Webmin is a web-based interface for system administration for Unix. Using any browser that supports tables and forms (and Java for the File Manager module), you can setup user accounts, Apache, DNS, file sharing and so on.
Webmin consists of a simple web server, and a number of CGI programs which directly update system files like /etc/inetd.conf and /etc/passwd. The web server and all CGI programs are written in Perl version 5, and use no external modules. This means that you only need a Perl binary to run Webmin.
Because Webmin supports the concept of modules (like PhotoShop plugins), anyone can develop and distribute their own Webmin modules for any purpose, and distribute them under any licence (such as GPL, commercial or shareware). More information about the Webmin API and writing your own modules is available. This is one such module and is designed to assist in configuring the Big Brother monitoring package.
Big Brother is designed to let anyone see how their network is doing in near real-time, from any web browser, anywhere. Big Brother displays status information as web pages or WML pages for WAP-enabled devices. Big Brother uses a client-server architecture combined with methods which both push and pull data. Network testing is done by polling all monitored services from a single machine, and reporting these results to a central location (the BBDISPLAY). If you want local system information, you can install a BB client on the local machine, which will send CPU, process, disk space, and logfile status reports in periodically. Big Brother supports redundancy with multiple Web Displays (BBDISPLAYs), Notification servers (BBPAGERs), and Network testers (BBNETs). In addition, a failover mechanism exists to ensure orderly transitions in the case of trouble.
Big Brother is primarily written in shell, with numerous third-party add-ons available. It's configuration is controlled by a mass (mess?) of control files. That is what we hope to address and simplify here.