How to install Webmin in Rocky Linux/Alma Linux 8/9

In this guide we will install and connfigure Webmin on a Rocky Linux 8 server. This guide will also work for other RHEL 8 based servers like Oracle Linux and Centos 8.

Webmin is a web-based system configuration tool for Unix-like systems, although recent versions can also be installed and run on Microsoft Windows. It s a free and open-source control panel for administering Unix/Linux servers.

Webmin provides users with a graphical web-based user interface to configure common system tasks and settings. If you don’t like the idea of using the command line to manage your server, then Webmin is a good graphical alternative to you.

The following is a list of functionalities provided by Webmin.

BIND DNS Server: Create and edit domains, DNS records, BIND options and views
BSD Firewall: Configure a BSD firewall using IPFW, by creating and editing rules
DHCP Server: Manage shared networks, subnets, hosts, and groups for ISC DHCPD
CD Burner: Burn data CDs from ISO images or selected directories
File Manager: View, edit and change permissions on files and directories on your system with a Windows-like file manager
Dovecot IMAP/POP3 Server: Configure the Dovecot IMAP and POP3 mail retrieval server
LDAP Server: Manage the OpenLDAP server and objects in its database for all operating systems
MySQL Database Server: Setup databases, tables, and permissions in your MySQL database server
Linux RAID: Create RAID 0, 1, 4, 5, 6, 10 and linear devices on a Linux system
SSL certificates: Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate requests
IPsec VPN Configuration: Set up a client or server for an IPsec VPN using FreeSWAN

Ensuring that the server is up to date

Before proceeding, it is always a good practice to ensure that the server is up to date. Use these commands to achieve this

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sudo dnf update -y

Ensure some required packages are installed

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sudo dnf install -y vim wget

Installing webmin

Webmin is available as an rpm binary that can be downloaded and installed. You can also add the RPM repository for webmin and install webmin from there.

The recommended way of installing and using webmin is setting up the official rpm repository. That way you will be able to keep up with the latest releases of webmin.

Installing webmin using rpm

In this method, we do not need to add any repo. We will download a binary of webmin rpm.

To get the latest RPM binary release of this Server management platform, go to its official website and then visit the Download page. On the download page, click the link given for RPM Linux or copy and use it with curl command in your Terminal.

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curl -LO https://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/webadmin/webmin-1.983-1.noarch.rpm

Install the downloaded RPM binary using the DNF package manager.

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sudo dnf install ./webmin-*.noarch.rpm

Once the installation is completed, move to the next step to access the web interface.

Installing webmin using the Webmin Repo

Let’s add the yum repository of Webmin on Rocky Linux or Almalinux 8 to fetch the Webmin packages for installation using a single command.

Open the repo file

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sudo vim /etc/yum.repos.d/webmin.repo

Add this content to the file:

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[Webmin]
name=Webmin
mirrorlist=https://download.webmin.com/download/yum/mirrorlist
enabled=1
gpgkey=http://www.webmin.com/jcameron-key.asc

Now install webmin

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sudo dnf install -y webmin

All dependencies should be resolved automatically. Once installed, you will get this output:

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$ sudo dnf install -y webmin

Webmin install complete. You can now login to https://ip-10-2-40-75.us-west-2.compute.internal:10000/
as root with your root password.

This shows that the service is running on our server in port 10000.

Confirm installation

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$ rpm -qi webmin

Name        : webmin
Version     : 1.983
Release     : 1
Architecture: noarch
Install Date: Wed 22 Dec 2021 11:17:45 AM UTC
Group       : System/Tools
Size        : 126726331
License     : Freeware
Signature   : DSA/SHA1, Sat 04 Dec 2021 06:48:47 AM UTC, Key ID d97a3ae911f63c51
Source RPM  : webmin-1.983-1.src.rpm
Build Date  : Sat 04 Dec 2021 06:46:27 AM UTC
Build Host  : fudu2
Relocations : (not relocatable)
Vendor      : Jamie Cameron
Summary     : A web-based administration interface for Unix systems.
Description :
A web-based administration interface for Unix systems. Using Webmin you can
configure DNS, Samba, NFS, local/remote filesystems and more using your
web browser.

After installation, enter the URL http://localhost:10000/ into your
browser and login as root with your root password.

Starting and enabling the webmin service

The service is not started by default. Start the service using this command:

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$ sudo /etc/webmin/start

Starting Webmin server in /usr/libexec/webmin

To confirm it is running, check to ensure port 10000/tcp is opened.

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$ sudo ss -tulpn | grep 10000

udp   UNCONN 0      0            0.0.0.0:10000      0.0.0.0:*    users:(("miniserv.pl",pid=67584,fd=8))
tcp   LISTEN 0      128          0.0.0.0:10000      0.0.0.0:*    users:(("miniserv.pl",pid=67584,fd=7))

You can restart, reload and stop using the commands below, respectively.

restart

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sudo /etc/webmin/restart

reload

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sudo /etc/webmin/reload

stop

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sudo /etc/webmin/stop

Opening up webmin service port on firewall

To access the web interface of this web-based system configuration tool from any system browser that can access the Server’s IP address or domain where we have installed it; we have to open a Webmin port number that is 10000 in the Firewall.

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firewall-cmd --add-port=10000/tcp --permanent
firewall-cmd --reload

Accessing the webmin service in browser

Navigate to https://your_domain:10000 in your web browser, replacing your_domain with the domain name pointing to your server’s IP address.

Note: When logging in for the first time, you will see an “Invalid SSL” warning. This warning may say something different depending on your browser, but the reason for it is that the server has generated a self-signed certificate. Allow the exception and proceed to your domain.

You’ll be presented with a login screen. Sign in as the root user with password.

Once you log in, the first screen you will see is the Webmin dashboard.

Wrapping Up

In this tutorial we learnt how to install Webmin on Ubuntu 20.04.