Setting up the Tunnel
The most common methods of setting up a tunnel are through putty or through command-line SSH.
To open an SSH tunnel via the command line, run:
ssh -L3307:127.0.0.1:3306 -p 22 -N -t -x user@myhost.com
Connecting with MySQL
You can connect to the MySQL server!
You want to choose 3307 for your local port so that it does not conflict with your existing local copy of MySQL.
mysql -u username -ppassword -h 127.0.0.1 -P 3307
Setting up logging
Like most web servers, Webmin can be configured to create a lot file in the standard CLF format the records every request it receives. As well, it also creates a log of actions performed by users, such as the creation of a DNS zone or the deletion of a Unix group. This actions log can even include the details of every file changed and command run by each action, so that you can see what Webmin is doing under the hood.
Basic logging is enabled by default, but you can configure it further by following these steps :
- Click on the Logging icon on the main page.
- If Disable logging is selected then Webmin will write no logs at all. However, you should choose Enable logging to activate it.
- If the Log resolved hostnames box is checked the log file will contain actual client hostnames instead of IP addresses. This can cause problems if reverse DNS lookups take a long time on your network, as one will need to be done for each request.
- To prevent the log files from becoming too large, Webmin can be configured to truncate them periodically. To enable this feature, select the Clear logfiles every box and enter a number of hours into the adjacent text field.
- To limit action logging to only specific users, select the Only log actions by option and choose some users from the list next to it. This can be handy if most of your users can only perform tasks that you don’t care much about, and you want to log only actions taken by the more powerful administrators instead.
- To limit action logging to only specific modules, select the Only log actions in option and choose one or more modules from its list.
- To enable the logging of file changes and commands run for each action, check the *Log changes made to files by each action *box. This will take up more disk space, but provides some very useful and interesting information.
- Hit the Save button to activate the changes.
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.
