Server management via web interface using webmin in Ubuntu Server. Simplify administration with Webmin Webmin install modules
It will be interesting to know how you can get convenient access using webmin in ubuntu server. The best tool to manage unix systems through a web interface.
Through webmin, you can not only conveniently view logs, make changes to the configuration of installed services, but also install packages, remove them, update the system, etc. Even get access to the terminal!
Webmin - is a ready-made web server with a whole bunch of scripts. All the delights of its use can be experienced after installation.
Installing webmin
First of all, you need to add the webmin repositories to the /etc/apt/sources.list file
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
Add two lines to the very end of the file:
Deb http://download.webmin.com/download/repository sarge contrib deb http://webmin.mirror.somersettechsolutions.co.uk/repository sarge contrib
We save and close the file. Now let's import the keys
wget http://www.webmin.com/jcameron-key.asc
sudo apt-key add jcameron-key.asc
Update the list of package sources
sudo apt-get update
install webmin
sudo apt-get install webmin
Start Webmin
After successfully installing the package, open the browser and go to the address
https://server-ip-address:10000/
instead of " server-ip-address ” Enter either the IP address of the server or its name. If everything is done correctly, you will see an invitation to enter a username and password.
Enter your login and password to the server in the fields, after which you will be taken to home page webmin
The first thing we will do is change the language to Russian. To do this, go to the menu item “ webmin” — “Change Language and Theme” and set the encoding Russian (RU.UTF-8)
After applying the changes, you need to refresh the page. Excellent! Now you have a fully Russified webmin
Small overview of webmin
I will not describe all the menu items, look for yourself and you will find a lot of interesting things for yourself. I focus on the most important points.
The “Webmin” section contains tools for working with the webmin module itself. Setting up users, accesses, Reserve copy etc.
The “System” section contains tools for working with the main functionality of the server. In this section, you can find logs, perform operations with users and groups, update software, manage active processes, work with job scheduling (Cron), and much more.
In the “Network” section, you can configure network interfaces, as well as configure a firewall
In the “Hardware” section, you can view the hardware connected to the server, as well as view local disk partitions.
I will not describe the “Cluster” section. Did not work with clusters.
Now you can set up webmin in ubuntu server and use it from anywhere in the world.
Typically, a linux server is configured using the command line. However, there is another possibly more convenient access using the webmin service in ubuntu server. The best management tool unix systems through the web interface.
Through webmin, you can not only conveniently view logs, make changes to the configuration of installed services, but also install packages, remove them, update the system, etc. Even get access to the terminal!
Webmin - is a ready-made web server with a whole bunch of scripts. All the delights of its use can be experienced after installation.
Installing webmin
First of all, you need to add the webmin repositories to the /etc/apt/sources.list file
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
Add two lines to the very end of the file:
Deb http://download.webmin.com/download/repository sarge contrib deb http://webmin.mirror.somersettechsolutions.co.uk/repository sarge contrib
We save and close the file. Now let's import the keys
Wget http://www.webmin.com/jcameron-key.asc sudo apt-key add jcameron-key.asc
Update the list of package sources
Sudo apt-get update
install webmin
sudo apt-get install webmin
Start Webmin
After successfully installing the package, open the browser and go to the address
https://server-ip-address:10000/
instead of " server-ip-address” Enter either the IP address of the server or its name. If everything is done correctly, you will see an invitation to enter a username and password.
Enter your login and password to the server in the fields, after which you will be taken to the webmin main page
The first thing we will do is change the language to Russian. To do this, go to the menu item “ webmin” - “Change Language and Theme” and set the encoding Russian (RU.UTF-8)
After applying the changes, you need to refresh the page. Excellent! Now you have a fully Russified webmin
Small overview of webmin
I will not describe all the menu items, look for yourself and you will find a lot of interesting things for yourself. I focus on the most important points.
The “Webmin” section contains tools for working with the webmin module itself. Setting up users, accesses, backups, etc.
The “System” section contains tools for working with the main functionality of the server. In this section, you can find logs, perform operations with users and groups, update software, manage active processes, work with job scheduling (Cron), and much more.
The “Services” section provides links to tools for working with installed services, in my case DHCP Server, BIND DNS Server, Squid Proxy Server. You can both configure existing settings files and manage new rules and service processes.
In the “Network” section, you can configure network interfaces, as well as configure a firewall
In the “Hardware” section, you can view the hardware connected to the server, as well as view local disk partitions.
