Home » Archive » Old LxLabs & LxCenter Consortium » Lxadmin vs Cpanel
| Lxadmin vs Cpanel [message #23607] |
Wed, 27 February 2008 19:15  |
Lxhelp
Messages: 23691
Registered: July 2006 |
The Champion |
|
|
This is a quite old post, and no longer relevant. Lxadmin now has nearly every feature you can find in CPanel. If you have a feature in cpanel, that you want implemented in Lxadmin, please let us know.
Cpanel can be pretty much characterized as software designed by high school kids, and then 10 years of hacks piled on top of each other, with no central design or logic.
===============================================
Since most of our customer are coming from CPanel background, we are explicitly stating our roadmap regarding Lxadmin's feature compatibility with Cpanel. First of all, CPanel is a single server, Unix only, (APache only) system (Their windows code is a separate program), unlike Lxadmin, which is a cross-platform, distributed software, that supports multiple drivers for almost all services, apache/lighttpd, bind/djbdns, spamassassin/bogofilter.
But other than that, we have explicit plans to have 100% CPanel compatibility. To this end, we have even made radical changes to our core design in order to achieve this, and I can confidently say that ex-CPanel people now find Lxadmin a much less alien environment than it was earlier.
The main difference between lxadmin and CPanel is that in CPanel, there is no per domain configuration at all. All changes are automatically applied to all domains. In Lxadmin, we introduced the 'Update-all' feature, which achieves the same purpose. If you are inside a client, just go to any feature page, and instead of clicking update , you click on update all which will impress the particular parameters on all the objects in that account.
===============================================
[Updated on: Tue, 04 November 2008 08:29] by Moderator Report message to a moderator |
|
| |
| Re: CPanel vs Lxadmin [message #24220 is a reply to message #24212] |
Sun, 02 March 2008 07:22  |
Lxhelp
Messages: 23691
Registered: July 2006 |
The Champion |
|
|
| Quote: |
>
>
> What I like with cPanel and I miss with Hypervm/Lxadmin is :
>
> 1) Updating/creating/modifying stuff can be done either through command line or through the web interface with cPanel/WHM but will lead to some issues with Hvm/Lxa.
> >From a sysadmin managing a lot of servers point of view, this makes a big difference.
|
Yes. Lxadmin currently doesn't allow you to modify config files outside of it. But if you have a full fledged cluster, using mult-update, you can actually manage your entire network much faster on Lxadmin than manually changing configurations. At least, on our lxlabs server, even me, who normally prefers command-line, exclusively use Lxadmin to manage our websites. One of the reasons is of course, the multi-update feature, which allows me to update many objects together.
We will provide full and complete API to access everything via command line though.
/script/update --class=web --name=--all-- --v-text_blockip='192.168.1.*'
The above will update every web object setting the blocked-ip as the one you provide. We currently do have fixweb, fixdns etc, that will mass-update all the objects. Some lxadmin modules like mail actually do respect changes made via command line. The core web configuration files are not accessible though. We will also re-write some of the modules to respect the existing configuration, but it is not in our short-term plans at this time.
| Quote: |
> 2) Web Interfaces : WHM/cPanel is a lot more simple and intuitive.
> I'm not talking about the design, here. Hvm/Lxa is actually very nice to the eyes but when you're looking for a specific function, it can take some time to find it through the different pages.
> cPanel has two main pages (WHM and cPanel), distributing all categories and functions, when you have to deal with many tabs and pages with Hvm/Lxa.
|
Lxadmin/hyperVM separates admin from server . But this is again because of the distributed nature of architecture. We cannot have server functions in admin because, you can have many servers. For client/domains, we will see if we can provide a single page where all the domain functions are available on the main client page itself.
| Quote: |
> 3) It's already been said numerous times but I still have to mention it : the CHANGELOG :d
>
|
We have 2 more critical features to implement. Customizable document-root and redundant master, which will be released today and Tuesday. After that, we will start keeeping a changelog.
