Question from HP engineering team

[Brad Klein]

We are looking at different technologies that can be used in producing web-based management applications for system administration and some of them require browser plugins. We would like to get some information from you related to the prevalence of Adobe Flash plugins on administrator's browsers.

1. Do you currently have the Flash plugin loaded in the browser you use for system administration? If not, why not?

2. Are there policies at your workplace that prohibit the installation of the Flash plugin (or plugins in general)? (please elaborate)

Thank you for any insights you provide.

[Pete Randall · Accepted solution]

1. I don't have (nor do I want) browser based sysadmin applications but yes, I do have the Flash plugin loaded.

2. No.


Pete

[Oviwan]

1. yes
2. no

Regards

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom.

1. No. Security concerns.

2. No, though the security department has a policy against un-necessary software that can create vulnerabilities to the public Internet.

In general, I use a HP-UX system when possible for patch download to avoid ftp file transfer errors.

I try not to use the same system for simple internet browesing. We permit browsers because increasingly configuration tools for various services work with the technology.

SEP

[Dave Hutton]

1. It's installed in my browser. I guess I would use it, as I do use Java GUIs to administrate some things (SAN switches come to mind).

2. I don't think there is a policy here that prevents specific plugins from not being installed.

[Ivan Krastev]

1. No, I am not fan of using web admin tools.
2. There is policy based on central software management.

regards,
ivan

[Robert-Jan Goossens_1]

Hi,

1. Do you currently have the Flash plugin loaded in the browser you use for system administration? If not, why not?
Yes

2. Are there policies at your workplace that prohibit the installation of the Flash plugin (or plugins in general)? (please elaborate)
Yes security reasons, but if you need them for your work you are allowed to use them. You can fill in a webform with the reasons, the tools you need will be distributed to you as soon as it has been approved.

Regards,
Robert-Jan

[A. Clay Stephenson]

What's a browser? In general, I avoid those things for any kind of administration because they make scripting tedious at best. Browsers may be ok for single system stuff but when one has to administer N machines, one wants an automated process. Have you actually used the browser based kernel tuning tools? I can build 10 systems using the command-line interface in the same time I can do one with the browser.

1) No

2) Our policy is that a justification must be provided for each plug-in used and then approved. It's just not worth the fight for something I can almost always do better myself.

[Tim Nelson]

1) Not a user / fan of any menu driven admin tools and / or ones that requiere 10 other products to work. This is UNIX not M$

2) No current flash sercurity restrictions

[whiteknight]

1) No

2) No

[Heironimus]

1. I don't use a web browser for system administration.

2. Every medium or large company I've worked for has had policies against installing software that wasn't part of the standard image on a desktop. However, those policies were rarely enforced within the IT staff.


I, most of the UNIX admins I've worked with, and most of the technical managers I've worked for would probably disqualify any product that require flash or java applets. There are far too many problems with compatibility across versions and platforms, and both Java and Flash usually require significant processing power and memory on the client side.

[Geoff Wild]

Browser is great for getting a "view" of what is happening (mrtg, etc) - but I rather not use it for administration. Example - VSE Management through SMH - nice to see what is happening - but pain to setup remote admin - easier to just run commands on the command line.

1. yes
2. no

Rgds...Geoff

[John Payne_2]

1 - Yes
2 - No

[Sajeev_1]

1. yes
2. no

[Denver Osborn]

1. I'm not sure if it's loaded or not. Don't really need it or want it to admin hpux boxes.

2. None that I'm aware of. I have access to install it or other plugins. I'd only install the plugin if I needed it for admin tasks.

and I agree w/ Clay on this too. I'd prefer command line utils over a web front end.

If you're going to toss out a pretty web front end so a power point presentation can help sell the product, at least provide adequate command line tools that perform the same function if not more. sorry, I'm ranting now. :)

-denver

[Anshumali]

1. Plugin is loaded but i never used web based admin to adminster my boxes.
2. No

[Mynor Aguilar]

1. yes
2. no

[Arunvijai_4]

1) Yes

2) Yes

-Arun

[AwadheshPandey]

1: Yes
1: Yes

[AwadheshPandey]

1: Yes
2: Yes

[Luk Vandenbussche]

1) Yes
2) No

[tkc]

1) Yes
2) No

[Hemmetter]

1. Yes
But i prefer to not use a Browser for administration tasks.

2. no

[H.Merijn Brand (procura]

1. I do have (an unreliable) flash plugin installed, but I don't use, and don't plan to use, web-based applications for system administration. SA tasks are done fron CLI or SAM.

2. No, but we do not encourage bloatware. Plain HTML is good enough. JS is acceptable, but often not needed. Please note that using IE is very much discouraged here, certainly for use with vital functions. And as way too many plugin-like systems somehow seem to rely on IE's mis-interpretation of standardization, they most likely do not work at all in Opera, Firefox, Seamonkey or Konqueror.

Enjoy, Have FUN! H.Merijn

[Ralph Grothe]

ad 1)

No, not even in the browser of my desktop PC that I use to access Internet websites.
If a website nags me in requiring some flash or other plug-in, it usually was the last time this site has seen me.
I would not use an admin tool that requires this either.
Usually any kind of GUI admin tool is maybe only partly justified the first few times one encounters a new administration suite.
Once I got acquainted with the CLI commands I do all admin work at the shell exclusively.
Therefore I also detest tools or commands that don't provide a manpage for quick reference or at least don't recognize an -h or --help option for a terse synopsis screen.
Good examples for redundant GUI or web-based interfaces are for instance VEA to manage VxVM or VCSweb for managing a Veritas Cluster Server.
These either require Java applets to be loaded or hook onto a Tomcat or similar.
Therefore any admin work through these interfaces either crawl or are impossible due to either some blocking firewall or a low bandwidth modem connection.
The only kind of webinterfaces that I appreciate are those like of Nagios or Munin
which give a quick glance of critical states of some monitored device.

ad 2)

As mentioned ad 1) firewalls most of the times are the greatest barrier that render such tools useless.
It is always an arduous administrative struggle (in the sense of red tape) to get a ruleset established that would allow the communication of these tools to work properly.
This almost always involves too many different admins, paperwork and debate.
By the time everything is finally set up to work through all involved firewalls there usually no longer is need for it because the usage of the shell commands have been learnt by heart meanwhile.