virtualmin-install

Shell script to perform a Virtualmin GPL or Professional installation

If you just want to install Virtualmin, go here and follow the instructions: Virtualmin.com.

This repo is for people who want to read the source, contribute, help make the installer support other distros or operating systems, or make a customized installer.

How it Works

The script relies on our software repositories on software.virtualmin.com in order to function. You'll need internet access.

It sets up or downloads the software repository configuration file for your OS (yum/dnf on RHEL (Alma/Rocky/Oracle/CentOS/Fedora) or apt-get on Debian/Ubuntu), and runs the necessary commands to download and install all of the stuff needed for a Virtualmin web hosting system. This is includes OS-standard packages or MySQL or MariaDB, Postfix, Dovecot, procmail, Mailman, PHP, Python, Ruby, SpamAssassin, ClamAV, BIND, and many others. When no OS-standard package is available or the standard package needs tweaks, we provide it in our repository and fetch it from there.

Supported Operating Systems

The Grade A systems currently supported by install script are:

Red Hat Enterprise Linux and derivatives
  - RHEL 8 and 9 on x86_64
  - Alma and Rocky 8 and 9 on x86_64
  - CentOS 7 on x86_64 (no longer recommended)
  
Debian Linux and derivatives
  - Debian 10, 11 and 12 on i386 and amd64
  - Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, 22.04 LTS and 24.04 LTS on i386 and amd64

The Grade B systems currently supported by install script are:

Red Hat Enterprise Linux and derivatives
  - Fedora Server 38 and above on x86_64
  - CentOS Stream 8 and 9 on x86_64
  - Oracle Linux 8 and 9 on x86_64
  - CloudLinux 8 and 9 on x86_64
  - Amazon Linux 2023 and above on x86_64

Debian Linux and derivatives
  - Kali Linux Rolling 2023 and above on x86_64

We strongly recommend you use the latest version of your preferred Grade A supported distribution. The latest release gets the most active testing and bug fixing.

How to run it

Never run the install script on anything other than a freshly installed OS. It is for installation, not upgrading!

Upstream Version

Download it to your server, and run it as root (yes, it has to run as root, this is systems management software).

# wget -O virtualmin-install.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/virtualmin/virtualmin-install/master/virtualmin-install.sh
# /bin/sh virtualmin-install.sh

Note that if you have Virtualmin Professional, the process is a little different (or you have to edit the script to add your serial number and key to the SERIAL and KEY variables on lines 19 and 20). You can retrieve your license information from the My Account ⇾ Software Licenses page at Virtualmin website. If you don't have Pro but want to get it, visit Virtualmin Shop.

Please file tickets, either here or at Virtualmin Forum, about bugs you find.

How to use it in your own project

The Virtualmin install script is highly customizable and includes various hooks that can be inserted at any stage of the installation process. If you're integrating the script into your own project, you can use these hooks to inject custom code, add new phases, or control the text displayed to the user throughout the installation.

Usage example for your project in a wrapper script

Detailed description of hooks

hook__usage() {
  # If defined, it will override the default usage message
  :
}

hook__parse_args() {
  # If defined, it will override the default argument parsing, and will not
  # parse default arguments if this hook is defined, relying on the custom
  # code to parse the arguments and set default values
  :
}

hook__show_version() {
  # If defined, it will override the installer default version
  :
}

hook__install_msg() {
  # If defined, it will override the default welcome message
  :
}

pre_hook__install_msg() {
  # If defined, it will inject a message before the default welcome message
  :
}

post_hook__install_msg() {
  # If defined, it will inject a message after the default welcome message
  :
}

hook__os_unstable_pre_check() {
  # If defined, it will override the default pre-check message for unstable OS
  :
}

pre_hook__os_unstable_pre_check() {
  # If defined, it will inject a message before the default pre-check
  # message for unstable OS
  :
}

post_hook__os_unstable_pre_check() {
  # If defined, it will inject a message after the default pre-check
  # message for unstable OS
  :
}

hook__preconfigured_system_msg() { 
  # If defined, it will override the default system message about
  # pre-installed software
  :
}

