I just installed ISPConfig yesterday. What I'm doing is moving from an online host (GoDaddy) to a server I've set up here at work. It (ISPConfig) seems to be working like a charm, but when I use an FTP Client (Filezilla) to try to download the files from GoDaddy to the www folder in ISPConfig website I set up it will not let me. I know it's a permissions thing and before I go messing with all of that I wanted to check here first to see if I'm missing something. Thanks in advance for any help.
You must create FTP user for that website, and use that user to upload files. This way it does work. I think FTP user sees the website root as directory /web, but I seldom use FTP so am not sure.
I don't think you understand. I'm not uploading files. I'm downloading them. I'm on the server itself connecting to the Godaddy FTP with its username and password and trying to download from there directly to the www folder of the site on the server.
What I wrote still goes. If you are logged in to your server with SSH, that is shell user, you must use the SSH shell user created for that website. Then the permissions allow writing files to the /web folder. If this does not work, give more detailed description with error messages. Are you using FileZilla from the command line on your server?
*sigh* I'm actually ON the server I'm setting up using Filezilla to try to download the files from the web to the new server. I can't explain it any simpler than that. It seems you keep thinking I'm uploading to the server. I am not. I'm actually on the physical server trying to download all my files from GoDaddy to the www folder and it simply will not let me. In the FTP window I can't see any files or folders at all in the www folder and if I hit the download button it just says access denied. It seems incredibly odd to me I can't download files to the server I'm sitting right at. I'm beginning to wonder if I have to download all the files to some other computer and then use that computer to re-upload them to the server. That would be a preposterous state of affairs if that's the case. If it were just a couple hundred MB I would have already tried that but I'm talking about 6.3 GB here.
As what user? Have you connected with FTP of with SSH? If it is with SSH shell user created for that website, that user does have permissions to access files in /web, both upload and download. Are you sure you are downloadind to /web directory (or folder). If this is a new ISPConfig setup, do this: https://www.howtoforge.com/community/threads/please-read-before-posting.58408/ I do find it curious you are using FileZilla on your ISPConfig server. How did you install it? Does it have command line client? The FileZilla I know has only graphical user interface as far as I know.
I run Ubuntu Server 18.04 with the Mate desktop environment. I use Filezilla like you would on any desktop. Here's what it looks like: As you can see, the local directory is set to the var/www/website/web folder but it will not let me see anything in it or download anything to it. There is only one login for my server and that's the admin account.
That is very unusual ISPConfig server, with MATE and all. I have never installed GUI on my servers. I tried to communicate in previous messages that accessing website files should be done using the users created for that website.
And I told you specifically that there is only one user: the admin account. I set the IPConfig up with the exact same user information I used to set up the Ubuntu Server Software.
The problem is that you are using a server management software (ispconfig) in a way that is not intended. Furthermore it looks like you have no clue about linux servers and linux user management. Using some software in a way that is not intended can work for experts, but will lead to a lot of problems with beginners. And it has the potential to be very frustrating a) to you who does not get the answers he likes and b) to the people trying to help you. But lets start: ispconfig requires you to create a web user for every (sub-)domain you want to host. This web user has the correct file system rights for that specific www folder (/var/www/clients/clientX/webXY/web). In order to execute filezilla on the server and put the files directly into that folder would require to start filezilla with that user. For example on the command line with "sudo -u webXY filezilla". Again: This is not the way ispconfig was designed to work.
So one more time I'll try this: There is only one user on the entire system. The admin of ISPConfig is the exact same username and password and rights as the admin of Ubuntu Server. There is only one signin on all of it and that's it. How about explain how I'm supposed to log in to Filezilla with a different username when there is only one system wide on all things.
And that's the wrong user which means you can't upload anything with it to a website. and that two users (the ispconfig admin user and a linux user which you might have added have the same name and password does not mean that they are related to each other or share any priveliges. Create an FTP user in ISPConfig in the sites module and use that user to login with FileZilla to the website. But, as you seem to run filezilla as a different user on a local desktop and filezilla can't login to two servers by FTP as far as I know, you will probably have to download your website from external server to a temporary directory under your admin linux user and then login with FileZilla to the local website and move the files from that temporary directory to the websites web dir.
I figured it out. It's exactly as I thought - I had to first download the files to the server with FileZilla and then upload them to the folder. It had absolutely nothing to do with users as I was the same user the entire time. As I said before, there is only one user. It's simply bugged ISPConfig software that will not allow you to simply download files to a folder within ISPConfig. It only accepts it on upload.
Like I wrote previously, accessing the website folders and files is on purpose restricted by ISPConfig to the users created for that website. Creating these users is done in ISPConfig panel, the Sites tab. You should not run Mate or any other GUI on your ISPConfig server. Instead of filezilla, use command line ftp client. I am suprised you managed to install ISPConfig on a host with Mate already installed. You seem to be adamant to only have one user account on your host. This means accessing the website folder does not work. If I were in your shoes, I would install a new ISPConfig server, following the Perfect Server Guide for Ubuntu. Then you get a supported configuration that probably works. But that would still mean creating the users for Websites in ISPConfig and learning to use the command line.
Your conclusion is wrong and it has only to do with users and their permissions, no bug in ISPConfig. If you are logged in as user a and want to store files in a folder which is owned by user b and only b has write permissions to the folder, then you can't do that. No matter if ISPConfig is installed on your server or not. And there are many more users on your system than just a user named 'admin', e.g. each website has its own user and most of the services that are running on your system have their won users too. So your system is installed fine and it works as it should be, even if you don't expect it to work like this as you probably have not worked with a multiuser Linux OS before. The only thing that's unusual on your system is that you installed a Desktop on the server and that's what causes your confusion. Linux servers normally don't run a desktop and you don't run a desktop FTP client on your server. If you would have installed it as normal headless Linux server, then you could have downloaded the files into a website easily by going to the webiste and fetching them with wget.
OK, explain this to me: I had an online server with username: Example and password: Example When I created the Ubuntu server, I set it up with the same exact administrator name and password. Then when I installed ISPConfig, I set it up with the same exact administrator name and password. Then I created the DNS Zone. Then I created the website. Then I created the client with the same exact username and password and gave it administrative privilages. Then I assigned that client to the website. Then I tried to download the files logged in as that user (which is the exact same system wide on both servers) to the website and it wouldn't work. BUT I can download the files to the server and without switching users at all upload to that folder. Again, there is only one user system wide on both servers and it has full admin privilege's. I should have worked and didn't.
No, this can not work. A user named 'admin' has no admin priveliges on Linux, its just a user with that name. The user who can upload to any folder on the system on Linux is named 'root'. And the 'admin' user that you use to log into ISPConfig is not even a Linux user, so even if you have a Linux user with the same name, then these are not related. If you want to have a linux user who can write into the web directory of a site, then you'll have to create a shell user for that site. Only shell and FTP users of a site can write to the web dir of that site. Maybe someoone else here can try to explain Linux users and their permissions more deeply or you try to find some documents on the net which describe the Linux permission system for beginners.
