technitium-console - an alternative web console you can install over the stock one

[byGarcia]

When I proposed a redesign of the admin console in #2128, @ShreyasZare suggested packaging it as an alternative GUI instead. This is it: technitium-console.

Dashboard	Blocking Overview

What it is

An alternative administration console that uses the same Technitium API and keeps the familiar administration workflows, with a rebuilt interface:

• System, Light and Dark themes. The default follows your operating system, or you can choose from the account menu.
• A redesigned Blocking section. Overview, Rules and Lists put blocking status, charts, manual rules, list management, search and Quick Add in one place.
• Real URLs. Every section and tab has its own address, so you can bookmark /settings/blocking/, reload, and use the back button.
• Works on a phone. No section overflows at 390 px; tables reflow and the navigation collapses.
• Nothing changes on the server. It only talks to the documented /api. It has no backend, database, account or telemetry.

Blocking Rules	Blocking Lists

Install

The current release is technitium-console v1.2.0 for Technitium DNS Server 15.5.x.

On Linux with v15.5 or later, give the console a folder of its own. The server supports this through DNS_SERVER_WEB_SERVICE_WWW_FOLDER_PATH, merged in v15.5 via #2138:

sudo mkdir -p /opt/technitium-console
sudo systemctl edit dns.service      # technitium.service on some installs
#   [Service]
#   Environment=DNS_SERVER_WEB_SERVICE_WWW_FOLDER_PATH=/opt/technitium-console
sudo systemctl restart dns.service
curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/byGarcia/technitium-console/main/install.sh | sudo sh

• Server updates no longer touch it. The stock www/ stays untouched.
• Going back is one command. --uninstall removes the console and restores the stock one.
• The installer verifies the release checksum and never restarts the DNS service on its own.
• Docker has an image. ghcr.io/bygarcia/technitium-console is a multi-architecture init image that copies the console into a shared volume and exits. A complete Compose example is in the README.

About updates: the concern Shreyas raised

It is a fair one, and it already happened: 1.0.0 was built for 15.4 and could not save Settings on 15.5. The current 1.2.x supports 15.5.x, including LDAP authentication, the zone file editor and everything else introduced in 15.5.

• How each release is checked: against that server version's own console, running side by side in Docker. Real actions are compared by the state they leave on the server; the stock console's texts, examples, links and controls are checked one by one; and all 132 API endpoints it uses are covered.
• Which version to install: the changelog lists which console goes with which server.
• Going forward: I intend to follow every server release.

---

Not affiliated with Technitium. GPL-3.0, like the server. Issues and feedback are very welcome: https://github.com/byGarcia/technitium-console/issues

[byGarcia]

Update: v1.2.0 is now available.

Since the original announcement, technitium-console has gained:

• A redesigned Blocking section with Overview, Rules and Lists
• System, Light and Dark themes
• Searchable Quick Add with an additional blocklist catalogue
• A public multi-architecture Docker image at ghcr.io/bygarcia/technitium-console

The original post has been updated with current screenshots and installation details. Thank you for the feedback and encouragement so far.

Release: https://github.com/byGarcia/technitium-console/releases/tag/v1.2.0

[byGarcia]

Update: v1.3.0 is now available, checked against Technitium DNS Server 15.6.1.

Since v1.2.0:

• 15.6.x support (1.2.1 to 1.2.4), and Last Hour on the Dashboard and Blocking Overview now updates in real time.
• Dashboard: every figure, the Queries chart, a week-by-hour heatmap, the top lists and the breakdowns fit in the first screen. Each figure shows its trend and its change against the previous period, and clicking a chart point, a bar or an hour opens Query Logs filtered to it.
• Blocking: Check a domain tells you whether the server blocks a name and why (which block list, which of your rules, or which allow rule lets it through). Block lists can be grouped under headings, and deleting a rule offers Undo instead of a confirmation.
• Cache is a single panel: the search, the path of the current name, the names under it as chips, and one line per record.
• Phones and tablets: tables no longer scroll sideways; when one does not fit, each row becomes a block. On a phone, Query Logs folds its filters and shows which ones are set.
• Settings shows which panes have unsaved changes before you save, and the long panes have a section index that stays at the top.
• View Logs fills the window and wraps long lines instead of cutting them off.
• Installer: upgrading or uninstalling now works over a web root with the permissions Technitium's own installer leaves (root:root 0664).

Same API and same behaviour as the stock console: all 132 endpoints are covered, and the release has 1,912 automated tests.

To update, run the installer again, or pull the image on Docker.

Release notes: https://github.com/byGarcia/technitium-console/releases/tag/v1.3.0

Thank you to everyone who has tried it and sent feedback, including the installer report.

[byGarcia]

Update: v1.4.0 is now available, checked against Technitium DNS Server 15.6.2.

This is the biggest release so far: practically every screen has been redesigned, and there are new screens the stock console never had. Every feature of the stock console still works the same way, through the same API, and everything new only uses calls the stock console already makes.

Every screen, redesigned

• Dashboard: every figure with its trend and its change against the previous period, a week-by-hour heatmap, response times and a query-to-answer diagram. Click a point, or drag across the chart, to open Query Logs for exactly that window.
• Zones: cards for all zones at a glance (types, health, DNSSEC), a zone's records summarised by type, compact records, and quick add of a host record (with its PTR) from the list.
• Cache: reads like a zone, with the path to where you are, records by type, time left and stale entries.
• Blocking, in one place: Overview, Rules, Lists and its own Settings page. Check a domain to see why it is blocked, group your block lists, and see when they last updated and how they grew.
• Query Logs: filters that fold away, response colours, and a Live Update you can see: new rows flash and a counter says how many arrived.
• DNS Client: the answer drawn section by section, record by record, with the JSON in its own tab.
• DHCP: leases and scopes as tables, and how full each scope is.
• Settings: one form with a search across every setting and a save bar that says what would change.
• Apps, Administration, My Profile, About and the login, all in the same language. Permissions is one matrix of sections by groups and users.
• A sidebar grouped by task: Monitoring, DNS, Network, Tools and System.

Zones	Settings

New in 1.4.0

• Clients: every device that queries your server, how much it asks and how much of it gets blocked. Each client has a card with its DHCP lease, its top and top blocked domains, its cache hit rate, median response time and latest queries, plus actions: bypass blocking, exempt it from rate limiting, or reserve its lease. They use the server's own settings and ask before saving.
• Clusters, side by side: with All nodes, Zones, Cache, Query Logs, DHCP and the block lists show every node at once, with what disagrees between them marked. Administration › Cluster compares the nodes' settings and splits the queries by node.
• Ctrl K jumps to any page, settings pane or zone. Type a domain and it offers to check it in Blocking, resolve it, find it in the cache or search Query Logs.

Clients	A client's card

Response Time and From query to answer	Ctrl K

The cluster views are new. If you run a cluster, I would really like to hear how they behave on yours.

Install or update with the same one-line installer, or pull the Docker image again (ghcr.io/bygarcia/technitium-console). A console from 1.3.2 on shows the update notice by itself.

Release notes: https://github.com/byGarcia/technitium-console/releases/tag/v1.4.0

Thanks again to everyone who reported issues and sent ideas.

[ser]

Works and looks amazing, thank you!