Hi, My name is Rick and I've used many many control panels out there. Very few have quite full filled my needs, I wrote a list of requirements on my blog at http://www.netcrafted.com/call-for-new-server-configuration-platform/ On my blog I also discussed the various flaws I noticed in the different control panels that did exist, what I do like and so on. I'm looking to poll suggestions from other server admins out there that can detail the flaws & must haves in a control panel for them. And before I get some that blast no need to use a control panel, just use the shell strictly. Well that is true for some, that may be the way, however when you administer many many servers, or you busy in other tasks... The headache of having to do everything by hand just isn't worth it. So please read my blog, and server admins lend me your suggestions as well.
Nice article. One aspect missing is the purpose of the server. For example, for servers I manage with a single client/website I want something minimal on it. Webmin/Virtalmin is fine. For hosting environment servers I tend to go with CPanel, though I do like some things about DirectAdmin (not mentioned in your article). The most important feature to me is "Can handle multiple servers seamlessly". If you proceed with a project, post something here so we can follow along or contribute.
When you mention purpose of the server, what do you mean specifically? Purpose of the server can vary, though for the most part my servers need to be able to manage both web hosting accounts, and shell accounts. Thats a key item, as I offer hosting services, but I also like to ease the setup of my own personal setups which I require shell accounts. Not to mention, I'd like a management platform that also works with FreeBSD just as well as it works on Linux. Windows.... However, I don't really care about. As for should the server panel work with game based servers? Honestly my knowledge in that arena is very poor. Should it be able to handle media server setups? Definetely, I see that is being used more & more as time goes by. However a media server management add-on would be further in my game plan should I continue with this. More importantly, I would want to gather opinions from the masses, most importantly server admins about the must needs in a server panel management platform where they do business. DirectAdmin I agree is a decent option, I didn't really mention it in my article, just as I didn't mention plesk further than just briefly. My comments on DirectAdmin is that it is a great administrative platform, its probably a very good rival to something like cpanel and a little more affordable. Plesk I used many years back, however the fact that they charge you on a per account basis makes it not a viable option to me when I'm dealing in 300+ accounts on some servers. Yes, this is one thing that draws me more towards ISPConfig. ISPConfig is generally what I recommend to clients of mine where I manage their servers for them whereas I can link all the servers into one control panel for me to manage. However, even though ISPConfig supports remote management it has its flaws at times which can definitely be improved. Again, if I get enough comments and perhaps a stride behind my ideas I will definitely move forward. But like anything, and especially with an item involving server administration, I believe something like this should be carefully though out and architected before even a lick of code is touched in creating such a thing. Some ideas I have which would allow for seamless editing of server configuration files by hand, as well as handling by the panels(which currently only virtualmin/webmin does!) Is using the pear apache & configuration container extension. And, as you may of noticed I touched lightly on Symfony2, I believe strongly that Symfony2 has to be one of the best frameworks to use and I will definitely be using that framework to build the panel up. As far as License? I'm thinking either a BSD or an MIT License.
I need fewer bells and whistles for servers that have only a single website compared to servers that are used for web hosting. I'm afraid I'm not familiar with Symfony2. One thing that is valuable to me, though, is that the control panel be relatively 'light'. I used HSphere at one time (Tomcat) and have recently used Plesk. Both are way too resource intensive for my taste.
Here's a followup, I still haven't forgot about this panel in the work, actually I'm wanting to move a little forward with it here soon. I recently made another blog post about it here. I've since learned about a few more panels such as ZPanel and so on, though even that I don't believe fits the needs for a good panel. I'm polling out there once more, and hope to get some comments on my blog post as I'm brainstorming up the best ways to accomplish somethings. Something as critical as managing the config of a server in the best way I think should be planned out carefully before a lick of code is written. Once all the details are locked down, I have a prospect for a funding source which will allow me to produce this as an open source project with a good team of developers. Here's a list of notable plans as well that I think might interest some people: Automatic Integration. Similar to Virtualmin/Webmin. While their UI is horrendous, the actual ability to configure a server almost seamlessly and in certain cases a lot you to still make manual configuration changes and panel changes at the sometime must be admirable. Ontop of that, my dream for a panel is that you DO NOT need to install it on a fresh system. Ideally you can just slide it on a server that has already been setup, and possibly even has used another server panel alternative, and the panel should JUST work. Ability to work with multiple servers and link them together with ease. ISPConfig currently offers the ability to work with multiple servers, though I'm not the biggest fan how they accomplish this. They must maintain a complete mirrored database from server to server and it replicates changes over to have take effect to the slaves. My idea for a multi server setup is more of a master<->master with an ACL type setup between servers Supported Platforms: I believe all standard unix platforms should be supported. Initial goals of development will be to support Debian, Cent & FreeBSD out of the box. Support Unix users just as well as it supports virtual users. Currently Virtualmin supports shell users no virtual users, ISPConfig supports virtual users and there shell user complement is severely lacking. CPanel seems to do the best in this regard. An INTUITIVE UI. This is the biggest flaw of just about every panel out there. ISPConfig has a decent UI in one regard, however though the lack of proper integration between setting up sites and DNS's is very lacking. Cpanel does great on the Regular front end user, though their WHM while exhaustive in options is very lacking is decent UI design, virtualmin is just plain horrid. DirectAdmin seems too simple in some regards. As for ZPanel I only looked at it briefly and comment too much on that one. Easy migrations to & from existing server panel softwares out there. This is a major one which will probably keep many people using commercial or otherwise established alternatives from trying out a new panel. While it may have everything they need, the hassle of switching their users to a new platform just isn't worth it. If the server control was set up in a way to migrate users FROM and BACK TO existing panels I'm sure it would be well worth it to at least try. The Back TO is import an as well, because think of it, isn't their a great chance we run more than one panel out there? Most likely! Even if you as the server administrator may think its a great alternative, it will be much more flexible and pleasant to deal with if you can not only move accounts between panels of the same type, but even to another server running cpanel or directadmin. I welcome people to comment on my blog postings regarding this project to learn more and add in their own input. Currently, I'm still in the phase of architecting the design together. I also have a prospective funding source which will fund this as a open source project, though I want to have it thoroughly planned out before I pitch a presentation to them to get the project off the ground farther. I seriously plan to take on this project in the behemoth manner as it really is, and have it done right because our current options are either just not quite there, un-intuitive, and many open source contenders simply don't have what it takes to compete with the over-priced commercial alternatives.
I think any good hosting panel that can run clustered instances under a single interface would be real nice. The same features as cpanel except that can run on ubuntu/debian so more packages are available without adding extra repos and potentially messing things up. Also something that can do complete system snapshots meaning if you get a bad update or something you arent forever trying to fix or have to reformat. Too much system interference can be a problem but if its a panel that can run on a current os, install any popular software and can completely rollback in the event of problems then I wouldnt mind it. But yeah, something like cpanel but that can be clustered - fs and db separately or together, would be great. I would give it a try for sure.