Support Home
Creating
user accounts (Back to
top)
To create a new user on a host:
1.
From
the menu, select Hosts > Users. The Users page opens.
2.
Click
Create. The Create User page opens.
3.
Enter
the appropriate information for each of the fields.
§
Username. Enter the username for this
user. The username is provided to authenticate with the server.
§
Password. Enter a password for this user.
§
Confirm
password.
Re-enter the password for this user.
§
SSH
user key.
SSH user host keys are one of the methods used by SSH listeners to authenticate
users. Click Select to select, import or create an SSH user
host key. To clear the selected key, click Clear.
§
Full
name. Enter
the full name of the user if desired.
§
Email
address.
Enter a valid email address for this user. This email address can be referenced
in notifications by using
the notification variable: %emailaddress
§
User
type. Select
a user type.
§
Regular. Select this option to make this
user a regular user.
§
Anonymous. Select this option to designate
this user as an anonymous user.
§
Host
administrator.
Select this option to grant this user host administrator privileges. Host
administrators have full permissions to all folders on the host and can manage
the host through the File Watchdogs Web Admin.
§
Disable
login.
Select this option to disable this user account. If this option is
selected, this user cannot log in to the server.
§
User
can change password. Select this option to allow this user to change his or her password.
§
User
must change password at next logon. Select this option to force the user to change his or
her password the next time he logs in to the FTP server or the SSH server. This
option is disabled by default. This option is available only if User
can change password is enabled.
For the FTP Server:
When the user attempts to log in
from the client, the FTP server returns:
560 Password expired, use 'pass
oldpassword newpassword'
The user must then log in and, in
the Password box, enter the old password and the new password, separated by a
space: 'oldpassword newpassword'
The password is reset to the new
password.
For the SSH Server:
The SSH Server issues an
SSH_MSG_USERAUTH_PASSWD_CHANGEREQ packet to the client. In response to this
message, the client should prompt the user for the new password.
In either case (FTP or SSH), the
server ensures that the new password meets criteria for any password rules for
the host. If the password is accepted, the server resets the User must
change password at next logon option.
§
Require
user to change password every x number of days. When this option is selected,
users are required to change their password at least once during the time frame
specified. If a user fails to change his password during the allotted time, he
cannot authenticate to the server. If this option is selected, the number of
days remaining before this user must change his password is listed below this
field. This option is available only if User can change password
is enabled.
§
Home
folder.
Select whether you want this user's home folder to be created in the default
location or a custom location. If you select Custom,
enter the full path to the folder or click Browse to locate it.
§
Lock
user to home folder. Select this option to prevent this user from navigating outside
their home folder.
§
Show
home folder as root. This option can be used only if Lock user to home
folder is selected. If this option is selected, the user's home folder will be
displayed to the user as the root of the FTP directory's path. (For instance,
if the user chooses the following directory:
/Users/ThisUsersHome/OneOfMyFolders, if this option is selected, the user will
only see /OneOfMyFolders.)
Host
administrators can always see the full path to the user's home folder.
The log
file will always show the full path to the user's home folder.
Notifications
will display the full path to system and host administrators, and if Show
home folder as root is selected, will not display the full path to a
user.
§
Account
creation date.
Today's date is displayed.
§
Account
expiration option. This option is used to specify when and how a user account should
expire.
§
Never
expire.
Select this option if you do not want the user account to expire.
§
Expire
on the expiration date. This option expires the account on the specified date.
§
Expire
account on.
If you have selected Expire on the expiration date, a date
field appears here. Using the calendar (
),
select the date after which you want this account to expire.
4.
Click
Save.
Setting users' home folders (Back to
top)
Users
have full permissions to their home folders. Even if users do not log in to
their home folders, you can specify a home folder for the user.
To set a user's home folder:
1.
From
the top menu, select Host > Users. The Users page opens.
2.
In
the list of users, select a user by clicking on the linked Username.
The Edit User page opens.
3.
In Home
folder, enter the full path to a user's home folder (relative from the
file server root) or click Browse to locate one.
4.
Click
Save.
Note: If you
want to keep a user from navigating outside their home folder, select the Lock
user to home folder option. If you want to hide the path to the user's
home folder, as displayed in the FTP client, select Show home folder as
root.
Configuring user settings (Back to top)
To select user settings:
1.
From
the top menu, select Host > Host Details. The Host Details
page opens.
2.
Set
the appropriate options.
§
Login
location.
Select the folder that should be displayed to users after successfully logging
in.
§
Home
folder.
Users are shown their home folder after successfully logging in.
§
Root
folder.
Users are shown the root folder after successfully logging in.
§
Home
folder.
Enter the path of the user's home folder.
