[ale] Bash Scripts for System Automation and Monitoring

[Brian Stanaland]

Awk is phenomenal in that you can cat or grep a big log file and print just
the columns you're interested in. It makes scanning logs with very long
lines so much quicker.

I'm just picking up python myself. It looks to be very handy for scripting.

Brian

On Tue, Mar 20, 2012 at 11:22 AM, James Sumners <james.sumners at gmail.com>wrote:

> Bash scripting, or the preferred shell of the location, is definitely
> a must. But that also means being familiar with the tool set available
> to you when you are actively interacting with Bash. Tools that I use
> frequently (in no particular order):
>
> * `nc` (netcat): a must if you're working with network services
> * `awk`
> * `sed`
> * `grep`
> * `cut`
> * `sort`
> * `screen`: e.g.
> https://bitbucket.org/jsumners/scripts/src/tip/screen_daemon.sh
> * `ps`
>
> That's a shorter list than I thought it would be. But it is off the
> top of my head. Still, you can do a lot with just those.
>
> I'd also recommend getting familiar with a scripting language that is
> a bit more robust than Bash. There are situations that I find are more
> easily handled with Python. I'm no Python guru (I code by manual with
> Python), but it certainly makes some things easier.
>
>
> On Tue, Mar 20, 2012 at 11:06, Jim Butler <jimbutler1234567890 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > Hi..
> > I have many years of experience with Linux, but I'm finding out lately
> > that apparently there is a good deal of mainstream knowledge that I've
> > missed somewhere. Most Linux System Admin positions require that you
> > know how to script so you can automate processes, and set up monitoring,
> > etc..
> > Usually when I wanted to monitor a system, I set up Nagios for host
> > monitoring, and then if I found a problem, I logged in manually to the
> > host in questionn and used tools like top, vmstat, iftop, iostat, etc.
> > for finding the cause of bottlenecks. But apparently when working on
> > large deployments like where you have large clusters or other types of
> > large setups, there need to be tools and/or scripts in place for
> > monitoring. I need to learn this stuff! I'm teaching myself BASH
> > scripting now, and so I have that under way. Also I know about using
> > MRTG and CACTI and the like, for monitoring network traffic on switches.
> > So let me ask everything this:
> > What "monitoring tools" or "automation tools" should a guy like me be
> > learning to use, in order to be a good and marketable System
> > Administrator? Where would you send a guy like me to learn the pieces he
> > is missing? If you were in my shoes, what would you do to get up to
> > speed most quickly? I'm looking for wisdom and guidance from Linux
> > System Admins who are, well, better than me and more experienced than me.
> >
> > Thank you in advance,
> > Jim Butler
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Ale mailing list
> > Ale at ale.org
> > http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> > See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> > http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>
>
>
> --
> James Sumners
> http://james.roomfullofmirrors.com/
>
> "All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts
> pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it
> is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become
> drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted."
>
> Missionaria Protectiva, Text QIV (decto)
> CH:D 59
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>



-- 
The more laws and order are made prominent,
The more thieves and robbers there will be.*Lao-tzu*, *The Way of Lao-tzu*
*Chinese philosopher (604 BC - 531 BC)*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.ale.org/pipermail/ale/attachments/20120320/fe7d87e4/attachment.html