Hardened AlmaLinux 10 with Cockpit & Local AI System Assistant – Security Compliant

This Azure virtual machine delivers a professionally hardened AlmaLinux 10 environment designed for security-focused and production workloads. The image combines strong security controls with modern management and diagnostic tooling, enabling organizations to deploy secure infrastructure quickly and confidently.

Security hardening is applied to establish a robust baseline, reducing attack surface and enforcing secure defaults across system services, authentication, logging, and access control. This configuration helps organizations align with widely recognized industry best practices while remaining flexible for customization.

The image includes Cockpit, a browser-based web console that simplifies system administration. Administrators can monitor system health, manage services, configure storage and networking, review logs, and apply updates directly from a web interface.

A local AI system assistant is included to support troubleshooting and operational clarity. The assistant runs entirely on the virtual machine and is accessed using the sys-ai command. It can analyze system state, logs, and service behavior to provide actionable guidance in natural language.

The AI runtime is powered by Ollama and operates fully on-host. Administrators may also interact with the model directly using commands such as ollama run mistral. No data is sent to external AI services.

• Professionally hardened AlmaLinux 10 with secure system defaults
• Cockpit web console for browser-based system management
• Local AI system assistant accessed via the sys-ai command
• On-host AI model runtime using Ollama
• Enhanced access controls, auditing, and logging
• Preconfigured firewall and SELinux enforcement
• Automated system and security updates

The system includes a command-line AI assistant designed specifically for Linux administration. It operates locally on the VM and can analyze logs, services, and configuration files.

Example usage:

sys-ai "Why is SSH failing for azureuser?"

The assistant responds with actionable diagnostics and remediation steps based on the live system state.

The underlying model is managed using Ollama and can be interacted with directly if desired:

ollama run mistral

This design ensures full control over AI behavior and data residency.

• AlmaLinux 10 with long-term community support
• Security hardening framework with enterprise-oriented controls
• Cockpit web console
• Local AI system assistant and model runtime
• Security validation and auditing configuration

• Application hosting on Azure
• Internal services and tooling
• Dev, test, and staging environments
• Operational platforms requiring local AI assistance

• Security-conscious organizations
• Regulated and compliance-driven environments
• Production workloads requiring a hardened Linux baseline
• Teams seeking AI-assisted diagnostics without external dependencies

Deploy from Azure Marketplace, connect to your VM, and begin managing immediately. Access Cockpit at https://your-vm-ip:9090. Use sys-ai "your question" to begin AI-assisted troubleshooting.

Quarterly image updates with security improvements. Technical support available at info@madarsonit.com.

Disclaimer: AlmaLinux is a community Linux distribution. Cockpit and Ollama are open-source projects. Madarson IT does not provide commercial licenses for third-party software.