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Cockpit is a web-based graphical interface for servers

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Re: Cockpit is a web-based graphical interface for servers

#31

Post by bookwar »

drnick1 wrote: post #26

What is the use case for this over standard command line tools like systemctl, journalctl, top, docker ps?

The main difference of Cockpit as opposed to more old school visual server administration tools that it doesn't replace standard server management approaches with its own configuration storage in some weird database.

Edits which you make through cockpit and edits which you make through cli are exactly the same edits in same APIs. You do not need to choose one or the over. You can switch from one to the other seamlessly on a command by command basis.

Re: Cockpit is a web-based graphical interface for servers

#34

Post by cprecioso »

bookwar wrote: post #25

Question from a Cockpit PO: if you were to choose one feature to add to the project what that feature would be?

- Easy OIDC - Generally improve the file manager addon - ncdu-like addon - interface to create simple systemd services - more visibility into which commands you can run to do the same thing

Re: Cockpit is a web-based graphical interface for servers

#35

Post by whalesalad »

TimTheTinker wrote: post #32

I used Webmin[0] back in the day, I wonder how more recent server web UIs like Cockpit stack up. [0] https://webmin.com/

It's neutered and not as full featured, but not bad in a pinch. All of these web admin tools are hacks that call out to shell scripts and whatnot. It requires a lot of conditional behavior and/or vertical integration. "Linux" has no consistent API for control, so its all duct tape. Webmin is the same, tbh (swap perl for whatever cockpit is written in)

45Drives uses cockpit as the UI layer of their "Houston" operating system. https://www.45drives.com/community/articles/New-Operating-Sy...

Re: Cockpit is a web-based graphical interface for servers

#36

Post by drnick1 »

teaearlgraycold wrote: post #27
drnick1 wrote: post #26

What is the use case for this over standard command line tools like systemctl, journalctl, top, docker ps?

Web UIs are nicer to deal with for simpler tasks. You can use this on your phone easily. Less technical users can be instructed on how to perform simple tasks like remotely powering off a machine.

Is the overhead of such tools, and added attack surface, justified over sshing and issuing a shutdown command though?

Re: Cockpit is a web-based graphical interface for servers

#37

Post by Scene_Cast2 »

bookwar wrote: post #25

Question from a Cockpit PO: if you were to choose one feature to add to the project what that feature would be?

Some more love for the updates page. E.g. select a subset of updates to install, be more clear that the last update time could be different if you installed updates via CLI, that kind of thing.

Re: Cockpit is a web-based graphical interface for servers

#39

Post by KronisLV »

9dev wrote: post #22
Gabrys1 wrote: post #18

I tried using this to handle my 10-ish Docker containers, but I ended up using Portainer. Sure, not the same thing, but if someone (like me) thought Cockpit might be nice for managing a small Docker host, this didn't work for me

Going for a shameless plug - I am working on an observability dashboard for Docker Swarm: https://github.com/Radiergummi/cetacean Also works for a single node cluster. Maybe that’s closer to what you’re looking for.

Hey that’s pretty cool, nice to see someone paying attention to Docker Swarm (it’s nice for simple deployments, like multi-server Compose). You might want to add some screenshots to the docs though.

There was also Swarmpit but it didn’t really get that much love, sadly: https://github.com/swarmpit/swarmpit/issues/719

Portainer is pretty nice feature wise but even with lowered MTU I still get odd networking related issues (seems like the agent or whatever cannot reach the manager sometimes) but I’ve had those sorts of issues across multiple different clusters, both in cloud and on-prem with single leader setups and across both RPM and DEB only clusters. Weird stuff, otherwise perhaps the most established solution for Docker Swarm.

Re: Cockpit is a web-based graphical interface for servers

#40

Post by Scene_Cast2 »

girvo wrote: post #3

Cockpit is great! My NAS (built on a weird “N17” AMD 7840HS laptop processor put into a desktop “server”mITX motherboard by those wizards in China) stuck in a Jonsbo N2 with 5x4TB Samsung 870 evos in ZFS raidz1 is entirely managed by it I keep meaning to look into making plugins for it, but honestly I’ve barely needed to. Cockpit, the 45drives ZFS plugin fork, and the web terminal have been more than enough for me

Same here. Using it on two boxes, makes Linux sysadmin work easier.
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