Installing Webmin on Ubuntu

Introduction: Webmin is a web-based interface for system administration on Unix-like systems. This document provides step-by-step instructions on how to install Webmin on an Ubuntu 20.04 server.

Prerequisites: Before proceeding with the installation of Webmin, you must have the following:

• One Ubuntu 20.04 server with a non-root user with sudo privileges and a UFW firewall configured. Follow the Ubuntu 20.04 initial server setup guide to set this up.
• Apache installed by following our tutorial on How To Install the Apache Web Server on Ubuntu 20.04. Be sure to configure a virtual host.
• A Fully-Qualified Domain Name (FQDN), with a DNS A record pointing to the IP address of your server. Follow the instructions on DNS hosting on DigitalOcean to configure this.

Step-by-step instructions:

1. Update your server’s package index by running the following command:

   sudo apt update

2. Add the Webmin repository to your system’s package manager by opening the /etc/apt/sources.list file in your preferred editor. Here, we’ll use nano:

   sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

3. Add the following line to the bottom of the file:

   deb http://download.webmin.com/download/repository sarge contrib

4. Save the file and exit the editor by pressing CTRL+X, Y, then ENTER.
5. Install the gnupg1 package, which is GNU’s tool for secure communication and data storage, by running the following command:

   sudo apt install gnupg1

6. Download the Webmin PGP key and add it to your system’s list of keys by running the following command:

   wget -q -O- http://www.webmin.com/jcameron-key.asc | sudo apt-key add

7. Update the package list again to include the new Webmin repository:

   sudo apt update

8. Install Webmin by running the following command:

   sudo apt install webmin

9. Once the installation finishes, you’ll be presented with the following output:

   Webmin install complete. You can now login to https://your_server:10000 as root with your root password, or as any user who can use sudo.

10. If you installed and enabled UFW during the prerequisite step, you will need to run the following command to allow Webmin through the firewall:

    sudo ufw allow 10000

11. For extra security, you may want to configure your firewall to only allow access to this port from certain IP ranges.
12. To secure access to Webmin by adding a valid SSL/TLS certificate, follow the instructions provided in the Webmin documentation.

Conclusion: You have successfully installed Webmin on your Ubuntu 20.04 server. You can now access Webmin by navigating to https://your_server:10000 in your web browser.