A few weeks in with DirectAdmin and my thoughts. I haven’t discovered everything. DirectAdmin at its core is great piece of software. These of course are MHO. They are also generalities.
Note: I am not looking for a debate. I am simply a Client voicing his opinion. I am not mad or angry or looking for a fight on any topic. I suggest you take the hour or so as I did and voice you own opinion if you so choose.
First some general thoughts. If you take out cPanel and Plesk. DirectAdmin is the number one choice. Which is evident by the mass influx of cPanel refugees. This means more sales, more clients, more support requests, and more opinions…. As friend used to say “it’s just a bunch of work.” Other panels have similar features but the innovation is dead, or they use outdated software in there build. Some other competitor Panels have had no uptick in forum posts… There are some Opensource Panels but frankly just are not viable to me. So in case the last few weeks did not say it loud enough, DirectAdmin it’s you OR Venture capitalists. For most its a no brainer. This place the company in a pivotal spot.
Strength:
Is not interwoven in to the OS: You are not getting something with premade binary’s with non-standard items. So no guessing how it will behave. Just go to the man page and see how..
Simplicity: Example all the conf are in one place in the GUI File editor.
Current: Since its source built. It has the ability to be stable and current at the same time. No waiting for some distro or company to release a binary. This makes the Application in question configurable. Want Process control on PHP go add it to compiler options…
Options: Need a different OS, check. Need a different webserver, check. Need a different spamtool, check. Great options.
Performance: Since its giving you source control and compiled on you system and server. Memory usage is low and performance is top.
Custom settings: You can customize about anything and save that so the system will behave how you want it to. Never losing it at all.
Not for faint of heart: Not a sysadmin? Don’t know what Linux, BSD is? Can’t research in google at the very least? In short if you are a “Business Person” just opening a web hosting business hire a sysadmin. Can’t afford one. Not for you… move on.. Sorry if that’s harsh but sometimes the truth hurts.
Forum Users: This one of the biggest assets. The community is so awesome.
Weakness:
Backup/Restore system: It needs to be more complete and have more location options. You need to be able to choose “who, what, when, where, and how”.
Who: All good here.
What: is good.
When: I think cron covers this.
Where: local, ftp, sftp, AWS, BackBlaze and others. You also need to be able to restore from all locations.
How: Full, incremental, both, and except list. It should include logic based on type chosen example Incremental > full back up= weekly, monthy ect.
Restore: should accommodate from all “Where” and all “How”
Filemanager: Overall is fine. It’s for users is the part that is lost. You need to show it to your non tech spouse or friend and say use this. Then write down everything they say… The “Root” location of User is fine but it should default to opening on the Domains folder. OR “Root” should be Domains folder and allow you to go back to Users. I also agree the function type stuff should just be a bar on the same row as column’s and density not tooltips. Should add options to sort folder or files to top that the users can save.
directadmin.conf: directadmin.conf needs a Admin only GUI screen. All the choices are not face up and apparent. Not centrally located either. Let me give example: You want dkim, ssl, certain letsenctypt settings. All do able if you “knew” there was a setting. You do find the settings eventually and set it. After a few forum posts and searching https://help.directadmin.com In short I should be able to check a box, or add text to the correct area. This way I know I have all the settings set and or added. Without a screen or a well commented file I don’t know. I think this is a multi-faceted issue. The real issue is lack of easy readable organized documentation. Which I will cover later.
Certain features not standard: In the every changing landscape that is Information technology. Certain “features” (directadmin.conf) should follow the 80 20 rule. All of these seem to be documented in the https://help.directadmin.com Here is what I mean.
10 years ago https:// wasn’t the 80% it was 20% now it’s the standard. SSL should just be built in and work by default. Failing only because DNS was wrong or it just couldn’t issue. The system should just set a letsencrypt cert on the server out of the gate. The 20% should be set ssl=0 and turn it off. This goes back to the directadmin.conf issue.
