Menu
▾
▴
Re: Wishlist request: SSH remote administration added to API
|
From: Aaron G. <agr...@uw...> - 2002-12-18 00:09:18
|
Oh, I see. The other thing I thought about for this was that sometimes it might be necessary to push a script to the other box and then execute it there. Downloading stuff to the remote box might fall under that category. On Tue, 2002-12-17 at 13:48, Jamie Cameron wrote: > Sometimes webmin itself downloads files, such as in the Software Packages > module. The problem is, when managing a remote server using SSH the download > would have to be made by the remote server, not the master. There is no easy > way to use SSH to open a network connection on another server, either for > downloading or other network communications. > > This could be worked around by having the master server download the file and > then transfer it to the remote server though .. so I guess it isn't really as > big a problem as I first thought :) > > - Jamie > > Aaron Grewell <agr...@uw...> wrote .. > > OK, thanks for the feedback. I thought it would be more-or-less doable, > > so I'm glad to have confirmation of that. I'll be watching with > > interest, and if I can help out, great. I'm not sure quite what you > > mean by the network connection part, though. Do you mean a connection > > internal to webmin? Downloading files via scp is pretty easy, so I > > think I must not understand what you mean. > > > > On Mon, 2002-12-16 at 22:00, Jamie Cameron wrote: > > > Quite an interesting idea .. it would be possible to convert most if > > not > > > all existing modules to be able to connect to another host via SSH, > > > by replacing all function calls that read or write files or start or > > signal > > > processes with calls to the SSH program to connect to the remote host. > > > > > > Unfortunately, not everything can be 'remoted' like this - for example, > > > there is no way to tell SSH to open a network connection on the other > > > server. Many modules do this for downloading files and so on .. So a > > lot > > > of modules couldn't be converted to use SSH. > > > > > > It would still be an interesting and mostly do-able long term project > > > though .. but not one I am going to start right away. > > > > > > - Jamie > > > > > > Aaron Grewell <agr...@uw...> wrote .. > > > > First of all, thank you very much for webmin. It is a very valuable > > > > tool. I think I have come up with a way for it to be even more of > > a > > > > help to administrators. My suggestion is this: > > > > > > > > Currently, many plugins require that webmin be loaded on the same box > > as > > > > the service being administered. This makes webmin somewhat of an > > > > administrative burden itself on a medium-to-large network. > > > > Although it offsets this by making administration easier, it is not > > > > really necessary to do things this way. There is already an > > > > administrative service that ships with almost all unix-type systems, > > and > > > > can be loaded on most systems that do not ship it. I am, of course, > > > > referring to ssh. > > > > > > > > Every function (AFAICT, please let me know if I am mistaken here) that > > > > is currently performed by webmin can be performed remotely via ssh. > > In > > > > addition, many things that webmin cannot do right now (i.e. Windows > > > > remote administration) can be done via ssh, since it absolves the webmin > > > > server of necessarily supporting the commands being performed. Only > > the > > > > plugin has to handle the commands, and be able to locate and deal with > > > > them remotely. > > > > > > > > Proposed API additions: > > > > > > > > ssh_exec - run commands via ssh and return their output for > > > > error-handling > > > > ssh_get_file - download a file either via ssh and cat, or scp > > > > ssh_put_file - the reverse > > > > ssh_open - a wrapper for open() which uses the above commands to > > > > retrieve a file before opening, then put it back when finished. These > > > > sorts of commands would be important for porting, as the external plugin > > > > authors are probably not going to want to put all the logic in, and > > it > > > > should be able to be handled centrally in the API for most cases. > > > > > > > > And whatever others I am forgetting that are important for this to > > work > > > > right. How's that for open-ended? ;) > > > > > > > > I really think that by further relieving administrators' burdens wrt > > > > webmin cluster maintenance and opening the way into non-unix systems > > for > > > > webmin plugins this would make webmin even more of a must-have tool > > than > > > > it already is. > > > > > > > > Of course, you are probably thinking "well, so why don't you do it > > > > then?" The answer is that I lack the skill to do this myself. My > > perl > > > > skills are limited, although given sufficient direction I would be > > > > willing to help with, say, updating the plugins once the API changes > > > > were made. That shouldn't be rocket science, probably just seriously > > > > boring except in the corner cases. > > > > > > > > I hope that this is not a huge task, but I think that it could be a > > huge > > > > benefit to this project. You know the code better than I, as I have > > > > only reviewed it briefly. What do you think? > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > > > This sf.net email is sponsored by: > > > With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility > > > Learn to use your power at OSDN's High Performance Computing Channel > > > http://hpc.devchannel.org/ > > > - > > > Forwarded by the Webmin development list at web...@we... > > > To remove yourself from this list, go to > > > http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/webadmin-devel > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > > This sf.net email is sponsored by: > > With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility > > Learn to use your power at OSDN's High Performance Computing Channel > > http://hpc.devchannel.org/ > > - > > Forwarded by the Webmin development list at web...@we... > > To remove yourself from this list, go to > > http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/webadmin-devel > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > This sf.net email is sponsored by: > With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility > Learn to use your power at OSDN's High Performance Computing Channel > http://hpc.devchannel.org/ > - > Forwarded by the Webmin development list at web...@we... > To remove yourself from this list, go to > http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/webadmin-devel |
