Colo/Dedicated Server Management Addon

Would be good to have a section to upload bandwidth graphs or pull directly using SNTP

I dont agree. whmcs is no for that. You should use H0stBi|| for that .. This is like asking cpanel to manage a cluster cloud..

Please add these features like HostBill:

http://hostbillapp.com/features/colocation.php

Bandwidth & overage billing

• Monitor data transfer & display usage graphs in admin and client interface
• Measure & bill based on total transfer or 95th percentile.
• Automatically add overage charge to client's invoice

Switch ports control

• Control your SNMP or Telnet switch directly from HostBill interface
• Automatically disable/enable client switch ports on service suspension/unsuspension
• Monitor link state of ports assigned to client server
• Easily add control to your network devices

PDU control & automated PDU reboots

• Control your PDU over SNMP directly from admin interface
• Allow clients to reboot their servers directly from clientarea
• Monitor and control current port state

Reverse DNS & IP management

• Allow your clients to manage Reverse DNS entries for IPs their own
• Automated records creation with PowerDNS server
• HostBill IPAM module integration, no more spreadsheets & manual zone updates!

BTW, if WHMCS have these features, it will get many customers from Ubersmith. Read this:

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1217980

I repeat Whmcs is like Hsbill, are diferent products for different services / customers.. Please, a dedicated or cloud customer does not use shared hosting .. If you sell dedicated you should use Hbill.

WHMCS resources better focused on project management integrated with the ticket system. Dedicated and Colo is a whole different clientele.

these features would be great to have but are outside of the scope of WHMCS base product I think. However, it would make a LOT of sense to have this as a paid add-on, so additional $ could justified dedicated labor for this effort

Yes, I agree totally. That's why I bought the WHMCS Project Management module and am now going to post any feature requests for it in the proper place :-p

I like WHMCS and think WHMCS should expand more into the dedicated server, colocation and whole datacenter market. It should incorporate features from UberSmith and the features included in HostBill's Colocation & Dedicated Server Manager:

http://hostbillapp.com/features/colocation-and-dedicated-server-manager.php

If WHMCS wants to make this an addon and charge extra for it we are ok with that too but for a larger hosting company it is not practical to have multiple billing systems.

Yes, WHMCS should have a DataCenter Edition and charge more for it, or at least make this an addon and charge extra for it. Otherwise, we're thinking moving to HostBill.

WHMCS could get a huge boost from Ubersmith clients migrating over:

It's really (really) long, but you'll enjoy this:

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1217980

To summarize the 'Datacenter' features we are looking for include:

- Bandwidth Billing (per GB/TB and 95th percentile)

- Switch Port Control (enable/disable Cisco switch ports)

- Traffic graphing for network switch port (dedicated server/colocation ports via cacti)

- Power PDU (allows clients to power on/off power port - dedicated server/colocation)

- Reverse DNS (Allow customers to manage their own reverse DNS)

- IP management (IPAM Module)

- Ability to define multiple Datacenter locations and tag inventory to location, room, cabinet

- Datacenter Rack/Cabinet level Management w/Inventory management (place device in rack w/ details of device)

- Inventory Tracker for dedicated servers (ability to save details of the server and then tie to a customer)

- Ability to add custom fields for dedicated server products and colocation products that are searchable

- Ability to specify a description and fields that should be added to the invoice when its generated.

- Ability to add dedicated servers into WHMCS so they can be assigned to a customers dedicated server order.

Below are link to the HostBill and UberSmith websites:

http://hostbillapp.com/features/colocation-and-dedicated-server-manager.php

http://ipam.hostbillapp.com/

http://extras.hostbillapp.com/dedicated-server-manager/

http://www.ubersmith.com/features

WHMCS will also need to expand on the PRODUCT TYPE's which will enable WHMCS to handle each product differently from the point of having different fields on a per PRODUCT TYPE basis. This will also help for reporting purposes.

