Topic: FTP Permission Denied

[jotrago]

SME 7.5.1 in Server Only Mode.
Second time Installation, got the basics working, set up users, groups, iBays.
Samba Shares working fine I can read/write to all
Trying to get FTP to work from Local Network.
Checked Docs, Faq, Howto etc
Figured out the following:-
Set Security>Remote Access>FTP Access to Allow Local Access, and FTP Password Access to Accept from Local networks
FTP as User with Pwd - access Home Folder Read Write OK
FTP as iBay Name with iBay pwd - Access iBay  Read Only, Write, get Permission Denied

User setup is correct - can FTP to Home Dir R&W
User is member of Group
iBay settings :-
Select Group
User Access = Write Group Read Group
Public Access = Local Network Password Required
Password has been reset (several times)
Server has been rebooted

Found the How to regarding user & group entries into the /etc/ftpusers file
Tried removing the user & group but no difference
It seems reverse logic that INCLUDING FTPUsers, PREVENTS access ????????

How can I get FTP Write Access to an iBay
How Can I get FTP Access to the whole Server file sytem by FTP Login as Root (Login is refused completely)

Quite liking SME Server, tried Zentyal & SMS but ran into many problems.
Might be nice to have a little more monitoring capability in the gui. Report on user connections, disk space in use, Resource utisation etc. (Zentyal is good like that)

[imcintyre]

welcome

Did you try this?
http://wiki.contribs.org/FTP_Access_to_Ibays

Not sure of your aims / goals for ftp, but i use this with success;
http://wiki.contribs.org/Webshare

Re monitoring, there are various options, try this;
http://wiki.contribs.org/Sme7admin

Other add ons or "contribs" here;
http://wiki.contribs.org/Category:Contrib

[jotrago]

Yes I did find the How To, it is the one that mentions the FTPUsers file issue.

Its over 3 years old, 2007, and refers to a much earlier version (7.1.3) and seems rather complicated to provide what would seem to be an obvious and simple facility, so I did not attempt it at this stage, concerned as to what effect it may have on 7.5.1, hoping that the issue has been addressed in newer versions, and/or that I was missing something simple as a new SME user.

My primary objective is to provide FTP access to a Backup iBay for local laptops & PCs (Win & Ubuntu) to use a simple backup/synchronisation solution. I prefer FTP to Samba for bulk file transfers, as I believe it is faster and more reliable. I need to back up data prior to rebuilding 3 of my machines, so there si going to be alot of large transfers.

I also have another 4 shared iBays for my business data, my daugher's business data, Old Archive Data, and a Repository for Reference Data and Software,
I wanted to use FTP to bulk copy the data onto the server from the various current locations scattered across many desktops & laptops, and then use the same Synchronisation Utility to keep laptops Synched with the Business iBays.

Lastly, I have an Ubuntu Workstation running GNUCash for my Accounting, and would like to mount the GNuC files via NFS for user transarency, however it seems that out of the box, there is no NFS support in SME, so I was also thinking of FTP for this instead.

I am so close, it is all working beautifully except for the Write Capability. I am hoping it is something simple.

Thanks for the responses.

[CharlieBrady]

To get read/write access to the i-bay, log into ftp as a user who belongs to the correct group, then cd to the i-bay (via ../..), then write files. Or don't use ftp at all.

[jotrago]

Hmmmm
Well that works OK, logging in as user and changing directory.

However that's not what the docs say, and i Quote:-

Note:
   If you select Password Required, users who connect to the i-bay via FTP or HTTP will be prompted to supply that particular i-bay's username and password. The user name is always the name of the i-bay and the password is whatever the administrator assigns to that i-bay - not the individual user's password. Note that, as with user accounts, i-bay accounts are locked out by default. If a password is required, users will not be able to access the i-bay until the administrator sets the password.

So I was following the docs, FTP log in with user=iBayName, and Password=iBayPassword.
What's really confusing is that the "User access via file sharing or user ftp" on the iBay is explicitly set to Write= Group, Read=Group.
I think it is reasonable to assume from that, that members of the Group should be able to write to the iBay !

Anyway thanks for the workaround, I can use that in the meantime.

PS Since I had to get on with my data transfers I started using the windows shares to access the iBays and had all sorts of grief with moving data, reinforcing my belief that FTP is a more reliable option for large data transfers.

[Stefano]

If something is wrong with the dcumentation, please raise a bug or, better, create a wiki account and change the text accordingly.

[imcintyre]

Jotrago;

Did you have to go through this bit,
"Found the How to regarding user & group entries into the /etc/ftpusers file
Tried removing the user & group but no difference
It seems reverse logic that INCLUDING FTPUsers, PREVENTS access ????????"?

Do you use a client? What is it?

[jotrago]

imcintyre:

Yes I tried both ways with the user and groups INCLUDED and EXCLUDED from the etc/ftpusers file.

I am using the Filezilla client which I have used for years.

Whilst on another similar mission I came across this security howto on the German site
http://www.sme-server.de/download/Howtos/smeserver-security.html
It is quite old 2001, and refers to V5 of SME, however the Section on FTP access states Explicity that FTP access to iBays is READ ONLY under any circumstances, which is in line with my experience, so maybe there is a discrepancy in the docs, if this policy is still in place in the current versions, and setting group-write is not a valid option.