What do you get with Print?

Instant access to your digital copy whilst your Print order is Shipped

Paperback book shipped to your preferred address

Redeem a companion digital copy on all Print orders

Access this title in our online reader with advanced features

DRM FREE - Read whenever, wherever and however you want

Webmin Administrator's Cookbook

Chapter 1. Setting Up Your System

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

Installing Webmin on a Debian-based system
Installing Webmin on an RPM-based system
Installing Webmin on another system
Connecting to Webmin
Installing additional Webmin modules
Monitoring what Webmin is doing
Controlling which system services are started at boot
Inspecting the installed software packages
Installing software packages
Updating the installed packages to the latest versions
Enabling Webmin to send an e-mail
Getting an e-mail when new versions of packages become available
Reading the documentation of the installed software

Installing Webmin on a Debian-based system

Installing Webmin on a Debian-based system, such as Ubuntu or Linux Mint, is easy because we can rely on the excellent package management system called Advanced Packaging Tool (APT). APT resolves and installs dependencies automatically and also ensures that Webmin will be updated automatically when you perform a system update.

How to do it...

To install Webmin, perform the following steps:

Webmin is not part of the standard Debian package repository, so your first step will be to add the URL of Webmin's repository to your package sources file. Open the /etc/apt/sources.list file in a text editor and add the following lines to it:
```
deb http://download.webmin.com/download/repository sarge contrib
deb http://webmin.mirror.somersettechsolutions.co.uk/repository sarge contrib
```
Tip
On most systems, the vi text editor is installed by default, but it may be a bit tricky if you haven't used it before. If you want an easy-to-use editor, try nano. You can install it by issuing the following command:
```
$ sudo apt-get install nano
```
After it's installed, you can use nano to edit the sources.list file by issuing the following command:
```
$ sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
```
We also need to add the GPG key with which Webmin's repository is signed to the list of keys used by APT to authenticate packages. This can be done by issuing the following command:
```
$  wget -qO - http://www.webmin.com/jcameron-key.asc | sudo apt-key add -
```
You can now refresh the APT cache to include the contents of Webmin's repository. This is done with the following command:
```
$ sudo apt-get update
```
With these preliminaries out of the way, you can install Webmin with the following command:
```
$ sudo apt-get install webmin
```

How it works...

Webmin provides an online repository with DEB installation packages that are compatible with Debian-based systems. We need to give our system the address of this repository so that it can take advantage of it. The list of available repositories is kept in the /etc/apt/sources.list file as well as other *.list files stored in the /etc/apt/source.list.d/ directory.

Every package is cryptographically signed to ensure that even if someone breaks into the repository and uploads a package pretending to be Webmin, we don't install it by accident. We downloaded the public GPG key needed to verify this signature by using wget and added it to our list of trusted keys by using the apt-key add command.

GNU Privacy Guard (GPG) is an open source alternative to Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), a cryptographic software suite that provides encryption and authentication functions. Every Webmin package contains a GPG cryptographic signature, which could only be generated using a private key that is kept secret by Webmin's author Jamie Cameron. A corresponding public key, which is made freely available, may be used to verify that the signature was generated using that private key. If even a single bit of the package code were modified after the package was signed, the signature would not match anymore. This ensures that nobody tampers with Webmin on its way between the author and your system. APT checks the signature automatically, we just need to provide it with Webmin's public key.

Tip

If you want to be extra careful, you can check whether the public key you imported is actually the one belonging to Jamie Cameron. Issue the following command and verify that its output contains the same key fingerprint:

$ sudo apt-key fingerprint
/etc/apt/trusted.gpg
--------------------
pub   1024D/11F63C51 2002-02-28
      Key fingerprint = 1719 003A CE3E 5A41 E2DE  70DF D97A 3AE9 11F6 3C51
uid                  Jamie Cameron <jcameron@webmin.com>

By updating the APT cache, we ensure that our system becomes aware of packages available in the new repository. Then, we can install Webmin. APT not only resolves dependencies and installs more than just the Webmin package, but also other components it needs to run, including the Perl programming language and others.

There's more...

Webmin also provides a .deb (Debian software package) file that can be downloaded and installed manually. If you want to do it this way for some reason, you would need to follow these steps:

Visit Webmin's Downloads page at http://www.webmin.com/download.html and copy the address of the current Debian package. The package file will be named webmin_NNN_all.deb, where NNN indicates the current version number.

