example
   MaxClients 3 "Sorry, this ftp server has reached its maximum user count (%m). Please try again later"

4. Increase the MaxClients number to the intended value.

   <VirtualHost 192.0.2.2>
   ServerName ftp.example.tld
   AuthUserFile /etc/proftpd/example
   MaxClients 10 "Sorry, this ftp server has reached its maximum user count (%m). Please try again later"

5. Save the changes and exit the text editor.
6. Reconfigure and restart the FTP service.

   /usr/local/cpanel/scripts/setupftpserver proftpd

Additional resources

How to edit a file via the command line. 

Max Clients Documentation proftpd.org