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Remote Management of Your KVM Host: GUI and Web Interfaces

17 October 2025bpd · ubuntu

Control Your Virtual Machines from Anywhere

Once you have KVM running on your server, you need a convenient way to manage your virtual machines. The ‘Ubuntu System Administration Guide’ covers two excellent remote management options: the desktop Virtual Machine Manager and the web-based Cockpit interface.

Desktop GUI Management

If you’re using an Ubuntu desktop, you can use the same Virtual Machine Manager application you’d use for local VMs to connect to your remote server. The book shows how to add a new connection over SSH. This gives you a full-featured graphical interface to create, start, stop, and configure your VMs as if they were running locally.

Web-Based Management with Cockpit

For management from any device with a web browser, you can install the `cockpit-machines` plugin. This extends the Cockpit web interface you may already be using for server monitoring, adding a ‘Virtual Machines’ tab that allows you to manage your KVM guests directly from your browser.

This post is based from content of the book Ubuntu System adminstration guide. And the book can be found here https://www.amazon.com/stores/Mattias-Hemmingsson/author/B0FF5CQX13