webadmin-devel

create_homedir 0.1 -- Comments requested

[Wil C. <wc...@na...>]

Hi,=20

I've written a little module to teach myself about the internals of
Webmin, especially the RPC stuff.  So, I wrote one that presents
the user with a list of users (from user-lib.pl:list_users) and
a list of configured Webmin hosts and allows him to create a home
directory for the user, based on the configuration on the remote
host (user's GID, home directory path, skel path, etc).  But rather
than being useful just as a user module, I thought it might also
be useful to other module writers.  (Me, in particular.)

You can pull it down from here:

http://nakedape.cc/~wcooley/src/create_homedir.wbm

I'd like to get other people's input on what I could improve.
ACLs are what I'm planning to implement next.

I'm planning a fairly ambitious module I'm calling "Directory
Manager", which will allow one to administer users, groups,
hosts, and other things managed through the name-service switch.
Initially, I'm going to make it work just with LDAP, since that's
what I'm interested in, but I'm hoping to make it modular enough
that people will add db, postgres, mysql support as necessary.
(I'm planning to reuse some of the work that's already gone into
creating ldap-user utilities.)

Wil
--=20
W. Reilly Cooley                           wc...@na...
Naked Ape Consulting                        http://nakedape.cc
irc.linux.com                             #orlug,#pdxlug,#lnxs

The most costly of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably
not true.  It is the chief occupation of mankind.
		-- H.L. Mencken

Re: create_homedir 0.1 -- Comments requested

[Joe C. <jo...@sw...>]

Cool.  I'd like to follow development of the LDAP stuff, if you don't 
mind posting occasional updates here.  I was going to do LDAP 
integration for my virtual hosting module but if you do the hard work 
first, I'll be happy to borrow ideas.   ;-)

Wil Cooley wrote:

> Hi, 
> 
> I've written a little module to teach myself about the internals of
> Webmin, especially the RPC stuff.  So, I wrote one that presents
> the user with a list of users (from user-lib.pl:list_users) and
> a list of configured Webmin hosts and allows him to create a home
> directory for the user, based on the configuration on the remote
> host (user's GID, home directory path, skel path, etc).  But rather
> than being useful just as a user module, I thought it might also
> be useful to other module writers.  (Me, in particular.)
> 
> You can pull it down from here:
> 
> http://nakedape.cc/~wcooley/src/create_homedir.wbm
> 
> I'd like to get other people's input on what I could improve.
> ACLs are what I'm planning to implement next.
> 
> I'm planning a fairly ambitious module I'm calling "Directory
> Manager", which will allow one to administer users, groups,
> hosts, and other things managed through the name-service switch.
> Initially, I'm going to make it work just with LDAP, since that's
> what I'm interested in, but I'm hoping to make it modular enough
> that people will add db, postgres, mysql support as necessary.
> (I'm planning to reuse some of the work that's already gone into
> creating ldap-user utilities.)
> 
> Wil

-- 
Joe Cooper <jo...@sw...>
http://www.swelltech.com
Web Caching Appliances and Support

Re: create_homedir 0.1 -- Comments requested

[Wil C. <wc...@na...>]

Also Sprach Joe Cooper:
> Cool.  I'd like to follow development of the LDAP stuff, if you don't=20
> mind posting occasional updates here.  I was going to do LDAP=20
> integration for my virtual hosting module but if you do the hard work=20
> first, I'll be happy to borrow ideas.   ;-)

Well, I've been communicating with Fernando Lozano about his LDAP
users module, which actually does about 90% of what's needed,
so I'm hoping to just help with what he's done, but make a more
general framework.  (One of the things I wanted was the ability to
remotely create home directories...) I haven't done nearly enough
LDAP or Webmin programming to say that I can certainly pull this off,
but I'm hopeful.

What sort of things are you looking for for your virtual hosting?
I've thought for a long time that it would be very cool if someone
would write a mod_config_ldap, where Apache would pull configuration
from an LDAP server.  I don't think it would be terribly hard to map
the Apache configuration directives into LDAP objects & attributes,
but it'd be a hell of a lot of work considering how many there are.

