Show HN: ServerKit – A mobile UI for server management
ServerKit is an Android app that turns SSH commands into a visual UI for server management, supporting monitoring, Kubernetes, and database operations. It includes a terminal and a free 30-minute VPS lab for testing. The developer created it after needing remote server access without a laptop.
Background
- This is a Show HN post (Hacker News's "Show HN" category, where makers present projects they built). The author describes ServerKit, an Android app that provides a graphical, mobile-friendly interface for managing Linux servers — replacing the need to SSH in from a laptop and type commands on a phone keyboard.
- SSH (Secure Shell) is the standard protocol for remotely logging into and controlling a server via the command line. Doing this from a phone is cumbersome because terminal commands are designed for full keyboards.
- The app wraps common server tasks (checking logs, restarting services, inspecting databases) in a touch UI, running SSH commands in the background. It also includes a built-in terminal for advanced use and supports Kubernetes (container orchestration platform) and RDBMS (relational database systems like MySQL, PostgreSQL).
- The "ServerKit Lab" is a free, limited-time demo VPS (virtual private server) so users can try the app without connecting their own production server. The developer mentions Firebase (a Google backend service) for analytics and Android's secured storage for safely saving server credentials.