Am 14.06.2009 um 20:00 schrieb Rudi Ahlers: > Hi, > > I would like to spend some time learning a new coding language, but > specifically for server side admin stuff, i.e. setting up users / > databases / FTP accounts / virtual domains on Apache, etc. > > I already know PHP, but realize it's not quite suited for this kind > of admin, and I suppose I need to look @ PERL / Python / C++ / > Ruby? / others? > > Can someone give me some pointers on this? > > I basically need to write a control panel, with web access for > admins to manage servers, similar to what cPanel / WebMin / Plesk / > etc does right now, but something more customized for our needs. The problem is that once you look closely at these kinds of software, you realize that what you're really looking at is an EAI (Enterprise Application Integration) type of task. You have different applications, maybe different databases that you need to synchronize and provision. Commercial control-panels have more or less solved that - for their specific set of problems. Trying to integrate other kinds of software into them is usually just a futile exercise. E.g., most would like to integrate their own infrastructure for web-hosting or email-hosting (or both...) into one of the leading control-panels. There is Parallels Operations Automation and Parallels Business Automation - but the cheaper versions of them only support the other software in the "Parallels-universe" and the other versions I haven't been able to get my hands on and test. In sourceforge.net, you can find some projects that aim to build opensource version of control-panels - few (if any) are in a state that would allow deployment in a mission-critical way (which they will be, after some time). Most applications of this type that are developed in-house at ISPs or telcos are probably to specific to the company they were developed for and this can never be released as opensource - or only with a significant efforts that nobody can afford (time- and money-wise). It's a big problem - and a solid, sustainable solution will IMO require not only solid coding-skills, but also a talented software- architect. Rainer