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:
- Update your server’s package index by running the following command:
sudo apt update
- 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
- Add the following line to the bottom of the file:
deb http://download.webmin.com/download/repository sarge contrib
- Save the file and exit the editor by pressing CTRL+X, Y, then ENTER.
- Install the gnupg1 package, which is GNU’s tool for secure communication and data storage, by running the following command:
sudo apt install gnupg1
- 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
- Update the package list again to include the new Webmin repository:
sudo apt update
- Install Webmin by running the following command:
sudo apt install webmin
- 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.
- 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
- For extra security, you may want to configure your firewall to only allow access to this port from certain IP ranges.
- 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.