Category: Getting Started

Go-ahead and create your account. Once that’s done you may be a page with a bunch of funky squares.

If so, click on “Explore Our Control Panel”.

You should get a page that looks something like this:

Now you can click on that first image or the link “Spin up a Droplet”.

Choose your data center:

Then select your OS image:

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Special Note: as of December 2024, Virtualmin does not yet support Ubuntu 24.10.

Always confirm your distribution and version are compliant by checking here: https://www.virtualmin.com/docs/os-support/

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Next, choose your server’s specifications. I have a $200 credit that I want to take for a test drive. So I’m selecting a set up beyond my needs.

Scroll down on the page and enter a robust password.

Now you can go ahead and click on the “Create Droplet” button on the bottom right.

DigitalOcean is going to create your server. Will probably take several seconds. When complete, you will see something like this:

Now you have the IP address of the server. So we are ready to create the DNS records.

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If your system does not have a fully qualified domain name (FQDN), the installer will stop and ask you to choose one. This is mandatory because many services rely on having a fully qualified domain name in order to function. Mail, in particular, but some Apache configurations and many of the Virtualmin-created configuration files, also require a valid fully qualified domain name to function correctly. A fully qualified domain name is one of the form host.example.com, or simply example.com (but do not use a name you’ll be hosting in Virtualmin).
– Virtualmin Documentation: https://www.virtualmin.com/docs/installation/automated/#questions-virtualmin-installsh-might-ask-you

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Go back and read that last part again: but do not use a name you’ll be hosting in Virtualmin.

My test domains happened to be hosted at Namecheap. So I will add the following DNS records there.

On our new server, Virtualmin is going to use the FQDN panel.imfbsbn.com.

A little further down on the page (if NameCheap is your registrar) you can enter the MX record.

We are now ready to log into the server. Using your favorite SSH client, navigate to the server and login with user root and the robust password you previously entered.

The very first time you log into the server the SSH client will not recognize the server’s digital fingerprint/key. So you will have to enter “yes” in order to continue.

After that, you will be prompted for your password. Enter it & press enter.

On our initial login, we see the OS is telling us that updates are available:

The first thing we want to do here is run the update command. Type in the following:

apt update

Like this:

Press enter to run the command.

Then we want to run the upgrade command. Type in the following:

apt upgrade

Like this:

As usual, you have to press enter to run the command.

The system will show you a list of all the packages that will upgrade. When prompted, the “Y” is the default. So you can just press enter.

Just in case one of the packages updated the kernel is always a good idea to restart the machine. Type in:

reboot

After you hit enter the machine will automatically restart. Should take about a minute.

Go ahead and log back in via SSH.

Now it’s time to install Virtualmin itself.

Copy and paste the following line into your SSH client:

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://software.virtualmin.com/gpl/scripts/virtualmin-install.sh)" -- --bundle LAMP

and naturally, press the enter key.

NOTE: you should always check this page here for the most updated script: https://www.virtualmin.com/download/

Your server will download the installation script and begin to run it.

If everything appears to be in order, and you’re ready to go, press “y” and then press enter.

This script will download and begin the loading process.

At some point the installation is going to ask you about a fully qualified domain name. This is where you are going to enter:

panel.imfbsbn.com

Like this:

The installer will continue. Be patient. On small underpowered systems it may take 10-15 minutes. Even on medium horsepower servers it will take several minutes.

When it’s done you’ll get something like this:

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Virtualmin.

Direct your favorite browser to the FQDN at port 10000 just as instructed at the bottom of the image above.

Once you sign in you will be taken to the Post-Installation Wizard.

For a walk through of the wizard see this post here: https://bblaze.xyz/post-installation-wizard-walk-through/

And that’s it. See the next post for some suggested initial steps.

The first time you login to Virtualmin you’re going to be greeted with the post-installation wizard. It looks something like this:

Go ahead and click next.

The first question asks if Virtualmin should run an email domain lookup server. If your server is going to be handling a lot of email then choose yes. This server here is not going to be processing a lot of email. So I chose no.

Choose your option and click next.

The next question deals with SpamAssassin. Again, if you choose to run it email will be processed faster but at the expense of memory. Like before, my server is not processing a lot of email so I choose no.

Choose your option and click next.

This next one is kind of odd. It asks what databases you want to run, however be aware that if you did not install a database during the initial installation you cannot install it here. That is, if you installed the LAMP stack, PostgreSQL will not be installed. You can click “Yes” here but you will only generate an error message telling you that it’s not installed. So don’t over think it. Just go ahead and click next.

