FTP-Only Packages

[markb14391]

Hi All,

I will be selling VPSs (among other things), and I would like the ability to offer VPS clients the chance to buy an add-on FTP account for backing up their virtual server. (We use HyperVM as the VPS control panel, and it does have the ability to backup to remote FTP servers.)

A few questions:

1. Could I achieve this kind of package (an FTP-only account) in cPanel/WHM using the Features Manager (by basically turning off everything non-FTP related)? If so, would this cause any technical issues?
   
2. Could such a package be hosted without a domain? These users would simply need access to an FTP account.
   
3. Does anyone know if WHMCS could handle this kind of thing as an add-on? For example, while

ordering the VPS package people could also order the FTP backup add-on?

Thanks!

[daveformerlyof]

Creating an account to use for 1 FTP account would create a UNIX system user for that account as well. It's unlikely that you'd want to create a system user rather than a simple virtual FTP user to give them access.

Why not set up a domain that all your accounts can backup to like myhostbackups.com and then provision out virtual ftp users for that domain. You can create a virtual FTP use through the XML API by sending this request:

https://IP:2087/xml-api/cpanel?user=$cpuser&xmlin=<cpanelaction><module>Ftp</module><func>addftp</func><apiversion>1</apiversion><args>$user</args><args>$password</args><args>$homedir</args><args>$quota</args></cpanelaction>

where the variables are as follows:

$cpuser - cPanel username that owns the domain the FTP account is associated with
$user - username for the FTP account
$password - password for the FTP Account
$quota - disk space quota for the FTP account (in MB)
$homedir - top level directory the FTP account has access to


Alternatively, you could create a system account for the FTP user that has the same username as their cPanel account (if the FTP account is on a different server) by creating a cPanel account with a fake domain name and then using the feature manager to turn off all icons/menus except the FTP functions.


If you wanted to backup to the same server but use the virtual FTP user method, you could add a hook to automatically create the virtual FTP user for certain packages by adding a /scripts/postwwwacct file on your system (see documentation at http://www.cpanel.net/support/docs/hooks.htm#postwww) that calls the XML API to add the ftp account. You can get the XML API connection data from http://www.mybrandedhost.com/hosting-docs.html which is our example site for automation.

#!/usr/bin/perl

require '/root/ServerConfig.pm';  

my %OPTS = @ARGV;

my $cpuser = 'myhostb';  #the cPanel user for myhostbackups.com
my $user = $OPTS{'user'} . '\@myhostbackups.com'; # Username is $user@myhostbakcups.com
my $homedir = $OPTS{'user'};     #Store backups in /home/myhostb/$user
my $quota = '5000';        #5000 MB Disk Space Quota



if ( $OPTS{'plan'} =~ /vpswithftp/){
     my $username = shift;  
     my $requestline = '/xml-api/cpanel?user=$cpuser&xmlin=<cpanelaction><module>Ftp</module><func>addftp</func><apiversion>1</apiversion><args>$user</args><args>$password</args><args>$homedir</args><args>$quota</args></cpanelaction>';  
    my %userrequest = $ServerConfig::xmlapi_object->dispatch($requestline);  
}

This method is obviously more difficult than adding a new cPanel account with all features disabled except FTP but it doesn't add a new system user for each FTP account.


Another sugestion is that you might want to look into a remote backup solution like R1Soft's CDP. With CDP, backups are stored on a remote server and users can restore them through a web interface that appears in their cPanel interface.

[markb14391]

Wow, thank you!

I'm new to the automation part of it...can any of this be linked to WHMCS, or is it all proprietary to cPanel alone?

I guess I mean...is WHMCS capable of supporting the add-on hooks to accomplish what you suggested? I assume yes, and I'll dig into the docs.

Thanks! That is great stuff.

[daveformerlyof]

This could be added into the WHMCS interface in theory but I'd likely talk to WHMCS about getting something like that added. I'm not sure if they have a section for custom modules or not. In theory though, you could run that code from any server you want as it can remotely connect to the WHM machine from anywhere.