Solid FTP Server with Web Access

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Level 1

5 points

Solid FTP Server with Web Access

Hi, we would have a new Mac Mini running Lion Server and would like to get a solid FTP server working to allow our clients to send/receive files from us easily.

On our old Tiger server, we had setup PureFTPd/PureFTPd Manager, and while we liked the interface and ease of setting up new users/directories, it was just too buggy. Our clients would randomly complain of not being able to connect or complete sending files, ect. And a lot of our clients aren't really saavy enough to install and setup a FTP client anyway. So we started using services like YouSendIt!, but this has limitations as well.

- What alternate FTP servers or interfaces are available that are know to be RELIABLE and fairly bug-free?

- We would love to give our clients a web-based interface so they don't need to learn FTP. Options?

- Whatever we use needs to be able to be secure (SFTP or HTTPS).

We've heard of Rumpus, and that actually looks pretty nice. But is it SOLID and reliable? Are there any other good alternatives?

Thanks!

Posted on Mar 8, 2013 12:28 PM

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Answer 1

Mar 8, 2013 6:07 PM in response to YoKenny

For what it is worth (in a generally anonymous forum) Rumpus is very good. The web interface is fully customizable. However, the product suffers from two issues that make me nuts. First, to enable SSL you pretty much need a degree is insanity. Not very intuitive. Doable, but not obvious. Next, under excessive load it is possible to flood OS X's memory buffer (mbufs) (netstat -mm). When this happens, the server will go silent and require a hard reboot. This appears to be caused by rapid connections that open and are unable to be closed. I've only experienced this once at a very high traffic server (100s connections per hour).

Aside from this, the product is easy to deploy, manage, and customize. It is the only one we recommend.

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Answer 2

YoKenny Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 8, 2013 7:27 PM in response to Strontium90

Thanks for the reply. This is good to know.

For the SSL, does it not use the default SSL certificate handling in the Server App? Does it have it's own proprietary method? Any tips or direction to where to find instruction/support on this would be much appreciated.

Really don't want the server to crash, though. We probably never have multiple individual client/connections at one time, but may have someone sending large sized/quantiites of files over at once.

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Answer 3

Mar 9, 2013 5:57 AM in response to YoKenny

Nope. The SSL integration is built into the app. It does not leverage Apple's certificate store. However, you can use the same cert for the Rumpus service that you use for the overall system.

And the only crashing I've seen is under extreme load as listed. We support a customer that recieves massive amounts of photos via an automated FTP submission process. The problem is that each photo recieved constitutes a connection. It seems that each connection consumes a memory buffer and when the connection ends, the buffer does not clear, eventually leading to system deadlock.

Modifying nmbclusters, maxfiles, and maxfilesperprocess in sysctl seems to help but under excessive load we still will deadlock. Note, this is an extreme case.

In all our deployments, Rumpus is what we recommend.

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Answer 4

Mar 10, 2013 2:32 PM in response to Strontium90

Hi, I might have a suggestion or two, but could you provide some more info.

1. What is the workflow?

2. What client devices or Operating Systems need to send?

3. How big are the files?

cheers

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Answer 5

YoKenny Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 11, 2013 11:16 AM in response to redshift82r

Hi, here's the answer to the questions.

1. The general workflow would be for on occasion us to post files for our clients to download, but much more common would be for our clients to send us files (in most cases photos) that we could have immediate access to here on our server. Some of our clients may be comfortable with an FTP client for uploading/downloading, but most would not know what that is. We generally recommend clients ZIP a set of files before sending, but not all do (some may not know how to do this).

2. Most clients would be on PCs, probably WinXP/Win7. But some would also be on Mac OSX. They would probably just use default browsers (IE on PC / Safari on Mac), although some may use Firefox. We couild probably have more luck recommending a browser to use than a specific FTP client.

3. Total size of zipped files (when clients do this) may be upwards of 2GB or more when very large. Usually not that big, though. Individual files (when not zipping) would generally average 2-5MB, though some large photos may be much larger.

Hope this helps. We'll explore Rumpus a bit more, but are definitely curious to know other options. We really would like a fairly intuitive interface on our end as well, command-line would not be ideal.

Thanks!

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Answer 6

MplsEE08

Level 1

65 points

Mar 11, 2013 5:18 PM in response to YoKenny

I can also vouch for Rumpus. I have deployed it on my ML server and it runs very well. Some of the major features are that it is extremely customizable. You can make it look and behave just about any way you want. It also integrates with OpenDirectory so your OD users can log right into the web interface or use the regular FTP function. Plus it's relatively inexpensive, the documentation is very well done, and you get tech support right from the owner of the company!

The only problem I have run into is that you have to purchase a separate SSL cert just for Rumpus. I bought a certificate from GoDaddy with five subdomains and you cannot use one of your subdomains for Rumpus because it requires its own code signing certificate (unlike OS X).

Good luck!

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Answer 7

Mar 14, 2013 1:46 AM in response to YoKenny

I've had a really good experience with ownCloud - http://owncloud.org . Ilts relatively easy to install on OS X Server.

It has an administration section for users ( separate from Open Directory) and shares / built in webdav that seems to work well, sync clients ( ala Dropbox) for windows linux and mac ( with Growl notification) , and iOS and Android Clients. You can log in via https and the web interface supports drag and drop ( with an open source Flash). you can also share a link via email, or woth other ownCloud users on your server. I've set it up as a webapp that runs as a folder on my domain. https://www.mydomain.com/owncloud . you can set upload limits, quotas as well as add apps to it for viewers, players etc.

not much by way of specific install instructions, but reply here if you run into issues.

very cool...

hope that helps

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