Web Hosting Talk : Advertising Forums : Web Hosting Offers : Shared Hosting Offers : New control panel software??

[scottlaw]

Hello,

We are in the planning stage of developing our own control panel and backend for when we leave Alabanza. This control panel will have all the features plus some that Alabanza doesn't have. The backend will also have most of the features, though not all at first. It will probably lack some of the reporting and the ability to control multiple servers from one DSM but the billing and instant signup features will be there.

What I am wondering is if other hosts would be interested in this? If we start developing it just for our servers then it will be hard to change it for distribution. This will just be the software, we will not be hosting servers or providing support for the entire server like Alabanza does (this is why I think they have major support problems). The program will be written for Red Hat machines in Perl and will use MySQL and Qmail. This means you can upgrade MySQL, PHP, Apache, ect. without worrying about it breaking the control panel.

We have contacts with a lot of off-shore programmers so getting it developed will not be a problem... We would just like to see if there is a commercial interest for this type of software solution or if most companies like the combination of hosting/server/software that Alabanza and VDI provide. Also, any suggestions or changes for the control panel or backend.

Scott

[james]

I would be interested in this.
Was looking at plesk but open to others

[scottlaw]

Originally posted by james:
I would be interested in this.
Was looking at plesk but open to others

Believe me... It will be 100 times better then Plesk. We use to use Plesk but were very disappointed with it.

Scott

[UNIXIELHOST]

scottlaw,

I saw the Plesk demo and its alright but too limited, but I like Alabanza ones...

What missing is that:

1) No sub domain setup
2) No STMP Access
3) Setup FTP users account
4) Setup SSL Accts like https://username.yourdomain.com
5) Bandwidth Manager
6) Many CGI Tools
7) Reseller Control Panel (Add,Edit,Delete,Suspsend accounts in real time)

Stuff like that .. That will be a blast!

Releasing as GNU or is it GPL (whatever) would make it a big success, people could contribute to it etc... maybe even put it on sourceforge.net (mySQL latest example). If you did want to make money from this, perhaps have modules that you charge for and other features that cost and maybe tech-support, Sendmail is a good example of this where the core is free however you can get other versions at cost.

[marksy]

Scott,
We'd be interested in talking about it, perhaps co-development or more. We've played around with this for a while and recent events at Alabanza made us think even harder. Contact me if you're interested in partnering/help on this.



------------------
Chris Marks
KBS Web Hosting
http://www.netfronts.com

What do you guys think of www.sphera.com?

plesk does seem limited at this time.

Id be interested in what features people want
in a control panel -
Im part way through developing my own at the moment based on php/mysql http://www.4php.com/images/domain.gif
an example of one screen.
It lets you set up multiple users on a dedicated server -
each user controls -
- their own name servers - using tinydns (set up domains, subdomains, change mx records etc)
- configure virtualhosts on apache servers
- set up proftpd ftp accounts
- set up domains for use with qmail/vmailmgr

I may gpl it, I don't know haven't thought a lot about it- I needed it so I wrote it.

Things I thought may be worthwhile and am working on are -
-editing dns for multiple domains at once(useful for people who park hundreds of domains to sell them)
- letting users create certain number of databases in mysql or postgresql
- much more detailed vhost configuration (let users turn on/off php directives per virtual host or directory)
- compiling/installing apache/php(also mod ssl) through a control panel
- set up of virtal ssl hosts on apache
- configure webalizer conf files by the web

If anyone has ideas of what they would want on a server control interface Id realy like to hear them.

[marksy]

sphera is way too overpriced - $4 per user/month...no way. You're better off with Alabanza at that price.

------------------
Chris Marks
KBS Web Hosting
http://www.netfronts.com

[Duster]

4php,

It sounds like you're off to a good start. A few other things I would like to see is administering a miling program, like Major Domo (along with the MySQL databases you already mentioned), being able to add IP addresses and domains to be blocked to the mail transport program used (spam control, as in writint to sendmail's access file, from which access.db is generated), and a number of other features. Many are already a part of Webmin.

I'd like to see the ability to edit the httpd.conf file for various things, from adding custom 404 pages to others. However, that is of minor concern compared to other, more desirable features.

For sendmail I can't help, Im running qmail and would ruather concentrate on that.
For mailing lists ezmlm would be used, I use vmailmgr(vmailmgr.org) and omail (omil.omnis.ch) for each domains email. The bloke writing omail will plikely be incorporating mailing list control along with the current interface.

For custom 404's etc thats already an option per vhost - it can be pointed to whatever error files you like.

I will be adding every apache option I can to it also.

[Duster]

I think there is a need for a quality control panel that is independent of any particular hosting company, that is affordable (free would be good).

I didn't mean to suggest sendmail as the mail trnaasport program it should work with. I can see why, from a security standpoint, qmail is better. Also, from what I've read, other choices, like ProFTPD instead of WuFTP, sudo (shipped with Red hat 6.2)instead of su, Open SSH isntead of telnet would be better.

Billing of customers (sending invoices by e-mail) would be a nice feature also.

[Duster]

That's not crazy, Chicken. I've read of some control panles that have that feature, they install rpms, so one can add and update programs from the cp. Being able to addthings like a firewall and other security programs (like tripwire) would be helpful.

well its designed so a sendmail module could be added - or other modules too - I just don't know enough(or want to) about sendmail or BIND.

It does uses sudo to carry out some commands needed to be done by root. Billing is a good idea. Ill have to add that.

It may be free haven't decided yet, I just need to make a living somehow - an option is to gpl it and just charge for suport of it.

[Chicken]

So I'd probably be insane if I requested that it had everything that it supports included right? One thing I would like is an one stop, easy to use CP that would install everything where it needed to be. If you think qmail is better than sendmail and openSSH over telnet then somehow include it as a total package. This may be overly simplistic, but all-in-one server management in a box seems to work for cobalt, and if you could blow that away (yes, I know others already do this), with a total "this is all you'll ever need" type package, whooooooo.

I think there is a big market for people who don't know what the hell they are doing so to speak. Alabanza might be a good example of this to some degree.

Ok, so this post is probaly pointless (trying to add to a conversation that I really don't know much about). But maybe it will spark some thought to those of you who know what you are doing