From owner-freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Nov 4 00:14:17 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-isp@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-isp@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 38CE016A412 for ; Sat, 4 Nov 2006 00:14:17 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mark@gaiahost.coop) Received: from biodiesel.gaiahost.coop (biodiesel.gaiahost.coop [64.95.78.120]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3CAEB43D7C for ; Sat, 4 Nov 2006 00:14:13 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from mark@gaiahost.coop) Received: from gaiahost.coop (host-64-65-195-19.spr.choiceone.net [::ffff:64.65.195.19]) (AUTH: LOGIN mark@hubcapconsulting.com) by biodiesel.gaiahost.coop with esmtp; Fri, 03 Nov 2006 19:14:07 -0500 id 0024C1BE.454BDB51.00001FDF Received: by gaiahost.coop (sSMTP sendmail emulation); Fri, 3 Nov 2006 19:14:09 -0500 Date: Fri, 3 Nov 2006 19:14:08 -0500 From: Mark Bucciarelli To: "Marc G. Fournier" Message-ID: <20061104001408.GT2276@rabbit> Mail-Followup-To: "Marc G. Fournier" , freebsd-isp@freebsd.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.1i Cc: freebsd-isp@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Good OSS Control Panel ala CPanel ... X-BeenThere: freebsd-isp@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Internet Services Providers List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 04 Nov 2006 00:14:17 -0000 On Fri, Nov 03, 2006 at 04:17:17PM -0400, Marc G. Fournier wrote: > > Does one exist, plain and simple? > There's a gaggle of them: gplhost, ispconfig, webmin (?), etc. I haven't found one I liked. Mainly because none do a good job of managing multiple services on multiple servers. Also, some config options are stored in text files not a db. That's another area I found lacking. Finally, I use the Courier MTA, not postfix. Most free software panels assume Postfix. Finally, I'm a little paranoid about security. So I'm writing one [1]. My approach is to use key-based SSH to talk to other servers. I may even write a special shell to further restrict what the panel user can do (ala git-shell) on the remote box. The fascgi panel app runs in a chroot jail. Using C and multi-threaded fastcgi (mainly for fun, I know it's overkill--cgi would probably work just fine). I'm hoping to do very little templating/layout on the server and stuff the UI into javascript. Haven't got that far yet. Most of customers want logs and email mods. Phpmyadmin does a fine job of satisfying the demand for db gui (seems like that's what everyone expects anyway). What tasks do your users want? By the way, given how much free software ISP's use, it's surprising to me there's not a good free panel yet. m [1] http://freedom.gaiahost.coop/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?p=panel;a=summary