Re: Easier administration (similar to Linuxconf)
Well... its true... if people wrote enough modules for Linuxconf, then it
could, theoretically, have functionality similar to colbat servers.
However... even if you don't have all those modules, at least standardize
on some common tools, and make the functionality similar, if not better,
than colbat servers. I know colbat servers don't have exim and smail,
zmailer, etc. ... only sendmail (by default, afaik). And that allows them
to make the interface and everything work PROPERLY and FULLY with just that
server. If someone wrote something like that, and they said "either use
Apache, Sendmail, webalizer and majordomo, or don't use Linuxconf", i
wouldn't have a beef. You can't expect people to write a module for
everything under the sun. But at least get the few modules really working
with full customization.
I hope you guys know what i mean. I don't expect it to work with
everything. But get something working like Colbat servers... only a few
package options, but those packages, once installed, can be fully
customized easily, and the configs can be distributed to many servers
easily, without hassle and fuss.
I'd be willing to help out a bit if someone shared the same philosophy as I
do :-)
Oh.. and I know i could do this all with scripts, write it all myself, but
thats not the point. I mean... i don't admin hundreds of servers... but its
enough to make manually configuring each a time consuming hassle. If
something is already out there, why would i need to write scripts? Why not
pool all our efforts towards one project and get it working properly? :-)
Jason.
----- Original Message -----
From: "I. Forbes" <iforbes@zsd.co.za>
To: <debian-isp@lists.debian.org>; "Mailing List" <maillist@jasonlim.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 30, 2000 8:40 PM
Subject: Re: Easier administration (similar to Linuxconf)
> Hello All
>
> On 29 Mar 00, at 16:20, Smoerk wrote:
>
> > > You know the "web-enabled" administration software used by Colbat
servers?
> > > I was wondering if anything for Linux (and hopefully debanized) was
> > > similar?
> >
> > Maybe Webmin (www.webmin.com)?
> > But why don't you write some scripts, which setup a default
> > configuration? A config tool is not faster than doing the same in the
> > config files. It's easier, but not faster.
>
> I have also been thinking about this problem for a while. Specifically
> I would like an interface to allow the following.
>
> Users to do things like:
>
> - change passwords
> - change their ".forward" file settings.
>
> And a semi privileged non-root administrator to:
>
> - add and delete users
> - change other users passwords (but not root password)
> - view other users's mail
> - edit /etc/aliases
>
> I have looked at linux.conf and webmin. Linux.conf seems to be an
> overkill and too experimental (especially on Debian) to let loose on
> semi-skilled admins. Webmin seemed to climb in and edit files
> without any regard for standard system tools. I had a look at the
> coding of an early version and decided to leave it. It may be better
> by now.
>
> My idea was to find or write simple console based, but menu driven
> tools for doing these tasks. These could be accessed from the
> linux console, telnet, xterm or from a web page via the java telnet
> client.
>
> It has the major advantage over linux.conf and webmin in that
> everything that runs on the linux box runs under the users own uid
> which is much simpler to secure than anything that works off a www
> interface and runs suid root.
>
> Has anybody got any console based, menu driven scripts to start
> with?
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> Ian Forbes ZSD
> http://www.zsd.co.za
> Office: +27 +21 683-1388 Fax: +27 +21 64-1106
> Snail Mail: P.O. Box 46827, Glosderry, 7702, South Africa
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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