These tools allow some administration of remote servers - but other services like mail configuration, SQL server (MySQL and postgres) management, Users & Groups, and many other components including hardware can be configured using Webmin.
Webmin allows secure configuration from any web browser. You can limit the management and configuration options for multiple users with multiple access priveleges.
Look at http://www.webmin.com for more details. I would expect more from TechRepublic on a subject like this.
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Yes, it seems that TechRepublic would have you do everything the hard way.
I have been using Webmin since version 0.75 or so, which was about 4 years ago. So TR should have had plenty of time to find out about it.
Hardly any piece of software has impressed me more in these 4 years than Webmin. I use it for everything, including local machine setup and configuration. It is not just for remote admin.
John Kozura IV MCP
I have been using Webmin since version 0.75 or so, which was about 4 years ago. So TR should have had plenty of time to find out about it.
Hardly any piece of software has impressed me more in these 4 years than Webmin. I use it for everything, including local machine setup and configuration. It is not just for remote admin.
John Kozura IV MCP
I have used webmin since the early .7x versions. It has helped
me maintain my BSD servers. It is a very impressive piece of
software.
me maintain my BSD servers. It is a very impressive piece of
software.
We have set up users for our helpdesk to manage password resets etc. These helpdesk users are not *nix users so this makes it easy for them to support the user base. We can also only allow the helpdesk to access certain admin functions this way.
I only recently began working with Linux, being from a Novell and Windows background. As with most newbies I found the command line a little inundating with Linux and it was frustrating to just get the damn server up and running so I could begin learning how to work it. I heard about Webmin and was able to install it and get all the necessary services I needed (apache, samba, and a couple of others) up and running in much less time than it would have taken for me to locate the various .conf files and edit them accordingly.
Webmin's interface makes it easy to do things like work with users and groups, start and stop services, make configuration changes, upload files to the server, and install RPMs.
I've since learned how to do most of these things the original way...from a command prompt and I've learned how that method has advantages in situations, and I don't propose using webmin as the end-all be-all linux server management method, but for people with a windows background trying to get their feet wet into the world of Linux, it is definitely a viable option!
Webmin's interface makes it easy to do things like work with users and groups, start and stop services, make configuration changes, upload files to the server, and install RPMs.
I've since learned how to do most of these things the original way...from a command prompt and I've learned how that method has advantages in situations, and I don't propose using webmin as the end-all be-all linux server management method, but for people with a windows background trying to get their feet wet into the world of Linux, it is definitely a viable option!
I have used WebMin to manage linux servers from RedHat 6.2 to 9.0 When installing WebMin the program automatically configures itself to the operating system that is currently running. If you have SSH configured on your system then WebMin automatically creates a secure login.
If you own the network across which your ftp session will run, and have no reason to question the security thereof, ftp is fine. But if you wish to transfer files to or from your server, across an unsecured network, then SCP is the way to go. It also allows one to have one less service running on that server, since it only requires SSH to operate.
WoW,
I looked at this article hoping to find another Webmin type tool.
Webmin is great., you do need to jumb down at times and do a bit of command line work depending on O/S - but it also offers a way to let help desk Manage - emails, techs manage DNS etc! Great Tool! http://www.webmin.com
I looked at this article hoping to find another Webmin type tool.
Webmin is great., you do need to jumb down at times and do a bit of command line work depending on O/S - but it also offers a way to let help desk Manage - emails, techs manage DNS etc! Great Tool! http://www.webmin.com
I find that a great way to access X on my Linux servers is using VNC. I simply log in to SSH using PuTTY, and start VNC by issuing the command "vncserver :1". Then I connect to the server using TightVNC (or your favorite vnc client) giving it servername:1.
Of course you could use a different display number other than 1, up to I believe 9. 0 doesn't work though, I am sure it has something to do with the vnc daemon. That said you can also set VNC to run automatically when the server starts up. You do this by editing the vncservers file, in RedHat distros this is located in /etc/sysconfig. The syntax for vncservers is VNCSERVERS="1:myusername". This requires that you have spawned a VNC server once and set the password, or run vncpasswd and set the password.
Additionally when you start the default VNC server it uses twm as the window manager. If you have the bandwidth and want to use the default window manager on your system, you can change the xstartup file located in ~/.vnc (the .vnc directory in your home directory). Change this file to have the line "exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc", without the quotes. On RedHat this means that Gnome will most likely be used.
Of course all of this is insecure, but you can tunnel VNC connections, similar to tunneling X, using PuTTY. In PuTTY on the same page as X11 Forwarding (SSH>Tunnels), under Port forwarding, add a source port (any number that isn?t being used, I usually use 4900), and a destination of 127.0.0.1:5901 if you used port 1 when starting VNC (port 2 is 5902, etc.). Click Add and then open. Once you have logged into SSH open VNC and put 127.0.0.1::4900 in as the VNC server. Take note that there are intentionally two colons between the loopback address and the 4900 port. If all was set up properly and the VNC server is running on the destination server you will get the password prompt. If the VNC server isn?t running, or if you goofed on any of the ports or forgot to click add before opening the connection, then VNC will just die, it WON?T give you an error, so if you have to wait more than 5 or so seconds, then disconnect and try again.
I find that it is easiest to stet up profiles in putty for all my servers, each with a VNC tunnel set up to the same server. Then when I launch the connection, if I want to open VNC I just start the VNC server and start up the VNC session. You can also get real fancy and have one internet exposed server running SSH and a putty session on your home computer that has tunnels set up for all the other servers that you might want to access. I have no idea how secure this is in the long run, but I do use it as an emergency back door into the office should our VPN die.
