Hello im looking for a control panel solution that can manage different services on different servers/virtual servers. like apche on two servers and email on another server and MySQL and ftp on virtual server for example and virtualmin will control the lot fro one server

Can virtualmin do this?

I know that ver 3 of ispconfing can do this but its still in beta so is not stable for production.

Also does virtualmin have an api which i can provision new websites and write new predefined config files on apache add new databases and email accounts as well as remove or edit stuff all via the Api?

im developing a saas application and I'm looking for a control panel that i can integrate my application with.

my clients will use the administration in my application (PHP5) which will talk to virtualmin via it api.

I would just do it with ispconfig 3 but they have been working on that app for a year and i don't know when it will be ready for production.

Thank you

I can't answer all your questions but I've already tested Virtualmin GPL and ISPConfig 3 beta.

Both are not "perfect" but I ended using Virtualmin GPL. I think it's much more powerful then ISPconfig and any other control panel script.

manage different services on different servers/virtual servers. like apche on two servers and email on another server and MySQL and ftp on virtual server for example and virtualmin will control the lot fro one server

There are FAQs on this topic here:

http://www.virtualmin.com/documentation/id,frequently_asked_questions/ #can_i_run_dns_on_another_machine

And here:

http://www.virtualmin.com/documentation/id,frequently_asked_questions/ #can_i_run_each_service_on_a_different_machine

In short, all but web (and mail, to some degree--using LDAP for users can allow use of a separate mail server) can be run on other machines. We're gradually making mail more relocatable (spam and AV scanning just recently got the capability).

Also does virtualmin have an api which i can provision new websites and write new predefined config files on apache add new databases and email accounts as well as remove or edit stuff all via the Api?

Yes. You can find comprehensive docs for the command line and remote API in the documentation section of the website (near the bottom of the index). Note that only CRUD operations (create, read, update, delete) are available in Virtualmin GPL. Virtualmin Professional provides command line and remote API access to every function found in the UI. Yes, literally anything you can do in the GUI can be done via a script.

Depending on your specific needs, our new product VM2 might also fit into your deployment. It provides a means to distribute domains and applications across many Virtualmin servers, and also has complete API access. It is a purely proprietary product at this time (and in private beta...if you end up with multiple Virtualmin Professional licenses, we can talk about getting you into that beta).

Ok the VM2 sound cool but im sure it some thing that i dont need.

I am currently developing a Multi-Tenant Saas application with website system which i will sell subscription to use and it will take care of billing and be the interface on which my clients will configure there services.

i am also going to use OpenQRM to manage the base back end system of provisioning and monitoring, load balancing each server and virtual server that includes mysql, apache, mail server and ftp. Many servers will be using shared storage on a Coraid San with GFS2.

now what i need is a middle layer application which can do what virtualmin can do via an api.

But i need virtualmin to be able to control 2 webservers and extra servers and virtual servers with all load balanced active/active services for fail over. the system needs to be able to Scale.

So you saying virtualmin can only control one webserver server?
so i will have to wait for ISPConfig 3 beta to get stable then.......

what about Webmin can this do it? I'm not particular looking for some thing open source, i just need the ability to do what i need and the only things i can find near to that are opensource bledding edge beta products unless i pay 50k to parallels for there over priced saas system. which is totally out of the question.

I think you'll need to be more specific, as every scaling problem is a specific problem--there's no such thing as a generic "scalability" tool. If your application does not scale, there's nothing Virtualmin can do to make it scale.

It is possible to cause Virtualmin managed web server configuration to be replicated to infinite many servers. In fact, it's close to trivial. If web service configuration is the only element that needs to be replicated, then your job is incredibly easy. (shared /home on a file server, rsync configuration, possibly update IPs in configuration, reload Apache on slaves)

But, if you add an application into the mix, the problems balloon into spaces where Virtualmin (and any other control panel) cannot help you.

Database replication is still a complicated process with MySQL, and usually requires deep knowledge of your schema and sharding strategy. We support more capabilities in this space than any other control panel I know of because we have more powerful database administration tools in Webmin (and we support ndb cluster tables in MySQL...which are currently memory only tables, but they are replicated out to other MySQL servers...I don't think any other control panel can manage these tables, or deal with multiple MySQL databases at all). Jamie is working on some additional multi-MySQL database features, as we speak.

so i will have to wait for ISPConfig 3 beta to get stable then.......

Perhaps. We'll still be here when you get back. (The thing is, I've heard this kind of, "Well, I guess I'll use X control panel instead of Virtualmin, because of Y and Z reasons." And, a week or two, or a month or two, later, they come back after finding out that the alternatives were far less capable, despite the hype. I have nothing but respect for the ISPConfig developers...but we've got a several year head start on them. It'll be a while before they catch up.) ;-)

And, it sounds like you're going to have to write a bit of code, anyway, to support your requirements. I'd suggest you have a look at the respective APIs of the products you're considering, and imagine how much work you're setting yourself up for.