Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Dedicated Server : Control Panel, what should it do?

[Félix C.Courtemanche]

If you remember or were there, I aksed what a host should offer in a previous old thread...

Now, my question is addressed to any clients & hosts / resellers, out there.

I am currently building myself a DNS.cp and WEB.cp control panel to manage our dedicated name servers and to manage our shared / dedicated servers.

Now, the DNS.cp is almost done, but I programmed it very modular, so that I can add any good ideas you might have. That product might be quite usefull since everything I saw so far was either bugged, slow, or expensive.

Feel free to drop any ideas, wishlists, etc on that one

The WEB.cp is a project I am starting now is a more ambitious project because I want to (will) build it so that it can be used by the system admin, their clients (reseller or not) and hanbdle the reseller's clients. That mean there will be 3 level of CP, with different possibilities for each, etc.

We have a pretty long list already of things we would like to have included in it from our current experience, but I am curious to see what everyone else here can come up with. Hopefully we can come out with some nice product that would be powerfull, stable, secure and relatively cheap. (Since I am programming it in my spare time)

The both control panels are programmed in PHP and MySQL, so that combo is fast and _free_ since it is open source.

I'm waiting for your ideas

[BC]

Felix, would you mind posting the list of what you already have on the design of the CP (for both DNS and Web)? That way we can try and pick anything that we think might be missing or warrant being included in the CP.

I have a few ideas (from both the Alabanza and WebExpose CPs) but I'd like to see what the list has first.

Thanks.

should be simple and easy to use set up new domains,change passwords, and mail manager and thats all I look for and of course look good hate webmins layout

[Félix C.Courtemanche]

BC, here is the list... hang on, its pretty long.
Please note that this list is taken from my personal one, so it might contains some grammar or syntax errors... Keep in mind that I am french and that when I don't write for the public I may be less carefull

DNS.cp
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- Templates (allow you to customize what your one entry domain should be)
- Templates online editions
- Mass Modifications
- Single entry, modification, deletion
- Listing, sorting
- NO ROOT through the web, every server side commands are performed through cron, every minutes
- user management, allow to have admins to see all the records and users to see specific domains, admin them as they want (not delete them)
- server status, stats, etc.
- Server wide configurations, personalized to the users as well, including default values and layout of the web page
- backup of every deleted entry, auto backup how often you want, easy restore.
- reset tool to wipe out the named directory and creat it from scratch using the values in the mysql db
- sanity check
- hability to add entries sent by a remote web server, if the username, password and encryption key is ok (allow you to automatically create the dns entries)

I think that's about it for the DNS.cp ...

Now, the long part for the WEB.cp
WEB.cp
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- listing of sub accounts under the main accoutn (for resellers)
- 3 level template (our, our reseller for their clients, our clients's) hability to deactivate one of them... or maybe 2 level and let us show our stuff to resellers and normal clients.
- show bandwidth usage, hd usage and number of ftp users, e-mail users per domain in a nice way.
- hability to add users for ftp, e-mail or both
- manage mailing list
- manage SSL certificate (if on dedicated ip) and for cheap SSL certificate for each serverr for the administration area. (or clients, not sure of the impact on CPU)
- web based e-mail (IMP?)
- shopping cart (opensales.org?) <= later on
- phpmyadmin
- testmy.cgi
- set up scripts automatically (counter, form to mail, forum, guestbook, random img, random sound)
- assign users to specific directories instead of in /users
- upgrade plan, request add-ons on the fly (ssi, perl, php, mysql)
- password protected directories
- error pages
- set up anti-leach scripts
- set up cron jobs (any maximum?) and redirect the output to the user's admin e-mail account.
- allocate a total bandwidth, ftp users and e-mail users per master account
- manage users, open sub accounts using admin password or reseller account pasword for their subs.
- add, remove, modify records.
- request vanity domains and automatically generate the dns request aumatically.
- user managed dns records (reseller accounts and admin) (on/off) <=automation with the DNS.cp
- server, network and services status
- ping to multiple hosts around the world (speed and reliability test)
- poll about the services
- register domains through the web.cp
- billing history - perhaps in Invoice Form
- search engine?
- e-mail warning for hd and bandwidth quotas
- Have a webbased File manager. (can take some time to create though)
- Home Page templates, enter in there information and a Home page is made
- ADMINISTRATION
- BE able to click on a user in the Database (an activate button) and have DNS entries and users and site, be made all at the same time.
- A way to disable the above feature if we want to disable the site
- Bandwidth monitor for each site on one listing
- Have Bandwidth per month, per day, per year.. and have averages.
- Have an e-mail sent out, when a user goes over there bandwidth limit per day. (send it once per week if a bit over and per day when really over)
- Have it so we can press a button in the DB and the site is disabled, and they have no access at all ( e-mail accounts, ftp, web)
- A tool to move web sites between servers… simply select destination and the server moves all the files, re-create the accounts, the users, transfer aliases, switch the dns.
- A tool to move web sites from other hosts to our servers, given the username, password and ip of the old host.
- A tool to register new domains at 000domains.com (or anywhere else)

WEB.cp notes:
The "db" will be included in the admin control panel. that will automatically display ALL accounts and display sub accounts under their accounts (on a per-server basis... so we need to keep all accoutns on the same server as much as possible), display bandwidth usage for each ON the listing, same with hd usage... Have a server act as the MASTER ADMINISTRATION server... it will broadcast new entries to any of our other servers, wich will automatically create it. Same with de-activation, etc. It could be possible to set a max account var on each server, and until that limit is reached, the master admin server would add them to it (no need to select the server ourselves anymore)... when we remove one domain from a server, it would automatically re-fill the server afterward to keep our stuff optimized to its pre-determined limit.

Any other ideas?

