Webmin - a Web-based system administration tool created by Jamie Cameron, a Mount Waverley (VIC) based programmer provides a consistent interface for administration of the Cobalt servers.  It is written in Perl, so it is architecture-independent, making it attractive to big-system administrators.  Webmin now supports SSL.

To run Webmin you will need to run http://www.nameofthewebsite:10000

You should see a login screen. Log in as root, with your regular root password. Once you have logged in, you will see the Webmin main page. Across the page is a row of icons which represent the various top-level pages in Webmin.

On the Webmin page you will see icons for "Usermin Configuration". Usermin is a companion program that enables users to manage some of their own settings, "Webmin Actions Log", "Webmin Configuration", "Webmin Servers Index" (enables you to manage multiple machines using Webmin) and "Webmin Users" (enables you to create user accounts within Webmin, and allow them restricted access to only certain Webmin pages).

However, the real meat is on the other top-level pages. Just click on the "System" tab, and you'll see a range of icons that let you perform system management tasks such as creating and managing users, doing tape backups, setting up disk quotas, mounting and demounting file systems, and much more.

Webmin very nicely takes care of many of the low-level routine configuration tasks that trouble Linux novices, such as management of user accounts, creating cron jobs and setting up DHCP servers. I find it especially useful for people getting started with that traditional ogre, sendmail - the Webmin sendmail configuration pages have lots of online help which provide a good introduction to the mail server (of course, Webmin supports Postfix and qmail as well).

On its Servers page, Webmin has modules for all the major - and a few minor -servers you'll encounter in typical Linux systems: Apache, BIND, dhcpd, Fetchmail, Majordomo, MySQL, Postfix, PostgreSQL, Procmail, qmail, SSH, Samba, Sendmail, Squid, wu-ftpd. There's also support for some less common, but rather interesting daemons, like the Jabber instant messaging server, CVS (including integrated CVSWeb) and the Majordomo mailing list manager. The BIND module illustrates how Webmin can save time even for experienced administrators; it maintains both forward and reverse zone files automatically, saving the tedious transposition of IP addresses.

The Networking page enables basic network configuration (interfaces, routing, the DNS resolver, hosts file) as well as more advanced options: NFS exports, inetd/xinetd services, a PPP dial-in server and some security-related options: SSL tunnels and both iptables-based and Shorewall firewalls.

The Hardware page enables configuration of LILO or GRUB boot loaders, and sophisticated disk management: you can manage conventional partitions as well as creating RAID partitions and/or using logical volume management. Also on this page, you'll find links for CD burning, printer administration and voice mail server setup.

The Others page contains some interesting general-purpose tools: the Custom Commands module lets you run your own commands and scripts, while Command Shell lets you run ad-hoc commands. The System and Server Status page can monitor services and e-mail or page you when they go down. Two of the modules download Java applets to your browser: the File Manager gives you a familiar two-panes-plus-toolbar interface for file management, while the SSH/Telnet Login module will download a terminal emulator to your machine, should you need a command line interface (by now, though, you should be beginning to realise that you won't need the command line often, with Webmin!).