Webmin: A Web-Based System Administration Tool for UNIX

This paper describes the design and implementation of the Unix administration tool Webmin, available from http://www.webmin.com/webmin/ . Webmin allows moderately experienced users to manage their Unix system through a web browser interface, instead of editing configuration files directly. The most recent version supports Apache, Squid, BIND, Samba and many other servers and services. It supports multiple operating systems and distributions, different languages, multiple users each with different levels of access, and SSL encryption.

The first part of the paper explains why Webmin was developed and the initial design goals, and compares the design to other similar tools such as Linuxconf. Subsequent sections cover the design and implementation of the detailed multi-user security model, the implementation of Webmin itself, how support for multiple operating systems is handled and how internationalization works. Finally, two Webmin modules are discussed in more detail and various problems explained before the conclusion.