Http server instead of own server?

[Cesare Bianchi]

Dear all,

I have the following situation:

I manage various (virtual) servers running in various clients' 
locations. The clients must not have direct access to the servers data, 
so I ecnrypted the disks. At the present time, I must physically go (or 
connect to the virtual host) if a server reboots.

I wanted to install Mandos client on the servers, but it needs a Mandos 
server runnning in the network, and obviously this only adds complexity.

So, is it possible to use some simple form of connection to the "Mandos 
server", for example with a public basic http server?

I didn't study the Mandos handshake process, but I think that any php 
page could decrypt with a public key a random generated string, and then 
use that string to encrypt the password and send it as reply (which is 
essentially the ssl handshake). Obviously this means that the http 
server must be secured and available, but it's not a great problem, I think.

Probably the greatest problem would be for the "client" to have the 
interface configured with the gateway and nameserver, during the boot.

Do you think it is complex to modify the Mandos client (or write another 
plugin) to do so? Would you point me in the right direction, so I could 
possibly do it?

Thank you in advance,

Cesare