Thanks for the comments.
|
|
|
| Re: CPanel vs Lxadmin [message #24330 is a reply to message #24212] |
Mon, 03 March 2008 00:01 |
Lxhelp
Messages: 23691
Registered: July 2006 |
The Champion |
|
|
| Quote: |
>
> 2) Web Interfaces : WHM/cPanel is a lot more simple and intuitive.
> I'm not talking about the design, here. Hvm/Lxa is actually very nice to the eyes but when you're looking for a specific function, it can take some time to find it through the different pages.
> cPanel has two main pages (WHM and cPanel), distributing all categories and functions, when you have to deal with many tabs and pages with Hvm/Lxa.
|
I will add to that: It is not merely a problem with intuitiveness, but rather the number of clicks. Lxadmin needs more number of clicks to achieve many things, and while multi-update does solve a lot of problems, it doesn't solve everything.
We have implemented a all mailaccount , which will show every single mailaccount in your login in a single page. Currently it is only available for admin, but we will implement this for customers too.
In fact, we will provide a generic concept called all resource which will show every resource created by everyone in your account. For instance, all mysql database or all cron jobs etc.
Anyway, Lxadmin is a very nascent software. In a year, we will have every feature that's found in every control panel.
Thanks.
|
|
|
| Re: CPanel vs Lxadmin [message #24359 is a reply to message #24330] |
Mon, 03 March 2008 04:56 |
|
| Lxhelp wrote on Mon, 03 March 2008 06:01 |
We have implemented a all mailaccount , which will show every single mailaccount in your login in a single page. Currently it is only available for admin, but we will implement this for customers too.
In fact, we will provide a generic concept called all resource which will show every resource created by everyone in your account. For instance, all mysql database or all cron jobs etc.
|
Great stuff ! I do like it a lot 
Suggestion : rename the column "owner" to "Domain name" and add another column called "Owner" with the owner's username.
Also could we get the ability to delete a domain or a vps in the "All domains" or "All VMs", please ?
| Lxhelp wrote on Mon, 03 March 2008 06:01 |
Anyway, Lxadmin is a very nascent software. In a year, we will have every feature that's found in every control panel.
Thanks.
|
Sure thing
I'm playing with Hypervm/Lxadmin since less than one year (june 2007) and the improvements are truely amazing !
BTW, when will you release the redundant master system for Hypervm ? This would make our scheduled master server upgrade even easier, lol.
Thanks for your awesome work, support and everything !
Marie
Need Further Assistance ? Here you go !
English, french and spanish support
|
|
|
| Re: CPanel vs Lxadmin [message #24365 is a reply to message #24359] |
Mon, 03 March 2008 05:22 |
Lxhelp
Messages: 23691
Registered: July 2006 |
The Champion |
|
|
| Quote: |
On Mon, Mar 03, 2008 at 09:57:04AM -0000, Marie wrote:
>
> Great stuff ! I do like it a lot :)
> Suggestion : rename the column "owner" to "Domain name" and add another column called "Owner" with the owner's username.
|
This is fixed.
| Quote: |
>
> Also could we get the ability to delete a domain or a vps in the "All domains" or "All VMs", please ?
|
Currently the 'all resource' feature doesn't have delete. We have to add some more layers of security, and then we will enable 'delete' too. Currently, you can click on the 'owner', and then you will get a list of the same resource in his account, and there you can delete.
We have an extremely rigid security, where only the immediate owner can do anything on a particular resource. We will add it, since it is very essential.
| Quote: |
>
> BTW, when will you release the redundant master system for Hypervm ? This would make our scheduled master server upgrade even easier, lol.