§
Auto-create
users' home folders (selected by default). If selected, user folders are automatically
created when a new user is added to this host.
Caution: If Auto-create
user folders is cleared, users will be connected to the root directory
even if Login location is set to Home folder. Administrators
must manually create a home folder for the user before they will be able to log
in to it. If the users are logged in to the root directory because they have no
home folder, and the user is locked to his home folder, the user will not be
able to see or do anything once logged on.
§
List
all folders in /users folder. If selected, all users can view all folders in the
/users folder. If cleared, all folders except the user's home folder are
hidden.
Note: Host
administrators can always see all folders in the /users folder.
§
Grant
full home folder permissions when creating user (selected by
default). When selected, new users are granted full permissions to their user
home folders when they are created.
3.
Click
Save.
Renaming a user account (Back to
top)
To rename a user:
1.
From
the home page, select Hosts. The Hosts page opens.
2.
Click
the Host name of the host you want to open. The Host Settings
page opens.
3.
From
the left navigation menu on the left, select Users. The Users
page opens.
4.
In
the list of users, select a user by clicking on the linked Username.
The Edit User page opens.
5.
In Username,
enter new name for the user.
6.
Click
Save.
Deleting user accounts (Back to
top)
When
you delete a user, the user is removed from all groups and rules, and you can
optionally choose to delete the files and folders in the user's home folder.
To delete a user from the current host:
1.
From
the top menu, select Host > Users. The Users page opens.
2.
Select
the checkbox next to the name of the user you want to delete.
3.
Click
Delete. The Delete Confirmation page opens.
4.
If
you want to remove the user's home folder (and all files and folders contained
within it), select Delete the home folder and all sub folders for the
following user(s).
5.
To
delete the user, click Delete. The user is deleted from the
server.
Note: When
the user account is deleted, the user is removed from all groups and rules. If
you recreate the user, you must manually add the user to each group and rule to
return to the state before the user was deleted.
Disabling user accounts (Back to top)
You
can disable a user account without deleting the account, so that the account
can be easily re-enabled without creating a new account for the user.
To disable a user account:
1.
From
the top menu, select Host > Users. The Users page opens.
2.
In
the Username list, click the user you want to disable. The
Edit User page opens.
3.
Click
Disable login.
4.
Click
Save.
Changing user passwords (Back to top)
Host
administrators can change the password of any user on their host.
To change a user's password:
1.
From
the home page, select Hosts. The Hosts page opens.
2.
Click
the Host name of the host you want to open. The Host Details
page opens.
3.
From
the left navigation menu, select Users. The Users page opens.
4.
In
the list of users, select a user by clicking on the linked Username.
The Edit User page opens.
5.
Click
Change Password. The Change Password page opens.
6.
Enter
and confirm a new password for the user, then click Save.
Resetting a user's failed login
count (Back to top)
If
you have failed login rules configured to disable an account after a certain
number of failed attempts to authenticate, you may need to reset a user
account's failed login count to reactive the account.
To reset a user's failed login count:
1.
From
the top menu, select Server > Hosts. The Hosts page opens.
2.
Select
a host from the list by clicking on the hyper linked host name. The Host Details
page opens.
3.
Select
Users from the left navigation menu. The Users page opens.
4.
Select
a user from the list by clicking on the hyper linked username. The Edit User
page opens.
5.
Click
the Reset button next to Failed login count.
How user groups work (Back to
top)
You
can create custom user groups for the current host. For example, you may want
to create groups for Marketing, Accounting, Product Development, and others so
that users only have access to specified files and folders based on the group
permissions.
Once
you create a user group, you can manage permissions to folders, rules and SITE
commands for the entire group as easily as you manage permissions for a single
user.
Creating user groups (Back to
top)
To create a user group:
1.
From
the top menu, select Host > User Groups. The User Groups
page opens.
2.
Select
Create. The Create User Group page opens.
3.
Set
the appropriate options.
§
Name. Enter or modify the name
assigned to the user group.
§
Description. Enter or modify the description.
This description is for your reference only.
§
Users.
This list
shows all of the users who are members of this group. To add another user to
the group, click Add. To remove a user or users from the
group, select the checkbox next to the user's name, then click Remove.
4.
Click
Save.
Adding Users to a User Group (Back to
top)
If
you decide you do not want a user to be part of a group, you can remove that
user from the group.
To remove a user from a user group:
1.
From
the top menu, select Host > User Groups. The User Groups
page opens.
2.
Select
the name of the user group you want to edit. The Edit User Group page opens.
3.
Select
the checkbox next to the name of the user you want to remove from the group,
then click Remove. The user is removed from the group.
4.
Click
Save.
