VIRTUALMIN
Easily manage a free VPS with Virtualmin
David Bolton demonstrates how to set up Virtualmin on a free VPS and how to configure it to add websites.
Credit: www.virtualmin.com
OUR EXPERT
David Bolton has been using Virtualmin for several years now, so is the perfect person to explain how it can work with a free VPS to set up websites and other activities.
QUICK TIP'
You can rerun the system checker at any time from the System Settings menu. Just click Re-Check Configuration. Do this after you’ve made any system changes using Virtualmin.
Virtualmin has been helping people administer their Linux boxes for almost 20 years and it V runs on most distros, particularly CentOS, Debian, RHEL and Ubuntu. Available as both free (GPL) or commercial versions, it enables you to create virtual servers with fully independent users. This includes mailboxes, web application development environments, websites, web apps, quotas, account rules and instances of web server, database server and other software. If you need to install an SSL certificate on your box, it can generate a CSR and install the certificate. It’s all done through the admin website.
It’s handy when you need to look after an internet box, such as a VPS or dedicated server, but lack the skills to set everything up – safely or otherwise. Do not underestimate securing your server. The internet is an ongoing and permanent war zone; any internetfacing computer can expect to come under a low-level automated attack on most days. The author’s own WordPress website has had over 13,000 attacks since 2019, according to the Jetpack plugin.
Many VPSes come with cPanel or Plesk but those are not free – typically, you pay between £12 and £16 per month just for those, on top of the hosting fees. For cheap or free VPS hosting, Virtualmin is ideal. The VPS usually lets you choose between different Linux server distros, such as CentOS or Ubuntu. Free VPSes usually have a more limited choice; this was done using Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.
Here’s the Virtualmin checker results page, with no errors showing.
After it’s installed, after the Post Wizard, an install checker runs to ensure that the installation is good. Virtualmin found that the Virtualmin log folder in /var/logs was missing. After manually creating it and rerunning the checker, everything was OK.
Using Virtualmin
Virtualmin is an administrative website, where you are either on the Virtualmin tab or the Webmin tab. The two menu tabs are where you control everything. The Virtualmin tab is used for accessing domain account management functionality, such as creating new domain accounts or new databases associated with those accounts, installing applications and more. Meanwhile, the Webmin tab is for general-purpose systems management features, user and group management, listing processes, managing installed packages, network settings, firewall settings and more.