>
> Thanks for your awesome work, support and everything !
|
It will be available in 2 days.
|
|
| |
| Re: CPanel vs Lxadmin [message #24372 is a reply to message #24371] |
Mon, 03 March 2008 05:53 |
Lxhelp
Messages: 23691
Registered: July 2006 |
The Champion |
|
|
We already have that on hyperVM central backup. We will implement the same logic for lxadmin too. We will have the same browse backup feature, where clients can browse their files, and restore files individually, just like we have for hyperVM. But it will be available only after our windows release.
Thanks.
On Mon, Mar 03, 2008 at 10:48:23AM -0000, Marie wrote:
>
>
> Another thing that I like with cPanel is their incremental backup. It makes the server backup very fast, then I use the /scripts/postcpbackup to rsync the backups to a remote server, which is also faster and saves a lot of bandwidth.
|
|
| |
| Re: CPanel vs Lxadmin [message #24432 is a reply to message #24212] |
Mon, 03 March 2008 19:07 |
Lxhelp
Messages: 23691
Registered: July 2006 |
The Champion |
|
|
| Quote: |
> 2) Web Interfaces : WHM/cPanel is a lot more simple and intuitive.
> I'm not talking about the design, here. Hvm/Lxa is actually very nice to the eyes but when you're looking for a specific function, it can take some time to find it through the different pages.
> cPanel has two main pages (WHM and cPanel), distributing all categories and functions, when you have to deal with many tabs and pages with Hvm/Lxa.
|
We now have a full cluster-wide ipaddress access in admin itself. Go to client home -> ipaddress and you can access all the Ipaddresses there, irrespective of the server they are in. Certain things cannot be directly put in admin, since they belong to a particular server, and accessing all the servers--lxadmin is meant to manage 1000s of servers centrally--would be physically impossible. But we will provide a central access to all resources whereever we can.
Thanks.
|
|
|
| Re: CPanel vs Lxadmin [message #24726 is a reply to message #24432] |
Thu, 06 March 2008 03:13 |
Lxhelp
Messages: 23691
Registered: July 2006 |
The Champion |
|
|
We have the full array of all resources now. Update to the latest version, and refresh the entire frame, and on the top header, now there is a button called all . You can see all mailacounts, ftpusers, scheduled tasks, mailing lists and mysql databases .
I doubt any other CP can ever make it this convenient.
Thanks.
|
|
| |
| Re: CPanel vs Lxadmin [message #24764 is a reply to message #24750] |
Thu, 06 March 2008 06:50 |
Lxhelp
Messages: 23691
Registered: July 2006 |
The Champion |
|
|
| Quote: |
>
>
> AWESOME !!!
>
> I doubt any CP has such a fantastic development/support team :)
|
That's actually not enough. We'd rather Lxadmin do the talking, and not bring developers into this. We are very serious about matching Cpanel's features.
| Quote: |
>
> Question : could you add another column with the owner's username, please ?
|
It is possible, but needs some changes to the framework itself.
Thanks for the suggestions.
|
|
| |
| Re: CPanel vs Lxadmin [message #25304 is a reply to message #24978] |
Mon, 10 March 2008 05:59 |
Lxhelp
Messages: 23691
Registered: July 2006 |
The Champion |
|
|
Redundant primary/secondary master is available now. Please check the latest post in the general knowledge base to find out how to get it working. We have made it as simple as possible, and finally filtered it down to 3 commands.
Thanks.
On Fri, Mar 07, 2008 at 11:37:03PM +0530, Lxhelp wrote:
> [quote]
> >
> >
> > Any news ?
> >
|
|
|
| Re: CPanel vs Lxadmin [message #26190 is a reply to message #24220] |
Mon, 17 March 2008 15:26 |
Lxhelp
Messages: 23691
Registered: July 2006 |
The Champion |
|
|
> | Quote: |
> > 2) Web Interfaces : WHM/cPanel is a lot more simple and intuitive.
> > I'm not talking about the design, here. Hvm/Lxa is actually very nice to the eyes but when you're looking for a specific function, it can take some time to find it through the different pages.