DKIM this should be in the system by default. Some might say DMARC as well. Just like Spf. This goes back to the directadmin.conf issue.
webmail.domain.com should be built by default. This should just exist in the system https://help.directadmin.com/item.php?id=633 by default.
DNS: Bind is fine keep it. You should offer native PowerDNS support as well. Its ability to cluster and be Master and Slave simultaneously would be great.
Server to Server user transfer: If I have 2 DA servers and I need to transfer users to a new server this would be a great MultiServer option. In the Admin Backup and Transfer there should be a button that is “Transfer”. Which guides you through from which server to transfer where. This would also be a great place to keep the GUI for external account transfers like from cPanel, Interworks, Plesk, and others…
Documentation and Forum software: I think honestly this is one of the big ones. Here is the short of it. The documentation is hard to find and some of it is marked so old you don’t know if its valid. Here is my example: https://help.directadmin.com/item.php?id=633 So since this isn’t native like I suggest. I find this and think great.. Only to find it is incomplete. It covers http:// fine, but falls short on https:// The guide assumes to much there should be 2 complete sections with examples. In the Apache one you don’t show changing port 80 to 443, to an admin sure I get it. However example would be best since most admins might be new to DA. Same for nginx you don’t mention https:// at all. The documentation should be clear, concise, and cover every feature and option.
Another example is hidden in plain sight. The documentation is lacking and can be seen by the number of forum posts on the same topic. Also evident that some long time forum members have thousands of posts. Alex (zeiter) and Martynas (smtalk)are great and super hero level, but with 13,300+ and 7,700+ respectively this to me points to the disorganization of the Documentation. The documentation should be so good I go to the forum as a last resort. I understand the forum is community driven and the software has been around a long time.
Forum: Now this really isn’t the about the software. Vbulletin version 4 is old and outdated. I know why you are still on it because version 5 is even worse. I know for sure I am a admin for Vbulletin sites and its old…. My suggestion is move to something newer and better coded like zenforo, or ip boards. Blesta uses IPBoards and it is great. A few Photography forums I use have zenforo and its good. The best thing is you can migrate all the old post and not lose anything. I have done a bunch of these.
I suppose I have rambled enough.
Stay well.
Note: I am not looking for a debate. I am simply a Client voicing his opinion. I am not mad or angry or looking for a fight on any topic. I suggest you take the hour or so as I did and voice you own opinion if you so choose.
First some general thoughts. If you take out cPanel and Plesk. DirectAdmin is the number one choice. Which is evident by the mass influx of cPanel refugees. This means more sales, more clients, more support requests, and more opinions…. As friend used to say “it’s just a bunch of work.” Other panels have similar features but the innovation is dead, or they use outdated software in there build. Some other competitor Panels have had no uptick in forum posts… There are some Opensource Panels but frankly just are not viable to me. So in case the last few weeks did not say it loud enough, DirectAdmin it’s you OR Venture capitalists. For most its a no brainer. This place the company in a pivotal spot.
Strength:
Is not interwoven in to the OS: You are not getting something with premade binary’s with non-standard items. So no guessing how it will behave. Just go to the man page and see how..
Simplicity: Example all the conf are in one place in the GUI File editor.
Current: Since its source built. It has the ability to be stable and current at the same time. No waiting for some distro or company to release a binary. This makes the Application in question configurable. Want Process control on PHP go add it to compiler options…
Options: Need a different OS, check. Need a different webserver, check. Need a different spamtool, check. Great options.
Performance: Since its giving you source control and compiled on you system and server. Memory usage is low and performance is top.
Custom settings: You can customize about anything and save that so the system will behave how you want it to. Never losing it at all.
Not for faint of heart: Not a sysadmin? Don’t know what Linux, BSD is? Can’t research in google at the very least? In short if you are a “Business Person” just opening a web hosting business hire a sysadmin. Can’t afford one. Not for you… move on.. Sorry if that’s harsh but sometimes the truth hurts.
Forum Users: This one of the biggest assets. The community is so awesome.
Weakness:
Backup/Restore system: It needs to be more complete and have more location options. You need to be able to choose “who, what, when, where, and how”.
