Do you use any web ui’s for your Linux server? I’m comfortable managing my server using the command line, but I also want a graphical interface that shows an overview of what is running on the server, the way the resources are being used what containers are running and so on. Also file download uploads would be great to have.
What do you recommend which is light and resources and is suitable for less powerful servers with low ram?
So far these are the more interstating tools I’ve found: (they vary in functionality their provide)
CasaOS Cockpit SartOS Orb Kasm
ssh?
Ummm Webmin? Can’t believe it hasn’t been mentioned…
If you don’t mind the UI out of the 90s webmin probably is the most comprehensive solution. I haven’t used it in a few years, does it handle containers?
Webmin is great. Especially when you would like shit to just work and not faf about wasting your weekend text editing configuration files
Just SSH. Every public facing piece of software (I.e. a web interface) adds more complexity for misconfiguration or security vulnerabilities.
You can mount you remote filesystem locally and use your local file manager and text editors to manage most tasks. If you use ansible you can make changes to a local configuration and deploy the state to the server without needing to run anything special on the server side. It is especially effective if you also run docker.
And for monitoring I usually just have a tmux with btop running. Which is fine if you don’t need long term time series data, then you might want to look at influxdb/grafana - but even those I would run locally behind a firewall, with the server reporting the data to the database.
Btop tells me everything I need to know, and it does it with style.
I mainly need this when i don’t have access to my own laptop and ssh keys.
You could use a hardware key for ssh with a passphrase protected key. I use a solo key v1 myself. There are even keys that let you enter a pin on the device instead of the computer, so you don’t have to worry about key loggers. And you can set up Sudo to work with a key too.
Cockpit has been my go too, very quick to just get up and working plus including a web terminal for the rest of what you need.