Project Management

10 favorite web based administration tools

By , January 14, 2011, 10:30 AM

  • cPanel hosting platform

    What are your favorite web-based admin tools? After you look through this list, tell us about your own favorites.

    cPanel is one of the industry standards in taking a standalone server and turning it into a power-house, automated hosting platform. With cPanel your clients can enjoy one of the single most user-friendly administration panels you will find, bar none. From this control panel your clients can build their own sites (using Fantastico), manage email/user/ftp/domains/databases, view log files, and much more.

  • CUPS interface for print server

    For anyone that manages a Linux-based print server, the CUPS web-based interface will be a blessing. Instead of having to be seated at that print server, or remoting into the machine itself, you can fire up http://ADDRESS_OF_SERVER:631 (Where ADDRESS_OF_SERVER is the actual address of the print server). From this interface you can manage printers/printer groups/print jobs, as well as control who has access to which printers. This printer admin tool is installed by default with CUPS.

  • eGroupware

    eGroupware is one of the more powerful open source groupware tools and has one of the best interfaces for administering individual components. From the Preferences screen, just click which component you want to administer and you're in. This screenshot shows the eGroupware Calendar configuration.

  • ISPConfig

    If you are an ISP, or you are looking to start an ISP, then you should not overlook ISPConfig. This administration tool makes the task of administering multiple servers, multiple domains, and multiple clients a snap. From a single web interface you can administer everything. And since ISPConfig is open source, you are also welcome to modify the source to fit your needs.

  • phpLDAPadmin

    If you know of the php administration tools, you should know about phpLDAPadmin. This web-based tool makes the administration of LDAP data very easy. For those of you who prefer not to have to deal with learning all of the command-line tools for LDAP, you will be glad to know this admin tool is practically all point-and-click.

  • phpMyAdmin

    phpMyAdmin is to MySQL what phpLDAPadmin is to LDAP. From this single point of entry, you can manage your current databases and create new databases. What is nice about this particular admin tool is that, should you need, you can also issue standard MySQL queries and commands from the SQL tab.

  • SQL Buddy

    If you've had any trouble installing phpMyAdmin, and you're desperate for a web-based MySQL administration tool, I highly recommend SQL Buddy. This tool is as simple as it gets. With a working MySQL server already up and running (along with a web server), unpack the SQL Buddy archive, place it in the document root of your web server, and log in. With zero configuration, you can be managing your databases within minutes.

  • SWAT for Samba

    If you have a SAMBA server (or SAMBA installed on a desktop) and you want to be able to manage SAMBA from any machine with nothing more than a web browser, that is what SWAT will do for you. With SWAT you can start/stop your smbd daemon, you can modify your smb.conf and lmhosts files, and you can even manage smb passwords for users.

  • Webmin

    Often thought of as one of the most powerful administration tools available, Webmin has long been one of the standards by which all other web-based tools are compared. Webmin allows you to add/remove numerous modules that can administer just about every possible service you can imagine. From this tool you can even control what services are started on the machine and even manage clustering (if available). There are some that claim Webmin is a security vulnerability. But on a well-configured, secure server, any vulnerability that might be introduced would be nullified.

  • Wordpress blogging tool

    One of the most user-friendly and wide-spread online blogging tools, Wordpress also has one of the easiest to use administration interfaces you will find. From wp-admin you can manage the look and feel of your Wordpress-based blog, add/remove widgets, manage users, moderate comments and trackbacks, and much more. The Wordpress admin interface is as user-friendly as is its WYSIWYG editor.

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cPanel hosting platform

What are your favorite web-based admin tools? After you look through this list, tell us about your own favorites.

cPanel is one of the industry standards in taking a standalone server and turning it into a power-house, automated hosting platform. With cPanel your clients can enjoy one of the single most user-friendly administration panels you will find, bar none. From this control panel your clients can build their own sites (using Fantastico), manage email/user/ftp/domains/databases, view log files, and much more.

About Jack Wallen

Jack Wallen is an award-winning writer for Techrepublic and Linux.com. As an avid promoter/user of the Linux OS, Jack tries to convert as many users to open source as possible. His current favorite flavor of Linux is Bodhi Linux (a melding of Ubuntu ...

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mpaignigiannis
mpaignigiannis

the best IT management tool - spiceworks.com with ticketing and history --excellent the mapping feature a little itchy...

