A Menu Solution for Users and Admins Alike

Matthew Cheek

Graphical user interfaces (GUIs) have become the norm for system administration tools and utilities over the last few years. These GUIs take the form of X Window applications, Web browser-based forms, and Microsoft Windows programs and can provide a richer interface than is possible with a character-cell interface such as a serial terminal or telnet connection. However, such character-cell interfaces are still a fact of life for many admins. Serial terminals continue to be a common interface for many users simply because of a terminal's low cost and because thousands of applications in production are still character based.

I explored the differences between a GUI and a character-cell interface when the requirement for developing a menu-driven front-end for a group of operators fell to the sys admin staff. These operators needed the ability run various UNIX commands, scripts, and utilities to manage backups and to monitor the health of the systems. However, these individuals were not sys admins, and a menu-driven interface would allow them to quickly and safely run the various commands.

The directives were:

• Low (or no) cost
• Quick development
• Robust and flexible

In other words, cheap, fast, and good.

The initial preference was to develop a custom, graphical application using Tcl/Tk. This choice had the advantage of no cost (from the standpoint of not having to purchase a product), but the speed with which a solution could be delivered and the robustness of the final product depended on many factors. This option was ultimately discarded because the operator staff's only access was via the system consoles which, at the time, were serial terminals.