How we turned a NAS control panel into an extension platform, why Log Manager was needed, and what the Plugin Template is for.

In the previous article (Mini Bucket 3.6.2: from beta to release), I showed how the panel matured to a stable state: we patched holes, separated databases, and added HTTPS.

But it’s still just a panel. SMB, FTP, and the rest are standard features found in almost any admin panel. It’s time to expand the functionality.

The best solution turned out to be: .....

Как мы превратили панель управления NAS в платформу для расширений, зачем туда Log Manager и для чего Plugin Template.

В новой версии 3.6.4 я добавил возможность устанавливать плагины. Перед реализацией возникло много вопросов. Наша ключевая фишка — мультисеть (позволяет переключать фронтенд на бэкенд другого сервера для его мониторинга и управления). Значит, и модуль плагинов должен уметь переключаться.

И......

Why Debian 9, PHP 7.0, and no frameworks. And how to set up HTTPS in 5 minutes.

Foreword for those who haven't read the first article

Last time, I told the story of how I wanted to make a couple of pages for SAMBA and NFS, but ended up with a NAS control panel of 20+ pages. I named the project Mini Bucket.

Important: That version was a beta. Raw, with rough edges, but alive. Its goal was to demonstrate the concept. And people got interested. So, it needs to be polished.

Now – version 3.6.2. A ton of problems have been fixed, security has been added, a separate domain, forum, and wiki have appeared. Today, I'll walk you through the installation step-by-step with screenshots.

But first – a quick summary of what has changed. Then – pure practice.

Почему Debian 9, PHP 7.0 и никаких фреймворков. И как поднять HTTPS за 5 минут

Предисловие для тех, кто не читал первую статью

В прошлый раз я рассказал, как хотел сделать две странички для SAMBA и NFS, а получилась панель управления NAS на 20+ страниц. Проект назвал Mini Bucket.

Важно: та версия была бета. Сырая, с недоработками, но живая. Её задача — показать концепцию. А народ заинтересовался. Значит, надо доводить до ума.

Теперь — версия 3.6.2. Исправлена куча проблем, добавлена безопасность, появился отдельный домен, форум и вики. И сегодня я по шагам покажу установку со скринами.

Но сначала — кратко о том, что изменилось. А потом — чистая практика....

Fair warning right away: I'm not a programmer. The code could be prettier, the architecture more elegant. But my goal was different – to make a convenient tool for myself as a system administrator. What came out came out. Don't judge too harshly, it's beta.

How it all started

I had some free time. I had an old Netgear Stora MS2000 lying around – I'd installed Debian 7 and OpenMediaVault on it back in the day. Then a disk crashed, I reinstalled Debian 9, but OMV turned out to be too heavy for this hardware.

Editing configs in the console every time was tedious. And all I really needed was SAMBA and NFS. So I thought, why bother? I'll write a couple of PHP scripts to create and edit shares.

And so Mini Bucket began.

The first two pages – and off we went

I whipped up the first two pages quickly: shares started working. Then I thought, "It would be nice to have a dashboard to see all the stats." A third page appeared – a dashboard with graphs.

Then I figured: since I've got SMB and NFS, might as well add rsync and FTP too. Added them.

Day by day, my "two-page panel" grew into a project now called Mini Bucket – NAS Control Panel.

And you know what? It actually works. On hardware where modern panels simply won't start or slow to a crawl.

What is this thing?

Mini Bucket is a web-based NAS control panel focused on resource efficiency. It runs on:

Как я хотел две странички для SAMBA и NFS, а сделал полноценную панель управления NAS на 20+ страницах