Hi
I'm not sure if this is the appropriate list for my question, but I
think most of you have more than enough knowledge in web hosting.
I have a dedicated server (Debian Sarge) which I mainly use for my own
purpose. Until yet I've done every change like adding a user or creating
a database over the shell. That was nice, I got routine in Linux
administration. But since a few months some friends have got accounts
for web and mail on the server. Managing everything by hand is getting
really uncomfortable. I'd like to have an easy solution for my friends
to manage their accounts on their own. They are non-paying "customers",
therefore I don't need a billing system. Just creating mail and ftp
accounts, creating MySQL databases, managing mail forwardings and DNS
records would be enough. Quota and traffic limiting is not needed.
There are many different management tools. I found VHCS, syscp and
ISPconfig. They all support what I need, so I installed VHCS. It works
fine as long as every setting is made over the browser. When I change a
Bind zonefile by hand it gets overwritten by VHCS with the entries in
the DB. Syscp and ISPConfig seem to behave accordingly.
Is there a tool which _reads_ a config file and adds its entries,
instead of writing the whole file from its DB? Or do I have to decide
between manual and automated administering?
Which managing system do you use? I saw that Init7 uses VHCS. (Which is
the reason that I tried it first.) Have the other providers created
their own account management system? Which system can you recommend? I
prefer Open Source Software.
If I understood correctly, VHCS, syscp and ISPconfig only manage one
server. I'd like to have the same mail accounts and dns zones on a
secondary server (backup MX, secondary DNS). Any idea how to manage
that? I thought maybe I can install VHCS on both systems and copy the
VHCS DB to the secondary server using MySQL replication. But you
probably got a better solution.
Thank you very much for your help!
Cheers
Manuel