[HN Gopher] Cockpit - Integrated, glanceable, web-based interfac...
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Cockpit - Integrated, glanceable, web-based interface for servers
Author : gilad
Score : 89 points
Date : 2021-02-19 20:14 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (cockpit-project.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (cockpit-project.org)
| Finnucane wrote:
| I've been using cockpit and cockpit-machine at home to manage a
| Windows VM I need for work stuff. It works pretty well except I
| wish there was better documentation for configuration; I haven't
| yet got the VM to recognize that I have a 4k monitor.
| williesleg wrote:
| pssh is the bomb not this crap.
| 867-5309 wrote:
| searched linked page and documentation contents for "secu" - 0/0
| results found. can anyone vouch for its security?
| cheph wrote:
| https://cockpit-project.org/blog/is-cockpit-secure.html
|
| In short, most likely, unless you are reckless with it.
| cheph wrote:
| It is very nice but like other redhat stuff this somehow prevents
| browsers from saving passwords, or at least it did last I used
| it.
|
| EDIT: Actually they seem to have fixed it now. Nifty.
| java-man wrote:
| Would anyone be interested in a desktop application with similar
| functionality, accessing [multiple] hosts via SSH?
| teejmya wrote:
| https://www.royalapps.com/ does this. I'm a happy paying user
| of RoyalTS.
| indigodaddy wrote:
| I don't think just an ssh client is exactly what he is going
| for/talking about. Check out the GitHub he references further
| on down in this thread.
| codetrotter wrote:
| Depends. Open source or proprietary? Actually desktop or just
| electron? Are you going to maintain it? What use cases would it
| be intended for? Would the client software be available for
| macOS? Which GUI framework(s) would you be using?
| java-man wrote:
| proprietary, cross-platform desktop linux/mac/windows,
| javafx.
|
| use cases: server management and monitoring, log viewer, ssh
| terminals, parallel execution of commands, vnc, sftp, secure
| storage of credentials and keys.
|
| [0] https://github.com/andy-goryachev/AccessPanelPublic
| indigodaddy wrote:
| This is very cool actually.. neat idea! And this just uses
| ssh protocol for all communication? Nothing needs to be
| installed server-side right?
| java-man wrote:
| thank you!
|
| it's still far, far away from being useful.
| cheph wrote:
| Actually no, the web interface is really slick. I would not
| install a desktop app for it even if there was one.
| java-man wrote:
| you do need to install cockpit on [all] your server[s],
| right?
|
| i am trying to figure out if there is a business case for a
| desktop app. there is plenty of open source and commercial
| systems more or less similar to cockpit, and it's hard to
| compete with free
| johnchristopher wrote:
| I don't like having to install cockpit on every
| instance/devices. That means I have to keep all of them up
| to date in addition of installing them and configuring the
| devices to make it operable.
|
| I'd rather have a client-only app that connect through ssh
| and get its data from standard binaries installed on the
| server.
|
| So, yes. I'd give that a try.
| java-man wrote:
| any specific feature that would motivate you to shell out
| fifty bucks? (half-joke)
| johnchristopher wrote:
| As a hobbyist that'd be hard to justify. At work I manage
| two standard LAMP servers. So I am not really your
| audience.
|
| I think I'd like some kind of alerts on some specific
| events (disk space, some logs, IDK), systemctl management
| and status/reporting, some instantaneous "update as I
| type" filtering/searching in logs, cron and/or systemctl
| timer management, space usage graphics, booting reports,
| etc. ... maybe these are just things I usually do and
| think a GUI would be nice to have if I had to do it for
| multiple servers. Not enough experience with that in a
| professional setting though so take it all with a grain
| of salt.
|
| But as-is, I think I could justify asking for 50 bucks
| for the product if I needed it.
| Naac wrote:
| I set it up for my handrolled homelab server automation ( all
| Arch Linux servers ), back when I was doing everything with
| virsh.
|
| It worked "ok". It required pulling in a bunch of dependencies I
| wouldn't have normally installed. I had it set up behind an
| HAproxy LB, with ssl terminated at the LB. When I was using it ~1
| year ago, it was pretty buggy, and certain components would crash
| and I would have to restart the web page.
|
| Overall it was a mediocre experience, but I suppose better than
| having to ssh into every server. The main pain point was that I
| still had to go in to every server, and install cockpit.
|
| In the end, I ended up just moving on to Proxmox. But I suppose
| cockpit is nice if you don't want a centrally managed cluster,
| but still want a web interface.
| dang wrote:
| If curious see also
|
| _Cockpit - Administer Linux servers via a web browser_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16445612 - Feb 2018 (148
| comments)
| walrus01 wrote:
| I sure wouldn't rely on this to do anything serious, but it's
| better than the ancient/mediocre alternative (webmin)
| candiddevmike wrote:
| Friends don't let friends configure linux from a web UI. It's
| messy, built off of assumptions, and is ripe for exploitation.
| Plus, if all you ever use is a web UI, how are you supposed to
| troubleshoot or fix the machine when said web UI stops working?
|
| If you're looking for pretty, single host, read-only monitoring
| dashboards though, checkout Netdata: https://www.netdata.cloud/
| blackrock wrote:
| I would say it's easier to just fix your web UI. And if that
| fails then revert to SSH and the command line.
|
| Webmin is pretty useful.
| reidjs wrote:
| I installed on one of my ubuntu servers and allowed port 9090,
| but when I try accessing it from chrome it gives me a warning
| page
|
| "You cannot (IP) right now because the website sent scrambled
| credentials that Google Chrome cannot process."
|
| Is this because I run a NGINX server from that box?
| walrus01 wrote:
| sounds like a TLS cert error related to a 'snakeoil' self
| signed cert or something
| pmontra wrote:
| Do you have an expired self signed certificate on that server?
| See https://support.google.com/chrome/thread/10551759?hl=en
| wolfhumble wrote:
| Is there a way in Cockpit to log the actual commands run by the
| system to e.g. format/partition a storage device, create Virtual
| Networks etc?
| rudasn wrote:
| Anybody uses this in production? Is it good/suitable for managing
| servers (bare metal) behind VPN?
| farisjarrah wrote:
| I haven't used this in production as something like this gets a
| bit out of hand once you need to manage more then like 5
| machines. However, for home setups or a very small office, this
| works great. I've used it on and off for years for my home
| servers. Its really nice to just be able to restart a service
| without having to whip out a ssh client, just log into a
| webpage on your phone and you can fully manage your server.
| TwoNineA wrote:
| I prefer virt-manager to Cockpit's VM management, way more
| feature complete.
| cheph wrote:
| Cockpit is not ever going to be as good as using the underlying
| tools it integrates with, but it is still pretty nice for what
| it is and I like having it.
| spijdar wrote:
| I haven't really kept up with this, but last I heard virt-
| manager was deprecated (on RHEL at least) in favor of just
| Cockpit, hence the comparison.
|
| Cockpit is definitely nice, but it still feels pretty
| incomplete compared to virt-manager.
|
| virt-manager appears to still be developed, though, just
| without the same blessing/level of support from Red Hat.
| znpy wrote:
| For VM management I agree with you. For other things cockpit is
| mostly fine.
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(page generated 2021-02-19 23:00 UTC)