Wil
--=20
W. Reilly Cooley                           wc...@na...
Naked Ape Consulting                        http://nakedape.cc
irc.linux.com                             #orlug,#pdxlug,#lnxs

"There was a vague, unpleasant manginess about his appearence; he somehow
seemed dirty, though a close glance showed him as carefully shaven as an
actor, and clad in immaculate linen."
-- H.L. Mencken, on the death of William Jennings Bryan

Re: create_homedir 0.1 -- Comments requested

[Joe C. <jo...@sw...>]

Wil Cooley wrote:

> Also Sprach Joe Cooper:
> 
>>Cool.  I'd like to follow development of the LDAP stuff, if you don't 
>>mind posting occasional updates here.  I was going to do LDAP 
>>integration for my virtual hosting module but if you do the hard work 
>>first, I'll be happy to borrow ideas.   ;-)
>>
> 
> Well, I've been communicating with Fernando Lozano about his LDAP
> users module, which actually does about 90% of what's needed,
> so I'm hoping to just help with what he's done, but make a more
> general framework.  (One of the things I wanted was the ability to
> remotely create home directories...) I haven't done nearly enough
> LDAP or Webmin programming to say that I can certainly pull this off,
> but I'm hopeful.
> 
> What sort of things are you looking for for your virtual hosting?
> I've thought for a long time that it would be very cool if someone
> would write a mod_config_ldap, where Apache would pull configuration
> from an LDAP server.  I don't think it would be terribly hard to map
> the Apache configuration directives into LDAP objects & attributes,
> but it'd be a hell of a lot of work considering how many there are.

I haven't mapped out all of the data that will go into LDAP yet, but I 
expect quite a lot of it will--for the first 'useful' version I'd like 
to simply do things in the traditional way (with a few additions): 
Apache virts, BIND records in normal flat-files, users in the flat-file 
passwd, and Sendmail/Postfix aliases set up also in a flat-file.

For performance reasons and easier maintainability and mobility (because 
we'll hopefully be managing quite large hosting environments from a 
single master server) I'd like to be able to freely migrate between 
flat-files and a database back-end, and LDAP is a quite suitable form of 
database for this purpose.  It will be more than user information, but 
that's a good start--we'll be attaching to each username (where 
username==hosting customer name) virtual host info for all of their 
sites, DNS info, mail aliases, backup schedule and targets, monthly 
recurring service costs, maintenence schedule, redundancy and failover 
rules, /their/ virtual customers, etc.

It's all very complicated, and I haven't enough hours in the day to even 
get a start on this stuff, but it'll happen sometime...
-- 
Joe Cooper <jo...@sw...>
http://www.swelltech.com
Web Caching Appliances and Support

Re: create_homedir 0.1 -- Comments requested

[Wil C. <wc...@na...>]

Also Sprach Joe Cooper:
>=20
> I haven't mapped out all of the data that will go into LDAP yet, but I=20
> expect quite a lot of it will--for the first 'useful' version I'd like=20
> to simply do things in the traditional way (with a few additions):=20
> Apache virts, BIND records in normal flat-files, users in the flat-file=
=20
> passwd, and Sendmail/Postfix aliases set up also in a flat-file.

For the users & aliases, it should be fairly trivial to interface
with LDAP--You just enable LDAP in /etc/nsswitch.conf and run
'getent' (assuming you're using a Linux/glibc-based system) and
you've got your files.  The Apache virts and BIND stuff would
be more difficult, but probably not terribly hard.  I don't even
configure Apache anymore for virtual hosts; I use mod_vhost_alias
and mod_rewrite and it's done; this works for all but about 3%
of our clients.  For BIND, I basically share one zone file between
all zones, so when I have to renumber or change something, I have
fewer changes to make.  That shouldn't be hard to do in LDAP either.


>=20
> For performance reasons and easier maintainability and mobility (because=
=20
> we'll hopefully be managing quite large hosting environments from a=20
> single master server) I'd like to be able to freely migrate between=20
> flat-files and a database back-end, and LDAP is a quite suitable form of=
=20
> database for this purpose.  It will be more than user information, but=20
> that's a good start--we'll be attaching to each username (where=20
> username=3D=3Dhosting customer name) virtual host info for all of their=
=20
> sites, DNS info, mail aliases, backup schedule and targets, monthly=20
> recurring service costs, maintenence schedule, redundancy and failover=20
> rules, /their/ virtual customers, etc.
>=20
> It's all very complicated, and I haven't enough hours in the day to even=
=20
> get a start on this stuff, but it'll happen sometime...

Yeah, I can imagine.  I've been meaning to take a look at similar
stuff myself for a while.  Getting users & groups out of flat files
and into LDAP is a big first step (I've set it up before at other
companies, but before I've managed those things directly.  Now I have
other people who will be managing it, so I need a easier interface
than GQ or LDAP_Explorer for them.)  I'm hoping to actually be able
to consolidate some of our existing accounting functions with LDAP,
although I suspect our accounting software won't handle it.

Wil
--=20
W. Reilly Cooley                           wc...@na...
Naked Ape Consulting                        http://nakedape.cc
irc.linux.com                             #orlug,#pdxlug,#lnxs

"There was a vague, unpleasant manginess about his appearence; he somehow
seemed dirty, though a close glance showed him as carefully shaven as an
actor, and clad in immaculate linen."
-- H.L. Mencken, on the death of William Jennings Bryan