Setup Cloudmin with physical Virtualmin servers

Submitted by just_me on Tue, 08/23/2016 - 09:02

Well,

i bought and downloaded now cloudmin pro and i am wondering how i can get my virtualmin hosts i already have within cloudmin.

I usually use ssh keys to connect to the virtualmin servers, so i am wondering how to integrate them into cloudmin. I am missing some more information in cloudmin documentation.

Bottom down: I need to create a ssh key pair, whereas i will have the private key within cloudmin and add the public key to the according servers, and later on creating a physical server?

Or am i barking up the wrong tree?

Thanks and best

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Comments

Submitted by andreychek on Tue, 08/23/2016 - 11:27

Howdy -- to add a new Physical System to Cloudmin, you can go into New System -> Add Existing System.

There, you enter a password, or have it use a SSH key that Cloudmin knows about.

It sounds like you already have SSH keys setup, so what you could do is import your private key into Cloudmin by going into Cloudmin Settings -> SSH Keys.

Would that do what you're after?

Submitted by just_me on Tue, 08/23/2016 - 13:23

Well, i got a putty ppk private key, could i use this one or would i have to convert it to something else? If i do not need to create a new key pair, it would make life easier, having only one public key, which is usually installed in a server, whether i rebuild it or have a new one. Thanks!

PS: PPK Key didn't work, tried a pem version, which also fails: .. SSH connection failed : Timeout connecting (SSH failed to complete in 30 seconds)

Submitted by andreychek on Tue, 08/23/2016 - 14:00

If you're receiving a "Timeout" error, that suggests that the Cloudmin server is having trouble connecting to the SSH port of your remote server.

What if you log into your Cloudmin server using SSH, can you then SSH into this server that you're trying to access?

Submitted by just_me on Tue, 08/23/2016 - 16:12

Since Cloudmin pro runs on a new server, there hasn't been a private key installed. So i fired up puttygen and created a id_dsa private key file and uploaded it into /root/.ssh folder. I checked the connection and voila, it was working. Now i tried to add the physical systems, which also worked. So in the end, i am wondering, where to upgrade the packages of a physical serveres, which is not connected via webmin. I am wondering, whether i could use my private key file for webmin as well, but it feels like i would have to dig in my files to find those root passwords, so i can enable Webmin too, correct?

Best

Submitted by andreychek on Tue, 08/23/2016 - 18:01

Hrm, that timeout error shouldn't have been resolved with the addition of an SSH key, but I'm certainly glad that for whatever reason it's working now!

Unfortunately, Webmin doesn't support key-based logins. The SSH keys you have there would only work for accessing the SSH service.

As far as package updates are concerned -- you can see those by going into "List Managed Systems" on the bottom-left.

I'm not sure if that goes over SSH or Webmin to retrieve that information. I'll offer that on my test system here, under status, it states "Virtualmin (1) - 8 updates".

And then to perform the updates, I'd select the checkbox next to that host, and then choose "Update Packages" on the bottom.

Submitted by just_me on Tue, 08/23/2016 - 23:22

management features for that particular server, correct?

Best

PS: I just have seen, that you also support Docker :-)

Submitted by JamieCameron on Tue, 08/23/2016 - 23:30

Package updates are fetched (and installed) via Webmin or Virtualmin.

Submitted by andreychek on Tue, 08/23/2016 - 23:38

Sorry, I don't understand your question -- what do you mean by "management features for that particular server, correct?"

Submitted by just_me on Wed, 08/24/2016 - 00:51

I now added my virtualmin server to cloudmin as a physical system, and did not activate webmin though. Now i checked on my password list and wanted to add webmin login to the server, but it looks like, i cannot edit that setting and activate Webmin. So i have to re-enter the physical machine and enter the webmin password there. Why won't you allow to change that setting later on?