Of course you could use a different display number other than 1, up to I believe 9. 0 doesn't work though, I am sure it has something to do with the vnc daemon. That said you can also set VNC to run automatically when the server starts up. You do this by editing the vncservers file, in RedHat distros this is located in /etc/sysconfig. The syntax for vncservers is VNCSERVERS="1:myusername". This requires that you have spawned a VNC server once and set the password, or run vncpasswd and set the password.
Additionally when you start the default VNC server it uses twm as the window manager. If you have the bandwidth and want to use the default window manager on your system, you can change the xstartup file located in ~/.vnc (the .vnc directory in your home directory). Change this file to have the line "exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc", without the quotes. On RedHat this means that Gnome will most likely be used.
Of course all of this is insecure, but you can tunnel VNC connections, similar to tunneling X, using PuTTY. In PuTTY on the same page as X11 Forwarding (SSH>Tunnels), under Port forwarding, add a source port (any number that isn?t being used, I usually use 4900), and a destination of 127.0.0.1:5901 if you used port 1 when starting VNC (port 2 is 5902, etc.). Click Add and then open. Once you have logged into SSH open VNC and put 127.0.0.1::4900 in as the VNC server. Take note that there are intentionally two colons between the loopback address and the 4900 port. If all was set up properly and the VNC server is running on the destination server you will get the password prompt. If the VNC server isn?t running, or if you goofed on any of the ports or forgot to click add before opening the connection, then VNC will just die, it WON?T give you an error, so if you have to wait more than 5 or so seconds, then disconnect and try again.
I find that it is easiest to stet up profiles in putty for all my servers, each with a VNC tunnel set up to the same server. Then when I launch the connection, if I want to open VNC I just start the VNC server and start up the VNC session. You can also get real fancy and have one internet exposed server running SSH and a putty session on your home computer that has tunnels set up for all the other servers that you might want to access. I have no idea how secure this is in the long run, but I do use it as an emergency back door into the office should our VPN die.
I have been using VNC for around 4 or 5 years now. Every version just keeps getting better. I use this tool for maintaining both Windows clients and all *nix servers.
To the previous poster. Display 0 is always owned by the Xserver on the server/client itself, that is why you can't use it via VNC.
As far as a display number, I know of no limitations. I have used a display number as high as 60. The admins in our department each have a unique display number assigned to them so that we do not step on each other's toes when using VNC for remote administration.
To tech republic....What a bunch of old information. All of the tools have been around for almost as long as computers have been around. I thought I was going to find something new here.
To the previous poster. Display 0 is always owned by the Xserver on the server/client itself, that is why you can't use it via VNC.
As far as a display number, I know of no limitations. I have used a display number as high as 60. The admins in our department each have a unique display number assigned to them so that we do not step on each other's toes when using VNC for remote administration.
To tech republic....What a bunch of old information. All of the tools have been around for almost as long as computers have been around. I thought I was going to find something new here.
Not that I would expect anything different from TechRepublic, but the beauty of *nix systems in that you do not need a gui desktop (and all it's related bloated overhead) to have a great solid system. For situations when a gui is desired for administrative tasks, use Webmin (mentioned in other posts).
Unlike Windows systems, *nix servers do not require you install a desktop gui to run, and in fact, they make better use of their resources as a result. Not that you would hear this anywhere else on TechRepublic other than the discussion boards.
So unless you are one of the few enlightened out there who has brought *nix to the desktop in your organization, there is no need for VNC on your *nix machines. VNC is a great tool for Help Desk personnel to assist users, but is not needed in maintaining systems.
Webmin and Putty are fast and allow the system administrator to accomplish any maintenance task.
So VNC should be used in Help Desk / User support only. There simply is no need for it to maintain *nix systems.
Unlike Windows systems, *nix servers do not require you install a desktop gui to run, and in fact, they make better use of their resources as a result. Not that you would hear this anywhere else on TechRepublic other than the discussion boards.
So unless you are one of the few enlightened out there who has brought *nix to the desktop in your organization, there is no need for VNC on your *nix machines. VNC is a great tool for Help Desk personnel to assist users, but is not needed in maintaining systems.
Webmin and Putty are fast and allow the system administrator to accomplish any maintenance task.
So VNC should be used in Help Desk / User support only. There simply is no need for it to maintain *nix systems.
You never know when you might need a quick change that can be acomplished without trying to remember where the configuration file is located. Webmin and VNC desktops both allow configuration changes without knowing where the config files are stored. I would tend to avoid VNC due to the slow speed though.
SSH comes default with most major distro's of Linux.
Telnet is not secure and ftp isn't a remote admin tool. X and VNC would be good choices... but what if you need physical access to the box (as this article suggests). We can all assume that you are already using Telnet or, hopefully, SSH. However, critical messages that are displayed on the console won't be viewed remotely. There are other tools available that give you true remote console access. Such as...
xcat: using an RSA/ASM adapter
http://www.xcat.org/docs/managementprocessor-HOWTO.html
Telnet is not secure and ftp isn't a remote admin tool. X and VNC would be good choices... but what if you need physical access to the box (as this article suggests). We can all assume that you are already using Telnet or, hopefully, SSH. However, critical messages that are displayed on the console won't be viewed remotely. There are other tools available that give you true remote console access. Such as...
xcat: using an RSA/ASM adapter
http://www.xcat.org/docs/managementprocessor-HOWTO.html
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