Server Performance Stats Tool

Project 01/21

This project focuses on creating a script that gathers and displays essential performance statistics from any Linux server. The goal is to deepen my understanding of server monitoring and improve my shell scripting skills. I love working in Linux environment and in Bash cli, but I feel that my scripting skills leave a lot of room for improvement, thus this project was lots of fun and learning. I am nowhere near a professional scripting-king but I did solve the task nonetheless, albeit with the help of LLM’s 😊

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Project Goal

The primary objective of this project is to write a script, server-stats.sh, to analyze and display basic server performance stats in a clear format. This script allows for quick insights into server health and helps identify potential issues by focusing on resource usage and top processes.

Requirements

The server-stats.sh script should be capable of providing the following server statistics:

• Total CPU usage
• Total memory usage (Free vs. Used, including percentage)
• Total disk usage (Free vs. Used, including percentage)
• Top 5 processes by CPU usage
• Top 5 processes by memory usage

Stretch Goal: Additional information like OS version, uptime, load average, logged-in users, and failed login attempts can be added for further insight into the server status.

How to Use It

To run the server-stats.sh script on any Linux server, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your Linux server.
2. Copy the code from server-stats.sh.
3. Run sudo nano server-stats.sh to create the script file.
4. Paste the copied code into the file.
5. Save the file by pressing Ctrl + X, then Y, and Enter.
6. Change the file permissions to make it executable: chmod +x server-stats.sh.
7. Run the script with the following command: ./server-stats.sh.

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How did I approach the challenge?

While I have some familiarity with Linux and the Bash shell, I’m still finding my way around scripting, especially in the CLI. When it comes to writing scripts, I must admit this was my first serious attempt. To make the most of it, I decided to use an LLM (Large Language Model) as a guide to help me structure this project as both a practical task and a learning experience.

I enlisted ChatGPT as my tutor, asking it to “hold my hand” without giving away all the answers, guiding me step-by-step through the project so I could absorb the essentials. The project itself provided a good roadmap, especially in terms of which commands I’d need, so I had a solid starting point.

It took me a few hours to complete the script, and I now feel more comfortable reading Bash code. I know there’s still a long way to go before I can confidently script independently, but hey, it’s a start! 👍

What did I Learn?

First off, I learned a practical tip: define variables before you use them! 😄 This exercise also gave me a great insight into Bash’s flexibility. It’s quite powerful and capable of some cool tricks, like changing text color to enhance readability.

Now, with this script in hand, I can use it for future projects or even in production environments if needed—which in itself is pretty exciting. ⚡