I think the real truth is that Mac OS X Server IMO lacks the the ability to provide people to run enterprise grade web hosting. The rest of the system is great - DNS, Mail, Web... I'm not an expert but I've tested other linux systems that have allowed me to create a chroot jail that works exactly how I want it...
That is -
- You can create virtual hosts (this works)
- They are chrooted to thier ~username/Sites folder (does'nt work without mass customisation)
- FTP is not secure there should be some way of enabling SFTP for a user without going through all this stuff.
It seems the BIG difference is Apple have created a great GUI to handle everything but CHROOT users and SFTP.
All the stuff I learnt about UNIX has helped me get this working on LINUX systems but Apple doesn't seem to catering for this style of server.
Man... The list could go on. Is there something I'm missing? Do I sould like a whinging noob or should I just use some other OS?
One thing I've found with Linux systems is there is repositories for software. Is macports the equivilent for Mac OS X? Maybe the answer is there?
Theres also one thing that I've noticed that can block user access: Check Server Admin and make sure that the user has Remote Login Access. Correct me if I'm wrong but if you dont give Remote Login Access to the specified user, SFTP or SSH access will not work.
There is a new post about chrooting ftp here. I tested it and unless I made some mistake, the guide worked with these caveats:
When I connect with an FTP Client such as fetch, I can still navigate to / (root) and see all of the root filesystem but I definitely cannot write outside the chrooted folder. Thats half of the desired outcome. What I'm really looking for is the user is jailed to their ~/Sites folder and when they SFTP from terminal or an FTP client, they only have access to thier ~/Sites foler and cannot see anything other than that. Thier ~/Sites foler is thier root folder.
Last thought is: I haven't started the FTP server in server admin and I know it gives you the ability to restrict FTP users to their home folder. But I dont think this has anything to do with it because FTP and SFTP are two completely different beasts!
@Camelot.. sureley you have some comments about all this stuff.
Thanks.