Setting up a TFTP Server

atftp is Multi-threaded TFTP server implementing all options (option extension and multicast) as specified in RFC1350, RFC2090, RFC2347, RFC2348 and RFC2349. Atftpd also supports multicast protocol known as mtftp, defined in the PXE specification. The server supports being started from inetd as well as in daemon mode using init scripts.

Install atftp Server in Ubuntu

sudo aptitude install atftpd

Using atftpd

By default atftpd server starts using inetd so we need to tell atftpd to run as a server directly, not through inetd.Edit /etc/default/atftpd file using the following command

sudo gedit /etc/default/atftpd

Change the following line

USE_INETD=true

to

USE_INETD=false

and

/var/lib/tftpboot

to

/tftpboot

save and exit the file

Now you need to run the following command

sudo invoke-rc.d atftpd start

Configuring atftpd

First you need to create a directory where you can place the files

sudo mkdir /tftpboot
sudo chmod -R 777 /tftpboot
sudo chown -R nobody /tftpboot
sudo /etc/init.d/atftpd restart

Security configuration for atftp

Some level of security can be gained using atftp libwrap support. Adding proper entry to /etc/hosts.allow and /etc/hosts.deny will restrict access to trusted hosts. Daemon name to use in these files is in.tftpd.

/etc/hosts.allow/etc/hosts.deny

in.tftpd : FQD or IP

atftp client installation

Advance Trivial file transfer protocol client,atftp is the user interface to the Internet ATFTP (Advanced Trivial File Transfer Protocol), which allows users to transfer files to and from a remote machine. The remote host may be specified on the command line, in which case atftp uses host as the default host for future transfers.

sudo aptitude install atftp

That’s it you are ready to transfer your files using tftp clients

Testing tftp server

Tranfering file hda.txt from 192.168.1.100 (Client using tftp) to 192.168.1.2 (Server 192.168.1.100). Get an example file to transfer (eg. hda.txt)

touch /tftpboot/hda.txt  

chmod 777 /tftpboot/hda.txt 

ls -l /tftpboot/

total 0
-rwxrwxrwx 1 ruchi ruchi 223 hda.txt 

atftp 192.168.1.2
atftp> put hda.txt
Sent 722 bytes in 0.0 seconds
atftp> quit
ls -l /tftpboot/
total 4
-rwxrwxrwx 1 ruchi ruchi 707 2008-07-07 23:07 hda.txt