Along with this feature request WHMCS will also need to address how the Product Addon are handled. Below are a few threads I started and the December 2012 WHMCS feature request Poll:

http://requests.whmcs.com/responses/expand-product-addons-functionality

http://forum.whmcs.com/showthread.php?64686-Feature-Request-December&p=281954#post281954

http://forum.whmcs.com/showthread.php?63506

Please !! whmcs is not for Datacenters !! , use Hostbill for that..

Whats next ? ask Cpanel to register domains and SSL ? ... I use Hostbill for my datacenter / colo , AND whmcs for hosting and webdesign..

I vote for NO. why ? reasons are already explained and also id would like whmcs team to focus on fix actual bugs (several ones), and better multilanguage or better multicurrency support ...

Altomarketing,

It is well within your right to vote how you feel, saying it once is enough,

I know for a fact, that over 5 datacentres here in Australia are using whmcs, I myself have our own custom plugins to manage bandwidth and overages with the help of cacti, I would love to see more modules for datacentre systems introduced into WHMCS, not only for cisco equipment, but others such as APC and HP would be very handy

Paid add-on or datacenter edition would be perfect. If it had half the features of ubersmith without the hard constricts of "per device cost" like ubersmith it would be well worth it.

This would be a really good feature to have added to whmcs.

The biggest thing here is reporting for me, we had to go out and create our own report template to do just that, we had NO way of using the automated system to know what we were making on our Dedi's. The worst thing is if you have some customers paying a bit less than others for X reason, this makes manual reporting of it much harder.

This would be a great addition since it would allow hosts to keep better track of Dedi expenses and revenue. When we made our report many many people loved it and wanted to for that very reason.

WHMCS is a billing system, not just a hosting system. As such it should do ALL billing and keep track of it. Most of us sell Dedi's and this would be a great addition to great software.

I would love to see more of a "Datacentre Edition". Why push people away to Uber or Hostbill when WHMCS is a hosting orientated product?

As well as improved server features as discussed above, I would love to see a more involved IP address management in the software to keep track fo which Ip's are allocated to which customers, and more importantly that they are paying for them (if you have a price set for IP's). Currently we have to use a google spreadsheet with 5000+ IP's to keep track of which IP's are used for which servers/domain/clients and for what reason (justification), and then make sure we regularly audit this list against WHMCS accounts to ensure IP's are being paid for, or when people cancel set the IP's to free again in the spreadsheet.

Infact for a "datacentre edition" you could have a whole asset manager built into WHMCS which not just for IP's but for server hardware also. With 600+ dedicated servers it would be good to tie a specific asset to a specific active dedicated server product, noting down the spec of the server, who supplied it, cost, warranty information, and then when a client cancels its is free'd up as stock for a new order, again we have to use google docs for this right now but doing it inside WHMCS makes more sense...

This would be great for Dedicated Server providers at every level.

Some people start small hosting companies with a low budget and grow from there; with an add-on like this they can do it better.

+ 1 For me on this request.

+1 need this

+ 1 For me on this request.

+1 for this request

- Bandwidth Billing (per GB/TB and 95th percentile)

- Traffic graphing for network switch port (dedicated server/colocation ports via cacti)

You've been able to do both of those for 2 years with an available addon.

- Power PDU (allows clients to power on/off power port - dedicated server/colocation)

APC & Raritan power control integrated into both client area and admin side is also available as an addon

- Switch Port Control (enable/disable Cisco switch ports)

Thats going to be available soon as an addon :)

+1 for this, I'm already considering Hostbill as they have some great features but hesitant as WHMCS has been great and I just wish they added more features like this faster.

We do design, programming work and a lot of hosting, colo and data center management.

+1, defin need this. Have been considering to hostbill just because of a lot of the colo/dedicated server features.

WHMCS has been great but this feature would really make our workflow much more efficient. All features documented above are great!