Now you’re going to set the MariaDB password for the root user. You can accept whatever is in the box. But make sure you save the password someplace safe.

And now you should be mostly finished.

Let’s go ahead and configure the “optional features.”

In regards to password storage, were only interested in storing hashed passwords. Just go ahead and click next.

Here the system is asking about the MariaDB should be configured to use memory. If your servers handling a lot of email and won’t have any (or much) database usage then select a small or medium system. If your server is going to handle nothing but WordPress sites, e-commerce, or other applications which involve heavy database usage and select a system that the limit of the memory installed.

Next it asks about the location for SSL certificates. Make your life easy and go with the default.

Nice job! Looks like we finished.

If you ever wish to run the wizard again, the option can be found under System Settings.

In order to get started I’m just going to assume you already have an account at Linode/Akamai and you own a couple domain names.

Blah blah blah blah blah… Let’s just get started!

When you log into your Linode/Akamai account you’ll see something like this:

Click on the button that says: Create Linode.

On the next page is where you will set up the server. In the first box you must select a data center.

In the second box choose your Linux distribution. Make sure your distribution is supported by Virtualmin by checking here: https://www.virtualmin.com/docs/os-support/

Next you need to choose your plan. Here I chose Debian 12. While I have used other distributions, I’m most familiar with Debian.

Because we’re not going to be doing a whole lot with this server (at this time) a Nanode will do just fine.

Scroll down the page and enter a robust password. For more on passwords read this short post here.

As you scroll down, don’t worry about SSH Keys or anything else. Just keep going… All the way to the bottom.

Click on the button that says “Create Linode”.

Your server will begin provisioning. And after a few minutes you’ll get a screen like this:

Now that you have your IP address, your ready to go to your registrar and point your domain name(s) at this address.
NOTE: for the sake of simplicity we are only going to be dealing with IPv4 addresses (although IPv6 addresses are cool.)

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If your system does not have a fully qualified domain name (FQDN), the installer will stop and ask you to choose one. This is mandatory because many services rely on having a fully qualified domain name in order to function. Mail, in particular, but some Apache configurations and many of the Virtualmin-created configuration files, also require a valid fully qualified domain name to function correctly. A fully qualified domain name is one of the form host.example.com, or simply example.com (but do not use a name you’ll be hosting in Virtualmin).
– Virtualmin Documentation: https://www.virtualmin.com/docs/installation/automated/#questions-virtualmin-installsh-might-ask-you

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Go back and read that last part again: but do not use a name you’ll be hosting in Virtualmin.

My test domains happened to be hosted at Namecheap. So I will add the following DNS records there.

On our new server, Virtualmin is going to use the FQDN panel.imfbsbn.com.

Below that is the MX record so that the server can receive email.

Now that the server is running and the DNS records are pointing to the right place, we are ready to install Virtualmin.

So now we use our favorite SSH client. Putty is very popular; but doesn’t work well for me (for reasons we’re not getting into here.) So instead, I tend to use Google Chrome with the SSH extension.

The very first time you log into the server your SSH client will record the server’s fingerprint. You will most likely need to acknowledge this by entering “yes”.

Once you log-in, you’ll be greeted by the # prompt:

The first command you need to run is: apt update

Type in:

apt update

and press the enter key.

This is because the operating system on the server was created by an “image” that could be one week, one month, or five years old. So this command tells the package manager to contact the distribution’s servers and make a list of all of the updated packages.

Next, type in:

apt upgrade

and press the enter key.

You will most likely be prompted, asked, if you really want to upgrade the packages. Press Y or y or enter to continue.
NOTE: see how in the question below the Y is capitalized? That means that “yes” is the default option. So you can just press enter.

Only two more steps to go.

Type in:

reboot

and press the enter key.

This is to make sure the operating system is loaded with the most updated kernel available.

The server should reboot within a minute or two.

Go ahead and log back in through SSH. Then you’re going to enter the following command:

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://software.virtualmin.com/gpl/scripts/virtualmin-install.sh)" -- --bundle LAMP

and naturally, press the enter key.

NOTE: you should always check this page here for the most updated script: https://www.virtualmin.com/download/

Your server will download the installation script and begin to run it.

The script is going to prompt you to make sure you’re running an approved OS and that you want to proceed. To continue press y & press enter.

The installation script will start and give you updates along the way.

Somewhere in the process it will likely ask you to provide the “fully qualified hostname.”

This is where we will enter the FQDN where we created the DNS records above:

panel.imfbsbn.com

and press enter.

Virtualmin will continue the installation process. It may take a minute; be patient (on this tiny nanode it is going to take 10 minutes. But it will go faster on bigger hardware.) The script will keep you up-to-date on progress.

