How To Set up Webmin on Rocky Linux 8 - Full Guide

In this guide, we want to teach you to Set up Webmin on Rocky Linux 8.

Webmin is a web-based interface for system administration for Linux/Unix. It also allows for controlling many machines through a single interface, or seamless login on other Webmin hosts on the same subnet or LAN. You would use any modern web browser to connect to your server. It removes the need to edit Linux/Unix configuration files manually, and it lets you manage a server from the console or remotely. You can configure operating system internals such as users, service or configuration files, and disk quotas and modify and control open source applications such as Apache or Tomcat, PHP, MySQL, DNS, and file sharing. It is based on Perl and runs as its process and the web server.

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Steps To Set up Webmin on Rocky Linux 8

Steps To Set up Webmin on Rocky Linux 8

To complete this guide, you must log in to your server as a root user and set up a basic firewall. To do this, you can follow our guide the Initial Server Setup with Rocky Linux 8.

Install Webmin on Rocky Linux 8

At this point, you need to add the Webmin repository to your server to fetch the Webmin packages for installation using a single command.

To do this, run the following command:

cat << EOF > /etc/yum.repos.d/webmin.repo
[Webmin]
name=Webmin  
mirrorlist=https://download.webmin.com/download/yum/mirrorlist
enabled=1
gpgkey=http://www.webmin.com/jcameron-key.asc
EOF

Then, update your local package index with the following command:

dnf update -y

Now use the following command to install Webmin on your server:

dnf install webmin -y

Check that your Webmin service is active and running on your Rocky Linux 8:

systemctl status webmin

In your output you will see:

Output
● webmin.service - Webmin server daemon
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/webmin.service; enabled; vendor pres>
   Active: active (running) since Mon 2023-03-20 13:32:44 EDT; 2s ago
  Process: 91048 ExecStart=/usr/libexec/webmin/miniserv.pl /etc/webmin/miniserv>
 Main PID: 91049 (miniserv.pl)
    Tasks: 4 (limit: 23699)
   Memory: 97.3M
   CGroup: /system.slice/webmin.service
           ├─91049 /usr/bin/perl /usr/libexec/webmin/miniserv.pl /etc/webmin/mi>
           ├─91050 /usr/libexec/webmin/webmincron/webmincron.pl                >
           ├─91474 sh -c /bin/dnf check-update 2>/dev/null 2>/dev/null
           └─91478 /usr/libexec/platform-python /bin/dnf check-update
...

Configure Firewall for Webmin on Rocky Linux 8

By default, Webmin listens on port 100000. You can check it using the following command:

ss -antpl | grep 10000

You should see the following output:

Output
LISTEN 0 128 0.0.0.0:10000 0.0.0.0:* users:(("miniserv.pl",pid=39568,fd=6))

Now you need to allow Webmin port 10000 through the Rocky Linux firewall with the following command:

firewall-cmd --add-port=10000/tcp --permanent

To apply the new rules, reload the firewall:

firewall-cmd --reload

Access Webmin Dashboard

At this step, you can access your Webmin dashboard on Rocky Linux 8 through the web interface by typing your server’s IP address in your web browser followed by 10000:

https://server-ip:10000

You will see your Webmin login screen:

Provide your root username, and password, and click on the Sign in button. You should see the Webmin dashboard:

Webmin dashboard on Rocky Linux 8 — Webmin Dashboard

From here, you can configure operating system internals such as users, service or configuration files, and disk quotas, as well as modify and control open-source applications such as Apache or Tomcat, PHP, MySQL, DNS, and file sharing.