If you’re managing websites or web applications on an Ubuntu server, Virtualmin is a powerful, open-source control panel that can make your life easier. It gives you a user-friendly interface to manage web hosting, domains, databases, SSL, email, and more – all from a browser.

This guide walks you through installing Virtualmin on a fresh Ubuntu server (20.04, 22.04, or later) in a secure, clean, and production-ready way.

🚀 Why Choose Virtualmin?

• Full-featured control panel with browser-based UI
• Supports Apache, Nginx, PHP, MySQL/MariaDB, and more
• Built-in SSL, email, DNS, FTP management
• Ideal for hosting multiple websites securely on one server

⚙️ System Requirements

Before getting started:

• Fresh Ubuntu 20.04 or 22.04 LTS server (no LAMP stack preinstalled)
• Root SSH access to the server
• At least 2 GB RAM and 1 CPU (4 GB+ recommended)
• Fully qualified domain name (FQDN) pointed to the server’s IP

🔐 Update & Prepare Server

Run the following commands:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo hostnamectl set-hostname your.hostname.com

Replace your.hostname.com with your FQDN.

🧰 Install Virtualmin (Automated Script)

Download and run the official install script:

wget https://software.virtualmin.com/gpl/scripts/install.sh
sudo /bin/sh install.sh

The script will walk you through several setup steps.

• Choose the default configuration unless you know otherwise.
• Once completed, Virtualmin will be available at:

https://your.hostname.com:10000

Log in using your root username and password.

🖥️ Post-Installation Setup

1. Open https://your.hostname.com:10000 in your browser.
2. Accept SSL warning (self-signed certificate).
3. Login as root.
4. Follow the post-install wizard to configure:
   • MySQL/MariaDB root password
   • Virus scanning (optional)
   • PHP versions
   • Email configuration

🔒 Secure Your Server

• Add a Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate via Virtualmin UI
• Create a new sudo user and disable root SSH login
• Use a firewall (UFW):

sudo ufw allow 10000/tcp
sudo ufw enable

🌐 Add Your First Website (Virtual Server)

1. Go to Create Virtual Server
2. Enter domain (e.g. example.com)
3. Configure email, SSL, DNS as needed
4. Deploy files under /home/example/public_html

✅ Verify Setup

Visit your domain in a browser. If everything is configured correctly, you’ll see the default index page or your uploaded content.

🧠 Final Thoughts

Virtualmin is a great alternative to cPanel, especially for developers and sysadmins who want flexibility, open-source power, and cost savings. With just a few steps, you now have a fully functional hosting panel on your Ubuntu server.

Let it handle the heavy lifting so you can focus on launching apps and websites.