CentOS Administration Tool Recommendations?

[Renegade]

Hello All.

I'm looking for recommendations for tools to help administrate a CentOS server.

I'm switching over from the Windows world (dark side?), where you can pretty much be nearly braindead and still manage a server pretty easily. So yes, I like GUI tools. I am just short on time, and want to get things done ASAP, and not have to bother with the learning curve - I can catch up on that after I figure out the tools.

Some of the things I'd like to do:

* Administer nitty-gritty details for web sites, e.g. IP addresses
* Admin email, e.g. IP addresses
* Admin FTP, e.g. set open ports to other than 21
* Run nginx and Apache in parallel
* Something to replace remote desktop ** Could be a web based admin tool?

I'm currently using Plesk, but it seems to be limited in some areas that I'd like to deal with, e.g. No way to decide what web server runs a site, or what email server is used, etc.

So, any recommendations are welcome.

[Shades]

´WebMin´ is the name of the software you´re looking for. Administer practically your whole serever with a web interface.

[Renegade]

´WebMin´ is the name of the software you´re looking for. Administer practically your whole serever with a web interface.

I looked at that very quickly before, and I got the impression that Webmin was about the same as Plesk or CPanel.

Am I mistaken there?

[40hz]

Webmin is pretty much what gets used for that sort of thing. But a list of possible alternatives an be found here.

If push comes to shove and you have root access you might also want to consider using Zenytal. It's a popular all-in-one nix server solution that has its own management interface. I keep meaning to try it.

Don't know if it can do everything you'd want it for, (and it's probably just a jazzed up version of webmin) but they have full documentation available separately, so you could always look at that to see.

Luck!

[wraith808]

When I was preparing to get back into things, I was looking at OpenPanel.  I didn't get too far into it before I changed my mind, so can't tell you too much other than it was easy to install their image.  It seems to have fallen by the wayside since I looked at it, however.

There's also a list on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_web_hosting_control_panels

[Edvard]

´WebMin´ is the name of the software you´re looking for. Administer practically your whole serever with a web interface.

+1 for Webmin the Mighty.  Use it, knave!