Deleting user groups (Back to top)
You
can delete a user group from the current host. When you delete a user group,
all permissions assigned to that user group are lost; if a user has permission
to a folder by virtue of membership in a user group that is deleted, the user
can no longer access that folder.
To delete a user from the current host:
1.
From
the top menu, select Host > User Groups. The User Groups
page opens.
2.
Select
the checkbox next to the name of the user group you want to delete.
3.
Click
Delete. The Delete Confirmation page opens.
4.
To
delete the user group, click Delete. The user group is deleted
from the server.
About user home folders (Back to
top)
Each
user has a designated home folder, which usually resides in the your host's top
directory, under /users.
When
a user logs in using an FTP client, the client shows the home folder as the
current directory, for example: /users/wsansbury
File
Watchdogs FTP Server offers several options for setting up the user home
folder, setting access, and determining how the home folder is displayed by the
FTP client.
Host-level
options, which apply to all users on the host, are set on the Host Details page
(from the top menu, select Host > Host Details).
User-level
options, which apply to an individual user, are set on the Edit Users page
(from the top menu, select Host > Users and either select
an existing user or create a new user).
Creating, editing, and deleting folders (Back to
top)
For the most part, folder management (adding, deleting, etc.) for the remote (FTP or SSH) file system is done through an FTP client program or through the File Watchdogs Web Transfer Client. You can manage virtual folders and folder permissions for all folders via File Watchdogs FTP Server Manager.
Creating, editing, and deleting virtual folders (Back to
top)
Virtual
folders are folders that you create in the FTP or SFTP file system that can
point to any folder within your host’s physical file system. After you create a
virtual folder, you can edit the folder to change most of the settings selected
when you created the folder.
To create or edit a virtual folder:
1.
From
the top menu, select Host > Folders. The Folders page
opens.
2.
Click
Create Virtual Folder. The Create Virtual Folder page opens.
- OR -
Click a hyper inked
folder name. The Edit Folder page opens.
3.
Set
the appropriate options.
§
Folder
name. Enter
a name for the virtual folder. This name will identify the folder to users who
log in to the server.
§
Full
path. Select
the physical location on the folder. You may either enter the path manually or
select it by clicking Browse.
§
Virtual
display location.
Select where you want this virtual folder to display.
§
Not
displayed.
Select this option to exclude this virtual folder from folder listings. Users
who know virtual folder name can still access it by providing the folder name
manually.
§
Display
at root.
Select this option to display this virtual folder as a sub folder of the server
root folder.
§
Display
in user.
Select this option to display this virtual folder as a sub folder of each user's
home folder.
Important: If you change the virtual display location of a virtual
folder for which folder action rules are configured, you must update the folder
action rules to use the new file path. If you do not do this, the folder action
rules will not work.
4.
Under
Permissions, modify user permissions to the folder as needed.
5.
Click
Save.
Permissions
This
section of the page displays and lets you manage user permissions for this
folder. By default, users do not have permissions to new folders. To view or
grant permissions to the folder, use the Permissions options.
Note:
Permission settings take effect the next time the user connects.
You
can perform the following tasks related to user permissions on a folder:
§
Add
permissions to this folder. To add a permission to this folder, click Add.
§
View
or modify permissions to this folder. Click a user or user group name to open the Edit
Permissions page. From there, you can view or modify the permission.
§
Remove
permissions from this folder. Select a permission by selecting the checkbox beside the
user's or group's name. Select multiple permission by selecting multiple
checkboxes. Once you have made your selection, click Remove to
remove the selected permissions from this folder.
Understanding limitations of virtual folders (Back to
top)
A
virtual folder can be created as a sub folder of the root folder
-
OR -
as
a sub folder of every user's home folder
§
If a
user's home folder is set to a custom location (outside of the /users folder
under the top folder of the host), then virtual folders configured to display
in a users' home folders are not displayed.
§
A
virtual folder cannot contain another virtual folder. If a file structure is
created where one virtual folder could conceivably contain another, the second
virtual folder is not displayed.
§
If
the physical folder the virtual folder references is changed or deleted, the
virtual folder is still displayed to users, but it cannot be accessed. Users
attempting to access a virtual folder that points to a nonexistent physical
folder receive the following error message: 550 CWD virtual: access
denied.
Understanding folder permissions (Back to
top)
Folder
permissions govern which users and group can perform various actions on a
folder or its contents.
There
are two main types of permissions:
§
Permit. Permit permissions grant users or
groups access to the folder on which the permission is applied.
§
Deny. Deny permissions are used when
you want to specifically deny a user or group permission to a folder. Deny
permissions take precedence over all other permissions, so a deny permission
guarantees that a user cannot perform the action indicated in the permission.
