Install Cockpit – Server Administration UI on Debian 9

The Cockpit is a simple, easy to use web based administration UI for Linux server. With this tool, we can manage our server from a web browser. We can monitor the server performance such as disk, processor activities, memory usage, disk, network and user management. This tutorial will guide you to install Cockpit on Debian 9 server.

Steps to install Cockpit on Debian 9

There are few commands we need to execute in the Debian 9 server. So, make sure you can connect to the server with root privileges.

Step 1. Add the repository

Use this command to add the cockpit repository to Debian 9.

echo 'deb http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch-backports main' > \

 /etc/apt/sources.list.d/backports.list

Step 2. Update the repository

apt update

Step 3. Install Cockpit

apt install cockpit

Done. Now, open a web browser and type the IP address of the Debian 9 server with this format

https://192.168.100.50:9090

Change the IP address with your server IP address. On the first attempt you may notice a certificate error. Make an exception and you will be redirected to the Cockpit login.

Login with root or other user. Enjoy Cockpit.