Sandpolis v2021.06.16 releases: Ultimate remote management utility
Sandpolis is a cross-platform remote administration framework that can manage servers, desktop computers, mobile devices, and anything else that runs Java (except for your printers, Blu-Ray players, refrigerators, etc).
It is targeted at sysadmins and power users, but can be used by anyone once it’s configured. Most users will want to use Sandpolis via the JavaFX desktop application, but alternative user interfaces (like web and mobile applications) are planned.
Sandpolis is unfinished and therefore should only be used in a testing environment. There are a few pre-releases available, but don’t expect much from them until things are more complete.
How
There are three components in any Sandpolis network:
- a client agent installed on a remote computer
- a viewer interface that you can use to manage client instances
- a server that facilitates communication between clients and viewers
For convenience, there are many ways to install the Sandpolis client on your machines. The simplest method is to generate an executable file via the viewer interface and manually run it on each remote machine. Once installed, the client agent can automatically update itself independently of the server.
Clients maintain a persistent connection to the server, and viewers maintain a temporary connection to the server or directly to clients. This allows tasks to continue running in the background while viewers are not connected.
Why
Sandpolis is somewhat like a fusion of TeamViewer and Canonical’s Landscape. The overall architecture and intended usage of Sandpolis is very similar to Landscape, but Sandpolis also provides features like a remote desktop that don’t fit in Landscape. Sandpolis isn’t intended to replace TeamViewer or Landscape, but rather it serves the middle-ground between the two.
Here are some fundamental qualities that Sandpolis tries to achieve:
- compatible with as many operating systems as possible
- flexible, configurable, and easily extensible to niche applications via plugins
- uncompromising on performance and security
- low latency and high concurrency
- user-friendly
What it isn’t
Sandpolis is not intended to be used on unauthorized systems, to manage a botnet, or for any other illegal activity.
There are many remote administration tools out there that claim to be for legitimate use, but have strange features like ransomware, password stealers, and network flooders. While there may be a legitimate use-case for all of those, the reality is that more people are going to use those features for harm than for good. Fortunately, most remote administration tools are so brittle and poorly designed that they are practically useless anyway.
