Web Control Panel for Linux (Webmin web interface)
In the past, Linux was so difficult to configure. Most of the time Linux Administrators used the xterminal for administration tasks. There are no point and click and all the configurations like dhcp, dns, proxy server, and others are done manually. A dot may be very important in the configuration in bind dns but sometimes forgot to place the dot in the dns configuration. This will result in mis configured dns server. A common error like this can be avoided by using a tool. This tool is named Webmin. It is a web based interface tool for systems and Network Administrator tool that helps Administrators in their daily work load.
As I see it the main advantage of the tool are:
- It is Web GUI based
- Administrators can configure Linux box remotely
- New Systems and Network Administrators will have a concrete overview of the system because most of the services and configurations are already available for use.
- For advance users, configuration files can be directly edited from the web interface.
- Newbie will learn on howto configure services the easy way because after the proper entry of the parameters in the services that are in work users are able to see the configuration file and understand it more some sort of reverse engineering :)
Installation
Go to Webmin site and download the software. Since this we are using rpm based Linux Server please download the rpm package. To have our web control panel support ssl access please ensures that the package perl-Net-SSLeay is installed in the server. You may download the package in Rpmfind.net. For simplicity, ensure that when installing the packages you are physically accessing the server.
Package installation (assume that perl-Net-SSLeay is not installed in the server)
[mylogin@hostname folder]# rpm -ivh perl-Net-SSLeay*.rpm
[mylogin@hostname folder]# rpm -ivh webmin*.rpm
After the installation process, you may now access your web based control panel by using the link https://localhost:10000 or https://hostname.yourdomain.com:10000
That is it just poke around with the server services but remember to do it in a test server and not in a production server.
