XPipe is a powerful cross-platform controller hub for Linux servers, Docker containers, and virtualized hosts. It provides a simplified interface for managing multiple systems and server infrastructure on your local machine. Here, we show you how to install XPipe on Linux as well as manage your own VPS and Docker hubs.
Content
- Why Manage Your Servers and Containers Using XPipe
- Obtaining and Installing XPipe
- Connecting to Your First Remote Server
- Sending and Receiving Files in XPipe
- Managing Docker Containers in XPipe
Why Manage Your Servers and Containers Using XPipe
One of the biggest selling points of XPipe is that it’s a local program that acts as a “main hub” for your monitoring remote services. Unlike Uptime Kuma, it doesn’t require any remote service, making it handy if you’re working from a single system.
Another advantage of XPipe is that it removes the need to interact with bare shells when connecting to remote servers. This can be helpful if you’re unfamiliar with SSH and want an easy-to-use GUI to manage your remote machines directly from your computer.
Lastly, XPipe also consolidates several remote-to-local features, such as transferring files between hosts, managing Docker containers, and running a VNC client. This makes XPipe useful even if you don’t intend on using SSH to maintain your remote servers.
Good to know: learn how to manage your Minecraft servers with a dedicated web panel by installing Crafty on Linux.
Obtaining and Installing XPipe
The first step in installing XPipe in Linux is to make sure that your system is fully up-to-date. To do that, run the following command in a terminal:
# For Debian and Ubuntu<br>sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
In Fedora, you can run the following instead to update your system:
sudo dnf update
Open your web browser, then navigate to the latest release page for XPipe.
Scroll down to the “Installers” heading, then select the appropriate installer format for your system. For Debian-based systems, select the “Linux .deb installer (x86_64)” link. For Fedora-based systems, select the “Linux .rpm installer (x86_64).”
Note: you can also install XPipe on a Raspberry Pi by selecting “Linux .deb installer (arm64).”
Go back to your terminal session, then navigate to your machine’s Downloads folder:
cd ~/Downloads
Install the XPipe bundled installer using Ubuntu/Debian’s package manager:
sudo apt install ./xpipe-installer-linux-x86_64.deb
For Fedora, you can run the following command:
sudo dnf install ./xpipe-install-linux-x86_64.rpm
Open your system’s application launcher, type “xpipe” on the search bar then click the application’s icon.
Tick the I accept the End User License Agreement checkbox, then click Confirm to load the XPipe dashboard.
Connecting to Your First Remote Server
At this point, you now have a completely empty XPipe client running on your current desktop session. To use it with a remote server, you need to first make sure that it can detect your machine’s local shell.
Start by clicking the Search for Connections button on the program’s main screen.
This will bring up a small window where XPipe will ask you to select the sources that it will probe in your machine. Accept the defaults, then click Finish.
Once XPipe detects both your root and regular user shell, click the + New button on the program window’s upper left corner.
Select Remote Host -> Simple SSH Connection.
On a side note: learn how you can combine SSH with UNIX pipes in Linux.
Configuring Your Server’s Details in XPipe
Click the Host text box under Connection Information, then provide either the domain name or the IP address of your remote machine.
Select the User text box, then type the username that you want to connect as to your server.
Scroll down to the authentication section, then provide either your user account’s password or its associated SSH key.
If you’re using a password for your SSH server, click the Password-based Authentication dropdown box, select Password, then provide your user account’s password in the text box below it.
Meanwhile, if you’re using an SSH key, select the Key-based Authentication dropdown, select Identity File then provide the location of your SSH public keyfile.
Note: Make sure to set the other authentication option to None if you’re only using one of the two methods.
Go to the Connection Name section, give a name to your new SSH setup, then click Finish to save it.
Lastly, XPipe will attempt to look for existing containers and services running on your remote host. Accept the default values, then click Finish again to start it.
Sending and Receiving Files in XPipe
To send a file to your remote server, click the small Folder Icon on your server’s root entry.
Click the address bar on the remote file manager panel, then type the path that you want to access on your remote server. In my case, I will send my file on my remote user’s home directory.
Open a file manager window on your local machine and navigate to the file that you want to transfer.
Highlight the file that you want to send, then drag it to the remote file browser screen.
Note: You can also send entire folder hierarchies to a remote system using this method.
To receive a file from your server, click the address bar on top of the remote browser, then provide the path to the file that you want to retrieve. For instance, I want to get the “nginx.conf” file from my remote server, so I will type “/etc/nginx/” on my address bar.
Note: The address bar can also act as a basic navigation menu by clicking the directory separators between folders.
Drag the file that you want to copy to your machine from the remote file browser to XPipe’s staging zone on the program’s lower left corner.
Click the dropdown icon for your local machine, then press Left Click on the “bash” shell entry.
Doing this will open a new tab inside the remote file manager screen. Type the file path of the folder where you want to send your file to.
Select and drag the contents of the drag zone to your local folder to properly copy it to your machine.
Tip: learn more about the different file transfer protocols in Linux by checking out our comparison article for SCP and SFTP.
Creating and Opening Remote Files
Apart from sending and receiving, XPipe can also directly create and modify files through its remote browser window. To do this, click the Folder Icon on XPipe’s upper right corner.
Select New -> File to create a new blank file in the current remote directory.
Provide a name for your new file, then click Finish to create it.
Check that your file is working correctly by selecting it, then pressing Enter.
Modifying and Deleting Remote Files
The remote file browser window also allows you to modify the permission bits for your remote files straight from your local machine. This can be helpful if you’re having issues with file access for your web services.
To modify a file’s permission bits, select the file that you want to modify then press Right Click.
Select Chmod…, then the permission value that you want to set for your file. For example, the value “777” will make sure that any user in your system can open, edit, and run your file.
Similar to modifying a file’s permission bits, you can also use the Right Click context menu to delete an existing remote file. For that, select the file that you want to remove, press Right Click then select Delete.
Managing Docker Containers in XPipe
By default, XPipe will automatically detect any existing and new containers running on your system. As a result, you don’t need to do anything else for your containers to show on your dashboard. That said, XPipe still provides a handful of tools that can access and modify the content of your Docker containers.
To do that, toggle the Power Switch on your Docker daemon’s right side, then click the Refresh button beside it to reload its current status.
Click the Folder Icon of the container that you want to access.
Doing this will bring up the overview menu for your Docker container. Select the address bar on top of the remote browser, then provide the file path that you want to access.
Note: you can also double-click the name of the Docker container to load its internal root shell. However, this will only work if the container image has a shell built inside it.
From there, you can either upload or download the files that you want to put into your container similar to a regular remote server connection.
Learning how to install a server and Docker container hub using XPipe in Ubuntu and Fedora is just the first step in getting into basic Linux system administration. Explore this wonderful world of managing servers and web services by checking out our guide to installing Docker in Linux.
Image credit: Mikhail Fesenko via Unsplash. All alterations and screenshots by Ramces Red.
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Ramces Red –
Staff Writer
Ramces is a technology writer that lived with computers all his life. A prolific reader and a student of Anthropology, he is an eccentric character that writes articles about Linux and anything *nix.
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