Hello wht,
I am operating a small web host and currently using Cpanel servers.
I am unhappy with Cpanel because it is based on only running one server. I would like to have a solution that would let me manage multiple servers together. I am experienced with *nix administration, so I would like to have something that I can fix and upgrade myself too instead of relying on a control panel vendor like cpanel for fixes. One of the problems with Cpanel and other panels such as Ensim is that if I hack it up and make my own customizations, they will be lost the next time I upgrade.
I would also like to have my hosting environment setup spread across multiple servers, instead of running mail, dns, httpd, etc on each individual server with each server having its own passwd file of user accounts. For example, I would like to have 3 servers that just do DNS, and have multiple servers for mail, perhaps two main mail servers with the same MX weight and then a backup mail server or two also. Then, I would add accounts on individual web servers and possibly use dedicated MySQL servers for customers' databases. These are just some ideas off the top of my head.
I'd like to hear from people who have rolled their own control panel/hosting environment. I know Hsphere does something similar like this, but I'd like to keep it open source and not all proprietary. I don't need tons of features like cpanel does, so I think I could do better with managing my own system. For those that have done something similar, what softwares did you use, and how do you keep track of it all?
thanks in advance,
Mark
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