Webmin is a simple, web-based control panel used to manage a Linux server. It has several advantages over some other similar systems:

  • It only has a few dependences. For example, if you want Webmin to control an FTP server, install a supported server. If you dont want FTP, don't install it.
  • Not being designed for the shared hosting reseller market (like cPanel is), it's not weighed down by a huge spectrum of supporting functionality. As a result it is a little simpler and easier to learn for server management purposes.

This guide will walk you through setting up Webmin. It's targeted for Debian or Ubuntu.

After purchasing your Binary Lane server, connect to your server via SSH - and you're ready to install Webmin. To get started, change to a root prompt with sudo (caution: being in a root prompt can cause a lot of damage if used incorrectly):

sudo -i

The Webmin Installing on Debian page provides the necessary info to add Webmin to the repository list, which in a nutshell is: 

echo deb http://download.webmin.com/download/repository sarge contrib >> /etc/apt/sources.list
wget http://www.webmin.com/jcameron-key.asc -O - | apt-key add -
apt-get update
apt-get install webmin apache2

You should now also install any other packages that Webmin supports (see their list) that you want to use. Here are some examples:

apt-get install libapache2-mod-php5 # Use PHP5 with Apache
apt-get install proftpd # FTP server
apt-get install mysql-server # MySQL server

You're now ready to go with Webmin.


In your web browser, open a https connection to your server using its IP address and port 10000 (e.g., https://110.232.114.2:10000/) . You may see an error about the security certificate being invalid - if so, tell your browser to accept the certificate (note: normally you don't want to do this! In this case though, it's probably OK. For more information consult your nearest computer nerd and ask them about self-signed


You will then be asked to enter you username and password, so just use the same account as you used to log in via SSH. When you've successfully logged in, hit the 'Refresh Modules' link on the right side of the screen. This will update Webmin's internal systems so it knows about any other supported software that you have installed that you can manage.


The first section you'll probably want to look at first is 'Servers'. Click the 'Servers' link to see the list of supported servers. At a minimum you should see 'Apache Webserver', 'Read User Mail', and 'SSH Server'. If you have installed MySQL or ProFTPd you should see those too (if you are looking for PHP, it appears as a section within 'Apache webserver').


For information on using Webmin, check out their wiki.