Support Requests and Remote Login Access

Support Requests and Remote Login Access

Virtualmin has an optional module that can be used to easily file support requests or grant remote login access to developers from within the Virtualmin UI. Before you can use it, you must install it on your system as follows :

  1. Login to Virtualmin as root
  2. On the System Information page, click on the optional Virtualmin packages link.
  3. Check the box next to the virtualmin-support package, then click the Install Selected Packages button.

Alternately, it can be installed from the command line on CentOS, Redhat or Fedora systems with the command :

yum install wbm-virtualmin-support

On Debian or Ubuntu, the command to install is :

apt-get install webmin-virtualmin-support

Submitting A Support Request

If you run into a bug in Virtualmin and want to report it, this is best done using the support feature within Virtualmin. It ensures that the bug is properly associated with your license, and that it contains important information like the OS, version and system configuration.

The steps to submit a bug are :

  1. Login to Virtualmin as root
  2. Open the System Settings link on the left menu, and click on Submit Support Ticket.
  3. Fill in the Issue summary and Issue details fields with a description of the problem.
  4. To allow us to more easily debug the problem, you should leave the Include Virtualmin domain validation report and Include detailed system information boxes checked. However, if you don't want details of your hosted domains or system configuration send to the Virtualmin developers, you might want to un-check them.
  5. Click the Submit Ticket button.

Assuming all the needed fields have been filled in, a page will be displayed containing a link to the newly submitted bug report at http://www.virtualmin.com/bugs/ . All future followup will be done via the bug tracker, and you will receive email updates when additional questions or solutions are posted to the bug.

Granting Remote Login Access

In some cases, resolving a problem on your system may require the Virtualmin developers to login via SSH as root to run debugging commands or examine configuration files. However, you probably don't want to give out your root password or grant access to us forever.

To avoid this, the Virtualmin support module can grant limited time access using SSH keys added to the root user's authorized_keys file. To enable this, the steps to follow are :

  1. Login to Virtualmin as root
  2. Open the System Settings link on the left menu, and click on Support Login Privileges.
  3. Select the Allow logins until option, and enter a date on which you want the login grant to end.
  4. Click the Enable Remote Logins button.
  5. SSH will be configured to grant access, and email sent to the Virtualmin developers with your system's IP address and SSH port.

If you entered an end date, access will be automatically removed at the end of that day. However, you can turn if off early by clicking on the Support Login Privileges link and then hitting the Disable Remote Logins button.