FTP is used for updates instead of direct filesystem access when the file permissions don’t allow the update script to overwrite your current WordPress files.
So either Rackspace uses another mechanism than UK2 to execute PHP scripts (for example, mod_php instead of mod_suphp), or your file permissions are different.
If you have to (or want to) use FTP for the updates, you could store the FTP login credentials in wp-config.php so that you don’t have to enter them again and again. That’s not necessarily secure, however, depending on your server’s configuration.
I’m having a similar problem. Old server did not use FTP when updating wordpress automatically, new server wants to use it.
I specified the FTP login details in wp-config.php, but that’s not working either.
Is there a setting on the server (CentOS) that can be changed to allow WP to update without FTP access?
Let me add – I did get FTP access to work – my server is set for sFTP, so once I changed that in wordpress, it worked fine.
I am still interested in changing a setting on the server so that FTP does not have to be used.
