Request VMware Make/Support package Cockpit from the Cockpit-project

[RussellHamker]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

Requesting VMware make and support the cockpit project with Photon OS. This is needed so that users can turn the Photon OS into an appliance. This will allow end users then to login to a web interface and make simple changes to the OS like IP Address, NTP, log servers, etc. .

Describe the solution you'd like

make the package available tdnf install -y cockpit

Describe alternatives you've considered

You can manually make the cockpit packages from the cockpit github repo today.

Prep for cockpit

tdnf install -y json-glib json-glib-devel gnutls-devel xmlto krb5 krb5-devel polkit polkit-devel libssh libssh-devel Linux-PAM Linux-PAM-devel build-essential git libxml2 libxml2-devel e2fsprogs-devel nodejs

Clone cockpit

git clone https://github.com/cockpit-project/cockpit.git

cd cockpit/

Build cockpit

./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr --enable-debug --disable-pcp

Make cockpit

make #errors in make, make -t fixes issue. make -t make

Install cockpit

make install

Open firewall port

sudo iptables -I INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --dport 9090 -j ACCEPT sudo iptables-save > /etc/systemd/scripts/ip4save

Set TLS Defaults to 1.2 and use secure256 (disable tls 1.1)

echo 'SYSTEM=NONE:!VERS-SSL3.0:!VERS-TLS1.0:-VERS-TLS-ALL:!VERS-TLS1.1:+VERS-TLS1.2:+VERS-TLS1.3:+SECURE256:+AES-128-CCM-8:+AES-128-CBC:+RSA:+SHA1:+COMP-NULL' > /etc/gnutls/default-priorities

Enable Cockpit socket

sudo systemctl enable --now cockpit.socket

Additional context

No response

[ssahani]

see pmd-nextgen https://vmware.github.io/photon/docs/administration-guide/pmd-nextgen https://github.com/vmware/pmd/tree/nxt

[RussellHamker]

Thank you. I was aware of this package.

Unfortunately it does not fit the need. We are needing a web management interface for customers to be able to access should they want to change settings/gather logs on a Photon OS 4 appliance post deployment. End users do not know things about APIs, we are in need of a web management interface.

If this package had a sister package/service that provided a local web interface with all this info, it would take care of our need.

[ssahani]

The web management is not supported right now (which is under consideration) though. pmctlwhich has been provided as cli. Taking it as a RFE

[RussellHamker]

Here are the feature sets we need for pmctl web UI: Primary View is an overview of the VM, showing CPU/Memory Usage, Storage Usage, and any errors Must have network area with ability to change IP config Must have logs area with ability to change/set Must have ntp area with ability to change/set Must have services area with info on if services are up or down and any issues with ability to change/set Must have detailed storage area with detailed view of storage usage per volume Must be able to customize interface and login screen for branding Must be able to show updates Authentication is to either use local PAM, Kerberos, or separate user database for access.

[RussellHamker]

Another nice feature would be to have it use DNS tricks so you could type in a 1 word or x.com address from a browser on the local network and be able to hit this interface. This would need to be customizable.

[dcasota]

+1 an ui sub-component in pmd-nextgen

A separated vcsa appliance provisioning after all those post-PhotonOS 1.0 years more and more feels overloaded instead of a nifty vcsa role promotion/demotion on Photon OS. The concepts of pmd-nextgen + tdnf-automatic already added granularity as base for an ui features set.

Clarity.design vs. patternfly.org ui framework, is there a customer value for migrating to patternfly or vice versa? Both ui frameworks have their community and there is silence with respect to future WebXR/WebGPU extensions.