Again, but with a twist: control panel

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Hi colleagues,

We've successfully been doing Unix/Linux based hosting for many years
now in a rather 'manual' environment whereby a bunch of custom made
scripts/interfaces are used to manage all provisioning etc. Our growth
however makes it difficult to keep on using this way of working. In the
mean time our customers are becoming more and more demanding on having a
'control panel' so they can self-manage things like DNS and Email. So we
are looking for kind of 'control-panel'.

Ideally, the solution should be quite 'lightweight' and doesn't try to
do too much (like Plesk and things), but is even rather limited. Also it
would be multi-server capable.

I didn't find anything yet on the Debian control panel list and neither
on the web. The only solution up to know is in my opinion a custom solution.

We are also seeking a similar solution for Windows based hosting.

Thanks for your input!

Frederik.

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Again, but with a twist: control panel

On Thu Jul 05, 2007 at 17:10:28 +0100, Gavin Westwood wrote:

> If you do find something, I would appreciate if you point me in that
> direction. If you would be interested in working with me find others and
> to develop this (maybe as a Sourceforge project), I would also be
> interested in hearing from you.

Everybody who starts down this path soon realizes that it is an insane
amount of work. Especially if you don't have good abstraction in
place.

For the moment I've worked on some simple automation scripts which
are console-based:

http://vh.cvsrepository.org/

(Exim4 + Apache2 + Webalizer + MySQL.)

Something like that, but more flexible, would be a good starting
point. Once the core functionality was implemented in shellscripts/
applications then the GUI wrapper could be added reasonably easily.

Failing that you could do worse than look at this wiki page:

http://wiki.debian.org/HostingControlPanels

Steve
--
Debian GNU/Linux System Administration
http://www.debian-administration.org/

--

Again, but with a twist: control panel

Steve Kemp wrote:
> On Thu Jul 05, 2007 at 17:10:28 +0100, Gavin Westwood wrote:
>
>> If you do find something, I would appreciate if you point me in that
>> direction. If you would be interested in working with me find others and
>> to develop this (maybe as a Sourceforge project), I would also be
>> interested in hearing from you.
>
> Everybody who starts down this path soon realizes that it is an insane
> amount of work. Especially if you don't have good abstraction in
> place.

Watching our 60 000 lines of code, and knowing that we are about to
rewrite all from scratch (well, not exactly from scratch as we can still
read our current code), because it's becoming a messy code after 5
years, I couldn't agree more.

Also, I found it VERY silly to try to start from scratch a new project
alone, on your side, when there are lot's of projects out there were you
could contribute.

Thomas

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Again, but with a twist: control panel

Hi list!

My colleague started working on software that we are currently using to
manage most of our user's things here. It's written in python and works
on the commandline for the moment. Account and email related data lives
in LDAP.

We did some experiments on integrating this tool in a plone website, so
users could start manipulating their data. For lack of time/energy this
part is discontinued at the moment (our users are patient).

I've included my colleagues email as Cc so he can pick up this thread.
Please include his address in any further emails regarding this topic.

Regards,
j.
--
Jogi Hofmueller |m| phone: +43 316 821 451 55
|u|
|r| http://mur.at/

Again, but with a twist: control panel

2007/7/6, Jogi Hofmüller :
> Hi list!
>
> My colleague started working on software that we are currently using to
> manage most of our user's things here. It's written in python and works
> on the commandline for the moment. Account and email related data lives
> in LDAP.
>
> We did some experiments on integrating this tool in a plone website, so
> users could start manipulating their data. For lack of time/energy this
> part is discontinued at the moment (our users are patient).
>
> I've included my colleagues email as Cc so he can pick up this thread.
> Please include his address in any further emails regarding this topic.
>
> Regards,
> j.

We simply use ISPconfig - migrated from a small-medium hosting server.

--
Wojciech Ziniewicz
Unix SEX :{look;gawk;find;sed;talk;grep;touch;finger;find;fl
ex;unzip;head;tail; mount;workbone;fsck;yes;gasp;fsck;more;yes;yes;eje
ct;umount;makeclean; zip;split;done;exit:xargs!!;)}

Again, but with a twist: control panel

Thanks for all responses. It is clear that what I'm looking for doesn't
exist, but we are now considering moving to a custom developed
solution. Probably externally developed as we have a budget for it.

Regards,

Frederik.

Gavin Westwood wrote:

Frederik Denkens wrote:
<snip>In
the mean time our customers are becoming more and more demanding on
having a 'control panel' so they can self-manage things like DNS and
Email. So we are looking for kind of 'control-panel'.

Ideally, the solution should be quite 'lightweight' and doesn't try to
do too much (like Plesk and things), but is even rather limited. Also
it would be multi-server capable.
<snip>

Hi Frederik.

