SwimAdmin is available as a free download. However, the installation process is not trivial, since you will need to install an entire server (a 'VPS'), rather than just a single application, or website. If you're not comfortable with this, you should instead look at our Support Plans; these cover installation, maintenance, backups, and updates.
SwimAdmin includes a large number of components. These include the club Web application (or 'web app') itself, together with a customised mail server, a webmail client, a backup client, WordPress, and DokuWiki. These are bundled together into a complete self-contained Operating System (OS) image, which must be installed on a computer which is connected to the internet. The OS is Ubuntu 22.04; the download is about 1.5GB (Giga bytes).
SwimAdmin normally runs on a Virtual Private Server (VPS). You can install it on a bare computer if you want to, and there are instructions below for installing it on a Raspberry Pi. However, the computer (the 'server') needs full-time unfiltered internet access, and the simplest and most reliable way to do this is to install it on a VPS.
To install SwimAdmin yourself, you will need to do three things:
- Buy or re-use a domain name (something like 'myswimclub.uk', for example)
- Set up the Domain Name System (DNS) to point your domain name to your server
- Find a VPS provider, and install the downloaded image to that VPS. There are a large number of VPS providers, but testing them is complex and time-consuming. At the time of writing, we suggest using Contabo.
This is a lot easier than it sounds, and isn't expensive. The total cost will be in the region of about £100 a year. All this is explained in detail in the installation manual. You'll need to find a club member with some technical ability to do all this, but you can have a working system in a few hours, or a day at the most.
If all this sounds a bit overwhelming, then don't worry: there is a much simpler alternative. You're likely to have at least one member who has a Raspberry Pi, and who can load SwimAdmin on to the Pi, to let you try it out. This doesn't, by itself, allow other club members to access that Pi over the internet. However, this can be done if necessary. More details below.
Download files
There's no reason to directly download the SwimAdmin image, unless you need to burn an SD card for a Raspberry Pi. If you need to do this, go to the download directory, and find swimvps-nnnn-rpi.img.gz, where nnnn is the version number. If you are instead creating a VPS, the installation document includes instructions for downloading the 0623 image. Note that swimvps-nnnn.qcow2 is compiled for x86, while swimvps-nnnn-rpi.img.gz is compiled for ARM.
The reference manuals can be downloaded from the Administrator menu in the web app. The installation and administration manuals can be downloaded here:
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| System administration | Your server updates itself, and should run indefinitely. It sends you two status reports every day to confirm that there are no problems. The sysadmin manual tells you how it does this, how to perform backups, how to lock down WordPress, and how to remotely access the system, among other things. You can largely ignore this if you have a support contract, but whoever's responsible for your WordPress site will need to read at least some of it. |
| SwimAdmin installation | How to get a domain name and a VPS, how to set up DNS, and how to install the SwimAdmin image on that VPS. Some of this is also relevant to the RPi installation |
| Contabo VPS installation | Step-by-step guide to VPS creation at Contabo |
| Ionos VPS installation | Step-by-step guide to VPS creation at Ionos |
Licensing
You can see the licence agreement here. You will be asked to accept the terms of the agreement during the installation process.
You should note, in particular, the first clause, which states:
You and your users are expressly forbidden from providing support services for any aspect of SwimAdmin installation, usage or operation, where that support service is carried out in exchange for financial remuneration.
My way or the Pi way...
Yes, that's right... you can load SwimAdmin on to a Raspberry Pi. See here for the details.