Webmin is web-based administrator’s tool that can manage many aspects of the system. After installation, we can manage our machine’s resources, the server applications running on it, set up cronjobs, just to name a few. It comes with it’s own http server, no additional container or webserver required. The rich function set is accessible trough a web interface, so all we need is a browser to manage our system remotely.
In this tutorial we will install Webmin on RHEL 8 / CentOS 8, add the necessary service file for easy management, and log in to the WUI (Web User Interface).
In this tutorial you will learn:
- How to install Webmin from tarball
- How to add and test systemd service file
- How to access the web interface
Installed Webmin on RHEL 8
Software Requirements and Conventions Used
| Category | Requirements, Conventions or Software Version Used |
|---|---|
| System | RHEL 8 / CentOS 8 |
| Software | Webmin 1.900 |
| Other | Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo command. |
| Conventions |
# – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command$ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user |
How to install webmin on Redhat 8 step by step instructions
The only thing needed by Webmin is some perl packages. We will work as the root user, and Webmin need to run as root, to be able to manage everything.
- To solve dependencies before installation, we can use
dnfto install packageNet::SSLeayas shown below:dnf install perl perl-Net-SSLeay
The other needed module is
Encode::Detect. We can install this module easily if we gotcpaninstalled:cpan[1]> install "Encode::Detect" [...] JGMYERS/Encode-Detect-1.01.tar.gz ./Build install -- OK
After the module is installed successfully, we can exit
cpan, we will not need it for now.cpan[2]> exit
- Next we download the tarball package of Webmin:
# wget http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/webadmin/webmin-1.900.tar.gz
And extract it:
# tar -xvf webmin-1.900.tar.gz
Then enter the directory that is created in the process:
# cd webmin-1.900/
- We invoke the setup script, and need to answer a few questions. The argument given here is the target directory where Webmin will be installed. This can be anything that is convenient. We’ll leave everything on the defaults for the purpose of this tutorial.
# ./setup.sh /usr/local/webmin *********************************************************************** * Welcome to the Webmin setup script, version 1.900 * *********************************************************************** Webmin is a web-based interface that allows Unix-like operating systems and common Unix services to be easily administered. Installing Webmin from /root/temp/webmin-1.900 to /usr/local/webmin ... *********************************************************************** Webmin uses separate directories for configuration files and log files. Unless you want to run multiple versions of Webmin at the same time you can just accept the defaults. Config file directory [/etc/webmin]: ENTER Log file directory [/var/webmin]: ENTER *********************************************************************** Webmin is written entirely in Perl. Please enter the full path to the Perl 5 interpreter on your system. Full path to perl (default /usr/bin/perl): ENTER Testing Perl ... Perl seems to be installed ok *********************************************************************** For Webmin to work properly, it needs to know which operating system type and version you are running. Please select your system type by entering the number next to it from the list below --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) Pardus Linux 2) SmartOS 3) Sun Solaris 4) Lycoris Desktop/LX 5) Caldera OpenLinux eS 6) Caldera OpenLinux 7) Asianux Server 8) Asianux 9) Whitebox Linux 10) Tao Linux 11) CentOS Linux 12) Springdale Linux 13) Virtuozzo Linux 14) Scientific Linux 15) Gralinux 16) NeoShine Linux 17) Endian Firewall Linu 18) Oracle Enterprise Li 19) Oracle VM 20) XenServer Linux 21) CloudLinux 22) MostlyLinux 23) Cloudrouter Linux 24) Sangoma Linux 25) Redhat Enterprise Li 26) Redhat Linux Desktop 27) AlphaCore Linux 28) X/OS Linux 29) Haansoft Linux 30) cAos Linux 31) Wind River Linux 32) Amazon Linux 33) Redhat Linux 34) Fedora Linux 35) White Dwarf Linux 36) Slamd64 Linux 37) Slackware Linux 38) Xandros Linux 39) APLINUX 40) BigBlock 41) Ubuntu Linux 42) Mepis Linux 43) Devuan Linux 44) Raspbian Linux 45) Linux Mint 46) Debian Linux 47) SuSE OpenExchange Li 48) SuSE SLES Linux 49) SuSE Linux 50) United Linux 51) Corel Linux 52) TurboLinux 53) Cobalt Linux 54) Mandrake Linux Corpo 55) pclinuxos Linux 56) Mageia Linux 57) Mandrake Linux 58) Mandriva Linux 59) Mandriva Linux Enter 60) Conectiva Linux 61) ThizLinux Desktop 62) ThizServer 63) MSC Linux 64) SCI Linux 