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We looking for a solution for the following use case:

We have several ftp accounts (SFTP, FTPS, FTP) to remote servers of different webhosting providers. We also have freelancers who support us and need the credentials to the ftp accounts rom our customers.

Here we have two key problems:

  1. If the customer has changed the password, than we need to know that and inform our freelancers
  2. If one freelancer is leaving the project, we have to remember to change the passwords and running into problem #1

Now we're looking for a solution, where the freelancer can connect to just one ftp account and will see the folders of the projects. So, when you go into the folder, it will create a connection to the remote ftp server to the foreign webhosting provider. The freelancer can now work like he has the ftp account from the webhosting provider.

If a customer changed the password, we just have to change it in one place and all other freelancers can still work with their account.

It's like a password manager: One master password to access the passwords that have been shared with me. If some change the password, it will be automatically updated.

Unfortunately, we have not found a reasonable solution for that use case.

We have found something like that, which is similar to what we're looking for: http://www.raidenftpd.com/kb/kb000000047.htm

Another solutions can be csync and it seems to be the right one, at first sight. Unforunately we have to copy the whole folders from the customer to our server and hold it synced. That's not so nice, because we have websites with over 10GB in size.

But with this solution we can give our freelancers one account and create a symbolic links into their ftp root directory. If they upload or change files, the csync will keep it up to date to the remote server. If a freelancer leaves the project or it is finished, we just have to delete the symbolic link.

But maybe there is a solution to have this behaviour without the copy of the files on our server. Just like an ftp tunnel, ftp proxy or something like that ...

Maybe one of you knows something about that? :-)

mcswizz
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1 Answers1

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If you can negotiate the file permissions/ownership issues, you could solve this problem by putting a well connected Linux VM on the network which has an appropriate method of accessing files (I'd vote for SCP/SFTP).

You can then use various FUSE to mount and unify all the FTP/SFTP systems into a single directory structure which can be navigated through FTP to that box.

You would want to change the FTP passwords/access to the other systems such that only the VM can access them. You could further control access by implementing a VPN requirement to access this middle box.

davidgo
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