Running Cockpit

If you already have Cockpit on your server, point your web browser to: https://ip-address-of-machine:9090

Use your system user account and password to log in. See the guide for more info.

After installing Cockpit itself, consider installing additional applications in Cockpit.

Cockpit is developed with and has automated tests for:

  • Mozilla Firefox
  • Google Chrome

Cockpit is also periodically checked with:

Your current browser should work with Cockpit.
Sorry! Your current browser appears to lack necessary features.

Minimum client browser versions

The following browsers (and up) may also work with Cockpit:

  • Mozilla Firefox 77
  • Google Chrome 85
  • Microsoft Edge 85
  • Apple Safari 13.4

However, we strongly encourage you to use the latest version of your browser for security reasons.

Installation & Setup

  Supported Tested Included  
Fedora View instructions
Red Hat Enterprise Linux View instructions
Fedora CoreOS View instructions
CentOS View instructions
Debian GNU/Linux View instructions
Ubuntu View instructions
Clear Linux     View instructions
Arch Linux     View instructions
openSUSE Tumbleweed     View instructions

Fedora

Cockpit comes installed by default in Fedora Server.

To install Cockpit on other variants of Fedora use the following commands. For the latest versions use COPR.

  1. Install cockpit:
    sudo dnf install cockpit
    
  2. Enable cockpit:
    sudo systemctl enable --now cockpit.socket
    
  3. Open the firewall if necessary:
    sudo firewall-cmd --add-service=cockpit
    sudo firewall-cmd --add-service=cockpit --permanent
    

Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Cockpit is included in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 and later.

  1. On RHEL 7, enable the Extras repository.
    sudo subscription-manager repos --enable rhel-7-server-extras-rpms
    

    RHEL 8 does not need any non-default repositories.

  2. Install cockpit:
    sudo yum install cockpit
    
  3. Enable cockpit:
    sudo systemctl enable --now cockpit.socket
    
  4. On RHEL 7, or if you use non-default zones on RHEL 8, open the firewall:
    sudo firewall-cmd --add-service=cockpit
    sudo firewall-cmd --add-service=cockpit --permanent
    

Fedora CoreOS

The standard Fedora CoreOS image does not contain Cockpit packages.

  1. Install Cockpit packages as overlay RPMs:
    rpm-ostree install cockpit-system cockpit-ostree cockpit-podman
    

    Depending on your configuration, you may want to use other cockpit-* extensions as well, such as cockpit-kdump or cockpit-networkmanager.

    If you have a custom-built OSTree, simply include the same packages in your build.

  2. Reboot

Steps 1 and 2 are enough when the CoreOS machine is only connected to through another host running Cockpit.

If you want to also run a web server to log in directly on the CoreOS host:

  1. Enable password based SSH logins, unless you only use SSO logins:
    echo 'PasswordAuthentication yes' | sudo tee /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/02-enable-passwords.conf
    sudo systemctl try-restart sshd
    
  2. Run the Cockpit web service with a privileged container (as root):
    podman container runlabel --name cockpit-ws RUN docker.io/cockpit/ws
    
  3. Make Cockpit start on boot:
    podman container runlabel INSTALL docker.io/cockpit/ws
    systemctl enable cockpit.service
    

Afterward, use a web browser to log into port 9090 on your host IP address as usual.

CentOS

Cockpit is included in CentOS 7.x:

  1. Install cockpit:
    sudo yum install cockpit
    
  2. Enable cockpit:
    sudo systemctl enable --now cockpit.socket
    
  3. Open the firewall if necessary:
    sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-service=cockpit
    sudo firewall-cmd --reload
    

Debian

Cockpit is included in Debian since version 10 (Buster).

  1. To get the latest version, we recommend to enable the backports repository. For Debian 10:
    echo 'deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster-backports main' > \
     /etc/apt/sources.list.d/backports.list
    apt update
    

    For Debian 11:

    echo 'deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-backports main' > \
     /etc/apt/sources.list.d/backports.list
    apt update
    
  2. Install the package. For Debian 10:
    sudo apt install -t buster-backports cockpit
    

    For Debian 11:

    sudo apt install -t bullseye-backports cockpit
    

When updating Cockpit-related packages and any dependencies, make sure to use -t ...-backports so backports are included.

Ubuntu

Cockpit is included in Ubuntu 17.04 and later, and available as an official backport for 16.04 LTS and later. Backports are enabled by default, but if you customized apt sources you might need to enable them manually.

  1. Install the package:

    sudo apt-get install cockpit
    

Clear Linux

Cockpit is in Clear Linux OS and can be installed using swupd:

sudo swupd bundle-add sysadmin-remote
sudo systemctl enable --now cockpit.socket

Arch Linux

Cockpit is included in Arch Linux:

sudo pacman -S cockpit
sudo systemctl enable --now cockpit.socket

If the first command fails with “database file for … does not exist”, refresh/update your system with sudo pacman -Syu first.

openSUSE Tumbleweed

Cockpit is included in openSUSE Tumbleweed:

  1. Install cockpit:
    # zypper in cockpit
    
  2. Enable cockpit:
    # systemctl enable --now cockpit.socket
    
  3. Open the firewall if necessary:
    # firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-service=cockpit
    # firewall-cmd --reload