Add and Connect to Secondary Host

The Cockpit web console enables system administrators to manage multiple Linux host systems all from a single Cockpit web console instance.

What Do You Need?

• For optimal security access requirements, see Security Considerations for Multiple Host Management.

  Attention:

  The Steps appearing in this topic assume that the security access considerations have been met for the primary and secondary Cockpit hosts.
  • Cockpit is installed and enabled on a bastion host.
  • The primary Cockpit bastion host is configured with a certificate-authority-issued TLS certificate.
  • Cockpit is installed on all secondary hosts.
  • All secondary Cockpit hosts are configured to support OpenSSH.

    For SSH configuration details, see Configuring OpenSSH Server in Oracle Linux: Connecting to Remote Systems With OpenSSH.

• Established connection with the primary Cockpit (bastion enabled) host.
• Administrator privileges.

Steps

Follow these steps to add and connect a secondary Cockpit host to a primary Cockpit host.

1. In the primary Cockpit web console, do the following:
   1. In the username@hostname section that appears above the navigation pane, expand the hidden Host menu by clicking the down-arrow.
      
      
   2. In the Host menu, select Add new host.

      The Add new host dialog appears.

2. In the Add new host dialog, configure the following properties and click Add.

   Host	Enter a hostname or IP address of the secondary host that you want to add.
   User Name	Enter the username configured on the secondary host.
   Color	Select a top-border color to distinguish this secondary host from other secondary hosts.

3. If this is a first-time SSH connection to the newly added secondary host, one of the following dialogs appears.
   • New Host dialog - If this dialog appears, follow the instructions on the dialog to confirm the SSH key fingerprint, then click Accept Key and Connect.
   • Log in to [host] dialog. If this dialog appears, configure the following properties and click Log in.

     Note:

     If SSH key authentication isn't already set up, the Log in to: [host] dialog appears.

     Password	Enter the user password on configured on the secondary host. Note that when the Automatic Login option isn't configured, future authentication for the secondary host prompts for a user password.
     Automatic Login	(Optional) Authorize SSH Key Perform these steps: Select the Automatic Login checkbox to configure SSH key authentication on the secondary host. In the Key password text box and the Confirm key password text box, specify the key password. When Automatic Login is enabled, future logins to this secondary host are no longer prompted for a user password.

   A connection is established to the secondary host. The name of the secondary host appears on the Host menu at the upper left corner on the page.

4. To log in to the newly added secondary host, click the Host menu, and then select the name of the secondary host.

   A dialog prompting for a user password only appears if the secondary host isn't configured with SSH key authentication.