Download the package by using wget:

$ wget http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/webadmin/webmin_NNN_all.deb

First, install all the packages that Webmin depends on using the following command:

$ sudo apt-get install perl libapt-pkg-perl libnet-ssleay-perl openssl libauthen-pam-perl libpam-runtime libio-pty-perl apt-show-versions python

Then, run the following command to install Webmin from the package file:
```
$ sudo dpkg --install webmin_NNN_all.deb
```
Tip
Your system may complain that some other package needed by Webmin is missing. For instance, you could see an error message like the following:
```
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of webmin:
 webmin depends on PACKAGE-NAME; however:
  Package PACKAGE-NAME is not installed.
```
If you see this error, you should install the package designated by PACKAGE-NAME before installing Webmin.

Installing Webmin on an RPM-based system

Installing Webmin on an RPM-based system, such as RHEL, Fedora, CentOS, or openSUSE, is just as easy as on Debian-based systems. Here, we'll rely on the equally excellent package management system called Red Hat Package Manager (RPM) and the yum utility. Yum resolves and installs dependencies automatically and also ensures that Webmin will be updated automatically when you perform a system update.

On a SUSE-based system, you may use the yum utility as well, but it isn't installed by default. On these systems, it may be more convenient to use the zypper command-line utility or the YaST interface. In this recipe, we will provide zypper alternatives to yum commands to be used on SUSE.

How to do it...

To install Webmin, perform the following steps:

While Webmin is available in several systems, its packages are not usually kept up-to-date. We will add Webmin's repository to our system by creating a file which describes the repository. Create a file with the path /etc/yum.repos.d/webmin.repo and add the following lines to it:
```
[Webmin]
name=Webmin Distribution Neutral
#baseurl=http://download.webmin.com/download/yum
mirrorlist=http://download.webmin.com/download/yum/mirrorlist
enabled=1
```
Tip
On most systems, the vi text editor is installed by default, but it may be a bit tricky if you haven't used it before. If you want an easy-to-use editor, try nano. You can install it by issuing the following command:
```
$ sudo yum install nano
```
After it's installed, you can use nano to edit the webmin.repo file by issuing the following command:
```
$ sudo nano /etc/yum.repos.d/webmin.repo
```
Note
On a SUSE-based system, you don't need to edit the repository files manually. You can add Webmin's repository by issuing the following command:
```
$ sudo zypper addrepo -f http://download.webmin.com/download/yum "Webmin Distribution Neutral"
```
We also need to add the GPG key with which Webmin's repository is signed to the list of keys used by RPM to authenticate packages. This is done by issuing the following commands:
```
$ wget http://www.webmin.com/jcameron-key.asc
$ sudo rpm --import jcameron-key.asc
$ rm jcameron-key.asc
```
You can now refresh the yum cache to include Webmin's repository. This is done by using the following command:
```
$ sudo yum makecache
```
Note
On a SUSE-based system, issue the following command:
```
$ sudo zypper refresh
```
With these preliminaries out of the way, you can install Webmin with the following command:
```
$ sudo yum install webmin
```
Note
On a SUSE-based system, issue the following command:
```
$ sudo zypper install webmin
```

How it works...

Installation of Webmin using yum is based on exactly the same principles as installing it using apt-get on Debian. Take a look at the How it works... section in the previous recipe.

There's more...

Webmin also provides an RPM package that can be downloaded and installed manually. If you wanted to do it this way for some reason, you would need to follow these steps:

Visit Webmin's Downloads page at http://www.webmin.com/download.html and copy the address of the current RPM package. The package file will be named webmin-NNN.noarch.rpm, where NNN indicates the current version number.

Download the package by using wget: 

$ wget http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/webadmin/webmin-NNN.noarch.rpm

Then, run the following command to install Webmin from the package:
```
$ sudo yum localinstall webmin-NNN.noarch.rpm
```

Note

On a SUSE-based system, issue the following command:

