This post shows students and new users steps to install Webmin and Virtualmin on Ubuntu Linux. Webmin and Virtualmin are open source web control panel for administering and managing Linux servers.
These tools take the complexity out of managing Linux servers. With Webmin and Virtualmin web control panel, you can manage and provision virtual web hosts, manage domains, email, databases, system users, groups, disk quotas as well as install and configure web, ssh and ftp.
These are the features you get from a public web host company.
Also, for students and new users learning Linux, the easiest place to start learning is on Ubuntu Linux. Ubuntu is the modern, open source Linux operating system for desktop, servers and other devices.
For more about Webmin, check out its homepage.
When you’re ready to install Webmin and Virtualmin on Ubuntu Linux, follow the steps below.
How to install Webmin on Ubuntu Linux
Webmin packages are not included in the standard Ubuntu repositories, so we’ll be using Webmin repositories to install. The installation is pretty straightforward.
Before installing, run the commands below to install required packages and dependencies.
sudo apt update sudo apt install software-properties-common apt-transport-https wget curl
Next, run the commands below to import the Webmin GPG key and add the Webmin repository to your system’s software sources.
wget -q -O- | sudo apt-key add - sudo add-apt-repository "deb [arch=amd64] sarge contrib"
After that, run the commands below to install Webmin.
sudo apt update sudo apt install webmin
All packages and dependencies will be automatically resolved and installed. Once the installation is complete, you should see a successful message with login URL.
How to access Webmin web portal
Now that Webmin is installed, you can access the interface by opening your web browser and browsing the the server hostname or IP address followed by port 10000.
By default, Webmin listens for connections on port 10000 on all network interfaces. If you’re using Ubuntu firewall, then run the commands below to allow access to that port.
sudo ufw allow 10000/tcp
Now logon to the web interface using the server hostname or IP address followed by the port number.
If you’re coming from a remote location, you must add the IP address to the allowed list. you can do that by running the commands below to open Webmin default configuration file.
sudo nano /etc/webmin/miniserv.conf
Then adding a new line to allow a specific IP or subnet.
allow=192.168.X.XSave the file. You should be able to access Webmin. Your browser will complain that the certificate is not valid. By default, Webmin uses an untrusted self signed certificates.
Login to the Webmin web interface using your root or sudo user credentials:
How to install Virtualmin on Ubuntu Linux
Before installing Virtualmin, understand that it only support Ubuntu LTS versions. Non-LTS version will fail to install it.
Also, at the time of this writing, only Ubuntu 20.04 | 18.04 | 16.04 are supported.
Now that Webmin is installed, go and install Virtualmin. Virtualmin allows you to manage Apache2 virtual hosts and DNS, just like you have with cPanel and other hosted packages.
Run the commands below to download Virtualmin script.
curl -O
Then make the script executable
sudo chmod +x install.sh
Finally, run the commands below to install Virtualmin
sudo ./install.sh
Accept the default setting and install.
When that’s done, you should have Virtualmin module enabled for Webmin and begin configuring your systems.
That should do it.
Conclusion:
This post showed you how to install Webmin and Virtualmin on Ubuntu Linux. If you find any error above or have something to add, please use the comment form below.
