Dream list

[vantasticman777]

I am thrilled with Interworx. It is so logical compared to Cpanel and is not bloated. I know in your great logic and wisdom you have already thought of each and every one of these, and my feeble mind which is new to Linux is fraught with error and misinformation. None the less, for no other purpose than to entertain you and confirm your great ideas I offer my wish list (the newbie bows reverently at this point):

1. Hot link protection and easily password protect folders within Siteworx.
2. Ability to configure more Apache settings with the control panel (example: common home page names: default, home, weblog etc.)
3. more SIM settings within the control panel: email notification, cron freq, systems monitored (and add the ability to auto restart Interworx, not that it ever fails mind you).
4. One click performance defaults based on memory that would slow chron freq, reduce webstats (like AWstats), and reduce any memory intensive features, (load only min graphs), less nec Apahce modules et al. This would require alternate config files such as iworx.conf.256 (or/512/1024 etc at each memory range) for example. This would be invaluble to VPS accounts and small servers. I believe some mail settings can improve server perf as well. You will know far better than I.
5. One of my pet peaves with Cpanel is that a few times I accidently logged into someone elses account! Yikes, that scared me to death (one should not type password with beer in hand, say Confucious). You could have an option in Nodworx (like siteworx) for a username, password AND email address. You could also fairly easily set it up for an option (with in the control panel) for email notifiction for root login-in, and Nodeworx login. (The Lisdexic hacker could be my code name).
6. BFD and Dos Deflate included (you could actually include a whole arry of common opensource security features) with one click install (add mod_security and PSAD to that list as well). This would make your stock rise big time with hosts, they have to calculate set up time in their business plans. A wizard to new create user and disable root login within the control panel, setting to require SSH2 from within control panel, mask Apache, etc.
7. Including the tutorials as an option with the install package, that way they can be linked directly from within Sitworx (next to the email panel, is a link for a tutorial on email) and its not dragging your servers down. You could even include these in your update package if they change.
8. Make Scriptworx open source. This would speed up developement and allow the makers of each script to include themselves. Fantastico el finito.
8. Include the Virtuozzo port within APF settings (so no idiot like me accidently locks themselves out, Doh).
9. Include options to auto install Zend and Eaccelerator from within the control panel (or any other common programs). Think of it like Scriptworx, but on the Nodeworx level....(hmmm, I should get brownie points for that one.) Hosts (esp VPS hosts) would kiss you vigorously. You could get around the legalities by requiring the program be auto downloaded but not shipped per se. You would have to include script locations in your updates though.
10. Wash all your clients cars (I said I was dreaming, but it seemed just a match with #10, and it made you laugh).
11. Develop a GUI for Xen (some of the performance stats for Xen I have seen are impressive) and give Virtuozzo some competition. Is anyone running Xen and Iworx?

(the knave, having overstayed his welcome, bows again and exits the room backwards so to not offend the guru's present)

[oxionet]

( plus )

1 ) daily, weekly and monthly backup with cron ( from nodeworx )
2 ) default language selection
3 ) server-status and server-info pages in nodeworx/webserver page
4 ) please use account's name after import "» Account successfully restored" > "» Account ( www.domain.com (http://www.domain.com) - domainuser ) successfully restored "
5 ) multi import for local files.. I don't have root access to other servers and i have to import more than 150 domains... this is a so bad thing.. i want to import multiple domains in once with a file list...
....

I will add some more soon.. :)

[timryberg]

I'm sure one of the guys will comment on this as well but here's some responses from me as well.



1. Hot link protection and easily password protect folders within Siteworx.



This can be done with .htaccess and the next full release of InterWorx will have a FrontEnd for .htaccess added to SiteWox.


2. Ability to configure more Apache settings with the control panel (example: common home page names: default, home, weblog etc.


You are asking for a lot here. Much of this can be done with .htaccess and as stated a front end for that will be added next version.

You can add a Weblog to your site by adding one via the ScriptWorx installer (sort of like Fantastico, except it's included at no extra charge). The script you want to add is WordPress. I believe b2Eviolution is on the list for an upcoming release.



3. more SIM settings within the control panel: email notification, cron freq, systems monitored (and add the ability to auto restart Interworx, not that it ever fails mind you).