There are companies that not only do they provide web services like hosting, domain registration, reselling domain and hosting but they also have hard disk on dedicated, shared, vps or even create personalised offers for the ones that do not have much knowledge about hosting, web sites or even web business. But, in my opinion, even if the company is smaller or it is an extended one, it should have one billing system so that it is easy both for the company and for the costumers.

one of the top5 for whmcs

+1

+1 for this

+1 for this one

Yes! This is good, very good! Why limit this software to low-end hosts.

It would sure beat the cumbersome way we have to mange our servers now. I am not interested in running 2 or more billing systems either just to cover our bases.

+1 for this one!

+1 for this request

Any idea when this might be available? this tool could really determine whether or not we keep using WHMCS in the future.

+1 For This request

I know a LOT of the dedicated/colo companies out there have a more resources available to them. Maybe we could all pool together for development, I know if it came down to it, I would spend $1,000 to make this happen.

Feel free to contact me directly if interested. [email protected]

I agree with Mark, and I believe that his figures are actually too low, unless we are talking about a very basic addon/feature.

I believe that this effort should be linked to a more overall project that is able to join together a service delivery process: starting from a service catalog, with an updated CMDB, on to the change managent process and SLA/Customer Support.

Bits and pieces are already there, really, they just need to be tied all together and add a CMDB that keeps track of assets, their configuration and life state.

In the end this are the features that have been asked for, and if you do the job by following the ITIL blueprint you just have it organized.

This feature should come from WHMCS, I believe they are ideally placed to implement it but i feel it would be more beneficial as a paid addon to the system rather than an inclusive part of the bundle. There are a great many hosting providers that are simply reselling and not co-locating, I dont think it would be fair to implement it and increase the pricing for those that may never use it.In all fairness, i do believe WHMCS should be more modular. Order what you need, leave what you don't, so in effect stripping out everything that is not required, initial install being the core API and then adding in the "addons" as you need them.

It is how i got started but i still feel the basic install was far too bloated for my requirements, now i use the majority of the system, but there are still some features that i just have no use for at the moment.I feel this would be a major benefit to a lot of startups.

For all you naysayers out there about what WHMCS is or is not here is what it does:

Auto Activates Services

Auto DeActivates Services

Has an intuitive web interface for clients

Has an intuitive web interface for admins

I am currently creating some modules for WHMCS so I can use it for a SAAS application I am getting ready to launch. The thing is, the customers don't install it, and the customers still need to be autobilled and the service needs to be Activated and Deactived and there is a hosting piece to it but the hosting piece is something entirely separate but can only be ordered once the main program is ordered. There is no hosting without the software. All of this I have to create as plugins for the program.

WHMCS is a very versatile application as long as you know how and are willing to manipulate it.

This feature set that they are planning on is going to be a huge boom for the Dedicated market which is great!

I even have a friend of mine who operates print presses getting ready to utilize WHMCS. (how does it work for him?)

It has an awesome ticket system which he can utilize to keep correspondences with his customers, it has the project management plugin which allows for tracking of projects, it has the website tie in which is very important to get orders placed and customers to view a timely update on their projects.

The program does more than just HOSTING. You just have to apply it to your needs.

Agree with CDJ Hosting and Altomarketing, this could add bloat and expense to WHMCS.

Could be an addon.

All applications have a beginning base. They then grow and adapt to change.

The developers at WHMCS have been adding features to this application since they began.

Once a program is created the developers keep changing it as programs are almost like a living breathing entity. And programmers keep feeding the entity. The second development ends the program dies a slow death where only the diehards use it.

I say bravo keep the add-ons coming if someone has a need for said add-on let them purchase it.

Hosting does not mean Shared Hosting even if that is stuck in our heads. Web Hosting covers all forms of network based hosting including dedicated servers, Cloud and NOCs. There are many forms of web hosting.

The name of WHMCS automaticly encompences all forms of hosting and even other services. Currently WHMCs is not a complete web hosting application. This feature request of "Colo/Dedicated Server Management Addon

"would be a big leap forward to being a complete solution. Also this request is for an ADDON which makes perfect sense as not every user of WHMCS needs this feature set. Even if it becomes a paid addon, that would still be great in my mind but included is fine too. I just think we who need these features, might just have the some money for it too.

