Webmin is an open-source web control panel for administering Linux servers. It allows you to manage the system users, groups, disk quotas as well as install and configure web, ssh, ftp, email, and database servers.
With Webmin, you can configure almost every aspect of the system through your web browser.
This guide explains how to install Webmin on an Ubuntu 20.04 server.
Prerequisites
We’re assuming that you have administrative access to the Ubuntu server, either as root or a user with sudo permissions.
Installing Webmin on Ubuntu
Webmin is not included in the standard Ubuntu repositories. The installation is a pretty straightforward process. We’ll enable the Webmin repository and install the package with apt
.
The steps below describe the process of installing Webmin on Ubuntu:
-
First, update the packages list and install the dependencies:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install software-properties-common apt-transport-https wget
-
Import the Webmin GPG key and add the Webmin repository to your system’s software sources:
wget -q http://www.webmin.com/jcameron-key.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -
sudo add-apt-repository "deb [arch=amd64] http://download.webmin.com/download/repository sarge contrib"
The
add-apt-repository
command will also update the package index. -
Install the latest version of Webmin by typing:
sudo apt install webmin
All dependencies will be automatically resolved and installed. Once done, the following output will be displayed:
Webmin install complete. You can now login to https://vagrant:10000/ as root with your root password, or as any user who can use sudo to run commands as root.
The Webmin service will start automatically.
That’s it! At this point, you have successfully installed Webmin on your Ubuntu 20.04 server.
To upgrade your Webmin installation when a new release is published, use the standard apt upgrade procedure.
Adjust the Firewall
By default, Webmin listens for connections on port 10000
on all network interfaces. You need to open the port in your firewall so that the Webmin interface is accessible from the Internet. Assuming you are using UFW, you can do that by running the following command:
sudo ufw allow 10000/tcp
Accessing Webmin Web Interface
Now that Webmin is installed on your Ubuntu system open your favorite browser and type your server’s hostname name or public IP address followed by the Webmin port 10000
:
https://your_server_ip_or_hostname:10000/
The browser will complain about the certificate being not valid. By default, Webmin uses an untrusted self-signed SSL certificate.
Login to the Webmin web interface using your root or sudo user credentials:
Once you log in, you will be redirected to the Webmin dashboard, which provides basic information about your system.
From here, you can start configuring and managing your Ubuntu 20.04 server as per your requirement.
Conclusion
We’ve shown you how to install Webmin on your Ubuntu 20.04 machine. You can now install an FTP server or LAMP/LEMP stack and start managing the services through the Webmin web interface.
To learn more about Webmin, visit their official documentation page.
If you have any questions, please leave a comment below.