> > cPanel has two main pages (WHM and cPanel), distributing all categories and functions, when you have to deal with many tabs and pages with Hvm/Lxa.
>
|
Hello,
Please check the new design. Now, all the buttons are directly available in the customer itself. You don't have to navigate into the domain. It is actually exactly like cpanel. It was quite trivial to create the design, and we didn't even make any core changes.
Just login as a customer who has at least one domain in his account and please let me know your opinion.
thanks.
|
|
| |
| Re: CPanel vs Lxadmin [message #26283 is a reply to message #26192] |
Tue, 18 March 2008 09:55 |
Lxhelp
Messages: 23691
Registered: July 2006 |
The Champion |
|
|
| Quote: |
>
>
> Lxhelp wrote on Mon, 17 March 2008 20:26
> > Just login as a customer who has at least one domain in his account and please let me know your opinion.
>
>
> The Super Intelligent Shade of Blue is awesome, once again !
|
Hi,
Please update and check now. We have moved mailaccounts too into client, so you can access all the mailaccounts irrespective of the domain. Mailaccount actions are also available in client, and mailaccount is also handled transparently like we handle domains.
We have been brutally honest till now, in acknowledging that cpanel had a more user friendly interface, but now I can confidently say that we are superior. For one, we will be able to mimic every single one of cpanel's features, but cpanel cannot do the reverse. For instance, in lxadmin the admin has a full and direct access to every client and domain, but cpanel will never be able to implement this. Nor will it ever be able to support multiple web/dns/spam/mail servers like we do. (We will add postfix support soon). Of course, distribution, and cross platform capabilities are things cpanel devs can't even dream of.
5 years down the line people will look back and wonder how a poorly written hack like cpanel could ever been considered the 'leading' control panel. :-) With the current design, we can trivially come up with skin that will exactly look like cpanel's frontpage.
thanks.
|
|
| | |
| Re: CPanel vs Lxadmin [message #27618 is a reply to message #26192] |
Thu, 27 March 2008 19:12 |
Lxhelp
Messages: 23691
Registered: July 2006 |
The Champion |
|
|
| Quote: |
>
> Lxhelp wrote on Mon, 17 March 2008 20:26
> > Just login as a customer who has at least one domain in his account and please let me know your opinion.
>
>
> Honestly... great job ! It's much much more clear for the end user now - and for the admin, too :)
> I really like the "Switch to another", btw.
>
> The Super Intelligent Shade of Blue is awesome, once again !
|
All the server functions are now available in admin itself. It gets the actions for the localhost pserver and shows all the buttions in admin home itself now. Please update and login as admin and see.
I think we now have all best of all possible worlds:
a) All buttons are available in a single page in admin and customer home.
b) Individual management of domains still possible'.
c) Domains can be added into admin. For people who want to do SELF-HOSTING, they can just start without thinking about resource plans or clients. In fact, the client concept can be completely removed, and lxadmin will still work properly.
d) You can scale to 1000s of servers, since the you can always manage the servers via the servers page.
thanks.
|
|
|
| Re: Lxadmin vs Cpanel [message #27669 is a reply to message #23607] |
Fri, 28 March 2008 09:10 |
|
If I can...
- it will be good to have the "update home" button in section "Server"
- in "mail accounts" an icon for change the spam status of each account
- an icon for jump quickly from domain, sub-domain to mysql databases
|
|
|
| Re: Lxadmin vs Cpanel [message #27670 is a reply to message #27669] |
Fri, 28 March 2008 09:15 |
Lxhelp
Messages: 23691
Registered: July 2006 |
The Champion |
|
|
| Quote: |
>
>
> If I can...
>
> - it will be good to have the "update home" button in section "Server"
|
You need to only update the master. So update home is now only present in admin.
| Quote: |
> - in "mail accounts" an icon for change the spam status of each account
|
yes, it is still possible. We just hid the button. The problem is that if we have spam manage in mailaccount too, there will be two spam buttons in the main customer home page. We will see if we can provide per account spam per domain spam
| Quote: |
> - an icon for jump quickly from domain, sub-domain to mysql databases
|
You can put the mysql databases in the favorites. Then you can jumpt to it from anywhere. :-)
thanks.
|
|
| | |
| Re: CPanel vs Lxadmin [message #27677 is a reply to message #27674] |
Fri, 28 March 2008 10:01 |
Lxhelp
Messages: 23691
Registered: July 2006 |
The Champion |
|
|
| Quote: |
>
> Would you make up your mind regarding this and stop moving features to and fro. I'm joggling domains to and out of admin like mad last 2 weeks. The initial idea of having self-hosting without clients was great but strangely you removed it. And now you put it back just after I moved all my domains to a client. This inconsistency is starting to take on my nerves and it means you do not think in depth on new features before releasing them.
>
> Is this design final or should we expect new changes after several updates :)
|
It is ALWAYS and ALWAYS a good idea to host domains under their own clients. We added the domain-adding-in-admin feature, because new lxadmin users were getting confused. They clicked the add domain and then they just got confused and gave up.
Anyway, we are merely adapting to what our customers want, and yes, we are very close to achieving our goal of best of all possible worlds . If a lot of customers request something, we have no choice but to implement it.
thanks.
|
|
|
| Re: Lxadmin vs Cpanel [message #27801 is a reply to message #27670] |
Sat, 29 March 2008 05:40 |
|
| Lxhelp wrote on Fri, 28 March 2008 14:15 |
You can put the mysql databases in the favorites. Then you can jumpt to it from anywhere.
|
There is a way to order the links in favorites ?
|
|
| |
| Re: Lxadmin vs Cpanel [message #27839 is a reply to message #27803] |
Sat, 29 March 2008 08:52 |
|
| Lxhelp wrote on Sat, 29 March 2008 11:05 |
Click on edit. You can sort by name.
|
Yes, I've done it but it can be better. If I sort by name (description) it's only re-order in the "edit" mode not in the block favorite at top left.
It should be good to use ajax for order each links as we want and have the same order than in "edit" mode into the top left block.
|
|
|
| Re: Lxadmin vs Cpanel [message #27841 is a reply to message #27839] |
Sat, 29 March 2008 08:55 |
Lxhelp
Messages: 23691
Registered: July 2006 |
The Champion |
|
|
| Quote: |
>
> Yes, I've done it but it can be better. If I sort by name (description) it's only re-order in the "edit" mode not in the block favorite at top left.
>
> It should be good to use ajax for order each links as we want and have the same order than in "edit" mode into the top left block.
|
We will have a full desktop style interface once we switch to Silverlight.
thanks.
|
|
| |
| Re: Lxadmin vs Cpanel [message #33245 is a reply to message #32855] |
Wed, 16 July 2008 23:13 |
 markb14391 
Messages: 239
Registered: June 2008 |
Senior Member |
|
|
I agree, I recently posted questions about modifying the interface in another thread, but I was told that certain things about the interface are "not important."
Web hosts are looking for functional AND professional-looking options to offer their clients. Function is definitely a must, but style is too.
I have shown the LXAdmin interface to several clients and potential clients, and they all say it looks like a powerful product with a lot to be desired interface-wise. The most common adjective used to describe it was "amateurish."
As web hosting providers we are also marketers and salespeople. And the overall quality of our product is often judged by look and feel as much as functionality. Therefore, to offer products like these, they need to have significantly improved interfaces. That is not an insult, it's constructive criticism. Most of those I showed LXAdmin to said that they would not feel comfortable using it for their websites mainly because it doesn't look professional and polished, even though under the hood it probably is much better than cPanel. That's the truth, and listening to this advice can help LXLabs win bigger market share.
