Configure Console for VM Interaction

On the VM [name] page, Cockpit administrators can configure up to three different consoles for VM interaction. These consoles include: VNC console, serial console, and a desktop viewer. All three consoles enable administrators to interact with the VM instance in the same manner as they would with a physical machine.

What Do You Need?

The Cockpit web console must be installed and accessible.
For details, see these topics: Install and Enable Cockpit and Log in to the Cockpit Web Console.
The Cockpit-machines add-on application must be installed in the web console and the Oracle Linux virtualization packages must be installed and enabled on the host system.
For more information, see Install Cockpit-Machines and Enable Virtualization.
The virtual machine instance must be running on the host system.

Steps

Using the Cockpit web console, follow these steps to interact with the VM instance using one of three consoles.

In the navigation pane, click Virtual machines, and then click the name of the virtual machine of interest.
The Virtual machines [VM name] page appears.

In Virtual machines [VM name] page, navigate to the Console section and then in the drop-down list box, select one of the following:

VNC console (default)

When selected, the graphical VNC console appears in the Console section.

You can interact the VM instance from the VNC console window using your keyboard and mouse.

Perform any of the following as needed:

Click Expand [] link to resize the VNC console window to full page.
Click Send Key to pass key combinations on to the VM instance that would normally be blocked.
For example, to send Ctrl+Alt-Del, select the Ctrl+Alt-Del key combination from the list.
Click Disconnect or Reconnect as needed to disconnect the VNC console or to reconnect the VNC console.

Desktop viewer

Note:

The Desktop viewer is available with most OSes. Some browser extensions and plug-ins prevent the web console to open Virt Viewer.

First time use: Install virt-viewer utility:

sudo dnf install virt-viewer

When selected, the Desktop viewer appears in the Console section.

You can interact the VM instance from the Desktop viewer using your keyboard and mouse.

Perform any of the following as needed:

Click Expand [] icon to resize the Desktop viewer window to full page.
Click Send Key to pass key combinations on to the VM instance that would normally be blocked.
For example, to send Ctrl+Alt-Del, select the Ctrl+Alt-Del key combination from the list box.
Click Disconnect or Reconnect as needed to disconnect the Desktop viewer or to reconnect the Desktop viewer.

Note:

You can manually start the desktop viewer. Follow the Manual instructions provided in the Console section.

Serial console

Note:

The serial console option is useful when the host machine or the VM isn't configured with a graphical interface.

When selected, the serial console window appears in the Console section.

You can interact the VM instance from the serial console window using your keyboard and mouse.

Perform any the following as needed:

Click Expand icon [] to resize the serial console to full page.
Click Disconnect or Reconnect as needed to disconnect the serial console or to reconnect the serial console.