On 28/01/16 12:58, Mark Rogers wrote:
I need to set up an FTP server on a virtual server keeping overheads to a minimum.
What I'd like is some kind of GUI to administer it (add new users etc) which runs on my desktop and does the admin remotely, so that when not in use it has zero overhead (compared with having to install a web server and database to manage it, for example).
Not fussed as to which FTP server at this point.
(It strikes me that a tool that was able to manage text based config files over SSH for FTP servers but also other services would be quite useful, does such a thing exist?)
I presume you mean by virtual server, a server in some ISP's server racks that you're renting. If instead you mean a virtualised server running as a virtual machine on your own kit then this isn't relevant!
Not quite what you're after but Webmin (webadmin) is a capable remote admin in a browser. It's not quite what you're after though as it obviously runs on a web server on the remote machine.
I would have thought most virtual servers would have some sort of web based config, but I've not ever rented one, so I don't know for sure.
If the virtual server is running a gui, you could just run the normal setup routines but have a VNC connection to the machine. Alternatively, some programs work with X-Windows forwarding. In the remote machine's sshd_config file, add X11Forwarding yes X11UseLocalhost no and restart the sshd server.
Then make a ssh connection as
ssh -X user@remoteserver
NB Capital X
then if you do something like
sudo gedit /etc/fstab
then gedit will run on the remote screen, editing the file on the remote machine, but DISPLAY on the local machine.
Funky when it works.
However, this relies on your machines running X Windows, which I think some systems are moving away from.
Hope that helps
Steve