Automation? Alabanza--Dialtone--VDI- Which One?

[Martie]

More companies are surfacing now that offer server automation.Its becoming quite popular...
Lets start a thread on these 3 providers.
All 3 offer server automation.Who do you like ...and why?
Alabanza offers the DSM (Domain System Manager)
Dialtone now offers Auto Host Servers
VDI offers WebHost Manager
Lets get opinions and discuss pros and cons.

[jellywobbles]

Originally posted by Martie
More companies are surfacing now that offer server automation.Its becoming quite popular...
Lets start a thread on these 3 providers.
All 3 offer server automation.Who do you like ...and why?
Alabanza offers the DSM (Domain System Manager)
Dialtone now offers Auto Host Servers
VDI offers WebHost Manager
Lets get opinions and discuss pros and cons.

You Forgot to include PLESK!

FWIW . heres my two cents worth! I am UK based so connectivity is the #1 consideration.

I started out without any server automation software .. went a year cutting my teeth with Telnet!

Then switcehd to DialTone using their ServerInterface software (you mention AutoHost .. not sure what this is .. maybe its new!);
Then I (foolishly) switched to catalg.com (PLESK) and now we are with Ventures Online (VO) & Web Host Manager.

Which is the best?

Hmm! The DialtOne Server Admin system I used was the worst ... (DI service was excellent .. I might add!)

PLESK was much better but so S-L-O-W .. however much of this is down to poor connectivity with catalog.com & their Oklahoma.net system .. really awful .. stay well clear!. No stats with Plesk at all . no billing system ..

WHM is incredibly powerful .. almost true automation .. you can setup Resellers with their very own DNS; & to every intent; they look like they are running their own dedicated server .. they can add users .. who get their own Control Panel with just about every conceivable facility you can dream of! Even myPHPAdmin is built in for manipulation mySQL databases .. simply superb! Billing system coming soon! Software is automatically updated as & when .. its great!

Downside .. well so far nothing really important .. few niggling bugs .. but then we get that wherever we go! I think lack of complete server control would be my main complaint! WHM is screaming out for WebMin as a graphical front end for those that dont want to use Telnet. (I use WEbMin with PLESK & they are a great combination.)

Well .. as I said that's my opinion .. since no one else has bothered to reply .. I hope someone can at least benefit from this post!

Cheers

Jez
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P.S. I had to edit this to take out what you call rude words .. likethe female version of dog! ***** .. there I bet its been censored! Woof!

[James]

Jez Quigley - real name? or are you a corie fan ;-)

[akashik]

Jez,

actually I've heard and read about Plesk being quite slow. I think it has to do with it being built on Java? Never used it beyond poking around with the demo at their site. It's a sweet looking control panel for people like myself who love CSS looking design I'm bias towards Alabanza, but that only due to being used to it. It does seems a lot more stable than the others.

CPanel is going to be great one day I hope. What it appears to offer so far from an admin point of view is great, allowing a lot of customer interaction with it themselves to set things up and control their domains. WHM is a dog to look at I agree (that white and orange thing doesn't do much for me).

I'm a little surpised there isn't more options out there really. With the boom in open source software webpanels seem to be a minority. I do think people are beginning to notice this though and some are under development. I guess up until now most of it has been 'in-house' only...

Greg Moore