Of course, the ease of use, quick loading and help files are not mentioned above but are always included in any of my programs.

[stratius-webmaster]

I would love to help out on this project, but im in fear that you are asking for our help and it will turn out to be closed after it is done. If you plan to release this project to the general public for free I would realy love to help out. Otherwise i feel that you are just trying to leech information from us.

[Edited by stratius-webmaster on 09-13-2000 at 06:38 PM]

[Félix C.Courtemanche]

Our plans are the following:
(DNS.cp)
I am building the DNS.cp (it is almost done, but still needs some tweaking, test-run, etc) and once it is working well, I plan to use it to produce a good free / paying DNS hosting for anyone and use it for myself. I must admit that since I am still the one coding all the stuff and already made up a pretty long list of what I would like (wich can profit to anyone reading this, btw) I will probably ask for a small fee when redistributing DNS.cp. If this was a group project, with many others skilled php & mysql coders, I would have absolutely no problems giving it out.

Again, I am the one doing all the hard job, and making sure everything is safe and working well, so I personally see it ok to ask for a small registration fee when someone else is using it and it works well.

As for the WEB.cp, my personal plans were to program it (I expect to be working on this until around christmas) then release it to the public... We would however offer to install it ourselves on anyone's servers, securing and optimizing it at the same time to make sure that the WEB.cp is perfectly compatible and working as fast as it can. That offer would not be free, but not that expensive anyway.

I currently am in this business not because I want to make some quick cash... but because internet, computers, programming, design and multimedia is MY world, I definately love working around this, creating scripts, banners, anything.

I still didn't find a way to live without having cash to pay for my basics needs

The other opportunity I thought was to have some "beta testers", companies willing to try and test-run my software with me, to make sure that any potential bugs are ironed out, plug new modules when someone has a good idea, etc.

Anyhow, if you prefer not to help me... so be it I will develop it, no matter if people help me do it or not. I simply thought that with the help of people I could make it much better and an interesting alternative to dell, cobalt, plesk and webmin.

I personally learnt to enjoy tools I created because I _know_ how they work and if something ever goes wrong, I _know_ how to fix it fast.


Of course, you don't have to believe me at all :p

[stratius-webmaster]

I think I may of come off a bit rash in my last post. True you deserve credit and rewards for your efforts. Its just that ive seen many web control panels out there and they cost an arm and a leg. I just cant see paying what these companys want for their software. I have no problem helping out you in your effort to make somthing new and better than the rest, but If you do charge for it I would also like to see it at a very good price. Not only will this encourage the other companys out their to make their product better, but will also get the prices down. I would love to help out with the coding (backend, and frontend). I would also like to see it released Free to the public even though I would understand if you charged for it. Maybe you could release the software for free, and charge for such things as modifications, install, or any other things the company may require.

[Félix C.Courtemanche]

If you read my previous message carefully, this is exactly what I intend to do...
In fact, since most CP out there are expensive, I am mainly worried that someone takes up all my code&ideas, modify it a bit, rename it and sell it for a fortune, while he did nothing.

If Zend ever release their pre-PHP-compilator, that would most likely how it would be released (plus it would be even faster! )

I don't want to _release_ my whole effort to the public with no compensation, but as I said earlier, I don't plan to become millionaire in 2 weeks, or to become millionaire at all (even though I believe I could if I areally wanted to)

If you really are interested in me on this project... drop me a e-mail at webmaster@can-host.com , telling me what you can do, are good at, and would like to do.

I basically will consider someone skilled in PHP, MySQL, Advanced linux security & optimization, project management and that have good & fresh ideas. I easily handle any design part, since one of my 4 preferred job on internet is web design, flash, graphics, etc and I believe that I'm working pretty well.

Of course, I was expecting to work alone, so don't feel that you have to work with me if you don't think you have the time, etc. I will definately need people later on to test my 2 cp, and if you want to do that, it would be helpfull and fine as well

[Martie]

WOW....Im very impressed..Sounds fantastic!
I will be watching...just wanted to give ya feedback!

[4php]

Im probably 2/3 complete on a control panel, its been in use by a few people for a couple of months but I still have more to do on it.
It does Apache, DNS and email. FTP etc
I was considering releasing it for free but decided against it. Why ? one reason is the people who use it are using will be using it to just make money -so I don't feel the need to release the source code.
I'll give it free to community groups but thats it.
Im hopeful the Zend compiler comes out soon too.

Its doubtful anyone will realease a control panel for hosting because it takes a long time to develop it and its worth a lot of money too.
So good luck with it because you have months of hard work ahead of you. I can't offer suggestions as how to do it because you are doing it to make money. Which isn't a bad thing.

[Félix C.Courtemanche]

4php... consider the opposite... if you didnt have one of my suggestion, mentionned earlier, you just quickly included it in your work.

Why should we be so afraid of helping each others? the competition (or so-called competition) is not concerning the ideas... but on HOW you apply them and develop something effective.

If anyone feel like taking all my ideas, developping the same thing as I will do and re-sell it... so be it. but I am sure that my work will be exactly what we need, and it will be the best for what we want to offer.

Of course... what someone get he usually won't give to someone else.

Try, 2 seconds, to forget MONEY.

But... that's the world we live in... (no offense, but in the USA this is the only way it is) cash is everything...

ewh. I am DEFINATELY not building yet-another control panel... I am building a centralized-networked web hosting facility to allow ease of administration, and give more freedom, power (but remain secure) to our clients.

Beat that if you want... I will do it anyway

[4php]

Ok helping and suggestions are fine - I should have said detailed explanations of how to do things. ie actual code and stuff

[Félix C.Courtemanche]

I don't need that
I was simply asking you guys if anyone had any more ideas than we already had... so far I got a lot of excited answers about what I said (my ideas) but nothing new... so I guess I pretty much covered it all?