How to administer Ubuntu Server remotely using Webmin
NOTE: If you’re jumping into this guide here and have not been following from the start then it’s worth mentioning that this guide has been tested on Noble Numbat 24.04LTS, Jammy Jellyfish 22.04LTS, Focal Fossa 20.04LTS, Xenial Xerus 16.04LTS, Trusty Tahr 14.04LTS, Precise Pangolin 12.04LTS, Maverick Meerkat 10.10, Lucid Lynx 10.04, Karmic Koala 9.10, 9.04 Jaunty, and 8.10 Intrepid.
Webmin is a fantastic application which makes the administration of Ubuntu Server a breeze. It’s a web-based interface enabling you configure and maintain your server without having to go near any configuration files or learn any Linux commands.
TIP: If you’re using Putty and are going to be following this guide step-by-step then you can save yourself some typing by simply highlighting each command, right-clicking on it and selecting Copy. Then toggle over to your Putty Session and right-click once more. The command you’ve just copied from here will be automatically pasted into your Putty Session.
Onto the installation. To install Webmin via Putty you first need to configure your repository. So, issue this command in a Putty Session to bring down a script called webmin-setup-repo.sh from the Webmin repo:
curl -o webmin-setup-repo.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/webmin/webmin/master/webmin-setup-repo.sh
Now launch this script by issuing this command:
sudo sh webmin-setup-repo.sh
Type Y when prompted. Once it has completed you need to run the following command to perform the actual installation:
sudo apt install webmin --install-recommends
This will take a while to run through and install everything. Once it has completed you should be able to launch the UI.
Launching Webmin
Using your favourite internet browser you can launch the Webmin UI by going to this address:
https://mymediaserver:10000/
where mymediaserver is the name you gave your server when you installed Ubuntu. Instead of using the server name, the IP address of the server will work just fine.
The first time you launch Webmin your browser will likely complain about the certificate for this site so just add the site as an exception, or choose “Continue to this website (not recommended)” to continue. If you’re using Chrome or Edge you’ll need to click the Advanced button and then click “Proceed/Continue to mymediaserver (unsafe)”
You should then be prompted for a username and password. Enter your Ubuntu username and password. You should then see the Webmin Home Screen similar to the one below:
NOTE: As and when later versions of Webmin are released you do not have to re-install the application from scratch using these instructions. Each time you launch Webmin via your browser Webmin automatically checks to see whether a newer version has been released and offers to perform the upgrade for you.