It was November 2003 when I got my vServer. I did already have some experience with Linux, but I never administrated a Server which was connected directly to the Internet.

On this newly installed vServer webmin was installed. I played around with it and saw that webmin was only a graphical interface for the shell. Actually I just wanted to create eMail accounts, add subdomains or ftp accounts like I was able to do at my old hoster. But they used Confixx and other tools which all cost money which I cannot afford for a private server.

I uninstalled Webmin and administrated my server by shell. It was very uncomfortable having to open, change and save a file and restart postfix just to add a new mail account. Also for FTP accounts a always had to add a new system user, which is also a security problem. I wanted something easier, more structured and more secure.

I searched for possibilities to make the server administration easier. At the postfix homepage I found an intersting howto which described how to use MySQL instead of files for configuring email addresses.

Soon the howto got reality and it was quite easy to add new email-addresses: Simply add some lines in some tables with phpMyAdmin and postfix took the mails correctly without restarting.

During the time this got really annoying, starting phpMyAdmin, selecting the database etc. The idea about a web frontend managing email addresses, (sub-)domains and ftp users was born. Requirements for this tool

Together with a friend of mine, an isp, we created a list of requirements. The tool should

• don't create local users, if possible
• manage email addresses and forwarders
• create mysql databases
• manage subdomains for the customers
• be capable of managing different zone files in bind (this requirement was added later)

I started coding the program. The choice of the programming language was a fast one. I decided myself to take PHP, because it is one of the best languages to create dynamic websites, and a tool with a web frontend is nothing else than a dynamic website. Deciding for a backend language was not that easy. I took bash programming in PHP.

The first beta versions were finished about christmas and the tool looked very good so far. At this time it was capable of most requirements we set, like it was not required to create local users.

Because of some hard times at school, the project was delayed until may. During my holidays I had enough time to develop version 1.0.0 - a milestone in development.

I hope that with this project a free equivalent to all the other tools, which even cost so much money, is coming up and will also be competitive. But to reach this goal, we need your help! Tell us what you like, what you don't like and what you'd make better to improve the tool so it fits it's purpose.

This is a community project, which lives from incitations and help from other people. It's like a small plantlet, if you don't water and care about it, it won't survive.