For
each permission, you can also indicate which actions you want to permit or
deny:
§
Read. This option refers to
downloading files from the server.
§
List. This option refers to retrieving
a folder listing, which shows the files in the folder, from the server.
§
Write. This option refers to uploading
files to the server.
§
Delete. This option refers to deleting
files or folders from the server.
§
Rename. This option refers to changing
the name of a file or folder already on the server.
§
Create
folder. This
option refers to creating a new folder under the folder where the permission is
set.
Finally,
you can also choose to have a permission apply only to files that match a
specified file mask. To match all files, enter *.
For
each permission, you can choose to have the option propagate down to all
sub folders of the folder where the permission is set by selecting Include
sub folders.
User
and group permissions are aggregated. File Watchdogs FTP Server evaluates
permit permissions first, then deny permissions to determine the actual
permissions granted.
For
example, if a user has the following permissions set
§
Permit
Read and List permission propagated from a parent folder
§
Permit
Write permission set on the current folder
§
Deny
Read permission set on the current folder
he
or she can List and Write on the current folder.
Permissions
and administrators
Host administrators are granted full permissions to all
folders on the host to which they belong. However, host
administrators are bound by deny permissions. It is possible to deny them
access to any folder by creating a deny permission on that folder.
Permissions
and users' home folders
When
a user is created, File Watchdogs FTP Server automatically generates a permit
permission granting the user full permissions to his or her home folder.
Permissions
and virtual folders
Permissions
set to include sub folders on a parent folder of a virtual folder are not
applied to the virtual folder or any folders underneath it. Virtual folders do
not inherit permissions from parent folders.
How to
stop a propagated permission
When
a permission set on a parent folder is propagated to a child folder and you
want to remove or change the permission on the child folder, you can add
another permission with the same mask at that level. For example, if the parent
folder grants a user Read, List and Write permissions, and you want to remove
Write permissions on the child folder, you can enter another permission on the
child that specifies only Read and List for the User. This removes the Write
permission.
Note: If a folder
is governed by permissions marked include in sub folders on a parent folder, the
permissions are not displayed on the child folder. Permissions that are
included in sub folders are displayed only at the parent folder level.
Setting Folder Permissions (Back to
top)
You
can manage user/group folder permissions from the Folder Permission page.
To grant or change permissions to a folder for a user or group:
1.
From
the top menu, select Host > Folders. The Folders page
opens.
2.
Click
the hyper linked name of the folder you want to open. The Edit Folder page
opens.
3.
In
the User/Group list, click the hyper linked name of the user or group for which
you want to change permissions. The Folder Permission page opens.
4.
Set
the appropriate options.
§
User
or Group.
The user or group to which this permission applies is listed here.
§
File
mask. Enter
a file mask. Permissions are granted only to files that match the file
mask.
§
Permission
Type:
§
Allow. Select this option to permit
access to the following permission options.
§
Deny. Select this option to not permit
access to the following permission options.
§
Select/Deselect
All. Select
to grant full permissions. Clear to remove all permissions.
§
Read. Select this option to grant permissions
to read files.
§
List. Select this option to grant
permission to list the files in the folder.
§
Write. Select this option to grant
permission to add files or modify files to the folder.
§
Delete. Select this option to grant
permission to delete files from the folder.
§
Rename. Select this option to grant
permission to rename files or folders in the folder.
§
Create
folder. Select
this option to grant permission to create sub folders in the folder.
§
Include
sub folders.
Select this option to extend the permissions assigned to this folder to all
folders beneath it.
5.
Click
Save.
Checking file integrity (Back to
top)
File
Watchdogs FTP Server includes support for file integrity checking. File integrity
checking works by using an algorithm to calculate a unique number based on the
contents of a file. When the same algorithm is run on the client computer
before transferring the file and on the server computer after transferring the
file, the results of the algorithm's computation can be compared to detect any
corruption that may have occurred during the transfer. If the transfer succeeded
without corruption, the two values are identical.
The
table below indicates the algorithms supported during FTP and SSH/SFTP
connections as well as the command the client must issue to check the integrity
of a file using one of the supported algorithms.
|
Algorithm |
Client command |
FTP |
SSH/SFTP |
|
SHA512 |
XSHA512 |
|
|
|
SHA256 |
XSHA256 |
|
|
|
SHA1 |
XSHA1 |
|
|
|
CRC32 |
XCRC |
|
|
|
MD5 |
XMD5 |
|
|
An
algorithm must be supported by both the server and the client to be used in
file transfer checking. To determine which algorithms are supported by your
file transfer client, consult its user documentation.
Note: For
file integrity checking to work, the Enable extended FTP commands
option must be enabled on the Host Details page of the host on which you want
to support file integrity checking.