Click the Overview button on the navigation bar to view information about the system, such as its type of hardware, operating system, hostname, and more. If you log in as a non-privileged user, then you can see all the information but not modify any value. The following image displays the Overview page.

Figure 14.7: Non-privileged user's Overview page

Click View details and history on the Overview page to view details of current system performance for CPU activity, memory use, disk I/O, and network usage.

Figure 14.8: Non-privileged user's system performance metrics

The Logs section in the navigation bar provides access to analysis tools for the system logs. You can use the scroll menus on the page to filter log messages by a logging date range, or priority, or both. The web console uses the current date as the default; you can click the date menu and specify any range of dates. Similarly, the Priority menu provides options that range from Debug and above (at the lowest level) to more specific severity conditions such as Alert and above or Error and above.

Figure 14.9: Log severity selections

Click a row to view details of the log report. In the following example, note the first row that reports on a sudo log message.

Figure 14.10: Log entry selection

The following example shows the details that the web console displays when you click the sudo row. Details of the report include the selected log entry (sudo), the date, time, priority, and syslog facility of the log entry, and the hostname of the system that reported the log message.

Figure 14.11: Log entry details

The Terminal button in the navigation bar provides access to a fully functional terminal session within the web console interface. In this web console terminal, you can run arbitrary commands to manage and work with the system, and for tasks that the other web console tools do not support.

The following image displays examples of commands to gather additional information. For example, listing the contents of the /var/log directory provides reminders of log files that might have valuable information. The id command provides information such as group membership that might help to troubleshoot file access restrictions. The ps au command provides a view of processes that are running in the terminal and of the user that is associated with the process.

Figure 14.12: Non-privileged terminal session troubleshooting

A diagnostic report is a collection of configuration details, system information, and diagnostic information from a Red Hat Enterprise Linux system. Data that is collected in the report includes system logs and debug information that you can use to troubleshoot issues.

To generate a diagnostic report, log in to the web console as a privileged user. Click the Diagnostic Reports button on the navigation bar to open the page that creates these reports. Click the Create report button to generate a new diagnostic report.

Figure 14.13: Create a diagnostic report

After some minutes, the interface displays Done! when the report is complete. Click the Download report button to save the report to your local system.

Figure 14.14: Download a completed report

Click Save File and complete the process.

In the web console, you can restart or shut down the system. To access the system power options, log in to the web console as a privileged user. Click the Overview button on the navigation bar to access system power options.

From the menu on the upper right, select the appropriate option to either reboot or shut down a system.

Figure 14.15: System power options

You can start, enable, disable, and stop services with graphical tools in the web console. To do so, click the Services button on the navigation bar to access the web console's services initial page. The Services page shows the system services tab by default. You can change to Targets or Sockets by clicking the appropriate tab. Use the search bar or scroll through the page to select the service to manage.

In the following example, select the atd.service row to open the service management page.

Figure 14.16: Services: Initial view

Click the Stop, Restart, or Disallow running (mask) buttons as appropriate to manage the service. In this view, the service is already running. To view additional information about the service, click any of the highlighted links or scroll through the service logs that are displayed below the service management section.

Figure 14.17: Services: Service details and management interface

To manage firewall rules and network interfaces, click the Networking button on the navigation bar. The following example shows how to gather information about network interfaces and how to manage them.

Figure 14.18: Networking: Initial view

Click the appropriate interface name in the Interfaces section to access the management page. In this example, the eth0 interface is selected. The top part of the management page displays network traffic activity for the selected device. Scroll down to view configuration settings and management options.

Figure 14.19: Networking: Interface details

To modify or add configuration options in an interface, click the highlighted links for the wanted configuration. In this example, the IPv4 link shows a single IP address and netmask, 172.25.250.9/24 for the eth0 network interface. To add an IP address to the eth0 network interface, click the edit link.

Click the + symbol on the right side of the Manual list selection to add an IP address. Enter an IP address and network mask in the appropriate fields. Click Apply to activate the new settings.

Figure 14.20: Add an IP address to an existing interface

The display automatically switches back to the interface's management page where you can confirm the new IP address.

Figure 14.21: Confirm the new IP address

As a privileged user, you can create user accounts in the web console. Click Accounts on the navigation bar to view existing accounts. Click Create new account to open the account management page.

Figure 14.22: Existing user accounts

Enter the information for the new account and then click Create.

Figure 14.23: Create an account

The display automatically reverts to the account management page, where you can confirm the new user account.

Figure 14.24: Account management page