Analyzing and Managing Remote Servers
Published: 2022-10-02 03:53:33

**Describing the Web Console**
Cockpit is a web-based interface for Linux servers with a friendly interface where you can manage storage, networking, firewall, and containers, to name a few. You can even open a terminal session right on your web browser for when you
u need to break out the command line!
You can use Web Console to monitor system logs and view graphs of system performance. Additionally, you can use your web browser to change settings using graphical tools in the Web Console interface, including a fully-functional interactive terminal session
**Enabling the Web Console**
installs Web Console by default in all installation variants except a minimal installation. Use the following command to install Web Console:

```
[Rull@01-xitjkt2 ~]$ sudo yum install cockpit
```
Enable and start the cockpit.socket service, which runs a web server. This step is necessary if you need to connect to the system through the web interface.

```
[Rull@01-xitjkt2 ~]$ sudo systemctl enable --now cockpit.socket
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/sockets.target.wants/cockpit.socket -> /usr/lib/systemd/system/cockpit.socket.
```
If you are using a custom firewall profile, you need to add the cockpit service to firewalld to open port 9090 in the firewall:

```
[Rull@01-xitjkt2 ~]$ sudo firewall-cmd --add-service=cockpit --permanent
success
[Rull@01-xitjkt2 ~]$ sudo firewall-cmd --reload
success
```
**Access and login**
The default listen port is 9090. To access the Cockpit interface on a server, just point your browser to hostname:9090. You can use localhost:9090 for the local server where you are logged on. Log in with a common account, as it will be advantageous to have root privileges on this account.

To access other servers remotely, you would use their hostname, e.g., https://hostname:9090. However, you could designate one host as a management server and add all your servers to the Dashboard for a unified view.

Once you log in, the first screen you see is the Dashboard; the other option is Host view.

**Dashboard view**
The Dashboard view is clean and uncluttered. The image below shows a performance monitor for all of a system's connected servers. It graphs CPU, memory, network, and disk I/O. If this is your first run and you haven't yet connected any servers, you will see graphs for the local system only.
Add a server by clicking the blue plus (+) button.
After you add servers, scroll down to see the full list. I have a few systems set up already.

**Host view**
Host view is where all the fun begins. This section shows and gives access to each server added to the Dashboard. The main area of interest here is the column toward the left that includes Overview, Logs, Storage, Networking, and a few other items, with Terminal at the bottom. Clicking on each item enables you to manage these parts of the system. The items in this section can vary depending on other features that may be installed.

**Overview**
When you select a server, the Host screen opens to the Overview section with controls for the specific host system. The Overview screen is divided into quadrants for Health, Usage, Configuration, and System information.
Usage links to a detailed performance graph view, and System information links to hardware details. Some management controls are directly available on this screen. For example, you can change the system hostname or join the server to an enterprise domain.

**Storage**
In this image of the Storage section, the top part has a graph of read/write activity, and below that is a list of local filesystems. Further down, you can add NFS mounts or view logs. You can even create RAID devices and volume groups.

**Networking**
The Networking section allows you to manage firewall and network interfaces. You can edit firewall rules and zones and manipulate networking with bonding, teaming, bridges, and VLANs.

**Software updates**
Being able to apply updates on servers remotely is super-convenient. Even a family may have five or 10 computers. But an enterprise with hundreds or thousands of headless servers racked in a dry, dark data center miles away definitely needs this capability. The Software updates section lists the updates available to you.
You can select whether to install all updates or just those related to security, and Cockpit displays a progress bar while updates are installed. Once the process is complete, you can restart the system.

**Terminal**
The last item in Host view is a Terminal, where you can do all the normal command-line options. One way I've used the Terminal is to overcome inconsistencies in Cockpit feature sets, most likely due to Linux version differences

**Applications**
You may have noticed that I skipped the Applications section in Host view. This section deserves your attention because it can manipulate the view and functionality of your Cockpit service. From here, you can install additional functionality or applications, such as 389 LDAP Server or tools for collecting diagnostic reports and kernel dumps or building server images. The Machines section enables virtual machine management, and Podman provides container management capabilities. Once you have Cockpit up and running, it's a good idea to explore the Applications section.
**THAT'S ALL FROM ME, THANKS**