Adding a user to a server

This article is an overview of how to add a new username to your server, and then your website.

To add a new website user:

1. Navigate to Files page in your panel.

   

2. Click the + Add A User button at the top right.

   The 'Add User Details' page appears:

   

3. Enter the following:
   • Username — A username for the new user.
   • Nickname — A nickname for the new user.
   • What server will this user have access to? — Click the down arrow and select the server on which the user will have access.
   • Secure shell access — Use the toggle button to enable Secure Shell/SSH (right) or disable (left). If 'Secure shell access' is disabled, then SFTP is used.
   • Select the Shell Type — If Secure shell access is enabled, then the Select the Shell Type drop-down box appears. You can select bash, tcsh, ksh, or zsh. See the Shell users section below for more information.
4. When finished, click the Create User button.

View the following article for instructions on adding your new username to a domain. 

• Changing the user assigned to a domain

Every website hosted with DreamHost is "owned" by exactly one user. However, a single user may own more than one website. In that case, each site would have its own directory under the user's root directory.

You can configure the account so that a user only has access to one subdirectory on a DreamHost website.

The "namespace" for DreamHost usernames is shared across a fairly large cluster of machines. As a result, all the usernames created for FTP/SFTP/SHELL users must be unique across the whole group. Typically, common user names such as “admin” have already been taken so users may need to add extra characters to their user to ensure it is unique.

View the following article for information on the difference between SFTP and Shell users.

• Difference between SFTP and Shell users

See the following article for further information on how to delete a website user:

• Deleting a website user and all of its data

Unfortunately, this is not possible. View the One user per domain policy article for details.

If you need to log into your server via SSH, your username must be configured as a Shell user. View the following article for instructions on how to enable a shell user.

• Creating a user with Shell (SSH) access

Now that a user has been created, you can log in using an FTP client, or SSH (SSH users only). View the following articles for further information.

• FTP overview and credentials
• SSH overview