KBTAG: kben10000045
URL:
http://www.securityportal.com/lskb/10000000/kben10000045.html
Date created: 03/07/2000
Date modified:
Date removed:
Authors(s): Kurt Seifried seifried@securityportal.com
Topic: Network based admin tools for Linux
Keywords: Administration/Tools,
System/Administration
Other (network aware) admin tools for Linux
Linuxconf
Linuxconf ships with a variety of Linux distributions. http://www.solucorp.qc.ca/linuxconf/
Pikt
Pikt is an extremely interesting tool, it is actually more of a scripting language aimed at system administration then a simple program. Pikt allows you to do things such as killing off idle user processes, enforcing mail quotas, monitor the system for suspicious usage patterns (off hours, etc), and much more. About the only problem with Pikt will be a steep learning tools, as it uses its own scripting language, but ultimately I think mastering this language will pay off if you have many systems to administer (especially since Pikt runs on Solaris, Linux and FreeBSD currently). Pikt is available at: http://pikt.uchicago.edu/pikt/.
VNC
Virtual Network Computer (VNC) is similar to X or PCAnywhere. You can display a graphical desktop, and control it remotely, with NT or Linux as the server and/or client. VNC across 10 megabit Ethernet is quite good, however it does tend to use a lot of computer power relative to other methods of remote administration. You can get VNC from: http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/. Security VNC isn't so great, but there are several sites with information on securing VNC, using SSL, SSH and other methods. MindVNC is a java client that uses SSH, available from: http://www.mindbright.com/english/technology/products/mindvnc.html. There is a patch available to add encryption to VNC here at: http://web.mit.edu/thouis/vnc/. There is also a page on securing VNC with SSH port forwarding at: http://www.zip.com.au/~cs/answers/vnc-thru-firewall-via-ssh.txt.
cfengine
cfengine is a set of tools for automating administration tasks and is network aware. You can get cfengine from: http://www.iu.hioslo.no/cfengine/.
Storm Administration System (SAS)
SAS is currently specific to Stormix (a new Linux distribution), you can get it from: http://www.stormix.com/products/sas/index_html.
MAT
The Monitoring and Administration Tool provides a rather nice GUI for remotely administering machines and checking their status. You can get it from: http://www.ee.ryerson.ca:8080/~sblack/mat/.