napp-it cs "client/server" edition

is a copy and run web-gui for Windows to manage Storage Spaces and ZFS
with a backend service for remote management of other servers in a multi OS ZFS servergroup

Main use cases for napp-it cs

Large ZFS systems with many filesystems, snaps, shares or users due list based views.
Serverfarms with centralized management for many (ZFS) servers (Free-BSD, Illumos/Solaris, Linux, OSX, Windows)
Advanced and user extendable Web-GUI - mainly but not only for ZFS-
Web-GUI for low RAM/CPU systems (napp-it cs requires almost no resources on a server) like Raspberry labs
Web-GUI ZFS settings compatible with CLI settings. A server is fully operable with napp-it cs activated only on demand.
Web-Gui for Free-BSD 14, Debian/ Ubuntu, extends the Proxmox Web-GUI with advanced ZFS management
Web-GUI for Storage Spaces on Windows (additional to ZFS on Windows)
Napp-it cs is not a replacement for napp-it SE on a local Illumos/Solaris ZFS server, it is an add-on
Napp-it cs is not a storage VM ex on Proxmox but a web-gui extension for storage and ZFS management
Napp-it cs is not restricted to ZFS management. it can be used to even manage Raspberry IOT pools

Napp-it cs has three parts

1. The frontend management cs_web-gui to manage a single server or a serverfarm

This is a copy and run solution on Windows based on Xampp portable.
Just download the app folder on a Windows 10, 11 or server desktop or notebook and start.

Download frontend, uncompress folder xampp to c:\xampp
Download /doc/downloads/xampp.zip

Start the frontend software: /xampp/web-gui-it/data/start_as_admin.bat
(right mouse click, run as admin), then connect the web-gui with a browser via http(s)

The web-gui is user extendable so additional private menus and features like an S3 sync or a basic pool failover command for easier server maintenance or other scripts can be included in the web-gu. Such private menus are independent from napp-it cs. The napp-it cs web-gui can be used together or additionally to a local web-gui as long as the local gui allows cli ZFS commands (ex Proxmox, not the case ex with TrueNAS)

2. The backend server application (cs_server)

The backend server part of the software is in /xampp/napp-it/data/cs_server.
or available as seperate download. Copy this folder cs_server to any location of the ZFS servers you want to manage.
(preferred location is a systemfolder like /var/web-gui/data as a future online setup/update will use this folder)

These are two Perl background scripts (server.pl and monitor.pl) that can run on nearly any OS or NAS appliance.
They are started as root to allow server management ex via zfs ,zpool or other tools.
Requirement: Perl and curl, nothng else (this is why it runs on Arm or X86 up from 512 MB RAM. Communication between
frontend web-GUI and backend is done over a socket connection that you can restrict to frontend ip and an auth hash.
Server tested on BSD (Free-BSD 14), Linux (Proxmox), OSX, Solaris/Illumos/SmartOS and devices like Raspberry.

Installation: not required, just download cs_server manually or via wget (console as root, to /var/web-gui,
wget download for BSD, Linux and Illumos/Solaris)
You can then edit server.auth, restrict ip, optionally enforce callback and start. After a second download cs_server is autostarted..
Server auth (like all keys in napp-it cs) must be hex values 0-9a-f as they can be generated safely from an easy to remember short pw.
wget -O - https://www.napp-it.org/nappitcs | perl

Download on Windows (cs_server part only): download xampp.zip, extract to c:\xampp and start via mouse right click on /as admin)
"C:\xampp\web-gui\data\start_server_only_as_admin.bat"

or copy cs_server to any location of your (ZFS) server or NAS, either the system folder /var/web-gui
or desktop (OSX, Windows) or a ZFS pool like tank/data, then start the software from a console as root/admin.
perl /path_to_cs_server/start_server_as_admin.pl

Communication between frontend web-gui and your servers is established via a socket channel on port 63000.
No api or other 3rd party software is required. Communication is restricted by ip and authentcation.

3. The https module cs_connect for "callback" and key download from your public https server

This module allows encrypted up/downloads not only with insecure self signed but also verified certificates if the https server has a public dns entry, ex an external company or university webserver. "Callback" is an option for larger command results or mandatory if forced by the server modul. In this case any communication (do this or that and send back result beside some basic stat commands) are encrypted via https and send as files via curl.

Encrypted callback communication via cs_connect:
With callback enabled, the frontend web-gui uploads a command like "zfs list" as a file to a https server (defined in About > Settings or enforced in server.pl) and instructs a backend server to download the command file.
The server executes the command and uploads the result back to the https server from where it can be downloaded by the frontend gui.
You can run the cs_connect modul on Apache or a public webserver wita h cgi capability. Just copy the small cs_connect folder/script to the cgi-folder and set cs_connect.pl to executable. On a Linux/Unix server modify first line of the script with correct Perl path (/usr/bin/perl). All communication is filebased in a tmp folder below cs_connect.

Basic configuration:

Frontend client: Use menu ZFS Servergroup to add (ZFS) servers with an auth value that you want to manage.
Backend Server: Care that server.auth has the same content as auth in the member file on Windows /xampp//web-gui/_log/group/
Optionally edit server.pl with settings to restrict ip access, timeout or other settings.

napp-it 28.11.2024

napp-it cs "client/server" editionis a copy and run web-gui for Windows to manage Storage Spaces and ZFSwith a backend service for remote management of other servers in a multi OS ZFS servergroup

Main use cases for napp-it cs

Napp-it cs has three parts

napp-it cs "client/server" edition

is a copy and run web-gui for Windows to manage Storage Spaces and ZFS
with a backend service for remote management of other servers in a multi OS ZFS servergroup