minAdmin, LEB beta now!

zsero

I'd like to present you my work what I was doing in the few months since I've first signed up for my $10 dollar a year host here (since I've moved to an SSD host, such a dangerous site this one is...)

Welcome to minAdmin! I wrote this script to make a minimalist low-memory (no running process) cPanel or DirectAdmin alternative what we can use to configure our most common settings on self-managed VPS-es. I hope that using minAdmin (and minstall) will make it possible for a lot of people to move from slow and unreliable shared hosts to their own self-managed VPS.

Only supports servers installed by the minstall install script. To read more about minstall look here: https://github.com/KnightSwarm/Minstall

Screenshot

Features sets up a full nginx-php-mysql webserver config on a minstall-ed environment takes all configuration from a single file creating new hosts, users, databases: create a new line removing hosts, users, databases: comment out or delete a line parses all existing files and asks the user before the removal (except two folders, see warnings below) sets up all MySQL databases and the proper user permissions creates unix users, sets their http folder structure and file permissions backs up all MySQL databases at each run automatically supports www and non-www redirections domain aliases automatic MySQL root password setting licenced under MIT License

Installing There is no installing. Just 1. download the up-to-date version from here: https://bitbucket.org/zsero/minadmin/get/default.tar.gz 2. uncompress it into /root/minadmin and copy one of the sample configs to minconfig.ini 3. edit the minconfig.ini to your liking

Usage 1. edit the minconfig.ini to your liking 2. run python minadmin.py 3. next time you update your settings, run python minadmin.py again

Temporary website http://goo.gl/u1M9G

Warning Do not install it on a production machine before you understand how does it work! Try it out first on an empty VPS or VirtualBox! Be careful if you have made custom php pool or nginx settings, backup first, this tool will override them. Please read warnings in the linked document.

I haven't tested it on Ubuntu, reports welcome!

Open source Feel free to contribute to the project here: https://bitbucket.org/zsero/minadmin/

Sample config files sample 1 - static site.ini sample 2 - simple blog.ini sample 3 - advanced options.ini

Maounique

This looks awesome exactly when I am looking at panels... I will give it a try after I finish my EHCP tutorial. M

telephone

Screenshots or a demo?

wdq

I'd like some screenshots as well. This project looks very interesting, but I'd like screenshots before I install it on one of my servers.

Fritz

Looks promising. Demo? Is this different from minstall?

zsero

OK, I think I need to explain this part more, as it's different from the common admin panels. There is no running process, no web interface, just an ini file to edit.

Here are three sample files sample 1 - static site.ini sample 2 - simple blog.ini sample 3 - advanced options.ini

You set the ini and run the script to update settings. It runs, outputs things and that's it. No more process. The next time you want to update the settings you run it again!

Screenshot

@Fritz said: Is this different from minstall?

This is like the manage-... part of minstall! manage-add-user, manage-add-host, etc. on a higher level.

winston

why is your terminal so pretty?

ErawanArifNugroho

It's because Minstall :)

telephone

@zsero said: OK, I think I need to explain this part more, as it's different from the common admin panels. There is no running process, no web interface, just an ini file to edit.

Yep, when you compare a product to cPanel or DirectAdmin one automatically assumes that you're referring to a web interface.

@zsero said: I wrote this script to make a minimalist low-memory (no running process) cPanel or DirectAdmin alternative what we can use to configure our most common settings on self-managed VPS-es.

zsero

@telephone said: Yep, when you compare a product to cPanel or DirectAdmin one automatically assumes that you're referring to a web interface.

Yes, I wasn't clear enough, now I have a screenshot in the first post :-) With cPanel I always felt that I just cannot "have" my configuration, it's always there somewhere hidden behind lots of clicking. My philosophy with minAdmin is to keep all configuration in a single file, what you can backup, restore between different hosts. Of course, Minstall is the first part of the equation, it makes all Debian/Ubuntu hosts function the same, and then we can use minAdmin to configure everything.

Chief

@zsero, really nice effort there!

jarland

Appreciate you sharing your creativity with us on this. Would love to see how this evolves!

Mon5t3r

+1 thanks for using python.. :P

maxexcloo

Awesome awesome work man! I might just scrap my manage-* modules and replace them with this (if you're interested!)

Mon5t3r

@maxexcloo said: I might just scrap my manage-* modules and replace them with this

i told you.. :P but still your minstall is great for me, and this minadmin look promising.. also i love python so much! hahaha

maxexcloo

I'm planning on keeping my script in BASH but the manage-* modules are pretty painful to work with and debug ;P

craigb

This is good stuff - have you ever looked at using makefiles for this? There are pros and cons as usual but free dependency checking... It would require an apt-get install make beforehand but that's it.

zsero

Thanks for the good words! Max, we can keep them in two separate projects or merge them into one, I'm open for both solutions. But first I'd prefer to wait till minAdmin matures a bit as in the early period lot of things can change and it's better to do those big changes in a separate project. Also, do you mind changing minstall to be MIT licensed? This is a more open license, allowing more people to use it for commercial purposes, thus making a higher chance for having contributions from hosting companies or private users for example.