How to change Webmin SMTP settings and software update notifications

As part of a project to upgrade Exchange 2003 to 2010 I found a few Linux servers that were configured to use the Exchange 2003 server to send out notifications. I learned this by running a report in the Message Tracking Center from the Exchange System Manager. I looked for anything that was going through the 2003 server, without specifying a source or destination address.

I noted the Linux servers that were still sending notifications regarding software package updates. Luckily the security admin (which is no longer with the company) pre-pended  the senders address with the word “webmin”. Webmin is web-based GUI for managing Linux servers. After a few minutes of research, I found a way to update the SMTP settings and software update notification settings. Here’s how:

How to change SMTP settings

1. The default port for Webmin is 10000. Launch a browser and go to https://<servername/IP>:10000
Note: If that doesn’t work, your server might be running on a different port. Follow the instructions in the next section to find the port.
2. Log in with an admin account.
3. Click on Webmin Settings, then Sending Email
4. Modify the appropriate settings then click Save

How to find the port Webmin runs on

1. Find the PID (process ID) for Webmin. The PID is in the first column, in my case “1433”

ps aux | grep "webmin"

root 1433 0.0 0.1 87944 22544 ? Ss Jun27 0:55 /usr/bin/perl /usr/share/webmin/miniserv.pl /etc/webmin/miniserv.conf

2. List all ports that associated with the PID from the previous step:

netstat -anop | grep "1433"

tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:10000 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 1433/perl off (0.00/0/0)
udp 0 0 0.0.0.0:10000 0.0.0.0:* 1433/perl off (0.00/0/0)
unix 2 [ ] DGRAM 7793 1433/perl