Developing a generic administration tool for infrastructure

Dear Librehosters,

for several years Hostsharing is using an open source administration tool called HSAdmin that we developed ourselves. Our members use it to configure their web packages. One use case is to set up a new domain admin (unix user), a domain, a database and a database user to create the environment to install a web application. An other use case is to create new email users (unix users) with their own Maildirs. HSAdmin is taylored to meet the requirements of our infrastructure.

We are currently planning to rewrite HSAdmin, and our vision is a generic hosting administration tool that is infrastructure agnostic or at least able to play with a number of set ups. We think that this can be of interest to other Librehosters and as resources are scarce I want to ask if other Librehosters would like to join in.

So for the first step I would be happy if you would share your experiences with available tools and what you would expect from a “LibreHosterAdmin” tool chain.

Thanks a lot.
juh

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We are also interested to develop such tool, and have kubernetes as a backend. We could collaborate if it is possible :slight_smile:

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In Ecobytes, we are also struggling to keep a concise environment for users, developers and administrators alike. @yova and @gandhiano know what I am talking about.

After we invoked https://lab.allmende.io/ispcoop/souk with @pierreozoux three years ago, we have learned a lot. The project for Kubernetes now continues in

Following on with our current hybrid infrastructure, we are very interested in having a Webmin-/Virtualmin-/Cloudmin-, ISPConfig-, WHCMS-, Froxlor-, Ajenti-, Vesta-like control panel, which eventually emulates an environment like Cockpit, Rancher or Portainer, to allow users manage their domains, zones, emails, databases, applications, backups, invoicing, support, users and the likes.

Especially transitioning from the shared hosting to the cloud native design pattern brings hardship to the case.

I suggest we recombine our efforts and agree on common design principles plus clearly defined use cases, before laying out an architecture with user journeys. We can start from what is there already, and iterate from here.

@gandhiano I would be interested in hearing your current approach to designing a distributed software system. What can we learn from you, to have the design concise, and get a working prototype within a foreseeable time span? How about the requirements definition, not too loose, not too strict, how to structure our process? I’d really like to give souk/souq/sook another shot, and if only in my imagination first.