Email notifications were in the 1.x version of NodeWorx and were removed with 2.x untill they are rewritten. The info is still in the iworx config file /var/lib/interworx/iworx.ini and as far as I know it still works. I know I was still getting the notifications on my old box after the form was removed from NodeWorx.

Auto restart of the other services is already includied. Auto restart of Iworx isn't as far as I know but it's a good idea.



4. One click performance defaults based on memory that would slow chron freq, reduce webstats (like AWstats), and reduce any memory intensive features, (load only min graphs), less nec Apahce modules et al. This would require alternate config files such as iworx.conf.256 (or/512/1024 etc at each memory range) for example. This would be invaluble to VPS accounts and small servers. I believe some mail settings can improve server perf as well. You will know far better than I.



Gonna let the guys respond to this one but I do know they are working to improve Iworx perfomance on vps's



5. One of my pet peaves with Cpanel is that a few times I accidently logged into someone elses account! Yikes, that scared me to death (one should not type password with beer in hand, say Confucious). You could have an option in Nodworx (like siteworx) for a username, password AND email address. You could also fairly easily set it up for an option (with in the control panel) for email notifiction for root login-in, and Nodeworx login. (The Lisdexic hacker could be my code name)



Actually SiteWorx does need all of those if I remember right.

The Reseller login does require the email address and password.

NodeWorx only has one Administrative login.


6. BFD and Dos Deflate included (you could actually include a whole arry of common opensource security features) with one click install (add mod_security and PSAD to that list as well). This would make your stock rise big time with hosts, they have to calculate set up time in their business plans. A wizard to new create user and disable root login within the control panel, setting to require SSH2 from within control panel, mask Apache, etc.



I believe these are being considered for an upcoming release as well. I know that Chris and the guys have always considered security to be a high priority, and several people have asked for these.

You can -- of course -- install and configure them yourself if you desire. I believe there is a thread here in the forums about installing BFD on an Iworx box.



7. Including the tutorials as an option with the install package, that way they can be linked directly from within Sitworx (next to the email panel, is a link for a tutorial on email) and its not dragging your servers down. You could even include these in your update package if they change.



This is a nice idea -- wish I'd thought of it -- that is assuming you are referring to the flash tutorials. It'd also be a good idea to link to the appropriate page on the InterWorx manual when it's more complete.



8. Make Scriptworx open source. This would speed up developement and allow the makers of each script to include themselves. Fantastico el finito.



ScriptWorx is not open source but the next version will allow users to add their own scripts and a doc is in the worx on how to do this. It's actually up on the docs site now, but I'm not sure it's final yet.



8. Include the Virtuozzo port within APF settings (so no idiot like me accidently locks themselves out, Doh).



I actually suggested this when it was in beta and apparently it either slipped through the cracks or was rejected as a security hole. Chris or Socheat can probably explain further. You can, of course add that port manually.



9. Include options to auto install Zend and Eaccelerator from within the control panel (or any other common programs). Think of it like Scriptworx, but on the Nodeworx level....(hmmm, I should get brownie points for that one.) Hosts (esp VPS hosts) would kiss you vigorously. You could get around the legalities by requiring the program be auto downloaded but not shipped per se. You would have to include script locations in your updates though.



Not a bad idea, but it would be yet another thing that they'd constantly need to keep up to date.



10. Wash all your clients cars (I said I was dreaming, but it seemed just a match with #10, and it made you laugh).
11. Develop a GUI for Xen (some of the performance stats for Xen I have seen are impressive) and give Virtuozzo some competition. Is anyone running Xen and Iworx?

(the knave, having overstayed his welcome, bows again and exits the room backwards so to not offend the guru's present)

Don't wory, they like feature requests like this, I posted a long list like this when I was new to Iworx almost two years ago and Chris graciously put up with me :-)

Welcome to the Iworx cult . . . err family ;-)

[timryberg]

( plus )

1 ) daily, weekly and monthly backup with cron ( from nodeworx )

I think this wasn't included to avoud a clogged NodeWorx interface, but as you probably know you can create a ssh script with cron to do this yourself.



2 ) default language selection



This is in the next release, iirc.



3 ) server-status and server-info pages in nodeworx/webserver page



I like this one too.



