Hi
I bought virtualmin10 - i'm installing it as I write.
However, then I see cloudmin, and i think, did i buy the right product? Do I need it?
Too many mins it seems. I need some clarification on what I'm doing and how to do it.
So I have 2 domains, and 2 separate servers/vps instances.
I would like one instance to manage both vps instances, if possible. Would I need to buy a new license for for the second machine?
I read that virtualmin/webmin supports multiservers. But to do that, is it like plesk, where you need more than one license per machine? Even if on the same network?
Do I need cloudmin, should I consider it to achieve my goal of managing two servers? Is there a way to do this correctly, without pouring money through the hole in my pocket?
Thanks in advance
Howdy korefuki,
Thanks for choosing Virtualmin! And, yes, you're on the right track...though yours is perhaps the worst case scenario for costs, as the current licensing model would be one Virtualmin license per server, and if you want them centrally managed, you'd want a Cloudmin for physical servers license, as well (if you wanted Cloudmin to manage creation of virtual machines as well, any Cloudmin Pro license also includes the Cloudmin Connect feature, which allows Cloudmin to centralize control of all of your Virtualmin instances). But, for two machines, that may be overkill. The benefits of Cloudmin in all of this are that you can manage central DNS or database servers (not on the Virtualmin machines themselves, but the Virtualmin systems can create zones and databases on the central machine). Virtualmin can also host databases on another machine without Cloudmin, but it's not terribly easy, and doesn't allow your domain owners to manage the actual creation and removal themselves.
So, yes! You bought the right product. The question now is where to go from here. You probably want another Virtualmin license for the other server. You may or may not want a Cloudmin Connect license ($4/month) if you want to put your databases and DNS onto different systems from your Virtualmin hosts. Note that you don't need Cloudmin to use the Virtualmin servers as each others DNS slaves; that's provided out-of-the-box and uses Webmin's cluster slave DNS feature.
Even more confused yet? There probably are too many mins (and we're working on another one...but, it'll be part of existing products and not really a thing you'd confuse with the others).
So, in short:
Virtualmin - For managing websites and all of the related services.
Cloudmin - For managing virtual machines, and optionally centralizing control of Virtualmin servers. Cloudmin does not manage web servers, at all. It has no awareness of what goes on in a virtual web hosting system except what it gleans from Virtualmin servers under its control.
Cloudmin Connect - For centralizing control of Virtualmin servers and off-loading DNS and database hosting to one or more host systems that are not also Virtualmin hosts. This is Cloudmin without the cloud. It's just a way for people with a lot of Virtualmin servers to more easily manage them.
I would like to offer a "Cloudmin + Virtualmin" bundle, but I still haven't made product bundles work right in the shop. If you think you would benefit from Cloudmin Connect, and you buy another Virtualmin license, you can contact me privately via the ticket tracker (just create a ticket and mark it private and mention that Joe said do this, and either I'll see it or Eric will pipng me about it) and I'll figure out how to add Cloudmin Connect to your order at no cost (or do some other sort of juggling to make it all work out to be the same as two Virtualmin 10 licenses).
We're working on a whole new site for Cloudmin, with more docs, and more integration information. But, we're a small team, so sometimes these projects are slow to get out the door (especially when there's a really big Virtualmin release, with complicated new features, coming soon).
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