65) LinuxPPC 66) Trustix SE 67) Trustix 68) Tawie Server Linux 69) TinySofa Linux 70) Cendio LBS Linux 71) Ute Linux 72) Lanthan Linux 73) Yellow Dog Linux 74) Corvus Latinux 75) Immunix Linux 76) Gentoo Linux 77) Secure Linux 78) OpenNA Linux 79) SoL Linux 80) Coherent Technology 81) Playstation Linux 82) StartCom Linux 83) Yoper Linux 84) Caixa Magica 85) openmamba Linux 86) FreeBSD 87) DragonFly BSD 88) OpenBSD 89) NetBSD 90) BSDI 91) HP/UX 92) SGI Irix 93) DEC/Compaq OSF/1 94) IBM AIX 95) SCO UnixWare 96) SCO OpenServer 97) Mac OS X 98) Darwin 99) OpenDarwin 100) Cygwin 101) Sun Java Desktop Sys 102) Synology DSM 103) Generic Linux 104) Windows --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operating system: 25 Please enter the version of Redhat Enterprise Linux you are running Version: 8 Operating system name: Redhat Enterprise Linux Operating system version: 8 *********************************************************************** Webmin uses its own password protected web server to provide access to the administration programs. The setup script needs to know : - What port to run the web server on. There must not be another web server already using this port. - The login name required to access the web server. - The password required to access the web server. - If the webserver should use SSL (if your system supports it). - Whether to start webmin at boot time. Web server port (default 10000): ENTER Login name (default admin): ENTER Login password: type secure password Password again: type secure password again Use SSL (y/n): n Webmin does not support being started at boot time on your system. *********************************************************************** Copying files to /usr/local/webmin .. ..done Creating web server config files.. ..done Creating access control file.. ..done Inserting path to perl into scripts.. ..done Creating start and stop scripts.. ..done Copying config files.. ..done Creating uninstall script /etc/webmin/uninstall.sh .. ..done Changing ownership and permissions .. ..done Running postinstall scripts .. ..done Enabling background status collection .. ..done Attempting to start Webmin mini web server.. Starting Webmin server in /usr/local/webmin Cron 15468873867543 missing any time spec ..done *********************************************************************** Webmin has been installed and started successfully. Use your web browser to go to http://rhel8lab.linuxconfig.org:10000/ and login with the name and password you entered previously.
Notice that RHEL 8 is too new for this version of Webmin, and so the automatic start at boot time is not yet supported. We will solve that with
systemd. - Before we can access the WUI, we need to open the port on the firewall we set Webmin to serve on, in this case the default, port
10000:# firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=10000/tcp --permanent success # firewall-cmd --reload success
- Next we create the service file called
/etc/systemd/system/webmin.servicewith the following content:[Unit] Description=Webmin Requires=local-fs.target After=basic.target Conflicts=shutdown.target [Service] Type=oneshot RemainAfterExit=yes ExecStart=/etc/webmin/start ExecStop=/etc/webmin/stop ExecReload=/etc/webmin/reload [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.targetWe need to reload
systemd, so it can see the changes:# systemctl daemon-reload
Keep in mind that the setup script executed in the previous step also started the Webmin service, which is not in the realm of
systemdat the moment. - We’ll stop the server with it’s own script by entering the
/etc/webmindirectory, and executing thestopscript generated by the setup:# ./stop Stopping Webmin server in /usr/local/webmin
- Now we can safely manage the service with
systemd:# systemctl start webmin
And check it’s status:
# systemctl status webmin webmin.service - Webmin Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/webmin.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled) Active: active (exited) since Mon 2019-01-07 20:31:31 CET; 45min ago Process: 16004 ExecStart=/etc/webmin/start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS) Main PID: 16004 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS) Tasks: 0 (limit: 12544) Memory: 2.3M CGroup: /system.slice/webmin.service - We can add the missing autostart on boot by enabling the systemd service:
# systemctl enable webmin Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/webmin.service -> /etc/systemd/system/webmin.service.
- And access this rich tool from a browser, by entering
http://<name-or-ip-address-of-the-machine>:10000to the address bar of the browser.
Login page of Webmin.We need to provide the admin username and password we specified during setup, and we can start using our new management interface.