Install Webmin on Linode VPS
Getting Started with Linode
If you haven’t already signed up for a Linode account, start here.
- Create a new account at the Sign Up page.
- Sign in and enter your billing and account information. Most accounts are activated instantly but some require manual review prior to activation. If your account is not immediately activated, you will receive an email with additional instructions.
- Select a Linode plan and data center location
If you’re unsure of which data center to select, see our speed test to determine which location provides the best performance for your target audience. You can also generate MTR reports for each of the data centers to determine which of our facilities provides the best latency from your particular location.
Provisioning Your Linode
After your Linode is created, you’ll need to prepare it for operation by deploying a Linux distribution.
Logging in to the Linode Manager
The Linode Manager is a web-based control panel that allows you to manage your Linode virtual servers and services. Log in with the username
and password
you created when you signed up. After you’ve created your first Linode, you can use the Linode Manager to:
- Boot and shut down your virtual server,
- Access monitoring statistics,
- Update your billing and account information,
- Request support and perform other administrative tasks.
Deploying an Image
After creating a new Linode, select it to open the Linode Manager Dashboard.
- Click on Deploy an Image.The Deploy page opens.
- Select a Linux distribution from the Image menu. You can choose from Arch Linux, CentOS, Debian, Fedora, Gentoo, openSUSE, Slackware, and Ubuntu to install on your Linode. If you’re new to the Linux operating system, consider selecting Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. Ubuntu is the most popular distribution among Linode customers and one of the most well supported by online communities, so resolving any issues you may have should be simple.
- Enter a size for the disk in the Deployment Disk Size field. By default all of the available space is allocated, but you can set a lower size if you plan on cloning a disk or creating multiple configuration profiles. You can always create, resize, and delete disks later.
- Select a swap disk size from the Swap Disk menu.
- Enter a root password for your Linode in the Root Password field. This password must be provided when you log in to your Linode via SSH and must be at least 6 characters long and contain characters from two of the following categories:
- lowercase and uppercase case letters
- numbers
- punctuation characters
- Click Deploy.You can use the Linode Manager’s Dashboard to monitor the progress in real time as shown below.When the deployment process is completed, your Linode’s configuration profile will appear on the Dashboard.
Booting Your Linode
Your Linode is now provisioned with the distro of your choice but it’s turned off, as indicated in the Dashboard.
Click Boot to turn on your Linode.
When booted, the Server Status will change from Powered Off to Running and there will be a successfully completed System Boot job in the Host Job Queue.
Connecting to Your Linode via SSH
Communicating with your Linode is usually done using the secure shell (SSH) protocol. SSH encrypts all of the data transferred between the SSH client application on your computer and the Linode, including passwords and other sensitive information. There are SSH clients available for every operating system.
SSH Overview
- Linux: You can use a terminal window, regardless of desktop environment or window manager.
- Mac: The Terminal application comes pre-installed with OS X and you can launch it from Finder > Applications > Utilities. You could also use the free iTerm 2 application. For a walkthrough of connecting to your Linode for the first time with OS X (which also directly applies to Linux), see the following video:
- Windows: There is no native SSH client but you can use a free, open source application called PuTTY. For a walkthrough of connecting to your Linode in Windows using PuTTY, see the following video:
These videos were created by Treehouse, which is offering Linode customers a free one month trial. Click here to start your free trial and start learning web design, web development, and more.
Find the IP Address of Your Linode
Your Linode has a unique IP address that identifies it to other devices and users on the Internet. For the time being, you’ll use the IP address to connect to your server. After you perform some of these initial configuration steps outlined in the Linode Quick Start Guides, you can use DNS records to point a domain name at your server and give it a more recognizable and memorable identifier.
Find your Linode’s IP address from the Linode Manager.
- Click the Linodes tab.
- Select your Linode.
- Click the Remote Access tab.
- Copy the addresses in the Public IPs section.
In this example, the Linode’s IPv4 address is 96.126.109.54 and its IPv6 address is 2600:3c03::f03c:91ff:fe70:cabd. Unless your Internet service provider supports IPv6, you’ll want to the use the IPv4 address.
Logging in for the First Time
Once you have the IP address and an SSH client, you can log in via SSH. The following instructions are written for Linux and Mac OS X. If you’re using PuTTY as your SSH client in Windows, follow these instructions.
- Enter the following into your terminal window or application. Replace the example IP address with your Linode’s IP address:
1
ssh [email protected]
- If this is the first time connecting to your Linode, you’ll see the authenticity warning below. This is because your SSH client has never encountered the server’s key fingerprint before. Type
yes
and press Enter to continue connecting.The authenticity of host '123.456.78.90 (123.456.78.90)' can't be established. RSA key fingerprint is 11:eb:57:f3:a5:c3:e0:77:47:c4:15:3a:3c:df:6c:d2. Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)?