Who: All good here.
What: is good.
When: I think cron covers this.
Where: local, ftp, sftp, AWS, BackBlaze and others. You also need to be able to restore from all locations.
How: Full, incremental, both, and except list. It should include logic based on type chosen example Incremental > full back up= weekly, monthy ect.
Restore: should accommodate from all “Where” and all “How”
Filemanager: Overall is fine. It’s for users is the part that is lost. You need to show it to your non tech spouse or friend and say use this. Then write down everything they say… The “Root” location of User is fine but it should default to opening on the Domains folder. OR “Root” should be Domains folder and allow you to go back to Users. I also agree the function type stuff should just be a bar on the same row as column’s and density not tooltips. Should add options to sort folder or files to top that the users can save.
directadmin.conf: directadmin.conf needs a Admin only GUI screen. All the choices are not face up and apparent. Not centrally located either. Let me give example: You want dkim, ssl, certain letsenctypt settings. All do able if you “knew” there was a setting. You do find the settings eventually and set it. After a few forum posts and searching https://help.directadmin.com In short I should be able to check a box, or add text to the correct area. This way I know I have all the settings set and or added. Without a screen or a well commented file I don’t know. I think this is a multi-faceted issue. The real issue is lack of easy readable organized documentation. Which I will cover later.
Certain features not standard: In the every changing landscape that is Information technology. Certain “features” (directadmin.conf) should follow the 80 20 rule. All of these seem to be documented in the https://help.directadmin.com Here is what I mean.
10 years ago https:// wasn’t the 80% it was 20% now it’s the standard. SSL should just be built in and work by default. Failing only because DNS was wrong or it just couldn’t issue. The system should just set a letsencrypt cert on the server out of the gate. The 20% should be set ssl=0 and turn it off. This goes back to the directadmin.conf issue.
DKIM this should be in the system by default. Some might say DMARC as well. Just like Spf. This goes back to the directadmin.conf issue.
webmail.domain.com should be built by default. This should just exist in the system https://help.directadmin.com/item.php?id=633 by default.
DNS: Bind is fine keep it. You should offer native PowerDNS support as well. Its ability to cluster and be Master and Slave simultaneously would be great.
Server to Server user transfer: If I have 2 DA servers and I need to transfer users to a new server this would be a great MultiServer option. In the Admin Backup and Transfer there should be a button that is “Transfer”. Which guides you through from which server to transfer where. This would also be a great place to keep the GUI for external account transfers like from cPanel, Interworks, Plesk, and others…
Documentation and Forum software: I think honestly this is one of the big ones. Here is the short of it. The documentation is hard to find and some of it is marked so old you don’t know if its valid. Here is my example: https://help.directadmin.com/item.php?id=633 So since this isn’t native like I suggest. I find this and think great.. Only to find it is incomplete. It covers http:// fine, but falls short on https:// The guide assumes to much there should be 2 complete sections with examples. In the Apache one you don’t show changing port 80 to 443, to an admin sure I get it. However example would be best since most admins might be new to DA. Same for nginx you don’t mention https:// at all. The documentation should be clear, concise, and cover every feature and option.
Another example is hidden in plain sight. The documentation is lacking and can be seen by the number of forum posts on the same topic. Also evident that some long time forum members have thousands of posts. Alex (zeiter) and Martynas (smtalk)are great and super hero level, but with 13,300+ and 7,700+ respectively this to me points to the disorganization of the Documentation. The documentation should be so good I go to the forum as a last resort. I understand the forum is community driven and the software has been around a long time.
Forum: Now this really isn’t the about the software. Vbulletin version 4 is old and outdated. I know why you are still on it because version 5 is even worse. I know for sure I am a admin for Vbulletin sites and its old…. My suggestion is move to something newer and better coded like zenforo, or ip boards. Blesta uses IPBoards and it is great. A few Photography forums I use have zenforo and its good. The best thing is you can migrate all the old post and not lose anything. I have done a bunch of these.
I suppose I have rambled enough.
Stay well.
Last edited: