Usermin offers a broad range of functionality from an open source solution that's tied directly to the web-based system administration tool, Webmin.

by Jeff Goldman [November 3, 2004]

A few years back, John Smith contacted Jamie Cameron (the developer of Webmin, a web-based interface for UNIX system administration) with an idea. "Because Webmin is so centric to system administration, it doesn't have a user interface where we can separate applications into something more user-friendly and secure for everyday user tasks—such as checking webmail," Smith says.

Smith, now co-founder of CrimsonTek, a company offering custom development of Webmin and Usermin modules, says the result of his initial query to Cameron was the creation of Usermin, a simplified version of Webmin designed specifically to separate the needs (and access rights) of end users from those of system administrators.

Usermin

Smith says Cameron had already created a webmail solution for Webmin, but once Usermin had been created, it made much more sense to implement the webmail module in Usermin rather than Webmin. "Usermin is ideal for that sort of thing," he says. "Webmin is something that you would want to shield from any outside access, because that's the core system configuration. That's really why Usermin was born."

The fact that both Webmin and Usermin are open source solutions, Smith says, is a strong argument for choosing them—particularly for webmail. "Everybody can look into the source code—they can expand it, they can see what security holes there are," he says. "For anything that's Web-based, I think open source software has thrived much more than commercial software in a lot of aspects."

Expanding functionality
Usermin now includes more than 20 modules ranging from a file management solution to a SpamAssassin mail filter. The ease of creating new applications, Smith says, is a strong argument for choosing to work with Usermin. "If you wanted to do your own mail extensions, you could easily do that," he says. "There's a lot of documentation on writing plug-ins and so forth."

One good example of the broad functionality available within Usermin is the range of languages available for the interface, from Bulgarian to Turkish.

In fact, Smith says, many ISPs and developers choose to sell the applications they create. "Because everything's licensed under BSD, an ISP can create their own components and then resell them," he says. "That can be an attractive investment for an ISP to make."

While knowledge of Perl is currently required to do basic customization of the look and feel of the interface, Smith says simpler options are planned for the near future. "We want to make it so that an HTML developer can just drop in templates, and everything will run off those templates," he says. "That's something that you can look forward to seeing rolled into the interface."

There's extensive documentation available on the Webmin and Usermin Web sites, as well as a number of discussion forums and mailing lists. For an ISP that requires more consistent support or consulting, though, Jamie Cameron offers commercial support for the software as well. "That's a lot of what his time goes to," Smith says.

Choosing open source
Pure-Elite is an open source development community offering a range of discount services from free subdomains to low-cost domain hosting. Support administrator Vernon Spangler says the company uses both Webmin and Usermin to run the servers, and to provide everything from webmail access to SpamAssassin filtering and vacation auto-reply.

The strongest argument for choosing Usermin, Spangler says, is the fact that it is less invasive to install. "Usermin basically configures to the server, and doesn't rebuild the server, so it's more efficient," he says. "When you install cPanel or Plesk, they basically rebuild your server —some of the packages they use are older packages, so they have security flaws."

In working with Usermin, Spangler says, he hasn't had any need to pay for commercial support, mostly because Cameron is so responsive to all bug reports and requests. "I've e-mailed Jamie Cameron a couple of times on security flaws I found, and with some suggestions on what to work on," he says. "The guy is great, both for what he's done, and for the community he's built."

Choosing an open source solution, Spangler says, offers the double benefit of flexibility and low cost. "Why pay for something when you can just donate to help out for open source development?" he says. "Then if you have problems with it, if you've got somebody who knows how to write Perl, they can simply add it on—without having to spend thousands of dollars."

— End

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