hosting solutions

[D. Goss]

On Sep 5, 2005, at 1:03 PM, Butsyk A. wrote:

> Hi list.
>
> Please tell where to find a complete hosting automation system.
> Not like webmin but with browser interface.
> I've found http://www.gplhost.com (dtc) and http://vhcs.net/ (VHCS)  
> but
> they usually linux oriented, but i need bsd oriented.

As mentioned before, Plesk and Hsphere are good choices and run FreeBSD.
There's also cPanel.  Of the three, Hsphere is the only one that is a  
"complete"
solution that includes integrated billing.  Both cPanel and Plesk  
expect to
be setup with software like Modernbill to deal with automated account  
setups
and recurring billing.  There truly are a dizzying array of other  
packages too.

Try checking out a forum like http://www.webhostingtalk.com.  There  
are A LOT
of threads comparing systems - the best thing to do once you've read   
a bit
and checked out the sites is to have a clean box to install on and  
try the demos
that all the software makers provide (usualy 15-30 days free).   
Install one, play
around and then try another.  You'll probably find one that fits your  
needs
after checking out the major players.

Just a FreeBSD note, Hsphere has some issues with FreeBSD 5.x (the  
control
panel is written in Java and they are not happy with the 5.x  
implementation).
Psoft (the makers) recommend 4.x for the cPanel server and 5.x for  
the hosting
servers (need at least two boxes).  Or you can run all under 4.x.  I  
think that there
is immenent support for 5.4 or maybe it will be 6 and then the whole  
system
can use one server.  You'll soon see that one of the strengths of  
Hsphere is that
it is meant to be broken up over sever servers with each server  
providing one
or more services (DNS, mail, SQL, web, even... ugh... Windows hosting).

Good luck -
Best,
d.