The RHEL/CentOS web console is an open source project called Cockpit
that provides a user-friendly web interface allowing for the remote
administration of servers.
Starting with RHEL/CentOS 7, the cockpit package provides a powerful
and extensible web console for system administration.
Cockpit is installed by default on RHEL/CentOS 8, which is why you may
see a login message on screen
"Activate the web console with: systemctl enable --now cockpit.socket"
every time you connect to your RHEL/CentOS 8 box.
As told earlier, cockpit should be installed by default on your
RHEL/CentOS 8 Linux server
But if not installed, you can manually install it using
[dnf or yum. I hope you are already aware of
YUM alternative DNF tool - We will also need cockpit-machines to add a new plugin in cockpit which we will use to create KVM virtual machine using Cockpit [root@rhel-8 ~]# dnf install -y cockpit cockpit-machines Below are the cockpit rpm versions used in this article [root@rhel-8 ~]# rpm -q cockpit cockpit-196.3-1.el8.x86_64 [root@rhel-8 ~]# rpm -q cockpit-machines cockpit-machines-197.3-1.el8.noarch --- ## Enable and start Cockpit - The cockpit service is handled by cockpit.socket - So you don't need to worry about cockpit.service (unless it is masked) - You just need to start and enable cockpit.socket [root@rhel-8 ~]# systemctl enable cockpit.socket --now Check the status of the socket [root@rhel-8 ~]# systemctl status cockpit.socket ● cockpit.socket - Cockpit Web Service Socket Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/cockpit.socket; enabled; vendor preset: disabled) Active: active (listening) since Wed 2020-04-29 01:45:39 IST; 4 days ago Docs: man:cockpit-ws(8) Listen: [::]:9090 (Stream) Tasks: 0 (limit: 26213) Memory: 2.4M CGroup: /system.slice/cockpit.socket - It is possible that cockpit.service is dead. This is because currently there are no incoming request for the cockpit.service - As soon as cockpit.socket received a request, it will start the service automatically [root@rhel-8 ~]# systemctl status cockpit ● cockpit.service - Cockpit Web Service Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/cockpit.service; static; vendor preset: disabled) Active: inactive (dead) Docs: man:cockpit-ws(8) Apr 29 01:45:39 rhel-8.example.com systemd[1]: Starting Cockpit Web Service Socket. Apr 29 01:45:39 rhel-8.example.com systemd[1]: Listening on Cockpit Web Service Socket. --- ## Enable Firewall for Cockpit By default there should be a rule to allow cockpit.service [root@rhel-8 ~]# firewall-cmd --list-services cockpit dhcpv6-client ssh But if it is not present you can create a new firewall rule to allow cockpit in firewalld # firewall-cmd --add-service=cockpit --permanent # firewall-cmd --reload --- ## Access Cockpit Web Console GUI After you enable and start cockpit.socket, next you can access your cockpit web console GUI: ### Connect using browser Open browser and in address link put : http://server-ip:9090 or http://localhost:9090 ### Connect using CLI From command line as root or non-root user you can launch firefox. $ firefox server-ip:9090 or $ firefox localhost:9090 Login as any Linux system user by providing the username and password. Below is the Cockpit web console login screen,--- ## Configure Bridged Network - You can either
configure Bridged Network or any other type of Network which will be used when we create KVM Virtual Machine using Cockpit - You can
create network using nmcli tool, or
using ip tool or you can also configure bridged network using Cockpit web console GUI - In my case I already had created bridged network, but I will share the screenshots from Cockpit web console so you can also create one for your use case - I already have created nm-bridge as my Bridged Interface and virbr0 which is system's default bridge interface.--- ## Create KVM Virtual Machine using Cockpit To create KVM Virtual Machine using Cockpit or any other method, it is important that all KVM related rpms and installed and modules are loaded on your Linux server host On the Cockpit web console, click on "Virtual Machines" from the left panel. If you have not installed cockpit-machines then you won't get this option on Cockpit Web Console. In my case I already have different virtual machines running on my KVM host. You can ignore them for now.After you click on "Create VM", you will get a pop up screen where you must provide details of your new VM I had already downloaded CentOS 8 ISO](/another-app-is-currently-holding-the-yum-lock/) and have kept it under /tmp to create KVM Virtual Machine
using Cockpit
[root@rhel-8 ~]# ls -l /tmp/CentOS-8.1.1911-x86_64-dvd1.iso
-rw-r--r--. 1 qemu qemu 7554990080 Jan 4 03:17 /tmp/CentOS-8.1.1911-x86_64-dvd1.iso
We will provide the path to this ISO under "Installation
Source"
Next provide other details for your VM such as
Disk Size,
Memory, OS Vendor. At the time of writing this article,
CentOS 8 was not shown under
list of OS Vendor so I have selected CentOS 7.
Lastly click on Create to create KVM Virtual Machine using Cockpit
In the next step, you will be again on the main section of "Virtual
Machines" and a new VM will have been created if all was successful.
You can check the VM's details, such as attached Disks, Network
Interfacesby selecting the respective TAB menu for the respective VM.
Currently at the time of writing this article, Cockpit does not
supports many important features required to manage KVM Virtual Machine.
You can get the complete list of missing features between Cockpit Web
Console and Virtual Manager from Red
Hat's documentation
Next click on Install to start the Installation Process which will
automatically re-direct you to the Console of the VM.
You can also click on Consoles to access the console of the VM using
VNC.
From the drop down menu you can choose to access console using serial
console or using virt-viewer
You can next follow the steps to install your respective OS on the
KVM VM
The Virtual Machine which we created using Cockpit will also be
accessible using
virt-manager
and virsh. You can use virt-manager to manage the Virtual Machine
which currently provides more list of features to modify and manage the
KVM Virtual Machines
Founder of GoLinuxCloud with over a decade of expertise in Linux, Python, Go, Laravel, DevOps, Kubernetes, Git, Shell scripting, OpenShift, AWS, Networking, and Security. With extensive experience, he excels across development, DevOps, networking, and security, delivering robust and efficient solutions for diverse projects.
