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.

Cockpit is developed for and routinely tested with:

  • Mozilla Firefox
  • Google Chrome
  • Microsoft Edge
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 54
  • Google Chrome 58
  • Microsoft Edge 16
  • Apple Safari 10.3
  • Opera 44

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
Project Atomic ✓ ✓ ✓ 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 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

  3. Run the Cockpit web service with this privileged container (as root): 
    podman pull cockpit/ws
podman container runlabel --name cockpit-ws RUN cockpit/ws
  4. Make Cockpit start on boot: 
    podman container runlabel INSTALL cockpit/ws
systemctl enable cockpit.service

Steps 3 and 4 are optional if the CoreOS machine will only be connected to from another host running Cockpit.

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

Project Atomic

Connect to an Atomic Host from another instance of Cockpit with the Add Server dashboard UI.

Alternatively you can access Cockpit directly on the Atomic Host if SSH password authentication is enabled:

  1. Run the Cockpit web service container: 
    sudo atomic install cockpit/ws
sudo atomic run cockpit/ws

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 unstable and in backports for 10 (Buster).

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

When installing and updating Cockpit-related packages and any dependencies, make sure to use -t buster-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