Hello,
It will be obvious very soon, but I'm not experienced with that topic, none at all, sorry it will sound absolutely newbie-ish, that's what it is.
I have a project to eventually manage to have a Docker running onto my dedicated server (already serving websites to the world) powered by webmin+virtualmin, so that I may run a particular program inside it. That would be a first, but, hey, learning and discovering is good.
From what I understood, the procedure is to (1) install cloudmin, (2) setup cloudmin to have an Ubuntu host, and (3) install it, and have Docker run inside it. I'm stuck before stage 1 :D
And that's what I'm coming to ask, if you would be so kind and tolerant to take the time to clarify this topic for me...
Please, unless I am mistaken, access to the easy to set up virtualmin module for Cloudmin is reserved to the Virtualmin Pro customers, right?
It says we need a licence and all in the documentation, and I don't think I have that with my Virtualmin free version, GPL.
If I'm not wrong yet, that's the second question I would like to ask...
Please, is there no risk to screw up a production server (already serving websites, LAMP, webmin+virtualmin) if I run the installer for Cloudmin GPL?
No risk of conflict?
It would seamlessly plug instelf onto the existing Webmin+Virtualmin installation?
Sorry to ask beginner questions, but one's gotta start somewhere, THANK YOU very much if you can reply :)
So, there are some Pro-only features of Cloudmin that relate to Virtualmin. Cloudmin Services is only in Cloudmin Pro (and Cloudmin Connect, which is a version of Cloudmin that excludes all virtual machine related functionality but includes all Virtualmin related functionality, and is very cheap...the idea being anybody with a lot of Virtualmin installations would benefit greatly from being able to centralize many services and data gathering from the various Virtualmin systems).
Docker is currently only in Cloudmin Pro. And, it doesn't currently integrate with Virtualmin in any meaningful way; you can run services in Docker containers managed by Cloudmin Pro, and you could proxy to them from a Virtualmin-managed website relatively easily. But, it's not automated (though you could automate it with some tweaks to the Server Templates and post-creation scripts in Virtualmin). That would work with either Virtualmin Pro or GPL, I think. Proxy features were Pro-only for a long time, but I think they've been merged down into GPL because we now ship some Install Scripts that require those features in GPL.
"If I'm not wrong yet, that's the second question I would like to ask... Please, is there no risk to screw up a production server (already serving websites, LAMP, webmin+virtualmin) if I run the installer for Cloudmin GPL? No risk of conflict?"
It is generally safe to run Cloudmin and Virtualmin on the same system, yes, and we do so on our development machines. But, we usually don't, and don't really recommend it. The goals of the two are wholly separate and it often makes sense to keep them separate to make it easier to handle backups and restores and disaster recovery planning.
"It would seamlessly plug instelf onto the existing Webmin+Virtualmin installation?"
It would work. But, they're separate things, so there's no reason for them to be on the same machine.
The way we deploy it is like this:
Cloudmin on a master system, which may or may not also be a host for virtual machines and containers, which manages some number of virtual machines and/or containers spread across any number of additional host systems.
Those containers may or may not have Virtuamin installed inside them. If they do have Virtualmin installed, Cloudmin can manage those Virtualmin instances.
Cloudmin Pro can also provide something called Cloudmin Services, which allows one or more central database server(s), DNS servers, and mail spam/AV scanners, so that Virtualmin (Pro or GPL) no longer has to host those services on every system.
Docker fits sort of haphazardly into this. It's not automated (yet). You'd create a Docker instance for whatever app you want to run containerized, and proxy to it from whichever Virtualmin domains you want it to appear on. Again, Docker is currently in Cloudmin Pro only, AFAIK. I think Cloudmin GPL is still either Xen or KVM and only supports one host system, though containers will probably appear in Cloudmin GPL in the Cloudmin 10 development cycle, assuming we have the developer time/resources to devote to that change.
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Thanks for the answers, Joe! I didn't realize I had things in the wrong order, logically speaking, first cloudmin to set up virtual machines, and possibly Virtualmin inside some of them. Also, thanks for the clarification regarding pro/GPL versions and what can be done with them. Given the sheer amount of complexity implied, I think I'll look toward something else than Docker in the short and medium term, unless I can get myself a non-production dedi to toy with.
Thanks again for all the help :)