4th Control Panel

[Ryan]

See http://www.directadmin.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=174 for more information...

Should DirectAdmin have a feature that would allow you to create "super resellers" who could create their own resellers? This would assume that there would be an option to prevent them from overselling and that they would obviously NOT get root access.

Please vote :D

[ProWebUK]

There is no chnace of us dropping DA over this, aslong as there is an option to turn it off, and preferably that is the default then i have no problems

just so you know i'm the one who voted "No, but I would still use DA if I could turn it off"

Chris :)

[Two_A_T]

I don't see the need for it.

I already have something similar to what your suggesting but didn't need to set up a "super-reseller" for it. I just created an additional "admin" account but limited some things that were not nessesary for that person to have access to. I just created a hosting plan for him and assigned his account to it.

As for additional levels, I would like to see an "email only" panel added but it's not a pressing issue :)

EDIT: Personally, I think that resellers should not be allowed to put more resellers under them. If someone wants to expand their business to that level, they should be in a position to buy/lease their own server.

Everything should be taken in steps. Start hosting with a shared plan, then move to a reseller plan if you want to sell hosting, then move to a dedicated server if you want to offer your own reseller plans and finally buy your own servers if you want to be a server supplier.

Just my 2 cents :)

[Ryan]

Originally posted by Two_A_T

I already have something similar to what your suggesting but didn't need to set up a "super-reseller" for it. I just created an additional "admin" account but limited some things that were not nessesary for that person to have access to. I just created a hosting plan for him and assigned his account to it.


That doesn't seem like such a good idea to me. According to the documentation, all Admin accounts have the same power.

Note: All Admins have the exact same authority. That is, any Admin can delete another Admin and create new Admins.

Thus, this second Admin you added could add new Admins or even delete your admin account. :eek:

[Two_A_T]

Originally posted by Ryan
Thus, this second Admin you added could add new Admins or even delete your admin account. :eek:
Yes, this could create problems in many cases. The only reason I did it in this case is the person is paying for 1/2 of the server so I give him access to just about everything. I wouldn't allow this in any other case (he's a partner).

[ProWebUK]

Originally posted by Two_A_T
As for additional levels, I would like to see an "email only" panel added but it's not a pressing issue :)

Personally, I think that resellers should not be allowed to put more resellers under them. If someone wants to expand their business to that level, they should be in a position to buy/lease their own server.

Everything should be taken in steps. Start hosting with a shared plan, then move to a reseller plan if you want to sell hosting, then move to a dedicated server if you want to offer your own reseller plans and finally buy your own servers if you want to be a server supplier.

exactly what i think ;)

Chris

[l0rdphi1]

Why do you need a 4th control panel? If resellers could simply create other resellers you wouldn't need it. Just make sure to include the option to apply limited permissions on reseller accounts - such as overselling on/off, and an option that would disable the ability to create these sub-resellers.

I voted yes, because the feature itself would be awesome, but I think a 4th control panel is the wrong approch.

[Ryan]

Originally posted by l0rdphi1
Why do you need a 4th control panel? If resellers could simply create other resellers you wouldn't need it.


Maybe a 4th control panel isn't necessary but I still think there should be two levels of resellers. You wouldn't want ALL resellers to be able to create other resellers. Maybe an option when you create the reseller asking if the reseller you're creating will be allowed to create resellers.

[ProWebUK]

my opinion is in two_a_t's post.

Chris

[jl2005uk]

I think being able to create "Super Resellers" would be grate, As long as they can only inherit the same settings or less than their mother account.

This way, It will bring more users onto the servers and will give people owning the servers a chance to progress further.

With an option to turn it off, Everyone would be happy. It would then be down to the individual hosts choice!

Regards

John

[jlasman]

My us$0.02...

I thought about this for a few minutes. At first my feeling was I wouldn't mind as long as we could turn it off.

But then I realized that everything we ask for takes time, and I'd rather see the tweaks we really need first.

And I put in my vote (actually did privately some time ago) for email-only sites.

In fact, thinking about it there needs to be a way to turn email for a site off completely; otherwise once I set up a new account for someone who's DNS still isn't pointing to the new machine I can't email him from my mailserver.

Jeff

[l0rdphi1]

Originally posted by Ryan
You wouldn't want ALL resellers to be able to create other resellers. Maybe an option when you create the reseller asking if the reseller you're creating will be allowed to create resellers.
I had that coverted in the text after what you quoted :)

Anyway, I think email-only accounts are needed too. I'd add a checkbox to the 'Add user' function that asks if this account is E-mail only. If it gets checked all the bandwidth/subdomains/ssh/ftps/etc stuff would be disabled, and you'd just enter how many boxes they get, and their space quota. When these email-only people log into the control panel they'd be brought directly to manage emails page.

Another take on the email-only accounts could be done something like this: IF during the 'Add user' process you enter 0 for a feature (such as sub-domains), that feature would not show up in the user's control panel. This method would require more stuff be added to the 'Add user' page (to cover all DA's features), but I think it might be the better approach.

Phi1.