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Cockpit

cockpit.jpeg

Introduction

Cockpit is a free and opensource web-based graphical server management tool that allows administrators and Linux users to easily manage and configure their Linux servers/PCs from a browser.

Cockpit is easy to install and simple to use. At a glance, it allows you to perform the following tasks.     

  • Keep tabs of system metrics and performance    
  • Create and manage users   
  • Browse and search system logs    
  • Inspect and interact with systemd-based services    
  • Access the terminal and run commands    
  • Inspect system’s hardware    
  • Create and manage virtual machines    
  • Upgrade software packages to their latest versions    
  • Configure Firewall & and many more.

Cockpit Installation

Update Local Package Index 

To start off, log into your server and refresh the local package index as follows.



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sudo apt update

Install Cockpit Web Console 

The Cockpit web console packages are provided by the official Ubuntu repositories. You can verify this by running the following command.









































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apt search cockpit











































So, install Cockpit using the APT package manager as shown. 










































































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sudo apt install cockpit -y











































The command installs the Cockpit web console alongside other additional packages, libraries, and dependencies.


Verify Installation


Once installed, you can verify if cockpit is installed by running the following command: 










































































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apt -qq list cockpit OR $ dpkg -l cockpit











































Optional Packages


If you plan to manage KVM virtual machines with cockpit then install following package:










































































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sudo apt install cockpit-machines -y











































By default, Cockpit does not provide support for podman. If you wish to administer and manage podman containers using Cockpit, install the cockpit-podman package which provides support for podman. 










































































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sudo apt install cockpit-podman y











































Starting Cockpit Web Console Service 


Unlike other services or daemons, Cockpit does not start automatically once installed. Therefore, start the Cockpit systemd service as shown. 










































































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sudo systemctl start cockpit











































Verify that the Cockpit service is running as follows. 










































































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sudo systemctl status cockpit











































Cockpit listens on TCP port 9090. You can verify this is the case by running the following ss command.










































































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$ ss -tunlpe | grep cockpit











































If the firewall is enabled on your Ubuntu 22.04 system, then allow 9090/tcp port so it’s web console can be accessed from outside 










































































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sudo ufw allow 9090/tcp

























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sudo ufw reload











































Access Cockpit Web Console


To access Cockpit Web console, browse the following address, where server-ip is the ip address of your server running the cockpit instance. 


https://server-ip:9090 


You will get a warning that the website you are accessing is not private and that you could fall victim to hackers. Do not fret, as this happens since the server is encrypted by a self-signed SSL certificate which is not recognized by CA. 


To get around this issue, simply click ‘Advanced’


Then click on ‘Proceed to server-ip’ link.







    
        

    


            

        

    


    


    
    

        

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