Whether your needs focus on secure file transfer or remote access and administration, the VShell server has a full range of capabilities that enable you to:
Provide strong, multi-protocol security for data in transit
VShell delivers proven, open-standard authentication and encryption with a choice of protocols to suit your needs. It allows you to provide a wide range of services to your organization with confidence.
- Utilize the most widely-used standards — SFTP for secure file transfer and SSH2 for remote system administration.
- FTPS provides flexibility for an even larger range of clients. If needed, allow FTP connections to support legacy systems.
- Upgrade to VShell Enterprise Edition with HTTPS to offer your end users easy, browser-based file transfer. No client software is needed and there are no browser plugins to install.
- User authentication for SSH2 (SFTP) offers a range of options including public-key, Kerberos, and two-factor methods.
Control user access to features and files
VShell gives you extensive controls to manage privileges for file transfer, shell, and other services.
- Define which services — SFTP, SCP, FTPS, FTP, HTTPS, HTTP, shell, port forwarding — are granted to users or groups with VShell Access Control Lists (ACLs).
- For file transfer, lock down user access to particular directories using the virtual roots feature.
- Transparently transmit file transfer operations to a separate SFTP server, so that files can be uploaded and downloaded without ever being written to the VShell server's disk.
Set up and configure the server easily
VShell installs and runs right "out of the box".
- On Windows, the VShell Control Panel offers easy graphical configuration from initial setup to selecting access control lists and stopping and starting services.
- On Linux and Mac, configuration is done using a single file.
- Unattended installation options facilitate large-scale deployment.
Automate business processes
One key way to increase admin productivity is to provide automation support. The VShell server does this with a combination of event triggers, remote command execution, and command-line utilities.
- VShell triggers allow you to automatically track and respond to events like file uploads, downloads, and failed logon attempts.
- The RunAs Commands feature lets the administrator allow less privileged users to use certain commands or scripts that require elevated privileges.
- A set of command-line utilities facilitate automation by filling in gaps between VShell and standard operating system tools. Detailed information on the command-line utilities is available on the VanDyke ClientPack product page.
Logging and monitoring
- Server messages may be logged to VShell log files as well as the Windows system log or a remote syslog/syslog-ng server.
- Select the message groups to be logged — for example, errors, warnings, information, connections, authentications, and protocol-specific messages.
- The VShell Monitor is a real-time connection monitoring tool that displays the current connections to the VShell server.
VanDyke Software Support provides comprehensive technical support, including pre-sales evaluation, consultation for installation and configuration issues, and support of maintenance and upgrade software.
VanDyke Sales is ready to help you work out licensing issues for the most complex deployment plans.