Controlling servers (e.g. apache, samba)

[Eric Dunbar]

On 03/02/07, John Dangler <jdangler at atlantic.net> wrote:
> On Sat, 2007-02-03 at 17:32 +1100, Peter Garrett wrote:
> > On Sat, 3 Feb 2007 00:58:38 -0500
> > "Jeffrey F. Bloss" <jbloss at tampabay.rr.com> wrote:
> >
> > > > Is there a licencing issues that prevents it from living in the Ubuntu
> > > > repositories?
> > >
> > > Don't have a clue. :)
> > >
> > > Since it's mucking around with a wide variety of software, I suppose
> > > it's entirely possible one of the modules or whatever is licensed oddly.
> >
> > My understanding is that the Debian and Ubuntu Webmin packages are no
> > longer maintained. I seem to recall there was a collective sigh of relief
> > on the developers' mailing list at the time ;-)
> >
> > I don't think there's a licensing issue - but there was, umm, some
> > criticism of Webmin IIRC... </understatement>

> If you're setting up a server to learn about the services and how they
> work and also how to set up and configure them, I recommend doing it at
> command line.  Yes, it takes time, but you'll learn more, and you'll
> probably also find that once you set most of these services up you don't
> really do much of anything to them.

Been there. Done it. Bought the t-shirt :-). I've set up and
configured a server from the CLUI and I agree it's a GREAT way to
learn. My YellowDogLinux server (FC2-based Mac distro) has been
running Samba, AppleFileSharing and Apache for ~2.5 years with NOT ONE
kernel panic and no system crashes. Recently a !$%#!$!@# power failure
brought a 310+ day uptime (no restart) to an end :-( :-( :-(.

That said, the CLUI damned inefficient for doing real work and that's
why I was wondering what people used to take care of all the farting
around in the CLUI.

WebMin is very useful but it takes a smorgas-bord approach -- I use it
for most tasks but it doesn't excel at any one task since it does so
many.

> I do admit that something like webmin
> would be convenient to maintain changes once initial setup is done, but
> I would want something like that to be able to apply SSL certificates
> (at root and domain levels), add specific types of records to DNS (PTR,
> etc), write mail filter rules, etc... and I haven't seen a package that
> would handle those types of tasks.

Different server needs, different apps ;-).

I need something to maintain and configure a pretty basic server --
file server (AFS, Samba), Apache + sundry PHP-based applications (e.g.
Gallery), and an X11 server so I can log-in from my Mac (my main
computer) to get my Linux fix.

Would CentOS maybe be a better choice as a light-weight,
low-configuration needed server OS than Ubuntu? I'll still be using
Ubuntu to run the VM but I don't particularly care what distro runs my
server, so long as it runs and can get up-and-running with a minimum
of fuss (i.e. CLUI stuff) ;-).

Hmm. You've got me thinking -- maybe I should see if CentOS is any
good (since it's a RHEL-based distro, explicitly designed for server
administrators who aren't always interested in fiddling with their
servers and need good interfaces to manage them... hmmm???... of
course, they do pay through the nose for those "extra" configuration
tools).

PS I agree that the CLUI is a great way to learn things, but, I've
been fighting with Ubuntu to get VMware Server up and running and I
have to admit that I really don't care about what dependencies are
needed or what little config files are set so long as it runs properly
-- plus, I now value my time much more and get less satisfaction out
of "solving" a problem  (and, once I've gotten past the problem I will
hopefully not have to re-visit the solution again).

Hmm. Maybe VHCS, ISPConfig or even ZPanel might give me some of the
control I desire (perhaps not for initial configuration but they
should be good for on-going control).

Eric.