pre_hook__preconfigured_system_msg() {
  # If defined, it will inject a message before the default system
  # message about pre-installed software
  :
}

post_hook__preconfigured_system_msg() {
  # If defined, it will inject a message after the default system
  # message about pre-installed software
  :
}

hook__already_installed_msg() {
  # If defined, it will override the default message about already
  # installed Virtualmin
  :
}

pre_hook__already_installed_msg() {
  # If defined, it will inject a message before the default message
  # about already installed Virtualmin
  :
}

post_hook__already_installed_msg() {
  # If defined, it will inject a message after the default message
  # about already installed Virtualmin
  :
}

hook__already_installed_block() {
  # If defined, it will override the default block message about
  # installed Virtualmin
  :
}

pre_hook__already_installed_block() {
  # If defined, it will inject a message before the default block message
  # about already installed Virtualmin
  :
}

post_hook__already_installed_block() {
  # If defined, it will inject a message after the default block message
  # about already installed Virtualmin
  :
}

hook__phases_all_pre() {
  # If defined, it will run before all phases
  :
}

hook__phase1_pre() {
  # If defined, it will run before the default phase 1
  :
}

hook__phase1_post() {
  # If defined, it will run after the default phase 1
  :
}

hook__phase2_pre() {
  # If defined, it will run before the default phase 2
  :
}

hook__phase2_post() {
  # If defined, it will run after the default phase 2
  :
}

hook__phase3_pre() {
  # If defined, it will run before the default phase 3
  :
}

hook__phase3_post() {
  # If defined, it will run after the default phase 3
  :
}

hook__phase4_pre() {
  # If defined, it will run before the default phase 4
  :
}

hook__phase4_post() {
  # If defined, it will run after the default phase 4
  :
}

hook__phases_all_post() {
  # If defined, it will run after all phases
  :
}

hook__modules_pre() {
  # If defined, it will run before the embedded modules installation phase
  :
}

hook__modules_post() {
  # If defined, it will run after the embedded modules installation phase
  :
}

hook__clean_pre() {
  # If defined, it will run before the cleanup phase
  :
}

hook__clean_post() {
  # If defined, it will run after the cleanup phase
  :
}

hook__post_install_message() {
  # If defined, it will override the default post-install message
  :
}

pre_hook__post_install_message() {
  # If defined, it will inject a message before the default post-install message
  :
}

post_hook__post_install_message() {
  # If defined, it will inject a message after the default post-install message
  :
}

hook__phases_pre() {
  # If defined, it will run before the custom phases start
  :
}

hook__phases_post() {
  # If defined, it will run after the custom phases end
  :
}

# Override the default log file name
install_log_file_name=combined-install.log
export install_log_file_name

# If defined, it will override the default number of
# phases for the use in custom phases (default is 4)
phases_total=6
export phases_total

# If defined, it will run after the default phases to add additional
# stages and their commands with descriptions separated by tabs
hooks__phases='
5	Extra Installation	command-1	Command 1 description
5	Extra Installation	command-2	Command 2 description
5	Extra Installation	command-3	Command 3 description
6	Extra Configuration	config-command-1	Config Command 1 description
6	Extra Configuration	config-command-2	Config Command 2 description
'
export hooks__phases

* A fully working third-party script example using hooks can be found here.

How to contribute

Wrap your head around how virtualmin-install.sh does its job (mostly by setting up package repositories and installed metapackages or yum-groups). Ask questions if you're not sure what's going on.

Pick your favorite distro or OS, and start coding and packaging for it! I'm usually happy to devote time and resources to helping make Virtualmin work on other systems. I just don't have the time/resources to maintain more than the most popular server operating systems myself.

See also

These are the tools the shell script uses to actually perform the installation and configuration. It sets up package repositories, installs the yum-groups or the metapackages, and then uses Virtualmin-Config to perform the initial configuration steps, like turning on services, making service configuration changes, etc.

Virtualmin-Config: a post-modern post-installation configuration tool

virtualmin-yum-groups: Package groups for CentOS and Fedora

virtualmin-lamp-stack-ubu: Metapackage for the LAMP stack on Ubuntu

virtualmin-core-deb: Metapackage for the Virtualmin core packages