$ sudo yast --install webmin-NNN.noarch.rpm

Filter reviews by

All

Amazon verified reviews

Roberto Avilés Jun 12, 2015

A great resource for the people currently working in system administration, or wishing to move into the ‘sysadmin’ area, this book on WEBMIN, an open source (web-bases system configuration tool mainly written in PERL) ‘tool’ that allows us to control a system remotely, through the web, from any computer with a browser, describes in 12 chapters what it takes to use Webmin to get the most of your system, including tips on clustering functions. Chapter 1 is about Setting up you system, Chapter 2 on the User Management, Chapter 3 Securing the System, Chapter 4 about Controlling it, Chapter 5 Monitoring, Chapter 6 about Managing Files, Chapter 7, Backing the System, Chapter 8, Running an Apache Web Server, Chapter 9, Running a MySQL Database Server, Chapter 10, Running a PostgreSQL DB Server, Chapter 11, Running Web Applications and Chapter 12 is about Setting Up an E-mail Server.This well written book contains many examples that will guide you through the many packages and tools Webmin provide. Every chapter is a step-by-step guide through procedures that enable us to install, control and get the most of our specific system. Is a well written book, you will forget this is a technical one and soon it will be your swiss knife on your desktop or shelves, for every problem you need to solve related to the administration of your system.

Amazon Verified review

Angelo Caruso Jun 08, 2015

Often a Linux appliance, on a real or virtual machine, is the best way to go for effectively put up a service in your network. Then a friendly way to administer this server becomes a primary need, specially if you, as me, are not a system administration guru!Webmin is the best answer I know to this need and its primary advantage is it doesn't add further complexity to the situation.This book covers with a very practical approach most of the tasks you should perform administering a system using Webmin, from installing the webmin tool itself to put up a database or email service, without requiring you to become a guru or even knowing commands and all the complexities behind them.I regret only the book not being available when I began experimenting Webmin, now it is, so I recommend you to get a copy!

BRANKO BOGUNOVIC Jun 01, 2015

Webmin Amin Cookbook, gives you a good introduction of Webmin tool in everyday administration work. It is mostly suited work Linux based (Debian/Fedora) OS and is good alternative to the some commercial tools such as CPanel.Content of the book is well written and it is easy to follow. Some chapters (3 Securing Your System,5 Monitoring System and 7 Back Up) are very interesting and useful particular from the view where everything is possible to to in Webnin without using bash in the console. However some other chapter in my opinion are just brief introduction to the larger scope databases(MySql and Postgres) and web server(Apache) and I would recommend some other more specialized books on these topics. Overall I recommend this book to everyone how has any kind of connection with administrating Unix based OS.

Geek On The Hill Jul 20, 2020

If you're moving from some other Web server control panel to Webmin / Virtualmin, and you're clueless about it, this book will serve as a good introduction to how the Webmin panel works.On the other hand, it's somewhat out-of-date; so although you'll be in a better place than you were before, you'll still have to educate yourself on more recent developments.In fairness, however that's true of pretty much anything in IT. By the time a book gets to press, it's already starting to get obsolete. So if you need to learn Webmin / Virtualmin, this is as good a way as any to start learning as any. Just be aware that you'll still need to bring yourself up to date.Richard

Amazon Customer Jun 02, 2015

I'm glad some one put out a resource for Webmin. After reading several reviews I came to the conclusion that Webmin was the best software to use for my VPS. This textbook did the trick. A few things I tried didn't work however and I had to search through other documents (hence the 4 stars)... The book is well laid out and maybe jumping around chapters screwed me up. Webmin is a great program if you want a OS alternative to CPanel. Good book for a great program. Give it a try.

Webmin Administrator's Cookbook: Over 100 recipes to leverage the features of Webmin and master the art of administering your web or database servers.

What do you get with Print?

Webmin Administrator's Cookbook

Chapter 1. Setting Up Your System

Introduction

Installing Webmin on a Debian-based system

How to do it...

Tip

How it works...

Tip

There's more...

Tip

See also

Installing Webmin on an RPM-based system

How to do it...

Tip

Note

Note

Note

How it works...

There's more...

Note

See also

Page 1 of 15

What you will learn

Product Details

What do you get with Print?

Product Details

Frequently bought together

Table of Contents

Recommendations for you

Customer reviews

Filter reviews by

People who bought this also bought

About the author

FAQs

Webmin Administrator's Cookbook: Over 100 recipes to leverage the features of Webmin and master the art of administering your web or database servers.

What do you get with Print?

Contact Details

Shipping Address

Billing Address

What you will learn

Product Details

What do you get with Print?

Contact Details

Shipping Address

Billing Address

Product Details

Packt Subscriptions

Frequently bought together

Table of Contents

Recommendations for you

Customer reviews

Filter reviews by

People who bought this also bought

About the author

FAQs