I will not describe the “Cluster” section. Did not work with clusters.
Now you can set up webmin in ubuntu server and use it from anywhere in the world.
One of the challenges in migrating from Windows administration to Linux administration is learning the new tools at your disposal. As an administrator, you want to learn all the details of the operating system in order to get the most out of it. However, while you are studying, you need to get the current work done on time. In order to increase your productivity in Linux, let's install a program called webmin.
"Webmin is a web interface for Unix administration. With it, you can configure Accounts users, Apache, DNS, file server, etc. using any browser that supports tables and forms (and Java for the file manager module). Webmin consists of a simple web server and a set of CGI programs that directly update system files, for example /etc/inetd.conf and /etc/passwd. The web server and all cgi programs are written in Perl 5 and do not use non-standard Perl modules."
webmin works on virtually all *nix platforms, including Linux, AIX, HPUX, Solaris, OS X, and more. It provides a web interface to many Linux administrative tasks. It can run on any graphical browser either locally or remotely. In order to avoid information leakage, Webmin can be additionally secured using SSL. While you are learning Linux, Webmin will save you a huge amount of time. Webmin can also help with boring and tedious tasks that you haven't automated yet.
Webmin is easily extensible. The author provides development guidance, and a number of third-party modules are also available. You can also develop your own modules so that Webmin can always be tailored to your needs.
Installing webmin
The first step in working with Webmin is to install it. Webmin is included in several distributions, but it's not a problem to download it from the Webmin site.
The correct installation method depends on the distribution you are using. If you are using red hat Linux or one of the UnitedLinux distributions (SuSE, Turbo, Connectiva, or Caldera), then you need to download RPM package. If you're using some other distribution, you'll need to refer to your distribution's documentation and instructions for installing Webmin to determine the best method for you.
Consider installing with RPM.
First you need to check if Webmin is installed on your system. In a text terminal, type the following:
If Webmin is installed, you will see the version number:
If not, a message stating that Webmin is not installed:
package webmin is not installed
Even if Webmin is already installed, it is most likely more old version than the one available for download. In this case, you can update or reinstall the program with the following command:
rpm -Uvh webmin-1.090-1.noarch.rpm
Refresh in verbose mode occurs with a progress bar displayed with # signs.
Once Webmin is installed, it automatically starts. However, Webmin is installed with SSL disabled. SSL requires the installation of a Perl module called Net::SSLeay. Until it's installed, the only one safe way use Webmin -- run it locally only. Using Webmin
Connect to Webmin through your favorite web browser. Two modules -- a file manager and a telnet/ssh client -- are implemented as applets and require Java installations Runtime Environment in your browser. These modules are handy but not critical. There are no special requirements for all other modules.
To use Webmin, connect your browser to port 10000 on your system. If you are using a browser on your local system, you should use http://localhost.localdomain :10000/. This link will take you to the Webmin login page.
Webmin users are separate from operating system users. This allows you to set up users for administration with Webmin outside of the standard Unix identity scheme. However, if you have users on your system that you want to allow to use Webmin, you can add them to the Webmin user list and Webmin will authorize them through the standard Unix mechanisms, rather than through an internal authentication scheme. Access to various Webmin modules can be configured for each user. For example, Helpdesk employees will only need access to manage passwords, while all other employees can have access to all modules.
The root user is created automatically during installation with the system password root user. Webmin keeps track of user actions by their login, so in a system that is administered by several people, it is better to create an administrator group with as root and create users for everyone who works in the system. Your first login must be as root.
Webmin sections
The first page you will see is the Webmin Configuration Section. Here you can configure Webmin users, modules and view activity logs (logs). The top row of icons allows you to switch between different sections of Webmin. All modules are customizable, you can rearrange them according to your needs.
The System section is associated with the general settings of the operating system. Here you can configure file systems, users, groups, and system boot behavior. You can manage the services running on the system and control whether they are started automatically by the Bootup and Shutdown icons. These services are configured in the Servers section. Of particular interest is the "Software Packages" utility. It allows you to easily view the packages installed on your system, and also provides interfaces to the distribution's update repository and to rpmfind.net, the public RPM repository on the Internet.
The Servers section contains configuration modules various services, which may be running on your system. Utilities for configuring BIND and DHCP are very handy. It is also very easy to use the utility for Samba settings-- file and print servers for Windows and other clients. Webmin also takes the hassle out of setting up the Sendmail SMTP server, which is notorious for its complicated configuration file.
