During the last year or so, I’ve used Webmin and Virtualmin to manage my VPS hosting. For those who don’t know, Webmin is a web based server management console built on Perl, it allows each service to be managed by the use of modules, which you can install/uninstall to create a customised interface for your machine. With the addition of Virtualmin, the Webmin interface becomes a virtual hosting console much the same as Plesk or CPanel.

Webmin has a murky past, several high profile exploits existed for the system and it’s been advised for the last 10 years or so not to install it unless you really need to. Giving world access to Webmin was generally advised as stupid and silly. While Webmin is now up to date with it’s security it still leaves a bitter taste in the mouth of the administrator world and people who use it are usually noted as “newbies”.

I originally went with Webmin/Virtualmin as I was still hosting the few remaining customers of Blueshift Media. While I have the technical skills to work without it, the customers didn’t. The system gave a simple interface for the users and allowed them to add in basic stuff like new email addresses and aliases. To work around the security issue I only allowed access via SSH and port tunnelling, that way the user would have to be authenticated with the server before accessing the system. 

Over the next year or two I started using Webmin to do my daily administration tasks, as working outside of Webmin once it’s installed can open you to a world of pain, Webmin keeps track of some configuration in it’s internal database, not in the external configuration files. Over time I become comfortable with the system and my technical skills slowly slip away from me, why do I need to know the in and outs of a program if Webmin can do it all for me?

Today, I learnt the hard way. I had a issue with Postfix content filters and I spent 10 minutes faffing in the Webmin console only for it to be a five second fix in the main.cf file. In a further similar fault I had to read up on Postfix Virtual file format as I’ve totally forgot how it’s supposed to be formatted, somehow the file had got munged and I had to reconstruct what I could.

Then it clicked.

Since I’ve installed Webmin I have been wrapped up in cotton wool, not actually touching the underlying the system and just using this fluffy interface to do my work. This is all well and good in the desktop world but in the server world your risking security and your knowledge of the underlying system.

So, today, I’ve officially removed Webmin, and I’ll never to return again. It’s time to actually learn my trade again and start using the distributions as they’re meant to be.

Oh how things have progressed since i’ve been gone. First time round I used VHCS which is a open source PHP server control panel, nice to use but bloated from its days as a closed source solution. Now i’ve come across using Virtualmin and I’m amazed at how easy it actually is. I’ve deicded to use it as i’m now used to the platform as TextDrive use it. I switch on the webmin service when I need to make a change then shut it down when done.

So here’s to another 3 year experiment with DIY hosting.