Monitoring Your Unix Boxen?

Griim asks: "I've been using Linux for years and loving it, and have also worked a bit on a few Sun stations and BSD boxes as well. My question is this: what is the easiest way to keep tabs on all of the activity?"

"I know a few people who 'tail -f' the main log files, or who run 'top' every so-often. These require constant monitoring though, and you could miss essential error messages if you step away for too long. Are there any projects that do this successfully? I've seen a couple out there that started to do this, but appear to be abandoned.

Ideally, I would like some type of all-in-one, that possibly generates a daily (email/web) report of network statistics, user logins, and (web)server traffic/hits, as well as anything 'suspicious' that might be happening, perhaps what apps have been taking most of the processor time, or if any of the daemons have been busier than they normally would be. I know there probably isn't one single app out there that does all of this, so what's the best configuration , for keeping tabs on multiple machines, something I can skim for a minute or two each day, to make sure things are the way they should be? I want to know what works best, and just as importantly, what *doesn't* work (I do realize that relying on a single solution would be bad here too, so if you have more than one suggestion, that would be appreciated)."

Comments

To quote a recent job candidate I interviewed..

[Nathan Ramella]

'top' apparently is the best tool for monitoring boxen. :)

Re:User of the word boxen

[quiddity]

I tend towards pedantic nitpickering on the occasion also, but it's good to bare in mind that playing [to destruction!] with language is both edumacational and amusin'.

i like "boxen" for the same intriguing subcultural contexts as i like "w00t" and "geek".

remain happily hypocritical :)

Re:Keep an eye on your network traffic

[Anonymous Coward]

I sure do.

The insect - there is one outside my window right now that just wont shutup. I think they irritate me mostly.

The game - Well, its pretty long and slow to watch, but i'm Australian and we rule the world in both test and one-day, so I guess I like it.

The program - Meh. I can take it or leave it.

Re:User of the word boxen

[br0ken2o0o]

I guess I will bite....

Whenever someone uses that word to me i turn around and stop listening to them, it really makes me question there inteligence both in the IT field and in general inteligence.

Perhaps we should turn around and stop listining now....

Josh