The Networking section allows you to configure network hardware, as well as a number of complex network management functions, such as firewalling (internet). All utilities work with standard configuration files, so whatever you do in Webmin will show up on the command line.
The Hardware section is for configuring physical devices, mainly printers and storage devices. The Logical Volume Management (LVM) utility is especially interesting because it allows you to visually manage dynamic volumes on your Linux system.
The Cluster section contains utilities that you can use if you are clustering a system. In this context, a cluster is a set of related systems for which you want to synchronize their settings. Systems can synchronize users, groups, packages, and more with tracking system failures. These utilities allow you to set up powerful fault-tolerant systems, as well as systems where synchronization is important. Clustering is a fairly complex topic and may require installation of packages not included in your distribution.
The Others section contains a variety of utilities that you may find useful. "SSH/Telnet Login" and " file manager" are implemented as applets and cannot be run unless the browser has a JRE installed. The "Perl Modules" utility will be useful for maintaining Perl modules, and allows you to connect directly to CPAN in . "File Manager" provides access to file system server with an interface similar to Explorer and allows you to move and copy files without moving them through the memory of your workstation(if you work remotely). "SSH/Telnet Login" is a utility that allows you to access the console of a remote machine through your browser.
Summary
Webmin is a web application written in Perl for administration purposes. Webmin is extensible and available outside of Linux and other *nix-like operating systems. Once Webmin is installed, it can be accessed on a special port (usually 10000), either locally or by a remote browser. It provides a point-and-click interface to a variety of Linux administrative tasks, including user management, network firewall management, and network device configuration.
Webmin is free (both to install and use) and is great for managing a running Linux environment while you are moving from graphic Windows utilities. Webmin modules are a front-end to the console utilities, so the configuration process is the same and administration can be safely done by both sets of utilities.
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It is not always convenient to configure the system through the terminal. Many administrators prefer GUI terminal for simple tasks. It is not customary to use a full-fledged graphical interface on servers so as not to waste valuable computing resources, but web interfaces are often used for configuration.
With the help of the web interface, you can access the web server settings from anywhere where there is Internet access and you only need a browser. One of these open source web interfaces source code- web min. He is very popular among Linux users because of its simplicity and great functionality.
In most cases, to administer the server, you can do without the command line, but simply perform all the actions through the web interface. Let's take a look at what features Webmin supports:
- Creating and deleting user accounts;
- Setting up services and services using special modules, such as Apache or DNS;
- Creation mailboxes users;
- View system usage statistics.
By default, Webmin contains more than 500 scripts that implement the connection between the web interface options and the system command shell. And additional modules can be added to all this to further expand the functionality of the program. Webmin is written entirely in Perl and, as I said, is available for free. In this article, we will look at how Webmin is installed on Ubuntu Server 16.04.
Installing Webmin on Ubuntu Server
Before moving on to installing Webmin on Ubuntu, you need to add the official program repository to the application sources. To do this, open the /etc/apt/sources.list file and add the lines there:
sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://download.webmin.com/download/repository sarge contrib
deb http://webmin.mirror.somersettechsolutions.co.uk/repository sarge contrib
Then add the repository's GPG key:
sudo wget http://www.webmin.com/jcameron-key.asc
$ sudo apt-key add jcameron-key.asc
It remains to update the package lists:
sudo apt-get update
Only now the installation of webmin ubuntu 16.04 can be done:
sudo apt-get install webmin
When the installation is complete, to allow access to the web interface from the outside, you need to open port 10000 using the firewall. To do this, run:
sudo ufw allow 10000
Setting up Webmin on Ubuntu 16.04
You can access the Webmin interface simply by typing your server address and port 10000 into your browser's address bar. By default, Webmin uses https, so you will need to use this protocol too. The address will look like this:
https://ip_address:10000
The browser will warn you that the SSL certificate is not trusted, this is because webmin automatically creates its own certificate after installation. And since this certificate was issued by a non-CA, the browser cannot trust it. But we know that this is our server, so we can continue.
On the next screen, you will need to enter your username and password on the server to enter the web interface. This user must have superuser authority:
This is what the main page will look like:
The first page shows general information about the system, which will help you understand which system you are currently dealing with. It will also show Webmin updates if there are any.
