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Server administration using Cockpit

Control Center

Article from ADMIN 28/2015

By Tim Schürmann

Cockpit makes it easy to manage Linux servers: Four mouse clicks in the browser restart the crashed web server, and four more interconnect the server's network interfaces. Pilots flying in this cockpit, though, have to cope with a few limitations.

Cockpit [1] lets you manage a remote Linux system through a browser window. An administrator can take a look at the systemd journal, check the load, and start and stop services. Thanks to responsive design, the user interface automatically adapts to different screen sizes which, in turn, facilitates easy access via smartphones.

You can also easily switch to the command line, start web servers there, and create new user accounts at any time. They then appear in the web application, and you can use them to manage multiple Linux systems. To this end, just draw attention to Cockpit on the remaining servers, on which the software must also be running.

This functionality makes Cockpit – developed by Red Hat – similar to the well-known Webmin [2]. The user interface which, according to self-promotion, is easy to use and "very lightweight" especially appeals to less experienced administrators. However, Cockpit is also suitable for managing a home server or smaller business networks. Users should not mistake the tool licensed under LGPL 2.1 for the similarly named openITCOCKPIT [3].

All Inclusive

Red Hat has not even been working on Cockpit for a full two years. The work on it can now be done openly on GitHub [4], but those who observe the project will note its closeness to Red Hat (e.g., the distribution used). Also, Fedora 21 Server, CentOS Atomic, and RHEL Atomic are already preinstalling the tool for server management. Fedora 21 Workstation and Arch Linux only have finished packages. In Fedora 21 Workstation, the command