I like most of the specs people are looking for in these posts so I have 1+ all the ones I am in favor for. I'll post again after I ponder what else may be useful capibilities.

The current mainstream release can be used in such a way anyway, anybody can write up a system to access the core functions so i see no reason why a core rlease couldnt be acheived. It could be done now, by stripping out the things are not needed, but to know what it the minimum required install would take a lot of trial and error.I know the main stream releases work out of the box without much hassle in respect of installation. That said, such a company would be investing in development along side the core so would they even need the core in the first place. i guess that is something they would decide.

I have often wondered why it is that the core system cant be separated. I would definitely like to have the core located on a server that isn't publicly accessible. It would certainly allow for a far more secure system so long as the forward facing site is sufficiently secure.

it would be all to easy to have too narrow a view on what hosting actually is and all that it encompasses and i dare say that many hosts do have too narrow a view in some aspects if not all. I myself offer a large range, but there are still areas that are just not yet viable for me to entertain.

The main reason I need a module like this included in WHMCS is the inventory; it would really help my business if I had the ability to "stock" or list all the servers I have in inventory regardless of location and automatically/manually assign them to clients as they are purchased.

Currently I have to copy/paste server details in the clients profile every time a server is purchased and deployed, that sometimes can become time consuming and tedious. I know at least a dozen people who have to deal with the same thing.

I can't wait for a solution to this.

Please, please, please make me leave Ubersmith.

Would love this feature would like to see it be in progress.

1: This Useresponse system sucks! There is no form persistance so I lost a very long well thought out reply. Use garlicjs.com. It takes like 5 seconds to implement. $500 for this POS use response and it have 5% of whmcs functionality and it sucks. Okay sorry.

2: WHMCS is named WHMCS because it started support with WHM/Cpanel only, check the about us page or wiki I believe if you dont believe me. It CAN BE and SHOULD BE used by others to HELP KEEP COSTS LOW... there is a fixed number of hosts but honeslty it could be used by many other SUBSCRIPTION or ECOMMERCE companies and their advancements are our gains(especially owned license investors like me:) )

3: Host Bill is a JOKE!!! Properly written object oriented code DOES NOT bloat. Especially properly written MODULE based MVC architecture based code. So there is no need to build and maintain 100's of modules. This drives UP the cost of development because you need to separately patch, support, bill and alert customers of those updates as well as maintain multiple feature requests threads sub divided by product. Trust me (see below). Host Bill ALSO and MORE IMPORTANTLY http://www.hostbillforums.com/index.php?topic=112.30 - Yes that is right, you can NOT even build a module yourself for hostbill. You are forced to wait on their production schedule / PAY THEIR HOURLY RATES! - So you people who are too blind to see the benefits(also below) of WHMCS over all of the competition need to stop commenting on this thread where people are trying to progress a good product to the point of AMAZING.

4: From the accounting standpoint. Stop modularizing WHMCS, it not only adds to the cost which eliminates any deferment gains(gains by making it an addon that shared hosts will not have to bear the costs of) because it would be raising the development costs as a whole to ALL production coding! Smaller hosts can select the monthly licensed option if they can not afford the upfront license. Spreading even $15,000 US(sorry I am American lol) over the number of customers WHMCS has would be more feasible especially when talking maintenance. Also think about it this way: Would you like to pay $500 for the addon or whatever just to sell/manage your first colo/dedicated? STOP PUTTING BARRIERS TO ENTRY FOR HOSTS TO SCALE!!! I think I would know. I have been a web develop for 10+ years. I have an extensive accounting background (Studying for my C.P.A. currently) and have analyzed pricing models for licensed software for many years. Also note: your Accountant would love you if you could produce Purchase Date, Purchase Amount(for hardware) separate them by line item on invoice, ASSET TYPE(networking hardware has different Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System(MACRS aka Tax Depreciation) than servers potentially, Vendor, AND USE --- whether it is internal or for client use it may make a difference in their tax planning strategy. I am working on becoming literate in consulting in that area myself.