On the left side of the screen, you will find a navigation menu that will allow you to access various Webmin modules and manage the server. The Webmin section contains the settings of the Webmin program itself, other sections are responsible for other system services or parameters.
conclusions
That's it, the installation of Webmin on Ubuntu Server 16.04 is complete and now you can configure your system remotely. This can be very useful when you can't or don't want to use the terminal. If you have any questions, ask in the comments!
|Webmin is a web-based system administration tool for Unix-like systems. This simple and convenient alternative to administration via command line can be used to manage various aspects of the system (such as users and services) through Webmin modules. Webmin is ideal for users who prefer to maintain their own virtual private server, but do not want to work with the command line.
This tutorial will show you how to install the Webmin and SSL tool using apt-get on Ubuntu 14.04.
Requirements
Root privileges are required to install Webmin. It is recommended that you create a user with extended sudo privileges (instructions can be found in ), which you will also need to login to the Webmin interface. In addition, Webmin will be able to use its credentials to manage the server.
note: Password-based authorization is implied when using Webmin.
Login to the server as New user(or root) via SSH using the command:
ssh username@server_ip_address
Please enter your password when prompted.
Installing webmin
Before you can install Webmin with apt-get, you need to add the Webmin repository to your sources.list file.
Open the sources.list file at virtual server in text editor(in this tutorial it's nano):
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
Enter your password. Then press Ctrl-W and Ctrl-V to go to the end of the file and enter the following lines:
deb http://download.webmin.com/download/repository sarge contrib
deb http://webmin.mirror.somersettechsolutions.co.uk/repository sarge contrib
When finished editing, save the file by pressing Ctrl-X and then Y.
Then add the Webmin GPG key to apt so that the system can trust the added repository. To do this, use:
wget -q http://www.webmin.com/jcameron-key.asc -O- | sudo apt key add -
Now we need to update the list of apt-get packages:
sudo apt-get update
You are now ready to install Webmin; to do this, run the command:
sudo apt-get install webmin
Confirm the start of the installation.
After the installation is complete, the Webmin service will start automatically.
Login to webmin
Using a web browser, open the Webmin authorization page; to do this, specify the external IP and port 10000. By default, Webmin supports SSL/TLS, so you need to use HTTPS to connect. So, open the following link in your browser:
https://server_ip_address:10000
At this point, the "Server's SSL certificate is not trusted" warning will appear, indicating that the browser cannot trust the server's SSL certificate. This is because Webmin automatically generates and installs an SSL certificate during installation, but this SSL certificate has not been validated by a certificate authority that the server can trust. And although the computer cannot verify the validity of the certificate, you can be sure that it is safe.
Tell the browser that the certificate can be trusted. For example, in Chrome you need to do the following:
- Click the Advanced link;
- Then click on the link "Proceed to IP address(unsafe)."
Firefox needs:
- Click I Understand the Risks;
- Then click the Add Exception… button;
- And then Confirm Security Exception.
At this point, the Webmin login screen will appear.
Enter the same credentials that were used for the SSH connection at the very beginning. Don't forget: this user must have sudo or root privileges.
Ready! The Webmin tool has been successfully installed and is ready to go.
Note: The security of this user's credentials needs special attention because, thanks to his privileges, the Webmin application has full access to the server.
Using Webmin
The first time you launch Webmin, the System Information page will appear, providing an overview of system resources and other useful information. This page also shows all available Webmin updates.
On the left you can see a navigation menu that can be used to manage the server and access various Webmin modules. The navigation menu is divided into categories, and each individual category has its own set of modules. The Webmin category deserves special attention because it contains modules for customizing the Webmin application, while the other categories are used to run various tasks system administration.
View the navigation menu, check out the available modules.
Create a user (optional)
The main task of system administration (particularly in Webmin) is user management. In this section, we will talk about creating a new user using the Users and Groups module.
Enter the username in Username, and also provide the rest of the required information about the user. Then click the Create button.
After that, a user with the specified data will appear on the server.
The Users and Groups module can also be used to perform other user management tasks, such as deleting or disabling users and groups.
Apache installation (optional)
Webmin comes with a large number of modules for managing various packages. software. This section will demonstrate the installation of a web server using the Apache Webserver module.
In the navigation menu, select the Un-used Modules category, in it find the Apache Webserver module.
If Apache has not been installed on the server before, the module will report this and suggest a way to install the web server.
After finishing Apache installations the standard web server will start.
After that, the Apache Webserver module will be moved to the Servers category and can be used to manage Apache server settings.
Conclusion
Now that Webmin is installed and ready to go, you can use this tool to perform basic system administration tasks.
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