I can SSH as root into LEMP centos on VULTR, but I can't sftp for the life of me

Question

I tried the exact same thing with an Ubuntu LEMP, and had no issue sftp as root.

I deployed a one-click CENTOS 6 LEMP with Vultr. I can SSH into it fine, but the root credentials don't work to stfp into it. It just times out.

I've tried creating a new user with root access, added to wheel and even tried adding to visudo - with this used I can sftp ok, but when I navigate to...

/usr/share/ngix/html/

... to create folders and upload static websites pages - I get permission error.

All I want to do here is this really, host simple static website. Why can't I sftp as root? What am I missing here?

Answer 1

SFTP as root typically requires you to be able to SSH as root. It is common (and good security practice) for the default sshd configs to not allow root login.

Check your sshd configs.