Linux administration through web*
Overview
In this lab you will have a hands on experience with a Linux adminstration tool
called Webmin, that lets you adminster your system from any where in the world
provided you can connect to your system using Internet.
Details
1. Installing the tool (webmin)
1.1 Go to www.webmin.com
1.2 Download rpm (top right)
1.3 Open a terminal and 'cd' to the
directory where you downloaded the rpm.
1.4 Type in the following command to
install webmin
rpm -ivh file-name.rpm
1.5 Now open a browser and type in http://your_computer_name.cis
2. Configuring the tool so as to make it secure (since adminstration data can
be passed through Internet we want to enable SSL encryption).
2.1 First creating the SSL Key
2.1.1 Click the Webmin Configuration and click SSL Encryption
2.1.2 It would say to download and install some modules. Just click
the link and install the modules. (The whole process of download and install
takes place on the web page itself!)
2.1.3 Then return back to Webmin configuration and click SSL Encryption
again.
2.1.4 Now scroll down and fill in the "details" (they are all
easy details, think twice before calling me) to create SSL Key.
2.2 Now Enable SSL
2.2.2 Return to the SSL Encryption page and select YES for the options in
the first blue-box and complete enabling.
3. Now access the tool using the https://your_computer_name.cis
4. Write a document describing what different kinds of activities can be
performed using this tool. (I would expect atleast a couple of sentences about
the broad categories shown on the top.)
5. Configuring Apache using webmin (not terminal).
5.1 First you will enable data transmission
through encryption.
5.1.1 Go to Servers->Apache Webserver->Edit Config Files
5.1.2 Based on your previous lab knowledge disable user directories.
5.1.3 Go to Others->Command Shell and execute service httpd restart
6. Running some network commands using Others->Command Shell
(Remember since the output is displayed as a webpage you can only run
commands that have static output.)
6.1 Once you open a command shell in the
webmin execute ping command to check if yahoo.com
is reachable. Make sure you study man pages so that ping stops after
sending 10 ICMP packets otherwise you would not see output on the webpage.
6.2 Execute 'traceroute' command to see the
path taken the packets to reach
google.com
6.3 Find out the IP address(es) of servers
on which google.com
is being hosted. Use the nslookup <hostname> command.
6.4 Make a document (by copying
the results you get on executing the commands) to show you executed the
commands.
You might be thinking why do we need this kind of shell when we can do things
using SSH clients like putty. Well, this tool has graphical interface and
also nicely designed modular console. For executing shell commands I would
recommend using putty but for this lab since other administrative actions are
complicated (atleast for me) I wanted you to use the command shell for hands on
experience.
7. Creating other Webmin users
7.1 Create a webmin group
7.1.1 Go to Webmin->Webmin Users
7.1.2 Scroll down and create a new webmin group. (Give access to atleast
one module from each category.)
7.1.3 Go to Webmin->Webmin Users
7.1.4 Scroll down and create a new webmin user under the group you just
created.
7.1.5 Make sure you give that user access to the Command Shell module
8. Submit (to nagesh@temple.edu)
Email subject: 230-xxxx-Lab-y
(xxxx- last four digits of your TUID, y-lab number)
Email content: Your name, your IP address, your write-up (steps 4 and 6.4
in the lab), the webmin username and password.
* ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:
I wish to express my sincere thanks to Thomas Stauffer (Tom) for his introduction to Webmin.