[389-users] ATTENTION: 389-console/Admin Server is being deprecated in Fedora 28

In Fedora 28 (389-ds-base-1.4.0) we are deprecating the 389-console/Admin Server.  Instead we will be offering a new web UI via a Cockpit plugin to handle the Directory Server Administration.  See http://cockpit-project.org/  Why Cockpit?  Well Cockpit has its pros & cons, but since it has built-in functionality that solves many problems for us we decided to use it instead of developing a full-blown standalone web application that needs run on Apache.  Pros:  -  Authentication is built into Cockpit.  However, you must login as a system user, and one with superuser rights, in order to administer the server.  You will not log in with an LDAP entry.  Authentication to the Directory Server is then done via LDAPI/autobind.  See https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_directory_server/10... - Remote server administration.  You can register other systems into Cockpit.  Cockpit then establishes ssh sessions with those remote systems.  This allows us to securely manage all your Directory Servers from a single location. - Lightweight.  The new UI will no longer need things like "o=netscaperoot", or a full blown http server.  It will be very lightweight and it will run inside of Cockpit (which is also VERY lightweight).  However, this also means if you are on a platform that does not offer Cockpit (like Solaris/HPUX) then unfortunately you will not have a console/UI available to you. Cons: - We can not use fancy UI frameworks like django/jinja in cockpit.  So the UI will be simple - that's not really a big con, but it does limit what functionality we can easily add. - Authentication.  You must use a system user (root or a user with superuser privileges), not an LDAP account/DN, but you can use autobind/LDAPI to map a system user to an ldap account. Note - there will NOT be an LDAP browser in the new web UI.  However, we will be accepting upstream  source contributions towards an LDAP browser, but as of right right now we just do not have the resources to add a nicely polished LDAP tree browser.   Perhaps in a future release we can do it, but it is considered a low priority.  In the meantime for F28 (389-ds-base-1.4.0), there are other free third-party LDAP browsers out there that you can use, we just won't have one built into the UI at this time. As development continues on the new "web console" we will be providing alpha/beta releases for review/feedback.  And your feedback is important!   Expect to start seeing these "test releases" in a few months, and installing Cockpit and adding the DS UI plugin is very simple and only takes a few seconds. If you have any questions/requests please let us know. Thanks, Mark