Setting up FTP with no extra folders

[abenoni]

I am used to WebStar and AppleShare 6.3 and still new to OS X Server. I am going to run a lot of websites on the server. I am confused as to how I setup simple FTP services like on WebStar. Can anyone give me a step-by-step setup for setting up FTP for a user who only needs access to his website folder and nothing else. From setting up a share point to adding a user and letting him get right to his website folder on ftp login. Is it possible to limit the size of his website folder or will using another FTP program make this setup easier like Crush FTP. I guess maybe using OS X Server could be overkill here since I am only using this as a web/ftp server? Any comments are very valuable!

[meancode]

hello,

i recently went through this process, and wondered the same questions. it does seem odd, i have also use ASIP and Web* a lot, and OSXS is different in how it deals with FTP.

there are two solutions here, use OSXS's ftp capabilities, or use Crush, or Rumbus (wich is better than Crush). while Rumbus is easier to setup etc, i imagine that you have other user information in OSXS, and would like to keep with ONE set of users. it is easier to stick with OSXS for that reason.

here is a blow by blow how to on setting up access to a folder for a user in OSXS Server Admin.

1. create a group to contain the user(s)
2. create the user(s)
3. put the user(s) in the group
4. go to Sharing and setup sharing for the directory you want shared, then setup the acces privs you want to give the group (i always use groups even if it just one user, thats just me, it saves me time down the road if for some reason i need more users with the same privs)
5. edit the user, click on the drop dwon that sais General and go to advanced. click the Custom radio button. is the Server field put the DNS, IP of the box if you do not have DNS. in Share Point put in the absolute path (such as /Volumes/Mac HD 4/path/to/directory). nothing is needed in the Path field.

step 5 is what is the important part, now if you are doing virtual hosting on the box you will have to change the Server field. The user will be taken to that spacific directory, now they CAN naviage to the root (/, wich is up a level or so) but cannot see anything else that is not shared, or write to anything else. the important thing for the end user is that they are taken directly to their directory, and they are.

hope this helps, post if i did not make things clear.

[abenoni]

Thanks, I am steps ahead... What happened now is that I already created a folder "Santamon" in the ../WebServer/Documents folder. I created the user "Santa" and assigned him to the "Santa" group. The folder "../WebServer/Documents/Santamon" I set privileges OWNER: Admin and GROUP: SANTA (read/write) and EVERYONE:(read). I guess I must set read for all to allow to show the webpages to users?

A new folder "Santa" was then created inside the "Santamon" folder with all the user folders like Documents, Music etc. I deleted these folders since the user doesn`t need them. But when I log in via FTP as user Santa I can access all folders within the "../WebServer/Documents" folder and I see all the shares and can access them also. That was not what exactelyI wanted ;-(

A little more guidance would be appreciated. Also how do I restrict the user so he doesn`t fill more than i.ex. 25MB of space?

[meancode]

hey,

ok the reason it created a folder for the user, with all that default crap is because you have not set the default home directory for users. you can also change it on a user basis in their Advanced section of the user window, click on General and go to Advanced. here you can click none, local or custom. it sounds like the user Santa is set to Local, therefore OSXS made the new home directory for that user. in server admin you can set this on a global scale buy going to the General tab, Users & Groups, Home Directory Defaults. this is were you set the default. when you have the local radio button checked you get a drop down of all your share points on the server.

i usualy set the default to None, the only reason it is abosolutly required for users to have a home directory is if you are using OSXS as a Macintosh Manager server.

btw if you want to modify the default set of files/folders that get created when a home directory is made for a user, go to /System/Library/UserTemplate and modify that. i usualy make a "template" user account, make it how i like it, then log in as root and replace the contents of the UserTemplate folder with the "template" users folders.

am i understanding you correctly that you want this user to have their files in www.domain.com/santamon? if so they are going to have access to the entire site, i do not know how else to do that when you just specify your web root as WebServer/Documents. i dont think OSXS Admin can do what you want it to do. i know sym links wont work, i think your best bet is to try Crush or Rumpus. i have never used Crush, but have used Rumpus a lot. the URL is:

http://www.maxum.com/Rumpus/

give it a try. sorry i been sitten here at OSXS trying to come up with a solution w/o a third party soft. but cannot figure one out.

[meancode]

hey,

i was messing around had to make a ftp user and it worked, no extra folders, it just works.

this came up because i wanted a share point so art students could drop movies ready for streaming into a folder, and only give access to that folder. so i made a folder, artc331 inside the QTSS "Movies" folder. made a streaming group, and a streaming user. assigned the group access to the artc331 folder. now for the streaming student, i went to Advanced, set home directory to custom, Server to our DNS name, and Share Point to artc331, which is that folder i shared. thats it no path/to/the/folder needed. i did put that long path in, then when i looked at the Advanced pane for the student it had taken all the extra stuff out. so you just need to put the path name, just the Share Point name. it doesnt matter if the share point is on the main drive or not.

i dont know if this will help you out, but it worked great for me.

the user can go back to root "/" and only see sym links to the other share points, but cannot even access them. but it does put them directly were they need to be no changing directories needed by the end user.

[abenoni]

I gave up the OS X Server FTP setup and am running CrushFTP (www.crushftp.com) which is way better with exactly what I need, storage restrictions a.o. Now I want to set up users so they can telnet ONLY to their website catalog. Anyone want to help a newbie? I tried everything. I just want the user to be able to telnet to their folder where the webfiles are to start and stop servlets a.o.