Intro to Webmin - Paiet/SEC-440-Webmin GitHub Wiki

Welcome to one of our Webmin Administrator's guides for SEC-440. This guide aims to provide documentation on performing real-world system administration tasks through a convenient tool called Webmin.

You are running an internet-connected private server that used to be expensive and available mainly to larger companies who hired professional sysadmins or outsourced administration. Thanks to the wide adoption of virtualization software, efficient private servers have become available to anyone with the right skills. Whether you're a developer trying to optimize your web application's performance or a startup looking to implement new software architecture for your systems, chances are you'll need to configure and run your servers.

Webmin is great. It lets you get your server up and running quickly, monitor its state, and notify by e-mail when the server needs your attention. Webmin simplifies many system administration tasks simplifying the complexity of the system command and config files (somewhat), replacing them with a friendly graphical web interface.

Webmin is very lightweight for a GUI application because it doesn't require a desktop environment running on your system. Since it is a web application, all you need is a browser. Its web nature also makes Webmin resilient to slow or unstable Internet connections. Overall, it's an excellent tool for administering servers remotely.

• The following are just some of the things Webmin can do:
  • Install the software on your system
  • Manage users
  • Configure firewalls
  • Execute commands and set commands to execute on a schedule
  • Monitor and analyze system logs and send alerts
  • Manage files, folders, and permissions
  • Configure network disk sharing
  • Perform automated backups
  • Configure virtual web servers with Apache
  • Manage databases with MySQL or PostgreSQL
  • Set up web applications