In article 4F6B9490.70101@bobhoffman.com, Bob Hoffman bob@bobhoffman.com wrote:
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I understand for webhosting it might seem practical to add them, but with the issues and bugs they present the techs on my vps/dedicated sure spent a lot of time on the phone with me. That is costly.
Do you use control panels? Why? Like/dislike?
For some family and friends who I host a site for I found the setup of an additional server quite easy. A simple one page explanation of adding/deleting ftp, mail, or shell users, protecting directories, etc seems to suffice.
I feel control panels are not needed and detract from being a knowledgeable admin. I can see if you are very new to running a centos server it would be helpful, but in the end run it seems to keep people from learning how to manage things.
I would recommend webmin and virtualmin for virtual hosting. They don't insist on being in sole charge of your system and don't sulk if you change stuff yourself (within reason...). But they do automate a lot of the donkey work even for an experienced sysadmin.
However, I don't use virtualmin's auto-setup where it gets and installs everything to make a virtual hosting appliance. I install all the system software I want, and then install webmin and virtualmin individually. They then just get on and find what I have.
Cheers Tony