Manage CentOS / RHEL / Rocky Linux using Cockpit Web

This guide will show you how to manage CentOS / RHEL / Rocky / Alma Linux from Cockpit web console. Cockpit is a free and open-source web-based administration console for Linux systems – CentOS, RHEL, Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian, Arch e.t.c. The cockpit is pre-installed with CentOS 8|RHEL 8 Base operating system – both server and workstation. It allows you to monitor and adjust system configurations with ease.

Cockpit Features of Cockpit

Cockpit allows you to perform the following system operations:

• Service Management – Start, stop, restart, reload, disable, enable, mask e.t.c
• User Account Management – Add users, delete, Lock, assign Administrator role, set password, force password change, Add Public SSH keys e.t.c.
• Firewall Management
• Cockpit Container management
• SELinux Policy management
• Journal v2
• iSCSI Initiator configurations
• SOS-reporting
• NFS Client setup
• Configure OpenConnect VPN Server
• Privileged Actions – Shutdown, Restart system
• Join Machine to Domain
• Hardware Device Management
• System Updates for dnf, yum, apt hosts
• Manage the Kubernetes Node

Install Cockpit

The Cockpit web interface is installed by default, but it is not activated. Before you can use it, ensure it is installed and service started.

sudo dnf -y install cockpit

Once Cockpit has been installed on CentOS 8, start and enable the service.

 sudo systemctl enable --now cockpit.socket

If you have activated firewalld service, allow Cockpit port to be accessed from machines within the network.

sudo firewall-cmd --add-service=cockpit --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

Add support for Podman containers

sudo dnf -y install cockpit-podman

Add Cockpit user interface for virtual machines:

sudo dnf -y install cockpit-machines

Access Cockpit Web Console

The Cockpit web console can be accessed on the URL [https://(serverip or hostname):9090/].

The login screen should be displayed as shown above. Login with a local admin user added during installation or root user account. The system overview page should show up next.

Use the left panel to choose a configuration option to do on your CentOS 8|RHEL 8 server. The example below will enable automatic updates on CentOS 8 system.

This is done on Software Updates > Automatic Updates

The “ON” button should turn blue, indicating the system will be updated automatically.

Using Cockpit Terminal

There’s an embedded terminal in Cockpit which gives you flexibility to jump between a terminal and the web interface at any time.

Explore more Cockpit features such as multiple servers management from a single Cockpit session.

Recommended Linux Books  to read:

• Best Linux Books for Beginners & Experts
• Best Linux Kernel Programming Books
• Best Linux Bash Scripting Books