Accounts & Roles

Site Owner

The person in this role should be among the most primary staff of the unit being represented.  This person is someone with the authority to state that the site officially represents their unit and will either sign off on site configuration and account changes or designate delegate staff to fill that role in their place.  If a site is hacked or has other issues regarding security, this person will be contacted along with other site webmaster staff.

Delegate

If the site owner chooses, alternate staff can stand in their role as delegated owners.  These individuals have the same authority and responsibilities as the site owner with a few exceptions. (i.e. altering the site’s list of delegates)

Administrator(s)

Administrators can log into the Web Administration portal and review the site’s configuration as well as all accounts associated with it.  Site admins can create, modify, and remove SFTP users as well as view the website’s usage statistics.

Contacts

All Web Hosting accounts must have at least two email contacts associated with it when it is created.  Usually this will include the site owner and at least one administrator.  Contacts will receive communications about the service on topics such as software upgrades, scheduled outages, and other important information.  It is important that contacts read these messages and understand the impact on their site – or at least forward the message who staff who will.  This role includes no access-related privileges and is safe to give out to anyone who would benefit from these communications.

SFTP Users

Redesigned OTDI Web Hosting Services will only allow access via secure FTP. (SFTP)  SFTP users are often called “webmasters” and are the staff that provide content and function for the website.  These users can have access to the entire webroot or can be “chrooted” to a specific subdirectory of it ensuring that they have access only to parts that they should.  If SFTP management is enabled for your site, administrators can create, modify, or delete FTP accounts.  It is preferred that FTP accounts be based on individual’s OSU name.# when possible; however, local-only accounts can be created for automated processes, 3rd party contractors, etc.

SSH Users

SSH accounts can be requested for those who would benefit from them.  SSH is often required when setting up complex applications like CMS’s that involve filesystem permissions, cron jobs, automation utilities, and other low-level tools.  Once an SSH connection is made, the user is switched to the hosting account user of the site they wish to update.  SSH accounts should be given only to staff who are experienced with Linux command line and must be based on an OSU name.# login – local-only accounts are not available.


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