ServerBuddies Support Blog

How to log in to Virtualmin

In this tutorial, we will go over how to log into the Virtualmin control panel.

Open your web browser, such as Firefox or Internet Explorer.

In the address bar at the top of your browser, browse to the following address:

Where example.com is your server’s domain name.

Once you have entered the address above, hit enter to go to the Virtualmin Login screen.

Enter the username you were given in the Username field. If you’re logging in as the master administrator, use root as the username.

Enter your password in the password field.

Click Login, and you will be logged into Virtualmin.

You can see available tasks you can perform within Virtualmin on the navigation bar on your left.

On the right, you can see the System Information screen, giving you a system overview of resource usage and other server details.

Virtualmin GPL Installer

The installer should only be used on systems that are not currently running Webmin or hosting any websites. Ideally, it should be run on a system that has a fresh install of either CentOS 5, Debian 4.0, Ubuntu 8.04 or Solaris as at the moment those are the only supported operating systems. Further documentation on supported systems and install requirements is available on the Virtualmin download page.

The Linux installer can be downloaded from install.sh.

Once you have it on the Linux system you want to run Virtualmin on, execute it with the commands :

Because it downloads numerous packages from the Virtualmin website and your Linux distribution’s repository, it may take up to 30 minutes for the install to complete. Once it is done, you can login to Webmin at https://yourserver:10000/ to see the Virtualmin user interface.

Setting up Virtualmin

To work properly, Virtualmin requires that several servers like Apache, Postfix and BIND be configured and running, and that their corresponding Webmin modules be setup too.

You can follow the basic steps below :

* Install Webmin, if you don’t already have it. If so, make sure it is upgraded to the latest version.
* Visit Webmin’s modules for Apache, BIND, Postfix and MySQL to ensure that all those servers are installed and running. If you prefer Sendmail, it may be used instead of Postfix.
* Go to the Webmin Configuration module and click on Webmin Modules. Then install both the virtual-server….wbm.gz and virtual-server-theme….wbt.gz files linked above.
* In the Webmin Configuration module, click on Webmin Themes and select the Virtualmin Framed Theme.
* Logout of Webmin and log back in again - you should see the new Virtualmin framed user interface.
* Click the button labelled Re-check and refresh configuration. This will list any problems found on your system, such as missing or im-properly configured servers.
* Fix all the problems, and re-try clicking the button. Repeat this until no problems are found.
* Click the Create virtual server link on the left menu to add your first domain.

If you installed using the Virtualmin install script, all of these steps are automated for you. But that is only suitable for systems not currently hosting any websites or DNS domains.

Installing Virtualmin

If you have a fresh system running CentOS 5 or Debian 4.0 and want to install the full Virtualmin GPL stack (including Webmin, Apache, Postfix and other dependencies), the easiest way is to use the Virtualmin GPL install script. Otherwise, you should add it to an existing Webmin install, as described here.

Virtualmin can be downloaded in Webmin module format from:

The Virtualmin framed theme in Webmin module format can be downloaded from:

You can install it by going to the Webmin Configuration module, clicking on Webmin Modules and use the first form on the page to install the downloaded .wbm.gz file. Or install it directly from the above URL. After installation the module will show up in the Servers category.

To install the theme, go to the Webmin Configuration module, click on Webmin Themes and install the downloaded .wbt.gz file. Once this is done, you should use the Webmin Themes page to make the new theme the default, if your system is to be primarily used for virtual hosting.

The same theme file can be used with Usermin too, to provide a similar user interface style and a better framed interface for reading email. To install it, go the Usermin Configuration module, click on Usermin Themes and install from the .wbt.gz file.

The Squid Proxy Server module

If you want to set up or configure Squid from within Webmin, you will need to use the Squid Proxy Server module, found under the Servers category.

If you have not configured or started Squid on your system before, the cache directory has probably not been set up yet. The module will detect this and display a message like *Your Squid cache directory /var/spool/squid has not been initialized* above the table of icons. To initialize the cache, follow these steps :

If you are unhappy with the displayed cache directory, now is the time to change it.
Follow the instructions in the Adding cache directories section to define your own directories before continuing.

In the as Unix user field enter the name of the user who will own the cache files and who the daemon process will run as.

Typically this will be a special squid user created for the purpose (and the field will default to squid if such a user exists), but in fact any user will do.

I recommend using the Users and Groups module to create a user called squid whose home directory is the cache directory if needed though.

Click the Initialize Cache button.

The Squid configuration will be updated to use your chosen username, and the command squid -z will be run to set up the cache directories.

All output that it produces will be displayed so that you can see how the initialization is progressing.

When the process is complete, return to the module’s main page and the error message should have disappeared.

If Squid is not installed at all on your system (or installed in a different location to the one Webmin expects), an error message like The Squid config file /etc/squid.conf does not exist will appear on the main page instead of the table of icons.

If you really do have it installed, read the *Configuring the Squid Proxy Server module* section for instructions on how to change the paths the module uses.

On the other hand, if it really is not installed you should use the Software Packages module (covered on SoftwarePackages) to install the squid package from your Linux distribution CD or website.

If no such package exists for your operating system, you will need to download, compile and install the latest version of Squid from www.squid-cache.org. As long as you have a compiler installed on your system, this is a relatively simple process with no dependencies.

Once the server is installed, if you want to make use of it in the long term you should arrange to have it started at boot time, using the Bootup and Shutdown module (which chapter 9 explains how to use). All Linux packages include a bootup action script for Squid, although it may be disabled by default thus requiring you to enable it in that module.

Otherwise you will need to create an action that runs a command like =/usr/local/squid/bin/squid -sY=, assuming that you have Squid installed in /usr/local/squid.