4 ) please use account's name after import "» Account successfully restored" > "» Account ( www.domain.com (http://www.domain.com) - domainuser ) successfully restored "
5 ) multi import for local files.. I don't have root access to other servers and i have to import more than 150 domains... this is a so bad thing.. i want to import multiple domains in once with a file list...

This is probably very processor intenseive to do throught the inteface but it can be done through the command line. Even there takes a lot out of the box.

[oxionet]

i want some more

1 ) move multiple users ( or domains ) to a different reseller
2 ) suspend all or partial domains of one reseller
3 ) partial suspend ( change all passwords ) of a reseller
....

[vantasticman777]

i want some more

1 ) move multiple users ( or domains ) to a different reseller
2 ) suspend all or partial domains of one reseller
3 ) partial suspend ( change all passwords ) of a reseller
....

Very good suggestions. Again, Interworx is terrific and we look forward to your continued thoughtful improvements.

Van

[oxionet]

hmmm...

1 ) remote backup to another server without ssh or sftp ..
2 ) detailed info about domains or customers ( tel, contact name etc. )
3 ) domain or customer creation date or next payment date information

more ideas coming soon...

[oxionet]

hi chris

i think a public categorized widhlist may be good...

i have a lot of ideas for your panel
and forum is not an ideal location for listing these ideas...

do you planning a api or module interface like webmin ?
I want to write some modules for this panel..

see ya..

Hidayet

[timryberg]

i want some more

1 ) move multiple users ( or domains ) to a different reseller
2 ) suspend all or partial domains of one reseller
3 ) partial suspend ( change all passwords ) of a reseller
....

I know that a beefing up of the reseller interface and features is on the to do list. As for partial suspend . . . haven't heard anyone else ask about it yet. . . . Chris?

[timryberg]

hmmm...

1 ) remote backup to another server without ssh or sftp ..



How exactly would you accomplish this? I assume you meant to say scp instead of ssh. But I'm not aware of any other way to do this other than scp and (s)ftp. Backing up your backupfiles to a non secure host (straight ftp) is questionable at best for security reasons.



2 ) detailed info about domains or customers ( tel, contact name etc. )



In the past Chris has said this was left to the billing interface (e.g. ModernBill, Drams/AWBS) and they didn't intend to touch this.

Perhaps they could find a freeware billing interface that would integrate with InterWorx and then add that to ScriptWorx?



3 ) domain or customer creation date or next payment date information

more ideas coming soon...

Again, that's in the billing interface.

[oxionet]

How exactly would you accomplish this? I assume you meant to say scp instead of ssh. But I'm not aware of any other way to do this other than scp and (s)ftp. Backing up your backupfiles to a non secure host (straight ftp) is questionable at best for security reasons.



In the past Chris has said this was left to the billing interface (e.g. ModernBill, Drams/AWBS) and they didn't intend to touch this.

Perhaps they could find a freeware billing interface that would integrate with InterWorx and then add that to ScriptWorx?



Again, that's in the billing interface.


1 ) i already have awbs.. but ever dedicated customer don't using billing software.. minimal information may be useful...

[timryberg]

1 ) i already have awbs.. but ever dedicated customer don't using billing software.. minimal information may be useful...

It might be helpfull to have an account created date, but other than that, it's probably extranious.

You're either running a business -- in which case you're using billing software which will have the info you need.

Or you're hosting your friends -- in which case you're going to have their contact info already somewhere else.

Or you're hosting your own sites -- which makes such info irrelevant.

Personally I see no reason to clog the interface and database with such extranious info. If they did, it would be one more thing that they'd have to sync with the integrated billiing software.

[oxionet]

I think this is not a big problem.. But so useful for my reseller customers for storing basic information about their customers...

[kahn]

I have a few things on my list;

1. FreeBSD support - I know its comming...
2. Ability to use different SMTP/POP3/IMAP server software.
- I would like the ability to use sendmail (I know, I know..) for the milter interface (PureMessage/MimeDefang).
- I would also like the ability to use Cyrus Imapd.
3. Interworx billing software. Something close to a clone of MB... but actaully works and uses the famous iworx support team.


