Managing Virtual Domains

Cloudmin can create new domains, with some restrictions - it only supports new top-level domains (not sub-servers), using the default template on the target system. In addition, many of the lesser-used options on the regular virtual domain creation page are not available.

To create a domain, the steps to follow are :

1. On the left menu, open the Cloudmin Settings category and click on Virtualmin Domains.
2. On the page that appears, click on the Create new Virtualmin domain link to display the new domain form.
3. Fill in the Domain name field with the new virtual server name, like foo.com .
4. Enter the owner of the domain into the Description field, such as Foo Corporation .
5. Enter the administration password in the Password field.
6. From the Create on system menu, select the Cloudmin system on which you want it to be created. There are also options in that menu have Cloudmin choose a system automatically based on free disk space, CPU load and number of domains.
7. In the Enabled features section, select the features that you want the new domain to have.
8. In the domain needs a private IP address for an SSL website, in the Assign virtual IP address field select either allocate automatically or with address. In the latter case, you will need to enter an IP into the adjacent text field.
9. Click the Create Virtual Server button.

If there are no mistakes on the form, Cloudmin will contact the selected Virtualmin system to begin the domain creation. Any errors or progress output from the remote system will be displayed.

When creating domains on systems running under VServers or Solaris Zones, the allocate automatically option tells Cloudmin to select a virtual IP address from the range specified for the virtual system's host. It will also add a virtual interface with that IP, as these virtualization types do not allow systems to manage their own network interfaces.

Similarly, the IP entered when with address is selected will be activated by Cloudmin. Make sure you enter an IP on the same network as the Virtualmin system, or else it is unlikely to be reachable.

When creating on a real system or one running under Xen, virtual IP creation is done by the virtual system itself. In this case, the options to allocate or specify a private IP address are passed directly to Virtualmin on the selected system.

If you have many systems running Virtualmin, finding a domain that might be hosted on any one of them could be a slow process - unless you are using Cloudmin, which fetches the list of domains from each managed system as part of its automatic status check. To search for and manage domains, follow these steps :

1. On the left menu, open the Cloudmin Settings category and click on Virtualmin Domains.
2. On the page that appears, enter part or all of the domain name into the Find domains containing field, and click Search.
3. If any domains match your search, they will be displayed in a table. You can manage a domain on its host system by clicking on its name, which will open a new browser window logged into the Virtualmin system automatically. Or you can manage the system hosting the domain by clicking on its hostname in the list.

Another way to find domains is to select a system from Cloudmin's left frame, then click on the Domains link below the menu. This will open a page with all its hosted domains listed, on which you can click on a domain name to manage it. Domains can also be disabled, deleted and moved from this page just as they can be from the global domain search results.

As well as creating domains, Cloudmin can be used to delete, disable and enable them. The steps to do this are :

1. On the left menu, open the Cloudmin Settings category and click on Virtualmin Domains.
2. Use the search form to find the domain or domains you want to delete.
3. Check the boxes next to each domain. When deleting it is only necessary to select the parent - sub-servers will be automatically removed.
4. Click the Delete Selected button. A confirmation page will be shown asking if you really want to remove them.
5. Cloudmin will contact the Virtualmin systems that host the selected domains, and display any error messages or progress output from the deletion process.

When deleting a domain with a virtual IP interface that was created by Cloudmin (on a Zones or VServers system), the interface will be automatically shut down as part of the deletion process.

Disabling and enabling domains is similar, except that you use the Disable Selected and Enable Selected buttons respectively. Domains that are already disabled are shown in italics in the domain list.

Cloudmin has the ability to move a Virtualmin domain between systems, which can be useful if you are planning to retire an old system, or want to move a high-load domain to a more powerful server. Moving is done using Virtualmin's backup and restore features - the domain is backed up on the source machine, transferred to the Cloudmin master and then to the destination, deleted from the source, and finally restored from the backup file.

We recommend moving domains between systems running the same OS and software versions where possible, as in some cases a domain may contain files or configuration options that are specific to a particular OS. The most common example of this is PHP scripts - if the domain has installed scripts that require PHP 4 but the destination does not support this version, then they are almost certain to fail.

To move a domain or domains, the steps to follow are :

1. Use the domain search form to find the ones you want to move, and check the boxes next to their names.
2. Click the Move Selected button at the bottom of the list, which will bring you to a page for selecting the destination machine.
3. Choose the new host from the Destination system menu.
4. If you want the domains to be completely removed from their original hosts, change the Delete from source systems? option to Yes. This is almost always what you want, but is slighly risky as there is a chance of the domain being lost if it cannot be restored on the target.
5. By default, Cloudmin will not move a domain to a system that does not have the same Virtualmin features as the source, as this will lead to some of its functions being broken. To override this, change the Move even if features are missing? setting to Yes.
6. Finally, click the Move Now button. Cloudmin will display each step of the move as it runs, and inform you of the final success or failure of the operation.

In almost all cases, you will need to make some DNS changes once a domain has been moved, as it will now be on a new IP address (the shared IP of the new host system). If the DNS domain is hosted by Virtualmin, the upstream registrar will need to be updated with the new system's DNS server IP address. If DNS hosting for the domain is done on a completely different system, any records for the domain that use the old system's IP will need to be changed to the new one.

When a domain with a private IP address is moved, Virtualmin will use the same IP on the new system. This will generally work fine, as long as both systems are on the same network. However, you should choose the delete the domain from the source machine when moving, as it is not generally possible to have to systems with the same IP address active at once.

By default when creating a domain, Cloudmin will have features available by default on any managed Virtualmin system checked. If you want more control over which features are active by default, the steps to follow are :

1. On the left menu, open the Cloudmin Settings section and click on Default Virtualmin Features.
2. On the page that appears, select the Selected below radio button.
3. From the list of features, check the boxes next to the ones you want enabled by default. For each feature you can see which registered Virtualmin systems support it.
4. Click the Save button.