I've been looking for something very similar and not been able to find
a solution, so I've come to the conclusion that I need to find others
who have this problem and work together to create a package or packages
to fit the needs of small ISPs running Debian.

My thought was to create control panels that are abstracted from the
servers themselves (e.g. for mail the server could be Exim or Postfix
or Qmail, etc) to allow a consistent method of managing the servers. 
This would require some duplication of effort to make the available
options be able to be set for all the different common implementations
of servers on Debian, but would probably make the front end easier to
develop...

If you do find something, I would appreciate if you point me in that
direction.  If you would be interested in working with me find others
and to develop this (maybe as a Sourceforge project), I would also be
interested in hearing from you.

Thanks

Gavin

--

Gavin Westwood
Solutium

http://hosting.solutium.co.uk
- quality, affordable web hosting.

http://www.solutium.co.uk - IT
Services and Support.

--

Frederik Denkens
Zaakvoerder / Commercial Manager
iLibris bvba

fdenkens@ilibris.be
http://www.ilibris.be

m: +32 475 96 04 93
t: +32 3 226 21 51
f: +32 3 201 27 19

Internet - Colocation - Managed Servers - Hosting Solutions
WebApplicaties - Mail Outsourcing - Consulting Services

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Again, but with a twist: control panel

I haven't followed the thread, but self-manage DNS and Email gaught
my eye...

Have a look at http://phpqladmin.com (if you haven't already).

>>>>> "Frederik" == Frederik Denkens writes:

Frederik> Thanks for all responses. It is clear that what I'm
Frederik> looking for doesn't exist, but we are now considering
Frederik> moving to a custom developed solution. Probably
Frederik> externally developed as we have a budget for it.

Frederik> Regards,

Frederik> Frederik.

Frederik> Gavin Westwood wrote:

Frederik Denkens wrote:

In the mean time our customers are becoming more and more
Frederik> demanding on having a 'control panel' so they can
Frederik> self-manage things like DNS and Email. So we are looking
Frederik> for kind of 'control-panel'.

Frederik> Ideally, the solution should be quite 'lightweight' and
Frederik> doesn't try to do too much (like Plesk and things), but
Frederik> is even rather limited. Also it would be multi-server
Frederik> capable.

Frederik> Hi Frederik.

Frederik> I've been looking for something very similar and not
Frederik> been able to find a solution, so I've come to the
Frederik> conclusion that I need to find others who have this
Frederik> problem and work together to create a package or
Frederik> packages to fit the needs of small ISPs running Debian.

Frederik> My thought was to create control panels that are
Frederik> abstracted from the servers themselves (e.g. for mail
Frederik> the server could be Exim or Postfix or Qmail, etc) to
Frederik> allow a consistent method of managing the servers. This
Frederik> would require some duplication of effort to make the
Frederik> available options be able to be set for all the
Frederik> different common implementations of servers on Debian,
Frederik> but would probably make the front end easier to
Frederik> develop...

Frederik> If you do find something, I would appreciate if you
Frederik> point me in that direction. If you would be interested
Frederik> in working with me find others and to develop this
Frederik> (maybe as a Sourceforge project), I would also be
Frederik> interested in hearing from you.

Frederik> Thanks

Frederik> Gavin

Frederik> --

Frederik> Gavin Westwood Solutium

Frederik> http://hosting.solutium.co.uk - quality, affordable
Frederik> web hosting.

Frederik> http://www.solutium.co.uk - IT Services and Support.

Frederik> --

Frederik> Frederik Denkens Zaakvoerder / Commercial Manager
Frederik> iLibris bvba

Frederik> http://www.ilibris.be

Frederik> m: +32 475 96 04 93 t: +32 3 226 21 51 f: +32 3 201 27
Frederik> 19

Frederik> Internet - Colocation - Managed Servers - Hosting
Frederik> Solutions WebApplicaties - Mail Outsourcing - Consulting
Frederik> Services

Frederik> -- Disclaimer -- This email and any attached files are
Frederik> confidential and may be legally privileged. If you are
Frederik> not the intended recipient, any disclosure,
Frederik> reproduction, copying, distribution, or other
Frederik> dissemination or use of this communication is strictly
Frederik> prohibited. If you have received this transmission in
Frederik> error please notify the sender immediately and then
Frederik> delete this email. Email transmission cannot be
Frederik> guaranteed to be secure or error free as information
Frederik> could be intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive
Frederik> late or incomplete, or contain viruses. The sender
Frederik> therefore is in no way liable for any errors or
Frederik> omissions in the content of this message, which may
Frederik> arise as a result of email transmission. If verification
Frederik> is required, please request a hard copy.
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