WebYast or Webmin?

English Network/Internet
1

I’'m replacing a Firewall & Content Filter which died a while ago, and am looking at using openSUSE but wonder about the advantages/disadvantages to WebYast and Webmin.

Previously I had IPCop running on a P3 with 2 NICs. I also had DansGuardian installed for content filtering all connections (anybody using the network, known and unknown).

{internet} --- [DSL modem] --- #IPCOP# --- //wireless router// --- *PCs*

I was thinking of putting up a headless openSUSE 12.1 and using either WebYast or Webmin for server administration.

I appreciated IPCops ease of use, as I am still a beginner when it comes to networking. I like the availability of Yast to help configure services and understand I could SSH into the box and use the CLI version (curses?). I would prefer a web-based interface, though.

Client computers include a mix of Windows and Linux. We don’t do any serious gaming (mostly flash-based ones), just he basic browsing and email (IMAP and POP), occasional video chat (Skype, Google, Lync) and FTP out (not in).

Other services, such as a dedicated web, file or print server will be handled by separate machines from this one, at least in the beginning. In part because my available machines for this are not too powerful (P3s, 700 Mhz or 1 GHz). Maybe if I get a more powerful system I could add what it handles, providing it is secure.

I would install WebYast based on this documentation openSUSE:WebYaST Installation - openSUSE and I think I have to download Webmin directly from their download site (the noarch RPM).

So I guess my question is, would WebYast be a better or easier tool for managing, or should I look at Webmin or is there a better solution? Has anybody set up something like this and has any recommendations/suggestions or advice to avoid common pitfalls.

As I said, I am a beginner when it comes to networks so some obvious things may not be obvious to me, but I am taking this as a learning opportunity and hope to learn from this as well.

2

On 2012-05-07 18:16, dragonbite wrote:

> I appreciated IPCops ease of use, as I am still a beginner when it
> comes to networking. I like the availability of Yast to help configure
> services and understand I could SSH into the box and use the CLI version
> (curses?). I would prefer a web-based interface, though.

You can also use YaST graphically via ssh - this is a feature of unixes and
Linux:


ssh -Y root@remotemachine
yast2 &

The web interface is relatively new, it is possibly less complete, but I
might be mistaken as I don’t use it.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

3

Even if the box doesn’t have a GUI? I’m looking to make it a headless server, though I have heard you can see the GUI over ssh.

4

On 2012-05-07 20:26, dragonbite wrote:

> Even if the box doesn’t have a GUI? I’m looking to make it a headless
> server, though I have heard you can see the GUI over ssh.

You only need a GUI at the machine you sit at. Of course, the application
you run, yast in this case, needs to be fully installed at the server,
which of course, brings in dependencies from kde and/or gnome. But the
server doesn’t need to be running at runlevel 5, nor have a display connected.

This is because X has a server/client design.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

5

Is Runtime 1 or 2 a better choice? I’m not sure if “multi-user” mode is appropriate since the services will be running but only one person will be logged in at a time (for admin) usually.

I am looking at the RunTime information here : Runlevel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

6

On 2012-05-08 15:56, dragonbite wrote:

> Is Runtime 1 or 2 a better choice? I’m not sure if “multi-user” mode is
> appropriate since the services will be running but only one person will
> be logged in at a time (for admin) usually.

I think runtime 3 is the typical thing to do. Level 1 has no network. 2 is
a possibility, perhaps… But maybe not all services are started.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

7

It is. I think you could even get networking started in runlevel 1, but it’s single uuser, which would mean that everything running would run as root.

I mostly use


ssh -X -l $USERNAME $HOST(name or IP) -p (port where I have sshd running on)
su -c yast2

But, back to topic: try both, keep what you like best.

8

On 05/07/2012 11:16 AM, dragonbite wrote:
>
> I’'m replacing a Firewall& Content Filter which died a while ago, and
> am looking at using openSUSE but wonder about the
> advantages/disadvantages to WebYast and Webmin.

WebYast understands the distro… Webmin does not.

Webmin is better suited to “plain” distros that don’t offer much in the way of
administration tools. Not saying it can’t still be useful on suse… just that
you would need to be careful, which requires more understanding of what webmin
does and where additional fix-ups would be required.

So… opensuse… stick with yast…

Example of a plain (does nothing) disto… RHEL/CentOS (sorry, it’s really be
causing me some pain lately) :slight_smile:

9

That sounds like a fair comparison. Can even throw Debian and Ubuntu (not Zentyal) and Fedora in that list.