Make administering all your Cockpit-enabled servers even easier with the help of the Cockpit Customer desktop application.
Cockpit is a really powerful tool that enables you to manage a number of aspects, such as Podman containers, users, storage, networking, services, SELinux, software application updates and with the assistance of extra plugins, much more.
Cockpit is discovered on most RHEL-based Linux operating systems and can be set up on Ubuntu-based systems from the basic repositories with a command like sudo apt-get set up cockpit -y.
Cockpit is traditionally managed by a web-based user interface, but for those who prefer a desktop client, there is an application. Cockpit Client supplies a very simple-to-use GUI to make it even simpler to handle your servers. All connections are made through SSH utilizing the SHH configuration for the regional user and all servers must have Cockpit set up. The bonus offer is that the Cockpit web server doesn’t need to be allowed, and no additional ports are exposed.
I want to reveal you how to install Cockpit Client and then connect it to your Cockpit-enabled server.
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What you’ll require
To make this work, you’ll require a Linux distribution that supports Flatpak and 1 or more servers with Cockpit set up. That’s it.
How to install Cockpit Client
If you’re using an RHEL-based Linux circulation, possibilities are great Flatpak is currently installed. If you’re utilizing a Ubuntu-based distribution, Flatpak is probably not installed. The bright side is it’s quite simple to include. Here’s how.
- Log into your Ubuntu-based desktop and open a terminal window.
- Set up Flatpak with the command sudo apt-get install flatpak.
- Add the Flathub repository with flatpak remote-add– if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
At this point, Flatpak is set up and ready to go. Let’s now install Cockpit Customer with the command:
flatpak install cockpitclient
You’ll be asked if you wish to set up to the system (1) or simply for the user (2 ), so type to choose your option. Next, type y to choose the default stable option. Lastly, type y to verify the setup.
How to link Cockpit Client to a server
Once the Cockpit Customer is set up, open it from your desktop menu and you’ll be prompted for the IP address of your first Cockpit-enabled server (Figure A).
Figure A
The Cockpit first-run wizard makes it basic to connect to a server. Something to keep in mind is that with this preliminary connection, you don’t get the opportunity to include a username. This means you must have a user account with admin advantages on the remote Cockpit machine that matches the one you’re using on your desktop. After you add the preliminary connection, all other Cockpit hosts can be set up with different usernames. Why this is the case, I have no idea.
Do not add the 9090 port to the address, as the app isn’t in fact linking to the web server but instead via SSH. You’ll then be triggered for your user password for the remote server.
Upon effective authentication, you’ll be presented with the Cockpit Client default window, showing exactly what you ‘d expect from Cockpit (Figure B).
Figure B
Our Cockpit Customer setup has effectively connected with an AlmaLinux server.
How to add more hosts
Adding another host to manage in the Cockpit Client is equally as basic. Click the drop-down at the top of the left sidebar and choose Include New Host from the pop-up (Figure C).
Figure C
You can include as numerous hosts as required in Cockpit Customer. In the resulting pop-up (Figure D), type the IP address or hostname of the remote server and after that type a username– one with admin advantages found on the remote maker.
Figure D
Including a new host in Cockpit Client. Click Add, and when triggered, click Accept Key
and Link(Figure E). 
Figure E Accepting the key from the remote device just happens on
the first connection. If SSH Secret Authentication isn’t enabled, you’ll then be prompted for your user password to License the SSH secret for automatic logins (Figure F).
Figure F
Allowing automatic logins by means of SSH secret is a wise alternative to take.
Click Login and your new host is included. Keep adding hosts till all of your Cockpit-enabled Linux servers are accessible from Cockpit Customer.
This is a really handy tool to have for anybody who manages numerous Linux servers. Although you can’t do everything with Cockpit, it definitely makes it simple to do a lot of your common admin tasks. Give this tool a try and see if it does not become your go-to connection to Cockpit.
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