[Updated on: Wed, 16 July 2008 23:14] Report message to a moderator |
|
|
| Re: Lxadmin vs Cpanel [message #38784 is a reply to message #33245] |
Sat, 27 September 2008 03:33 |
Lxhelp
Messages: 23691
Registered: July 2006 |
The Champion |
|
|
A complete redesign of Lxadmin/HyperVM interface is being done. We have hired a third party design firm specifically for this purpose.
The thing is, interface is important, but first we needed to get feature compatibility with our main competitors. Merely having a great interface will not help us, if we do not have the stability and the features.
thanks.
On Thu, Jul 17, 2008 at 03:13:21AM -0000, Mark Bailey wrote:
>
>
> I agree, I recently posted questions about modifying the interface in another thread, but I was told that certain things about the interface are "not important." Web hosts are looking for functional AND professional-looking options to offer their clients. Function is definitely a must, but style is too.
|
|
|
| Re: Lxadmin vs Cpanel [message #38785 is a reply to message #32855] |
Sat, 27 September 2008 03:36 |
Lxhelp
Messages: 23691
Registered: July 2006 |
The Champion |
|
|
We will have a completely new interface with multiple themes. And a fresh new set of Icons too. The problem with the current interface is that the Icons are all extremely poor, and sometimes does not match the action they represent.
But redesigning the interface is a trivial job. Lxadmin/hyperVM's total html code is mere 1200 lines. We can actually completely redesign every single page in less than a week.
| Quote: |
On Mon, Jul 07, 2008 at 10:33:50PM -0000, Sandeep wrote:
>
>
> I love the amount of features lxadmin has, i do think that it can beat all the commercial control panels. There are just a few problems with the interface.
>
> It looks rather cheap, i think cpanel and plesk are along the right lines on how lxadmin should go. they both have easy to find features and there is also a lot of space. Frames are a nuisance as well. There also needs to be a way to change the control panels branding.
>
> i think that is all, basically cutting a long story short, you need to change the interface to something that is not so busy and everything is organized in correct named groups.
|
|
|
| |
| Re: Lxadmin vs Cpanel [message #47881 is a reply to message #38786] |
Thu, 27 November 2008 11:42 |
Lxhelp
Messages: 23691
Registered: July 2006 |
The Champion |
|
|
New feather skin is available. You can check the new design at http://lxlinuxdemo.lxadmin.com:7778 and logging in as domain owner.
With the new layout, we will come up with something that will make all cpanel users extremely comfortable.
thanks.
On Sat, Sep 27, 2008 at 07:41:51AM -0000, Mark Bailey wrote:
>
>
> That is great news!
|
|
| |
| Re: Lxadmin vs Cpanel [message #47947 is a reply to message #47942] |
Fri, 28 November 2008 03:28 |
Lxhelp
Messages: 23691
Registered: July 2006 |
The Champion |
|
|
Yes, this is just the basic outline. I have got a new graphics design firm, and now they are working on it. Please give me all your suggestions.
thanks.
On Fri, Nov 28, 2008 at 08:15:11AM -0000, Yokav wrote:
>
>
> Hello,
>
> The top icons (home, all, clients) are in black/white, it's not a good idea IMHO.
>
> Bigger icons with colors like before is better...
>
|
|
| |
| Re: Lxadmin vs Cpanel [message #48511 is a reply to message #48473] |
Tue, 02 December 2008 03:38 |
Lxhelp
Messages: 23691
Registered: July 2006 |
The Champion |
|
|
The demo was down for sometime. It is back up now.
On Mon, Dec 01, 2008 at 08:39:10PM -0000, Mark Bailey wrote:
>
>
> I can't see the new design...always get a page error at that URL.
>
|
|
|
| Pages (2): [1 ] |
  |
Goto Forum:
Current Time: Sat May 18 11:14:29 EDT 2013
Total time taken to generate the page: 0.01825 seconds
|
HyperVM & Kloxo Support
Members
Search
Help
Register
Login
Home