That’s it!

Virtualmin is now installed.

You should be able to access the panel/UI by using either the domain name or the IP address.

Enter “root” for the username and the password is whatever you set it to when you created the server.

The first time you login the system will take you through the Post-Installation Wizard.

For a walk through of the wizard see this post here: https://bblaze.xyz/post-installation-wizard-walk-through/

Once you have run the Post-Installation Wizard the system will ask you to run “System Configuration”. Go ahead and do that as well.

Once that’s complete you should see the dashboard… Well, if you click on dashboard, you should see the dashboard.

Congratulations!

You now have Virtualmin running on your own server.

Nearly all of the low cost hosting available is considered “shared” hosting. What that means is your website(s) and data are stored on the same operating system installation as other people’s [websites and data.] Your data is protected by the security features of the operating system and all the users share the same CPU, memory, hard drive.

The next step up is called VPS hosting. VPS stands for Virtual Private Server. In this configuration you get your own private installation of the operating system on shared hardware. However it’s worth mentioning, that the CPU, memory, and hard drive are partitioned. So you’re not sharing “your” CPU with anyone else.

Beyond that you can have your own Dedicated Server, which means you’re renting the entire piece of hardware. Naturally this is considerably more expensive. If you’re considering a dedicated server odds are you’re not reading this post.

We are not going to get into the pros and cons of the various technologies. This is not an essay on shared versus VPS hosting. Plenty of other people have written plenty about that already.

The point here is to demonstrate that with Virtualmin you do not want shared hosting. You want VPS hosting.

The upside of VPS hosting is that your provider does not need to pay a software company for a “panel”. So, generally, you will get better performance for the same price with VPS over shared hosting. You’re also getting better security.

There are (literally) dozens of hosting companies. It’s an extremely competitive business. Any search will show you. I’ve personally used 6-7 different companies over the years. When a server had to essentially be bulletproof for business purposes I managed a dedicated server at Rack Space. Yes, it was ridiculously expensive. But that was the business need.

Now, I’m retired and only host a few WordPress sites. Nothing critical; so cost is a driving factor.

As of this writing, here’s a few options in the marketplace on the cheaper/lower end of the spectrum:

	Namecheap Pulsar	Namecheap Quasar	Go Daddy 1 vCPU	Go Daddy 2 vCPU	Digital Ocean*	Linode/ Akamai*
CPU Cores	2	4	1	2	2	2
Memory	2 GB	6 GB	2 GB	4 GB	4 GB	4 GB
Disk Space	40 GB	120 GB	40 GB	100 GB	80 GB	80 GB
Bandwidth	1000 GB	3000 GB	~	~	4000 GB	4000 GB
Price	$9.88/mo	$15.88/mo	$14.99/mo	$29.99/mo	$24.00/mo	$24.00/mo

I don’t have any deal with any of these companies. Do your own research and figure out what works best for you.

My goal is not to walk you through the process of getting a domain name. It’s to help you learn a little bit about Virtualmin.

I’m just gonna assume that you already that you already own a domain name. We’ll pick this up with securing some hosting.

See you in the next post.

Okay. Real quick. I’ll tell you my story.

I’ve been hosting websites and online services for at least 20 years. Generally, the way it’s always been done, was that your hosting provider (GoDaddy, NameCheap, Linode/Akamai, etc) would have a deal with some “panel” software company thus giving you a nice graphical interface to control your website. The most common of these for many years has been cPanel.

One of the very cool things about cPanel was/is a set of installation scripts called Softaculous. This would allow you to install web various applications with just a few clicks. The downside is that the software license is expensive and the hosting company simply passes that cost on to the consumer.

Another nagging problem was SSL certificates. For years cPanel has had the ability to install free Let’s Encrypt certificates, however many hosting providers disable the feature so they can sell you more products. I found that exceptionally frustrating.

Should also mention there is a really cool server management tool called YUNOHOST. If you have a serious fear of learning new things but still would like to host your own server this is a really good way to start. Absolutely zero coding knowledge required and they have dozens of applications ready to install. Really good stuff, but not quite as flexible as I would like. So…

Enter Virtualmin.

Over the last few years more applications are being released as either “packages” or ready for a Docker container. What this means is that you now have the ability to install web applications without the need for expensive software scripts.

Virtualmin is the easiest, most secure, and most powerful way to manage all of your web application servers.

Whether you’re hosting a simple WordPress blog or a high-availability network cluster, Virtualmin will make your life easier.

The plan is to create a few posts to show you how to get started.