It aims to be
SMaNT is the Systems Management And Network Toolkit.
It's easy to develop dynamic plugins allow for interactive
or scripted remote access and configuration of a server or
groups of servers via almost any GUI or from the command line
in real time.
It is now
Right now it allows you to run arbitrary scripts on a server, and configure vpopmail domains and accounts
in which the smantd daemon is running.
It has a nice SSL encryption and key based authentication system
that allow for that to be accomplished securly.
For instance, I have a seperate mail and web server. I built
a simple PHP interface so that users can modify thier Qmail and
Vpopmail virtual domains via the web. The PHP code execs the
client-ssl program (located in the clients/ subir) and pushes
changes to the smant server, or pulls information from it.
It has also proven to be very usfull for me when I am writing
bash scripts that also need to make changes on a remote server
non-interactivly.
Why not use WebMin or LinuxConf?
I wasn't hapy with webmin or linuxconf.
Neither really allow for multiple interfaces for one daemon,
or configuration across multiple machines or platforms.
SMaNT is ideal for administrating machines that the client
does not run on.
I usually don't run apache on my mail servers. Why not? you ask?,
becuase it's a mail server, and I already have a webserver.
This is an ideal situation for SMaNT
Is this not a Unicenter Clone?
Could be
I heard that Unicenter does all sorts of things, just like smant,
but since I couldnt pay the thousands of dollars for licenes, I
have really never seen it.
