Adding a user to a server

This article is an overview on how to add users to your server. The following topics are mentioned.

• Adding a user to a server
• Changing your user to a Shell user

To add a new website user:

1. Navigate to Manage Users 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.

New users are created as SFTP or Shell users. The following explains the difference between these user types.

SFTP users

An SFTP user is required in order to upload a website you've created to DreamHost's servers, or to make changes to an existing website.

SFTP users are similar to FTP users except that the SFTP protocol uses an encrypted connection to access a server. Port 22 is used in your client to connect to the server via SFTP.

The Manage Users page shows the username and the type of user it’s configured as.

In the following example, the username is 'dh_test_user'. Click the Show Info button to display details about this user.

Here you can see the user is set as an SFTP user.

Shell users

Shell users are users who can connect via SSH, SFTP, and (optionally) FTP. The "Shell" is the Linux command line on your hosting server, a useful alternative for advanced users.

Changing to a Shell user

From the Manage Users page, click the Show Info button next to your user.

Here you can see the user is set as an SFTP user. You can change the user to a Shell user so it has SSH access by clicking the Edit Access Settings link.

From the dropdown, select SSH.

Select the type of Shell you wish to use. Bash is the default Shell type. Click Save Changes.

When creating a Shell user, you are also given 4 shell options for the command line:

• Bash – stands for Bourne-again shell, and is the default shell on Linux and Mac OS based systems.
• Tcsh – is an enhanced version of the Berkeley UNIX C shell. It is a command language interpreter that can be used as an interactive login shell and a shell script command processor.
• Ksh – also know as KornShell, and is an interactive command line language that can provide access to the UNIX system as well as other systems on which it’s implemented.
• Zsh – a shell made for interactive use and is also a scripting language.

See the following article for more information about using available shells at DreamHost:

• Available shells at DreamHost

What if I own more than one website at DreamHost?

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.

Why does it say my name is already taken?

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.

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