5: WHMCS is great because it is SUPPORT included , Hostbill is like a per incident charge ( even if it is their fault). 2) You Can build modules as mentioned above you can not do that with Hostbill 3) You CAN lease the software monthly 4) If you chose to invest(like I did) and buy it upfront then the support and upgrades is really reasonable. If you do the math, present value of an annuity etc its a good deal(your break even point like 3 years or less versus renting PLUS you never have to worry about a missed CC payment closing your business) . 5) Community Addons - yes not just company based like HostBill (No addons deserved to points) 6) English as a first language based support . No offense to non native English speakers but you all will agree that each culture has their own little communication differences. I wish I could remember a specific example but I remember it mostly when trying to deal with developers/designers in India when it comes to cultural differences in BUSINESS LOGIC/promotion/marketing/wording etc. 7) We have a feature requests system... I dont have hostbill so not sure if they have one or not. 8) WHMCS has a great community of active supporters, addon developers, and end users who all appreciate its flexibility 9) MOST IMPORTANT ... cost... this product was a God send. It allowed me to dump hsphere/modernbill/pleskbilling/custom solutions/manual processing considerations in the trash.

Thank you for your time and reading..

P.S. Please vote on my suggestion for multiple tiers of product groups please! Figured since there is so many votes on this one I could use the following alert to capture some attention to request while concretely answering this one.

https://requests.whmcs.com/responses/product-group-levels

I'm looking as stumping up the cash to get a Colocation & Dedicated Server Manager module developed. As a colo & network provider I'm in as much need of it as everyone else.

I'd be interested to see what people would be up for paying for it as an addon if you could post what you think? I'm not looking to make a profit, just subsidize or cover the costs over time.

It looks like everyones requirements are very similar so i think it would meet most peoples needs.

If there are any other features not listed above let me know as well.

Matt,

I'd definitely be interested in something as well and would be willing to help subsidize the cost, but I think it's key that the code be developed by WHMCS, or at least be supported by them in some way - I don't want to be in a position where WHMCS updates could potentially break functionality of the module.

The only thing that would be useful for us that I haven't seen listed here would be IPMI / DRAC / iLO integration, which would allow for us to provide access to IP KVM and reboots without giving users direct access. Some way for users to do a cold reset on the BMC would be good as well.

Hello all,

we here at noclayer.com have been tinkering with the idea of implementing our rack management and monitoring system, including all of the features listed here, into the WHCMS platform as an Addon. We already have a good portion of the features and are after beta testers for the initial phase. This post is to gauge interest in this venture, please let us know what you think.

preview 1

preview 2

Alen,

I've only taken a brief look, but that sounds pretty neat.

- What sort of timeline are you looking at to get it integrated in WHMCS?

- Would there also be functionality for the client end?

- What is the status on the features that are listed on your (coming soon) Premium package? (please be realistic - if you want to get those features right, it's a *lot* of work)

- Any idea what pricing of the Premium package will be like?

If you can't answer these questions publicly, just let me know. I'm just posting this here as I suppose others may be interested in the answers too.

Dear Andre

The WHMCS add-on will be a combination of our Advanced and Premium products, the features will be developed as per the priorities gained from user votes. Because we have the human resources available, we're looking at cca. 2 months.

The price will in any case be better than on our web pages, because we have a lot of interest for the NocLayer add-on, we're prepared to offer a more competitive price.

For any other questions, please feel free to contact us.

Thanks

Alen

+1

I need it too

I also would like to have this, I understand most WHMCS users will not require or use this, so there is nothing wrong if WHMCS makes this as an extra addon.