-Kahn

[oxionet]

Using powerdns(with mysql backend)+dnscache instead of tinydns+dnscache

[Justec]

Using powerdns(with mysql backend)+dnscache instead of tinydns+dnscache

That probably won't happen, the Iworx team have picked the packages (ie. DNS, Vpop Toaster, etc) that the most people want and will meet the most peoples needs. It is open enough to use other version of Apache and PHP and such, but as this sounds like a completely different package I dont think it would be compatible with NodeWorx.

[timryberg]

I have a few things on my list;

1. FreeBSD support - I know its comming...
2. Ability to use different SMTP/POP3/IMAP server software.
- I would like the ability to use sendmail (I know, I know..) for the milter interface (PureMessage/MimeDefang).
- I would also like the ability to use Cyrus Imapd.
3. Interworx billing software. Something close to a clone of MB... but actaully works and uses the famous iworx support team.


-Kahn

From what I've seen, Sendmail is the single worst written piece of Lunux software; not sure they'd want to pollute an InterWorx server with it ;-) I know that Chris and Paul put a great deal of effort into deciding what services to use when they put the whole thing together way back when :-)

And as for the billing software, InterWorx uses ModernBill internally so I'm not sure you're gonna have much luck there.

[blahrus]

Clientexec works great with interworx also.


Thanks,
Clint

[kahn]

From what I've seen, Sendmail is the single worst written piece of Lunux software; not sure they'd want to pollute an InterWorx server with it ;-) I know that Chris and Paul put a great deal of effort into deciding what services to use when they put the whole thing together way back when :-)
I hear/read this all of the time about Sendmail being bad. The problem is, I need an SMTP package that I can easily build my own filters for. A few of the requirements is I need to be able to reject the SMTP session from a number of rules, do look forward VRFY for SMTP relays, blacklist cacheing, white/gray/blacklist per domain, or automagic per domain SA rule creation. Several of our customers love the ability to build their own rules and MimeDefang supports this and only runs via a milter in sendmail. Having been a sendmail user for many users and only recently moving to postfix on a few servers, I can tell you that I have never had a problem I couldn't figure out very quickly. I currently support several clients with their own Sendmail gateways and two of them handle more the 1 million emails/day. My only problem with qmail besides not knowing it, is the author.



And as for the billing software, InterWorx uses ModernBill internally so I'm not sure you're gonna have much luck there.
Have you had to deal with ModernBill yet? They have horrible support. Unfortunately they are the only billing package that supported what we needed. I have been watching MB for a long time and it seems that they outsourced their coding to people in another country. When you do get into their support, they want root access and you will have someone from another country logging into your machine. It seems more then just a coincidence that just after then logged out of our machine the other day that we started having problems. Next time I'd like to take a closer look at Whois.Cart(), but we do a lot more then just hosting.

For the dream list, I forgot to add (and if you didn't like Sendmail, you won't like this);


- Bind support.


-Kahn

[blahrus]

I hear/read this all of the time about Sendmail being bad. The problem is, I need an SMTP package that I can easily build my own filters for. A few of the requirements is I need to be able to reject the SMTP session from a number of rules, do look forward VRFY for SMTP relays, blacklist cacheing, white/gray/blacklist per domain, or automagic per domain SA rule creation. Several of our customers love the ability to build their own rules and MimeDefang supports this and only runs via a milter in sendmail. Having been a sendmail user for many users and only recently moving to postfix on a few servers, I can tell you that I have never had a problem I couldn't figure out very quickly. I currently support several clients with their own Sendmail gateways and two of them handle more the 1 million emails/day. My only problem with qmail besides not knowing it, is the author.




Have you had to deal with ModernBill yet? They have horrible support. Unfortunately they are the only billing package that supported what we needed. I have been watching MB for a long time and it seems that they outsourced their coding to people in another country. When you do get into their support, they want root access and you will have someone from another country logging into your machine. It seems more then just a coincidence that just after then logged out of our machine the other day that we started having problems. Next time I'd like to take a closer look at Whois.Cart(), but we do a lot more then just hosting.

For the dream list, I forgot to add (and if you didn't like Sendmail, you won't like this);


- Bind support.


