running iperf on machine from web interface

[Scorpioff]

I'm not sure if I'm posting in the correct section, so please move it if it isn't.

I currently have a bunch of laptops for testing a distributed network - throughput etc., using a bunch of bash scripts that send or listen to multiple addresses and ports, which run iperf. But at the moment I have to run it from each machine, or log in through ssh.

To make this easier, I'd like to be able to present a bunch of buttons and selections from a web interface, so I can just put in the hostname of each laptop, and then click on a presented 'send' or 'listen' button to then execute iperf, and be able to kill it early if need by, say, by a 'stop' button.

What is the best way to go about this? Python, JavaScript, Java Servlet?
And how would I do it? Just one of the above on Apache or something on each laptop?

I just don't which direction to start heading in. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

BTW. The network is considered to be not connected to the Internet, so I'm not too concerned about security, but if you've got any suggestion of how to start and stop iperf securely from a web interface on a machine, I'm interested.

[cybertron]

There are a lot of options for what you use. Another option you could look at is PHP. I've used it for a couple of projects, and the widespread use of it in the open source community means there is a ton of documentation on different techniques for doing things. But I wouldn't get too hung up on the technology unless you already know one, in which case you should probably use that.;) Read up a bit on each option and pick one that sounds like it will do what you want. It doesn't sound like it will be a terribly complex interface so just about any web technology should be able to do what you want.

Also, it sounds like you might want to look into ssh shared keys. They would allow you to run a script from one system and have it connect to all of the other systems and do something without requiring you to login separately to each system. It takes a bit of setup, but in the long run it will probably save you a lot of hassle.

[Scorpioff]

Thanks. Well, I didn't know any technology to implement it. I tried learning JSP for a week but was getting nowhere, and also python, but couldn't figure out how to do it.

With PHP I've now got the basics working within a day. Thanks. Just had no idea where to start.

I'll develop this further and then look into ssl.

Thanks.