Web Control For Linux
One of the first things that I noticed about Linux when I was just starting to use it was that they never seemed to concerned about where you sat. With Windows, the general assumption was that you were tethered to a keyboard and mouse that we plugged into the computer you were using. Linux seemed to be more concerned with what you were doing, not where you were doing it.
This was evident with the advent of such wonderful technologies such as telnet, secure shell (SSH) and xWindows. Each was designed to give the user the ability to do what they wanted on any machine from wherever they were. Granted, many of these technologies were borrowed from the mainframe days but they are still valid and used extensively today.
One of these wonderful remote access technologies is Webmin. Essentially, Webmin allows you to add a web interface for the management of your Linux box! (OK, it will suppost Windows as well but that is not the general aim of Webmin. Check the supported operating systems for your OS.)
From the Webmin website:
Webmin is a web-based interface for system administration for Unix. Using any browser that supports tables and forms (and Java for the File Manager module), you can setup user accounts, Apache, DNS, file sharing and so on.
Webmin consists of a simple web server, and a number of CGI programs which directly update system files like /etc/inetd.conf and /etc/passwd. The web server and all CGI programs are written in Perl version 5, and use no non-standard Perl modules.
Some of the other really cool features include:
- Support for over 120 standard modules out of the box
- Over 340 third party modules that can be added
- Over 20 different themes so that you can customize the look and feel of Webmin
- Completely open source
Webmin recently updated to version 1.320 and this is a great time to get a look at what it can do!
Here are some useful Webmin links:
- Webmin Homepage
- SourceForge Project Page
- Download and Installation Instruction
- Third Party Modules
- Themes
- Bug Tracking
If you have some servers in a remote location or just want the ability to manage systems using a “thin system”, I really recommend that you give Webmin a try!
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2 Responses to “Web Control For Linux”
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Improbus Says:
January 26th, 2007 at 9:45 amHow secure is Webmin? Is authentication and encryption taken care of by modules?
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Tim Fehlman Says:
January 26th, 2007 at 10:00 amI haven’t looked too deeply at the security side of it. In general, I do not like to have web interfaces available on a public network because they do not require any special tools or knowledge to access.
And also remember, this is a basic web interface which is extremely to sniff and get the information. If you were to make it available outside a private network, the very least you are going to want to do is put certificates in place and use SSL to encrypt the data in transit.
I would probably go one better and set up a VPN and then access the network through it.
There are hundreds of other things that need to be considered from a security standpoint but that is all a part of the basic network security design and setup.
Tim
