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wpwood3 · #1 13th October 2007, 06:26

How to I allow clients to access the sites they manage via SSH?

I have set up clients and websites in ISPConfig. All looks well there. They can login to ISPConfig and can use FTP. They all show up if I run:

Code:

getent passwd

Is there something additional I need to do in CentOS to give clients access via SSH?

edge · #2 13th October 2007, 06:36

Did you enable "Shell Access:" for the site?
It's in ISPconfig > site > Basis

You might also like to "chroot" the users.

wpwood3 · #3 13th October 2007, 07:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by edge

Did you enable "Shell Access:" for the site?
It's in ISPconfig > site > Basis

Yes, I had already done that. Still no SSH access...

Any other ideas?

mlz · #4 13th October 2007, 08:14

I know this sounds stupid, but you've installed openssh and have it running, right?

wpwood3 · #5 13th October 2007, 08:19

When I try to access a site via SSH as a client I get this error:

File transfer server could not be started or it exited unexpectedly.
Exit value 1 was returned. Most likely the sftp-server is not in the path of the user on the server side.

till · #6 13th October 2007, 11:23

What you are trying to do is to use sftp and not SSH. Try to use a SSH client like putty to connect to your SSH server.

For sftp, have a look at your sshd config file and make sure that sftp is installed and enabled.

wpwood3 · #7 13th October 2007, 15:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by till

What you are trying to do is to use sftp and not SSH. Try to use a SSH client like putty to connect to your SSH server.

For sftp, have a look at your sshd config file and make sure that sftp is installed and enabled.

I thought SSH and SFTP were the same thing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSH_file_transfer_protocol

Regardless, I've always used SSH Secure Shell 3.2.9 and I assume that uses SSH. I have no problem connecting and transferring files as root but none of my clients can login.

My sshd_config contains the following line:
Subsystem sftp /usr/libexec/openssh/sftp-server

I downloaded and installed Putty but still got exactly the same result. Only root can login.

This server is a test server sitting right next to me. I cannot login to the console using any of the client usernames/passwords that were created in ISPConfig.

wpwood3 · #8 13th October 2007, 16:44

I think I'm starting to understand the problem but, I don't know why it is happening.

If I look at the clients in my /etc/passwd file they look like this:

Code:

bill:x:10007:10006:Bill:/var/www/web6:/bin/false

The "/bin/false" is preventing them from being able to login and receive a Bash prompt. I would assume that checking the "Shell Access" box in ISPConfig would change "/bin/false" to "/bin/bash" but it didn't!

Why??

wpwood3 · #9 13th October 2007, 16:56

I'm an idiot! Please kick me...

I had shell access turned ON for the SITES but NOT for my clients. Doh...

After looking at the results in the passwd file I went back and looked at each client in ISPConfig. Sure enough, the little boxes that say "Shell Access" were not checked. When I originally setup each site I did not check shell access for any site or users. It was only after I enabled shell access for the sites that I started testing if the users could login.

...I'll go back to my room now.