To have a more secure system, i'd suggest having also the option to login to webmin without a password but with keys ;-) I found another thing: My virtualminserver uses letsencrypt certs, by connecting from cloudmin to that virtualminserver via ssl and checking validity of SSL cert cloudmin says:

Invalid SSL certificate : Certificate is signed by an unknown CA : /C=US/O=Let's Encrypt/CN=Let's Encrypt Authority X3 (code 21))

Now i told him to not check validity of certificate and now it says:

.. Webmin login failed : Login failed (Login to RPC server as root rejected) I have to dig on this one too.

Shouldn't it accept the CA Let's encrypt in the meanwhile ? ;-) Best

Submitted by just_me on Wed, 08/24/2016 - 09:49

I haven't managed to get a webmin connection to a physical server yet, and i just wanted to know, which things i could do in Cloudmin for Virtualmin and which i would have to do in the local webmin/virtualmin on that physical server.

best

Submitted by JamieCameron on Wed, 08/24/2016 - 23:31

Cloudmin lets you create, delete, backup and sync domains across multiple Virtualmin systems. But for most operations, you need to drill down to the individual Virtualmin host to manage the domain - like editing users, installing scripts, managing email, etc..

Submitted by just_me on Thu, 08/25/2016 - 15:07

if i could connect to my virtualmin / Webmin servers i would be happy, but it won't let me. See above @ #9

Thank you and best

Submitted by andreychek on Thu, 08/25/2016 - 17:00

Jamie, after adding a new physical system to Cloudmin, where would you go to edit the SSH or Webmin login information?

I just tried that myself but I don't see where those would be updated.

Submitted by JamieCameron on Thu, 08/25/2016 - 22:56

The "Change Password" link on the left menu - this lets you also edit the password Cloudmin uses to connect to the remote system.

Submitted by andreychek on Thu, 08/25/2016 - 23:08

Ah, I see now @just_me -- if you go into the Change Password link that Jamie mentioned, in the top-left menu, there is a button within that page named "Change login used by Cloudmin" on the top-right of the resulting screen.

If you click that button, you'll be able to change all the details.

Submitted by just_me on Fri, 08/26/2016 - 03:13

Btw, i setup one server there for Webminconnection, WITHOUT SSL, since Cloudmin does not accept Let's Encrypt certs, and then it tells me, that Webmin is down. If i open the Webminserver in my Firefox, it is working. So what to do now? Thanks

Submitted by andreychek on Fri, 08/26/2016 - 09:25

There shouldn't be any problem with Cloudmin using Let's Encrypt certs, or even self-signed certs.

I see that you mentioned that in Comment #9 above, and that you were having a problem with the root login being rejected. I suspect you're experiencing some other form of authentication issue there, or maybe even a firewall issue... it should be no problem to connect using SSL though.

On the server it's connecting to, is there a firewall setup? I'd suggest ensuring that ports 10000-10010 are all open on that server.

Submitted by JamieCameron on Sat, 08/27/2016 - 00:45

It's possible that Cloudmin may not be able to validate a Let's Encrypt cert, if openssl on your master system doesn't know about the Let's Encrypt CA.

Submitted by just_me on Thu, 11/10/2016 - 01:56

Now i managed to set up that server with settings like this:

SSH Login with login and password (key won't work) Webmin login with root login and password (not the setting same as unix login) SSL Connection Don't verify certificate Connect on port 10000

Now it says:

Fetching current status ..
.. status successfully retrieved (Virtualmin - Config errors found)

Checking Virtualmin configuration ..
.. errors found : 0

It claims, that mailman is not running, but proftpd has problems to stay up.

on the other hand: The lefthand menu doesn't show which virtualmin system i am connected with. Could you perhaps have it the same way like in virtualmin, that i can see, which server i am editing and the option of selecting one of the system there like in virtualmin?

Submitted by andreychek on Thu, 11/10/2016 - 09:32

The "Config errors found" might just indicate that the Re-Check Config in Virtualmin is returning a problem.

If you log into Virtualmin, try going into System Settings -> Re-Check Config, and see what that says.

Feel free to paste that output in here, and we can help sort out what's going on there.