Control Panel recommendation (Linux noobie/virgin)
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Control Panel recommendation (Linux noobie/virgin)
Hi All,
To improve the performance of my web based applications, I have taken out a linux server (CentOS based with a LAMP stack) to host my MySQL databases. I have a cheat sheet of commands to use once I have logged in via PuTTY. As I am more used to GUI interfaces and want to keep a close eye on the server, can anyone recommend a free control panel and, if there is one, how do I install this control panel via PuTTY?
If you don't need a control panel but just a GUI, you could install a VNC daemon and then tunnel VNC over SSH to get a remote desktop or use something like NX/nomachine
As far as controls do go, the most famous free control panel is webmin but I wouldn't recommend it. While cPanel and Plesk are more famous, neither are free.
Personally I'd say command-line will always be predominately the best method of administrating a linux server, where as control panels generally need to be worked around and place restrictions on what you can and can not do.
Last edited by r3sistance; 02-21-2017 at 09:38 AM.
I use and am happy with ispconfig3. It's a chore to get it set up but then is an excellent web panel. And carefully going through their setup tutorial for your system is also very educational.
I was working with a client for some time whose sites were regularly and deeply hacked ... even rootkitted ... and I was finally able to persuade them that the intruders were getting in through Plesk.
I persuaded them to let me set up a vanilla Linux ... no Plesk ... and to manage it through the command line and otherwise secure it with OpenVPN and so forth. This server was never compromised. With that point made, I was able to wipe clean and reinstall (because that's what you have to do, to get rid of Plesk) all the others, and their intrusion problems were past history.
I was working with a client for some time whose sites were regularly and deeply hacked ... even rootkitted ... and I was finally able to persuade them that the intruders were getting in through Plesk.
I persuaded them to let me set up a vanilla Linux ... no Plesk ... and to manage it through the command line and otherwise secure it with OpenVPN and so forth. This server was never compromised. With that point made, I was able to wipe clean and reinstall (because that's what you have to do, to get rid of Plesk) all the others, and their intrusion problems were past history.
Can't say I have ever known plesk itself to be particularly insecure but it wouldn't surprise me, it also wouldn't surprise me if somebody using Plesk probably used FTP to it as root and leaked the root password that way either, once rootkitted it was already a case of full re-install. Where I work, Plesk's ports (and cpanel's) are all locked down to the office network and then if any of our customers have to request access, we try to avoid ever opening the ports to the whole world. Then again we do this with SSH and RDP too, just keep everything locked down as possible.
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