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Do you think a terminal based GUI server admin panel can take off?
We regularly read about servers administration panels getting hacked. One of the main reason for this is that these are web applications, running over world-open HTTP ports. Since most of the non-enterprise customers can't have static IP for their SOHO connection, the panels can't be locked down to their IP.
Security of web applications is a very involved matter. There are many attack vectors. Also, web technologies change very fast, so a lot of projects end up with outdated dependencies.
So do you think there is a scope for a server admin panel which works with a ncurses type GUI? One will need to log in using SSH and then run a command to launch the control panel.
Or do you think to expect a shared hosting customer to log in using SSH connection is too much? Also, there is a question of educating people to use a desktop FTP client instead of a web-based file browser/editor.
Ideas/Opinions?
Comments
It's called CentMinMod, and doesn't really need ncurses or slrn to do the job. Dialog already exists if you wanna make it pretty.
Expecting a shared-hosting person to know what an vhost is, little alone an A record, is a bit above and beyond.
From an admin point of view, I'd love to get rid of the whole web stack (at least when it isn't required for the applications that run on the server anyways). So if you could create something like webmin, but without the web, it'd be great. Also make it modular so everyone can easily extend and customize it. And of course make it mostly distro agnostic (maybe systemd would be a dependency if you think abstracting it away is too much work).
But for non-IT/enduser-facing servers (as a customer self service / high level admin thing like cpanel): forget it!
People will kick and scream and claim its "complicated", and "nerd stuff" or that it "looks like DOS". If it can't be done in a browser it sucks. No good argument will change that.
There is one disadvantage to this. To support multiple distros, the admin panel needs to do things its own distro-agnostic way. Later, when the admin panel fails at a particular task and one needs to fix it from the command line, none of the online tutorials come in handy as they target one distribution or another.
Yeah, that's what I thought.
You could write it in Cobol on Cogs: http://coboloncogs.org
yeah that's basically what my Centmin Mod LEMP stack does - example of shell based menu https://centminmod.com/menu.html and also can do alot of tasks can be done from equivalent SSH command line or addon/tool scripts i.e. creating new nginx vhost sites.
example of setting up nginx http/2 https vhost with letsencrypt ssl and creating mysql databases/user/password https://community.centminmod.com/threads/quick-centmin-mod-install-nginx-vhost-site-mysql-database-setup.12904/
creation of mysql database/user/pass via addons/mysqladmin_shell.sh script https://community.centminmod.com/threads/mysqladmin_shell-sh-shell-based-addon.543/
need to mass create multiple nginx vhost sites and mysql databases via command line https://community.centminmod.com/threads/guide-save-time-creating-nginx-vhost-mysql-users-and-databases.8257/
You can then script automated creation of nginx vhost sites/mariadb mysql databases etc. I know some web hosts that are doing just this with Centmin Mod for their own usage
As to whether such a terminal based panel would take off, Centmin Mod has between 2,000 to 3,000+ new installers per month roughly and it's growing But Centmin Mod isn't for shared hosting just own user run sites.
Shared hosting really wouldn't work well with terminal/SSH only based control panel as the level of knowledge and understanding required would be much lower.
@eva2000 CentMinMod looks great!
What about SSH Exploits
If you are giving Shell Access, it becomes much easier to run exploits
Hmm. I guess this will work only for VPS hosting.