Webmin and Virtualmin: The web control panel alternative
Submitted by Bryan on May 15, 2007 - 5:10am
I'm currently in the process of moving CMS Report and some other sites I manage to a new VPS. The original reason for the change was to move my sites off of a legacy version of Linux (Fedora Core 2). However, I'm also making the server change because of too much bleeding edge experimentation by yours truly that has brought my server's stability into question. Believe it or not, a reboot of the server doesn't fix everything!
I was also hoping that the transition between servers would be an opportunity to move my control panel from cPanel to Virtualmin. Virtualmin is actually a module for the web-based system administration application, Webmin. More importantly, Virtualmin is used for "managing multiple virtual hosts through a single interface, like Plesk or Cpanel" and the open source GPL version is a free for the using. My hope was to shave off the $10 extra I'm from my monthly fee for the VPS.
The maturity of Virtualmin and Webmin over the past year or two has been impressive and is finally competitive against some of the more popular commercial control panels out there. I've only now started to use Webmin on my office's intranet servers and have found the web-based interface to be a great alternative to using a terminal shell or remote desktop for managing the servers. However, I've never actually used the Virtualmin control panel component live on the Internet. In the end, I had concerns that clients on my server are not quite ready to move away from cPanel to manage their sites. I also had concerns that my lack of experience with Virtualmin would wind me back to where I started, an instable and possibly insecure server. So in the end, I'm back where I started with using cPanel as my server's primary control panel.
While I decided not to use Virtualmin at this time as an alternative for cPanel or Plesk, it doesn't mean that the application it isn't right for you. If you are so inclined, I would encourage you to give this open source software a chance on your server. If you like what you see but concerned about support, you may want to try the commercial version of the control panel, Virtualmin Pro. If you are already a user of Webmin/Virtualmin I would love to hear comments from you on your experiences with the application. Feel free to leave your comments here for everyone to read.
I was also hoping that the transition between servers would be an opportunity to move my control panel from cPanel to Virtualmin. Virtualmin is actually a module for the web-based system administration application, Webmin. More importantly, Virtualmin is used for "managing multiple virtual hosts through a single interface, like Plesk or Cpanel" and the open source GPL version is a free for the using. My hope was to shave off the $10 extra I'm from my monthly fee for the VPS.
The maturity of Virtualmin and Webmin over the past year or two has been impressive and is finally competitive against some of the more popular commercial control panels out there. I've only now started to use Webmin on my office's intranet servers and have found the web-based interface to be a great alternative to using a terminal shell or remote desktop for managing the servers. However, I've never actually used the Virtualmin control panel component live on the Internet. In the end, I had concerns that clients on my server are not quite ready to move away from cPanel to manage their sites. I also had concerns that my lack of experience with Virtualmin would wind me back to where I started, an instable and possibly insecure server. So in the end, I'm back where I started with using cPanel as my server's primary control panel.
While I decided not to use Virtualmin at this time as an alternative for cPanel or Plesk, it doesn't mean that the application it isn't right for you. If you are so inclined, I would encourage you to give this open source software a chance on your server. If you like what you see but concerned about support, you may want to try the commercial version of the control panel, Virtualmin Pro. If you are already a user of Webmin/Virtualmin I would love to hear comments from you on your experiences with the application. Feel free to leave your comments here for everyone to read.
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Down on Virtualmin
I have doubts that an open source version of the control panel can compete with cPanel and/or Plesk. Not saying that the software dosn't work, but question whether the developers understand the needs on the business side. You have to make money before fully helping other to make money. Plus I can't help but think of the Lucille Ball skit on "vita-min" when I hear virtualmin.
Using VIrtualmin
I can say as someone how does not do retail hosting (ie: all my sites are either personal or for my company) we are switching to virtualmin from either hand editing or Plesk. I haven't used cPanel much but I've been very happy with Virtualmin. As a design geek, I can actually admin a server without having to use our tech department for some of the basic things cause it does all the editing of the configuration files through a nice admin interface (webmin). I am using it now extensively for our development environment and starting to roll it into our production servers too.
Our live server is moving from Plesk and I've never really been impressed with it. Everything had to be done in the Plesk way which seemed a little different then the normal apache way and thus turned out to be a bit confusing to use.
At the first comment, while virtualmin is a free GPL plugin for webmin, the now offer a paid version with added features. While I haven't seen it or used it, they are at least moving in that direction. I think it is great to offer a free version for those who can use it but to also have the paid version for those who need the added features.
Great for the intranet
My focus at work lately has been on the intranet side of the house with a big push toward collaboration. We've never used a control panel for our intranet so Virtualmin will be a big step up for us. I just spent some time yesterday with the person that has been handling our intranet pages in the past and showing some of the features of Virtualmin. All and all, the control panel has helped put her at ease to some of the other changes I'm pushing on her.
I agree with Brent that Virtualmin is very close to becoming competitive to what Plesk and cPanel has to offer. I've only kept Virtualmin off the Internet sites I mange because I haven't really completed the learning curve to feel comfortable enough that I know what I'm doing with it.