After you enter
yes
, the client confirms the addition:1
Warning: Permanently added '123.456.78.90' (RSA) to the list of known hosts.
- The login prompt appears for you to enter the password you created for the
root
user above.1
[email protected]'s password:
- The SSH client initiates the connection. You’ll know you’re logged in when the following prompt appears:
1
root@li123-456:~#
If you recently rebuilt an existing Linode, you might receive an error message when you try to reconnect via SSH. SSH clients try to match the remote host with the known keys on your desktop computer, so when you rebuild your Linode, the remote host key changes.
To reconnect via SSH, revoke the key for that IP address.
For Linux and Mac OS X:
1 ssh-keygen -R 123.456.789For Windows, PuTTY users must remove the old host IP addresses manually. PuTTY’s known hosts are in the registry entry:
1 HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SimonTatham\PuTTY\SshHostKeys
Installing Software Updates
The first thing you should do when connecting to your Linode is update the Linux distribution’s software. This applies the latest security patches and bug fixes to help protect your Linode against unauthorized access.
Installing software updates should be performed regularly. If you need help remembering, try creating a monthly alert with the calendar application on your desktop computer.
Ubuntu / Debian
1 | apt-get update && apt-get upgrade |
Ubuntu may prompt you when the Grub package is updated. If prompted, select
keep the local version currently installed
.
CentOS
1 | yum update |
Fedora
1 | dnf upgrade |
Arch Linux
1 | pacman -Syu |
Gentoo
1 | emaint sync |
emaint is a plugin for emerge, so
emerge --sync
is no longer used and that command now just callsemaint sync
. The sync command uses theauto
option by default. See here for more info on what that means and when you may want to change it. For more information on how to useemaint
, refer to its man page.
After running a sync, it may end with a message that you should upgrade Portage using a –oneshot emerge comand. If so, run the Portage update. Then update the rest of the system:
1 | emerge --uDN @world |
Slackware
1 2 | slackpkg update slackpkg upgrade-all |
See the Slackpkg documentation for more information on package management in Slackware.
Setting the Hostname
You’ll need to set your system’s hostname and fully qualified domain name (FQDN). Your hostname should be something unique. Some people name their servers after planets, philosophers, or animals. Note that the system’s hostname has no relationship to websites or email services hosted on it, aside from providing a name for the system itself. Your hostname should not be “www” or anything too generic.
Once you’re done, you can verify by running the command hostname
.
If you’re unfamiliar with Linux, one of the first things you’ll need to learn is how to use nano, a text editor included with most distributions. To open a file for editing, type
nano file.txt
where “file.txt” is the name of the file you want to create or edit. If the file is not in your current working directory, specify the entire file path. For example, open thehosts
file with:
1 nano /etc/hostsWhen you’re finished editing, press
Control-X
, thenY
to save the changes andEnter
to confirm.
Debian 7 / Slackware / Ubuntu 14.04
Replace example_hostname
with one of your choice.
1 2 | echo "example_hostname" > /etc/hostname hostname -F /etc/hostname |
Check if the file /etc/default/dhcpcd
exists, and it’s contents.
1 | cat /etc/default/dhcpcd | grep SET_HOSTNAME |
If the returned value is SET_HOSTNAME='yes'
, edit /etc/default/dhcpcd
and comment out the SET_HOSTNAME
directive:
- /etc/default/dhcpcd
1
#SET_HOSTNAME='yes'
Setting the Timezone
By default, a Linode’s Linux image will be set to UTC time (also known as Greenwich Mean Time) but this can be changed. It may be better to use the same timezone which a majority of your users are located in, or that you live in to make log file timestamps more sensible.
Debian / Ubuntu
1 | dpkg-reconfigure tzdata |
Installing Webmin
Once you have satisfied all dependencies, you will need to download the Webmin package to your Linode.
- Add the Webmin repository to your known repositories list by creating the file below:
- /etc/apt/sources.list.d/webmin.list
1 2
deb http://download.webmin.com/download/repository sarge contrib deb http://webmin.mirror.somersettechsolutions.co.uk/repository sarge contrib
- Download and install the GPG key for the repository:
1 2 3
cd /tmp wget http://www.webmin.com/jcameron-key.asc apt-key add jcameron-key.asc
- Update Apt:
1
apt-get update
- Install Webmin:
1
apt-get install webmin
After the installation has completed, Webmin will give you a URL to visit to access the web panel. This URL will be in the form of https://hostname:10000
, where hostname
is the host name of your Linode. If your Linode does not have a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) such as myserver.mydomain.com
, you should use your Linode’s IP or a domain pointed at your Linode to access Webmin.
For security reasons, Webmin generates a self-signed SSL certificate for itself when you install it. If you get a warning about an SSL certificate from your browser, you may wish to verify the details of the certificate and accept it.
You will be presented with a login screen; enter your root user credentials.
Install Virtualmin in Terminal and you are done.