Managing servers with the Cockpit admin tool
From the Cockpit
© Lead Image © Valery Kachaev, 123rf.com
Meet Cockpit, an easy management tool that lets you watch your Linux servers from a convenient, web-based interface.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if you could configure and control all your Linux systems from one friendly interface? More than twenty years ago, the answer to this wish was a project called Linuxconf [1], which stopped development in 2005 and is hardly missed. Linuxconf tried to do too much at once, too often in ways that clashed with the default management tools of most distributions. After Linuxconf came Webmin [2], which is still actively developed and useful; however, in my opinion, Webmin has a dated interface, and you need relatively good knowledge of Linux to use it properly.
The quest for a better admin tool led to the start of the Cockpit project [3] a few years ago. Cockpit is a free and open source, web-based interface for managing Linux systems. The official goals of the Cockpit project are to make "Linux servers usable by non-expert admins" and to make "complex Linux features discoverable" [4]. Cockpit is supported by Red Hat, but you can run it on any distribution. This tutorial explains how Cockpit works and how and why it might help you with simplifying and consolidating your Linux management tasks.
Advantages and Limits
The first thing to know about Cockpit is that it is not a configuration management system like Ansible [5] or Puppet [6]. You cannot tell Cockpit "I want all my Linux boxes to look like this" and then take a stroll while it executes your wishes. This limitation is also its strength, because Cockpit is deliberately light and therefore easy to use.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Ubuntu 25.04 Coming Soon
Ubuntu 25.04 (Plucky Puffin) has been given an April release date with many notable updates.
-
Gnome Developers Consider Dropping RPM Support
In a move that might shock a lot of users, the Gnome development team has proposed the idea of going straight up Flatpak.
-
openSUSE Tumbleweed Ditches AppArmor for SELinux
If you're an openSUSE Tumbleweed user, you can expect a major change to the distribution.
-
Plasma 6.3 Now Available
Plasma desktop v6.3 has a couple of pretty nifty tricks up its sleeve.
-
LibreOffice 25.2 Has Arrived
If you've been hoping for a release that offers more UI customizations, you're in for a treat.
-
TuxCare Has a Big AlmaLinux 9 Announcement in Store
TuxCare announced it has successfully completed a Security Technical Implementation Guide for AlmaLinux OS 9.
-
First Release Candidate for Linux Kernel 6.14 Now Available
Linus Torvalds has officially released the first release candidate for kernel 6.14 and it includes over 500,000 lines of modified code, making for a small release.
-
System76 Refreshes Meerkat Mini PC
If you're looking for a small form factor PC powered by Linux, System76 has exactly what you need in the Meerkat mini PC.
-
Gnome 48 Alpha Ready for Testing
The latest Gnome desktop alpha is now available with plenty of new features and improvements.
-
Wine 10 Includes Plenty to Excite Users
With its latest release, Wine has the usual crop of bug fixes and improvements, along with some exciting new features.