CHAPTER 06

Accessing the SimpleVM Management Interface

8 sections · 9 min read · SimpleVM 10.1

The SimpleVM management interface is the web console where you do almost all of your administration: monitoring host health, creating and managing virtual machines, reviewing storage and networking, applying updates, opening the web terminal, and managing access. The host serves it over HTTPS, and you reach it from an ordinary web browser — there is no client software to install on your workstation. This chapter is about the access workflow itself: finding the right address, opening the console, signing in, confirming you are on the host you mean to manage, and signing out cleanly. Reading the dashboard in depth comes next, in Chapter 7, Understanding the Dashboard and Host Overview.

Accessing and signing in does not change the host. The work in this chapter is reaching and verifying the console, not configuring it, so there is normally nothing to undo afterward — the only changes you can leave behind are on your own workstation (a browser certificate exception or a saved password), and Section 6.5 explains how to reverse those.

The access workflow at a glance. Each step below explains what you are doing and why, not only which control to use:

• Confirm prerequisites — host installed and reachable, an administrative account, and a supported browser (Section 6.2).
• Find the address — read the management URL from the host console and choose the right one if several appear (Section 6.3).
• Open the console — browse to the URL over HTTPS and sign in (Section 6.4).
• Elevate to make changes — use Administrative access for tasks that change the host (Section 6.5).
• Confirm the host — read the Overview page to be sure you are on the right system (Section 6.6).
• Sign out — end the session when you are finished (Section 6.7); resolve access problems in Section 6.8.

6.1 Overview

After SimpleVM finishes installing and the host reboots, the host console prints the address you use to reach the web console. In a typical deployment the address is the host's IP address or fully qualified domain name with TCP port 9090 — for example, https://<host>:9090. The console shows this address every time the host starts, so it is always available from a directly attached keyboard and monitor or from the server's out-of-band management.

6.2 Before You Begin

Confirm the following before you open the management interface. Most map to work you have already done during installation and planning:

• SimpleVM is installed and has completed its first boot. The host boots and shows its console. See Chapter 4, Installing SimpleVM.
• You know how to reach the host — its IP address, host name, or fully qualified domain name, recorded from the host console during installation.
• Your workstation is on a network that can reach the host, or you are working from the host's own console.
• You have an administrative account. The default administrator created during installation is svmadmin; the root account is disabled by default, so you administer the host through this account. See Chapter 4, Installing SimpleVM, and Chapter 5, Post-Installation Configuration.
• You are using a supported browser — a current version of Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, or Mozilla Firefox.
• The management service is reachable through the host firewall. By default, SimpleVM allows the web console (cockpit, TCP 9090) in the Public firewall zone, so no firewall change is normally required to reach the console. See Section 5.9, Review Firewall Zones and Services, and Chapter 16, Firewall and Security Settings.

6.3 Management URLs

SimpleVM may display more than one management URL when the host has more than one network interface or IP address — commonly a fully qualified domain name and an IP address, both on port 9090. Use the address that belongs to the management network you intended to use; ignore addresses on interfaces meant for VM traffic or storage.

6.4 Access the Management Interface from a Browser

Overview

Use this procedure to open the console from an administration workstation on the management network. The workflow is the same from any supported browser, and the same address also works from the host's own desktop browser if one is available.

Procedure

1. From your administration workstation, open a supported web browser.
2. In the address bar, enter the management URL shown on the host console — for example, https://<host>:9090.
3. If the browser warns that the connection is not private or that the certificate is not trusted, this is expected when the host uses a self-signed or locally issued certificate. Confirm the address is correct, then continue to the site according to your browser's security workflow.
4. At the sign-in page, enter the username and password for your account.
5. Select Log In.
6. Confirm that the host Overview page loads.

Verification

• The console opens over HTTPS and the address bar shows the host you intended to manage.
• The Overview page loads without an authentication error.
• The left navigation shows the System group (Overview, Virtual machines, Storage, Networking, Logs, Services, Accounts) and the Tools group (File browser, Software updates, SELinux, Diagnostic reports, Kernel dump, Terminal).

6.5 Sign In with Administrative Access

Overview

SimpleVM uses host user accounts for management access — the same accounts that exist on the host operating system. Routine viewing works with your own account, but tasks that change the host — creating virtual machines, editing storage or networking, applying updates — require administrative privileges. SimpleVM exposes this through the Administrative access control at the top right of the console: in the limited view you can read host state, and you elevate to administrative access when you need to make a change. Each administrator should use an assigned account so that changes can be traced and access can be removed cleanly when someone no longer needs it.

Procedure

1. Open the management URL and sign in with your assigned account (Section 6.4).
2. If you only need to review status, work in the limited (read-only) view — no elevation is required.
3. To make a change, select Administrative access at the top right and confirm with your credentials if prompted.
4. Perform your administrative task. Confirm any privileged prompt only when you understand the change it will make.

Verification

• You can open the navigation areas your role requires.
• After you elevate, the Administrative access indicator reflects the elevated state, and privileged actions proceed rather than failing immediately.

Revert this change

Signing in and elevating does not by itself change the host's configuration, so there is normally nothing to revert. The only changes this workflow can leave behind are on your workstation:

• If you created a browser exception to trust the host certificate, remove it from your browser's certificate or security settings according to your organization's policy.
• If you saved the account password in the browser, remove it from the browser's saved-password store — especially on a shared workstation.
• Drop administrative access by signing out (Section 6.7) so that a later viewer of the same browser session does not inherit elevated privileges.

6.6 Understand the First Page After Login

Before you change anything, confirm that you are connected to the host you intend to manage. The Overview page is that confirmation. Its header names the host and identifies it as running Thinware SimpleVM on Rocky Linux 10.1, and four panels summarize the host's state at a glance.

The four panels are:

• Health — overall status (for example, whether the system is up to date) and the last successful login, with a link to login history.
• Usage — current CPU and memory use, with a link to metrics and history.
• System information — hardware model, asset tag, machine ID, and uptime, with a link to full hardware details.
• Configuration — host name, system time, domain, performance profile (which is virtual-host on a SimpleVM host), cryptographic policy, and SSH key fingerprints.

These panels — and the rest of the dashboard — are covered in detail in Chapter 7, Understanding the Dashboard and Host Overview. From here, most readers continue to Chapter 8, Creating and Managing Virtual Machines.

6.7 Sign Out of the Management Interface

Sign out when you have finished administering SimpleVM, especially on a shared workstation or in a browser profile that is not dedicated to infrastructure administration. Signing out ends the authenticated session in that browser.

Procedure

1. At the top right of the console, open the Session menu.
2. Select the sign-out option (for example, Log out).
3. On a shared or temporary workstation, also close the browser tab.

Verification

• The console returns to the sign-in page, or the browser no longer has access to the authenticated view.
• Reloading the console prompts you to sign in again.

6.8 Troubleshooting Access Issues

Use the following checks when the management interface does not load or sign-in does not succeed.