Chapter 8. Installing and configuring web console by using the RHEL system role

With the cockpit RHEL system role, you can install and configure the web console in your system.

8.1. The cockpit RHEL system role

You can use the cockpit system role to automatically deploy and enable the web console and thus be able to manage your RHEL systems from a web browser.

8.2. Installing the web console by using the cockpit RHEL system role

You can use the cockpit system role to install and enable the RHEL web console.

By default, the RHEL web console uses a self-signed certificate. For security reasons, you can specify a certificate that was issued by a trusted certificate authority instead.

In this example, you use the cockpit system role to:

  • Install the RHEL web console.
  • Allow the web console to manage firewalld.
  • Set the web console to use a certificate from the ipa trusted certificate authority instead of using a self-signed certificate.
  • Set the web console to use a custom port 9050.
Note

You do not have to call the firewall or certificate system roles in the playbook to manage the Firewall or create the certificate. The cockpit system role calls them automatically as needed.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Create a playbook file, for example ~/playbook.yml, with the following content: 

    ---
- name: Manage the RHEL web console
  hosts: managed-node-01.example.com
  tasks:
    - name: Install RHEL web console
      ansible.builtin.include_role:
        name: rhel-system-roles.cockpit
      vars:
        cockpit_packages: default
        cockpit_port:9050
        cockpit_manage_selinux: true
        cockpit_manage_firewall: true
        cockpit_certificates:
          - name: /etc/cockpit/ws-certs.d/01-certificate
            dns: ['localhost', 'www.example.com']
            ca: ipa
            group: cockpit-ws

  2. Validate the playbook syntax: 

    $ ansible-playbook --syntax-check ~/playbook.yml

    Note that this command only validates the syntax and does not protect against a wrong but valid configuration.

  3. Run the playbook: 

    $ ansible-playbook ~/playbook.yml

Additional resources