What is it?

Webmin is a Web-based interface for system administration in Unix. It is built around modules, which have an interface to the configuration files and the Webmin server, making it easy to add new functionality without much work. Webmin’s modular design makes it possible for anyone who is interested to write plugins for desktop configuration. Webmin also allows for controlling many machines through a single interface, or seamless login on other Webmin hosts on the same subnet or LAN. Webmin is primarily coded by Australian Jamie Cameron. The first release was in October 1997. Webmin is released under a BSD-like license.

Who is it for?

Most users of Webmin are system administrators in need of a simple Web-based interface to offer their customers. Other users are individuals and businesses looking for a way to manage a whole system simply and easily through the Web browser. Ultimately, Webmin is an administrative tool that offers server management through an interface. The wide variety of included modules, along with the capability to accept custom-made modules as plugins, make Webmin an excellent resource for the administrator of any system, large or small.

Features

The newest release of Webmin, version 1.400 includes many standard modules for a wide variety of applications. The modules are always available for download and re-install in case of accidental deletion. Their modules allow the administrator to set up a PPP client with the RP-PPPoE package. Admins can configure almost all Apache directives and features, create and edit domains and DNS records, create and edit domains, DNS records, BIND options and views and configure a BSD firewall using IPFW by creating and editing rules.

Admins also can perform manual or scheduled backups and restores of configuration files managed by Webmin modules, configure Bacula to perform backups and restore manually or on schedule for one or many systems. Bandwidth usage reports are shown by host, port, protocol and time on a Linux system, and admins can burn data CDs from ISO images or selected directories, setup a remotely-accessible CVS server, manage users and browse the repository, and run commands on multiple servers at once. Administrators can also install RPMs, Debian and Solaris packages across multiple servers from one source, create, update and delete users and groups across multiple servers, and view, edit and change permissions on files and directories on the system with a Windows-like file manager. Modules are easy to install and manage, and themes, users, groups and access control settings across multiple Webmin servers are available. Admins can create rules to filter and forward incoming email, and much more.

Webmin can be expanded by installing additional modules, including those which are custom-made. Other major projects that extend the functionality of Webmin are Usermin, which presents and controls a subset of the features available in Webmin, and Virtualmin, which is a domain hosting and Web site control panel. Virtualmin gives the ability to create and manage many domains.

Compatibility

Webmin is largely based on Perl, running as its own process and Web server. It defaults to TCP port 10000 for communicating, and can be configured to use SSL if OpenSSL is installed with additional required Perl Modules. Currently, the best supported systems for Webmin are Solaris, Linux and FreeBSD. Other systems, including Windows, are supported in some capacity. Any modern Web browser can be used with Webmin.

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