-Kahn

can I say clientexec again? :)


Clint

[timryberg]

I hear/read this all of the time about Sendmail being bad. The problem is, I need an SMTP package that I can easily build my own filters for. A few of the requirements is I need to be able to reject the SMTP session from a number of rules, do look forward VRFY for SMTP relays, blacklist cacheing, white/gray/blacklist per domain, or automagic per domain SA rule creation. Several of our customers love the ability to build their own rules and MimeDefang supports this and only runs via a milter in sendmail. Having been a sendmail user for many users and only recently moving to postfix on a few servers, I can tell you that I have never had a problem I couldn't figure out very quickly. I currently support several clients with their own Sendmail gateways and two of them handle more the 1 million emails/day. My only problem with qmail besides not knowing it, is the author.



Well clearly you do have a good reason for wanting it, I'm just saying I doubt it will become a reality. The problem with Sendmail isn't configurability -- it is very customizable -- It's securoty and sheer size, from what I've seen. It reminds me of Windows ;-) (sorry, couldn't resist)




Have you had to deal with ModernBill yet? They have horrible support. Unfortunately they are the only billing package that supported what we needed. I have been watching MB for a long time and it seems that they outsourced their coding to people in another country. When you do get into their support, they want root access and you will have someone from another country logging into your machine. It seems more then just a coincidence that just after then logged out of our machine the other day that we started having problems. Next time I'd like to take a closer look at Whois.Cart(), but we do a lot more then just hosting.



No, haven't had to deal with them yet; but if you had questions, post them here and someone will try to help you. If it's a genuine support issue, not sure what to say.





For the dream list, I forgot to add (and if you didn't like Sendmail, you won't like this);


- Bind support.

Well it's not what I like or not, it's up to the developers, but I doubht this will happen -- BIND has more security issues than Sendmail.

Oh, and for what It's worth, I asked for some of these same things (sendmail in particular) when i first started with Iworx almost 2 years ago, but I've come to see the wisdom of Chris and Paul's choices and now agree with them.

[oxionet]

++++

1 ) notification e-mails for server admin about all changes over server, warnings etc.
2 ) notification e-mails for reseller on all changes over siteworx accounts, quota warnings etc..

[oxionet]

I have a good idea too..

Server admin may edit default site creation template
1 ) skel
2 ) default e-mail accounts
3 ) default catch-all account

[timryberg]

++++

1 ) notification e-mails for server admin about all changes over server, warnings etc.
2 ) notification e-mails for reseller on all changes over siteworx accounts, quota warnings etc..

I second these :-)

[timryberg]

I have a good idea too..

Server admin may edit default site creation template
1 ) skel
2 ) default e-mail accounts
3 ) default catch-all account

I second these as well :-)

One thing that I'd like to see in particular (not sure, there may already be a feature request in their system for this) is the abuse email account to actually be a forwarded to the server administrator (whomever gets root's email) by default. Or possibly sent to both the root user and the email account of the SiteWorx user. The admin could then change this on a per user basis if needed.

[DPates[voxel]]

I don't run it in domain 0, but in unprivileged Xen domains, InterWorx runs just fine, as long as thread-local storage enabled C libraries are available (the database will break without them). I set up my domain 0s very compact, and running Debian; I wouldn't want any control panel running in domain 0, as it's just supposed to support the domUs. The resources allocated to domain 0 are minimal, and certainly not sufficient for a control panel.

--
Derrik Pates
Voxel dot Net, Inc.

[WebXtrA]

Well my dream and my customers dream:

1) Having php4 and php5 (php4 for the .php files and php5 for the .php5 files)
2) Having MySQL 4.1 and 5 running together, of course with the ability to easily create users and DBs with the Iworx GUI
3) Loadballanced SSH
4) Loadballanced FTP

But I guess we have to keep on dreaming for a while ;)

EDIT: Added 3 & 4

[FusionHosting]

A few things I'd like to see, after a week of using Interworx and load balancing.

I'd like to see a couple popular apache modules included with or without any extra 'gui' for configuration. Ideally I would want mod_throttle but it doesn't work for Apache2 yet, so alternatives like c_band or mod_bw would be nice. Something to help with defining QoS on a server-wide or vhost scale.

An expansion of the Firewall features with a basic intrusion and blocking script using APF would be really nice to automaticly deal with brute force login attempts already being reported by Interworx in Logwatch would be great too. It's annoying to see 300+ attempts by an IP and have to manually login to add it.