Cockpit is a free and open-source web based server management software. It has a pretty web console which allows system administrators to easily perform tasks such as storage administration, network configuration, starting Docker containers, check out the server performance, start and stop services and many other administrative operations. Some of the awesome benefits of Cockpit in our GNU/Linux servers are as follows:
- It consists of systemd service manager for ease.
- It has a Journal log viewer to perform troubleshoots and log analysis.
- Storage setup including LVM was never easier before.
- Basic Network configuration can be applied with Cockpit
- We can easily add and remove local users and manage multiple servers.
In this tutorial, you will learn how to install the latest version of Cockpit on CentOS 8.
On Centos 8/7 and RHEL 8
Update system packages
Before we install Cockpit packages, we need to update the system:
$ sudo yum -y update CentOS-8 - AppStream 1.7 kB/s | 4.3 kB 00:02 CentOS-8 - Base 1.2 kB/s | 3.8 kB 00:03 CentOS-8 - Extras 1.4 kB/s | 1.5 kB 00:01 Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64 12 kB/s | 32 kB 00:02 Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64 86 kB/s | 1.7 MB 00:20 Dependencies resolved. Nothing to do. Complete!
Since the Centos 8 was just released, at the time of writing this article, there are no updates yet.
Installing Cockpit packages from repository
In Centos 8, the Cockpit packages are included in the extras repository by default and you can install it right away, unlike with Centos 7 where you needed to add epel repo first. We initiate the Cockpit installation with the following command:
$ sudo yum install cockpit
$ sudo yum install cockpit Last metadata expiration check: 0:04:25 ago on Thu 26 Sep 2019 03:10:41 PM UTC. Dependencies resolved. ================================================================================ Package Arch Version ================================================================================ Installing: cockpit x86_64 185.1-1.el8_0 Installing dependencies: PackageKit x86_64 1.1.12-2.el8 PackageKit-glib x86_64 1.1.12-2.el8 cairo x86_64 1.15.12-3.el8 cairo-gobject x86_64 1.15.12-3.el8 libX11 x86_64 1.6.7-1.el8 libX11-common noarch 1.6.7-1.el8 libXau x86_64 1.0.8-13.el8 libXext x86_64 1.3.3-9.el8 libXrender x86_64 0.9.10-7.el8 libxcb x86_64 1.13-5.el8 pixman x86_64 0.36.0-1.el8 python3-cairo x86_64 1.16.3-6.el8 python3-gobject x86_64 3.28.3-1.el8 python3-systemd x86_64 234-8.el8 setroubleshoot-plugins noarch 3.3.10-1.el8 checkpolicy x86_64 2.8-2.el8 ..... Transaction Summary ================================================================================ Install 42 Packages Total download size: 16 M Installed size: 46 M Is this ok [y/N]:
Type "y" and it will start downloading and installing the required packages.
On Fedora
Alike, CentOS, it is also available by default in Fedora's official repository, we'll simply install cockpit using dnf package manager.
# dnf install cockpit
On Arch Linux
Cockpit is currently not available in the official repository of Arch Linux but it is available in the Arch User Repository also know as AUR. So, we'll simply run the following yaourt command to install it.
# yaourt cockpit
On Ubuntu
Use apt command to install cockpit on ubuntu or debian
sudo apt update sudo apt -y install cockpit sudo systemctl status cockpit
Allow port 9090 on firewall
sudo ufw allow 9090
Enable and Start Cockpit service
We must now enable the Cockpit with the following command:
$ sudo systemctl enable --now cockpit.socket Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/sockets.target.wants/cockpit.socket → /usr/lib/systemd/system/cockpit.socket.
And start the Cockpit with:
$ sudo systemctl start cockpit
Setting up the firewall
Finally, let's make sure the firewall will not block the Cockpit. By default, you shouldn't have any problems reaching Cockpit, but just in case we will open up the required ports using the following commands:
$ sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-service=cockpit Warning: ALREADY_ENABLED: cockpit success $ sudo firewall-cmd --reload success
As you can see, the Cockpit was already added to firewall rules. But it is better to run this just in case, and avoid possible problems with the firewall.
The installation of the Cockpit is now complete, you can access the dashboard by navigating to the following URL:
https://localhost:9090
If you have a static IP address, you can type your IP instead "localhost" to access Cockpit from anywhere.
Logging into Cockpit
When navigating to the Cockpit URL, you may be prompted with a security warning about the SSL certificate of the site as it is self-signed. You can ignore the warning and proceed to the login area. Log into the Cockpit using the superuser credentials.
Upon login, you will be greeted by the system info and resource monitor page:
Adding new server to Cockpit
Cockpit Accounts Page
Cockpit KernelDump page
Cockpit Networking page
Cockpit SELinux Page
Cockpit Services Page
Cockpit Terminal
Conclusion
Cockpit is a must have tool for admins and developers alike. Once you start using it, you'll have it installed on all of your Linux servers. As we saw in this tutorial, the Cockpit is one great Linux server management tool. If you have comments and questions, please post them below in the comment section.
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