Virtualmin GPL Setup Notes

There are three different ways to install Virtualmin GPL on a Linux server.  You can run their install script also used to setup Virtualmin Pro, you can add in the modules via the Webmin interface, or you can use the RPM or DEB packages they provide.  Often going the last option, using packages is the easier way to go.  RimuHosting also installs Webmin from packages available from webmin.com, so this is a nice consistent way to upgrade when newer versions come out.

http://www.webmin.com/vdownload.html

After you install the packages your work is not done, there are several configuration options.

Post-Installation Wizard - Memory use

After you install Virtualmin GPL from packages, login to Webmin and navigate to Servers > Virtualmin Virtual Servers.  Click the button about checking your configuration.  The first question will be about memory consumption for Virtualmin.  It's always been a bit high, in terms of running a lower-mid resource VPS, since it starts some regular system monitoring and indexing jobs.  If you have a lower resource VPS check this page for some good tips:

http://www.virtualmin.com/documentation/id,virtualmin_on_low_memory_systems/

Select the option that makes sense for you.  If you have < 400 MB RAM, consider choosing the option:

"No (less RAM used, slower UI and more CPU load)"

Or if you have more memory available choose:

"Yes (more RAM used, faster Virtualmin UI - approximately 20M)"

Disable BIND

Most people will find it unnecessary to run a DNS server, and you can use our nameservers and manager your DNS zone from the control panel: http://rimuhosting.com/dns/aboutdns.jsp

The first error you will see is:

BIND DNS server version 8 or 9 does not appear to be installed on your system, or has not yet been set up properly in Webmin's BIND DNS Server module. If your system does not use BIND, it should be disabled in Virtualmin's module configuration page.

Click on "System Settings" -> "Features and Plugins" in the left nav.  Uncheck "BIND DNS domain" in the table on that page.  Click save button.

If you need to you can follow our howto for setting up BIND.

The error message appears: Failed to save enabled features : A problem was found with your Postfix virtual maps : No map sources were found in the Postfix configuration

Configure Postfix

This is already there in CentOS 5.4, but if not:

Either edit the /etc/postfix/main.cf file and add:

virtual_alias_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/virtual

Or if you have a command line phobia, you can go to the Webmin Postfix module, go to Server > Postfix Mail Server > Virtual Domains

On that page for the "Domain mapping lookup table" field, selet the radio button, next to the blank field, and put this in there:

hash:/etc/postfix/virtual

Disable Suexec

You might see a message about your suexec command not being able to run in /home.  Depending on your setup, you may not even want this enabled at all.

From the main virtualmin configuration page, click on the "Edit Server Template" button. Click on the "Default Settings" template link in the table on the next page. In the "edit template section" at the top of that page, choose "Apache website". Click the radio button to no, where it says "Automatically add appropriate SuExec directive?".

Disk Quotas

See our guide here for setting up disk quotas:

http://bliki.rimuhosting.com/space/knowledgebase/linux/misc/disk+quotas

FTP

Webmin and Virtualmin come with a nice module for Proftpd. There is also a module for vsftpd under Webmin v4 that seems to work ok with Vitualmin, but we are still testing it.

The vsftpd module is available from

http://www.webmin.com/cgi-bin/search_third.cgi?search=vsftp

Virtualmin theme

After you have Virtualmin installed and configured you might want to go to Webmin > Webmin Configuration > Webmin Themes and select the Virtualmin Framed Theme.

Migrating tips

If you need to migrate to another VPS, and you are using Virtualmin, you can backup and restore directly to your new server:

http://www.virtualmin.com/documentation/id,virtualmin_administrators_guide/#backup_and_restore

On the server your moving from, Just navigate to Webmin/Servers/Virtuamin Virtual Servers

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and under the Backup and Restore heading, click the "Backup Virtual Servers" button.

On that page you will see all the options for backing up user accounts, websties, MySQL databases, logs, etc and you can even use the form to scp the files over to the new server.

Once the backup has been transferred is on the new server you can select the "Restore backup" button to unpack your archive, migration finished.

Upgrading Virtualmin GPL to Virtualmin Pro Centos bug fix

http://www.nzlinux.com/2009/07/upgrading-virtualmin-gpl-to-virtualmin-pro-centos-bug/

Username Conventions (or user@domain.tld Style Usernames)

Please see http://www.virtualmin.com/documentation/email/pop-and-imap for more details
quoting from that page:
To choose the username format used, browse to System Settings:Server Templates and select the Mail for domain section, and locate the Format for usernames that include domain field at the bottom of the page.