For those that commented to use that other software called HB for that, really? Most people moved to HB because WHMCS was lacking this features, so this actually hurts WHMCS. And I moved from they to WHMCS, even while that "other" software has all this features, they are buggy and the software is almost not usable. I think WHMCS should develop this as an addon for those that actually have physical servers, and colo, they can track assets, manage IPs, etc.

This is and was the biggest attach on WHMCS so far in many hosting companies, that it never evolved from basic shared hosting. Also why in the world would you have 2 billing softwares? One for servers, one for shared, that is ultra stupid. You should have one billing/login systems for all customers. There is nothing wrong to have this as an extra module/addon, so the users that don´t want it or need WHMCS will work as usual, but for those that actually looked into moving away from WHMCS because it lacks this features, it would make them stay with WHMCS and it would put WHMCS in another league.

The good news is this project is set to planned. :)

You can is there anyone has idea with dedicated server

management

yes i have..,

https://www.serverboost.com/

You do not do accounting with it, but managing servers etc.. is what it does, so this needs to be in there.

Do you even know what whmcs is for?

It sounds like a lot of these features would be covered by the Easy DCIM platform that modules garden is working on integrating into WHMCS http://www.easydcim.com/

Yes! +1

I left a post about a little but very important mod for us... No luck for now...

We're running small dedicated server leasing company and were looking for a easy-going system to run our biz...WHMCS is just great, almost everyhing we need is here just right out of the box!BUT, there's some things is not applicable for dealing with a database of used hardware.Here is an example:We have 100+ servers with tons of different hardware parts, needed to be stored in VDS/VPS product group. So it's clear to use configurable options as a specific parts of a server - one for CPU, another for amount of RAM, type of a chassis and so on... But here comes a problem! If we need to save HDD config - there's no way to do it, with a combinations of 2x500Gb+5x2Tb+6x3Tb... Only way to deal with it is creating EVERY type of HDD (15 sizes, not saying about vendors!) as a separate configurable option! Here comes problem with order forms (needed to hide 0 valued options)!So the VERY useful thing is a combination of a dropdown type of an option and then, in addition - quantity for this item, and the best thing - quantities for multiple selected items!I think it would be very handy to many WHMCS users, not just us!Can anybody help? Ready to pay for such an option!P.S. You can watch the principle of how it's working on our site config calc here, try choosing some options in HDD/SSD array:http://highload.biz/en/calculator/

Yes +1.

So, May you give me a trial to test your apps before I decide for purchase ?

my email: [email protected]

Thanks.

Im thinking of moving to hostbill as well to manage my dedicated servers, but i want to keep whmcs for teamspeak.

How can i use both programs like whmcs for teamspeak and dedi boxes on hostbill? How would the login work? which whould the clicnt login into hostbill or whmcs backend? Can you pls guide me in right direction to get hostbill as well as whmcs working at same time..

thx

Jon

skype: chemical_og

email: [email protected]

Hello,

Here is a suitable solution for what you require: http://www.hostingmodules.com/devicemanager.php

This WHMCS Module manages Cisco switches enabling service management, automation and bandwidth tracking.

General Features:

• Automation of suspension and unsuspension of dedicated servers and colocation .
• Dedicated server and colocation inventory list.
• Bandwidth Graphs for Admin Area and Client Area.

Cross connect tracking would also be an important addition. Ubersmith does this currently but there are many of us in the Datacenter World that would like to leave them for another platform. If WHMCS did device tracking for cabinets, servers, switches, and cross-connects it would be a real game changer for us.

Since Device Manager for WHMCS can control Cisco Switch port you may switch on or off the port based in WHMCS confiugration or manual process. You can easily create a product name called "Cross Connect" and add this to a Device Manager for WHCMS for inventory tracking and, if desirable, do bandwidth billing based in transfer (egress, ingress or total).

I think there are the 3rd modules that allow integrating WHMCS with Server/Data Center management systems such as DCImanager or NOC-PS, aren't there? Some of them might allow management from WHMCS interface as requested.