Jackraymond
Jackraymond

ValleySpeak Project Server a Best Web Based Project Management Software Tool, Provides Calendar Management, Timesheet Management, Issue Tracking, Risk Management, Document Management, Discussion Forums, Project Portfolio Dashboard and Integrated Project Reporting For FREE, So ValleySpeak Project Server is also one of the Worlds Best Software Tool to Manage the Projects FREELY. http://www.valleyspeak.com/

jon4t2
jon4t2

I like SWAT, but it has one nasty flaw, authentication with remote sites is via clear text (user name and password). I solved this problem by running Webmin on the server and opening SWAT from inside Webmin. Webmin's secure.

pgit
pgit

I don't believe webmin by itself is secure. It is if you access it over ssh. When you shell in you're at a terminal, so I become root (su -) then open a browser, and point to webmin. Of course if the LAN segment is well secured there's much less risk to anything on that segment. It depends mainly on who has access to any machines on that network.

Photogenic Memory
Photogenic Memory

That SQL Buddy really looks fun! Looking forward to trying it out. Thanks for posting, Ms. Frye.

gjs1
gjs1 like.author.displayName 1 Like

Rather than force a slideshow to learn names of tools, could you have given a quick table like the following? (Please feel free to correct any mistakes in the table.) Then one could zero in on needed tools. ********cPanel: cPanel is one of industry standards to turn a standalone server into a power-house, automated hosting platform: http://www.cpanel.net/ ------------------------------------------------------------------- ********CUPS interface for print server: http://www.cups.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------- eGroupware is one of more powerful open source groupware tools & has one of best interfaces to administer individual components: http://www.egroupware.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------- ISPConfig: From single web interface you can administer multiple servers, multiple domains, & multiple clients; http://www.ispconfig.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------- phpLDAPadmin: Web-based tool makes administration of LDAP data easy: http://phpldapadmin.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page ------------------------------------------------------------------- phpMyAdmin is to MySQL what phpLDAPadmin is to LDAP; From single entry point, you can manage current databases & create new databases http://www.phpmyadmin.net/home_page/index.php ------------------------------------------------------------------- If you had any trouble installing phpMyAdmin, and you are desperate for a web-based MySQL administration tool, try SQL Buddy: http://www.sqlbuddy.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------------- SWAT: If you have a SAMBA server (or SAMBA installed on desktop), SWAT can manage SAMBA from any machine via web browser: http://www.samba.org/samba/docs/man/Samba-HOWTO-Collection/SWAT.html ------------------------------------------------------------------- Webmin lets you add/remove many modules that can administer almost any possible service; This tool lets you control what services are started on the machine & even manage clustering (if available): http://www.webmin.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------------- Wordpress blogging tool: http://wordpress.org/download/ -------------------------------------------------------------------

lk_bellsouth.net
lk_bellsouth.net

Thanks for all the hard work on the post. I appreciate it. For the authors that prefer the slideshow presentation, my recommendation is to please also offer a .PDF file of the article. This format can be downloaded and retained for future reference, which is much preferred over having to stop when scanning articles and manually make all the notes that are necessary. For the "slideshow only" authors I have a tendency to simply skip over them.

RipVan
RipVan

I read at work and don't have time to flip pages. Then again, maybe it is our locked down IE, which puts up window after window of "Do you want to allow this?" Each time you filp a page. (And don't get click happy, or you navigate away from the page by accident.)

Gis Bun
Gis Bun

Should this really be considered? For the title "10 favorite web-based administration tools" I'd expect actuasl system or network administration toold. Not this.

pgit
pgit

Webmin serves itself up on port 10000 over the network. If firewalls allow you can log in to any remote system running webmin over the LAN with a web browser. That's probably why people call it a 'security risk.' If you can access webmin you pretty much have the whole system at your mercy. But one needs the root password to log in. So just don't hand out root passwords to any non-admin types. Webmin is indispensable, for me, ftp, samba, ssh, squid... you name it, it's a breeze in webmin. Great learning tool as well.

jkozura
jkozura

I have been using it since it came with Caldera Linux. It works with practically any version of Unix/Linux. www.webmin.com

olujab@hotmail.com
olujab@hotmail.com

Having used Quest ARS server for years, if properly configured, the web based management interface is way better than any of the listed tool in this article.

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