Best practices for setting up server's subdomain (server.example.com) and Virtual Server for base domain (example.com)

[simon1066]

@Joe

Why not just connect to Webmin on the name of the virtual server and forget about the server name? i.e. If I had a server named srv1.virtualmin.com and a virtual server on that server named virtualmin.com, I would just use https://virtualmin.com:10000 to connect to Webmin. Why use the other name at all?

It never occurred to me to do that, historically and with little to no knowledge I’ve used https://server.example.com to access Webmin, and so felt I needed an SSL cert for that FQDN

@gjch

There doesn’t seem to be a way to setup one LE SSL cert for my server’s FQDN (server-DOT-example-DOT-com), and one LE SSL cert for the base domain virtual server (example-DOT-com). When I try to use multiple certs they just conflict and one of them tries to function for both the subdomain/server and base domain/virtual server.

So, the way i setup a LE cert for the FQDN was to add server.example.com to ‘domain names listed here’ in the LE SSL Certificate page for example.com

I know you’ve changed the way you’re going about things, but that’s how I did it - no guarantee it was the right way though.

[stuckinthehouse]

@gjch

I may just have to rethink my plan of using the same domain for the server’s FQDN as well as a virtual server.

Yeah, don’t do that. I did this since my host went under and I didn’t have a FQDN. I’ve been using Linux for years so I figured I could resolve it later. Every time I try to fix it it breaks something else (usually email).

[gjch]

@Joe

Does it help to know that Virtualmin had Let’s Encrypt support long before Webmin had, and this is how we’ve been recommending it be done literally for years?

It does. It’s just so different from my web server setups going back as far as I can remember, it seemed kind of odd to not have a cert to secure the server’s FQDN. With my new setup and how I’ve changed how everything is done though, it’s not much of an issue.

Thanks for your help on this!