Front Seat
Keep All Your Linux Servers in Check
Photo by Kent Pilcher on Unsplash
Use the browser-based Cockpit tool to monitor and administer multiple Linux servers without leaving your desk.
Special Thanks: This article was made possible by support from Linux Professional Institute
Managing a herd of computers is no small feat, which is why a system administrator is only as good as his or her tools. Keeping an eye on the different computers in the network requires a lot of work. You can spend a lot of time configuring various components and setting up scripts to ease some aspects of monitoring and administration. If you are short of time, though, there’s nothing better than Cockpit. Cockpit is easy to deploy, and you can use it to connect and manage machines across the network, start and stop services, inspect logs, manage storage, visualize system performance, and even deploy and control containers via Docker. Although designed for administrators, Cockpit’s lightweight and intuitive interface makes it ideal for home servers and small businesses.
Cockpit doesn’t take over or lock the administration duties at any time; if you tweak certain networking settings using the web-based interface, you can undo these settings from your server’s command line or vice versa. Also, Cockpit dynamically updates itself (Figure 1), so any changes you make to the server will be reflected on the browser interface within a few seconds. For instance, if you were to add a new Logical Virtual Manager (LVM) to the server, it would be available to the Cockpit interface for manipulation almost immediately.
[...]
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
-
Linux Kernel 6.17 is Available
Linus Torvalds has announced that the latest kernel has been released with plenty of core improvements and even more hardware support.
-
Kali Linux 2025.3 Released with New Hacking Tools
If you're a Kali Linux fan, you'll be glad to know that the third release of this famous pen-testing distribution is now available with updates for key components.
-
Zorin OS 18 Beta Available for Testing
The latest release from the team behind Zorin OS is ready for public testing, and it includes plenty of improvements to make it more powerful, user-friendly, and productive.
-
Fedora Linux 43 Beta Now Available for Testing
Fedora Linux 43 Beta ships with Gnome 49 and KDE Plasma 6.4 (and other goodies).
-
USB4 Maintainer Leaves Intel
Michael Jamet, one of the primary maintainers of USB4 and Thunderbolt drivers, has left Intel, leaving a gaping hole for the Linux community to deal with.
-
Budgie 10.9.3 Now Available
The latest version of this elegant and configurable Linux desktop aligns with changes in Gnome 49.
-
KDE Linux Alpha Available for Daring Users
It's official, KDE Linux has arrived, but it's not quite ready for prime time.
-
AMD Initiates Graphics Driver Updates for Linux Kernel 6.18
This new AMD update focuses on power management, display handling, and hardware support for Radeon GPUs.
-
AerynOS Alpha Release Available
With a choice of several desktop environments, AerynOS 2025.08 is almost ready to be your next operating system.
-
AUR Repository Still Under DDoS Attack
Arch User Repository continues to be under a DDoS attack that has been going on for more than two weeks.