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View Full Version : What's some fun Ubuntu tools that a tech nerd would get a kick out of?



Roasted
November 6th, 2009, 06:51 PM
I work in the IT field, but mostly in Windows networks. We have a lot of tools, to manage servers, disk usage, uptime, etc. Are there any applications like that that I can add into Ubuntu to manage the status of, say, my Samba services for my file server? Or perhaps a detailed listing of the status of my hard drives, etc? What about a really nice VNC frontend that displays all of the computer names on the network and allows me to pick and choose based on computer name/IP address which one I want to connect to?

Just curious if there's more tools out there for Ubuntu than I'm aware. What do you guys think?

Giblet5
November 6th, 2009, 07:05 PM
I presume you want GUI tools since you come from a Windows background...

I find mrtg (http://oss.oetiker.ch/mrtg/) useful for monitoring routers. And phpmyadmin is a nice way to monitor/admin your MySQL database server.

Everything else is better done from the command line.

You *have* to embrace the command line to get beyond basic functionality on Linux systems.

kripkenstein
November 6th, 2009, 07:07 PM
There are plenty of such tools, probably more than on Windows. But the vast majority will likely be console tools, which might take a little getting used to if you are coming from Windows. It's worth it though (for example, it's often possible to control these tools from scripts, to automate things in a much more easy way than with GUI apps).

For example, for monitoring hard drives there is smartctl, for monitoring cpus there is cpufreq-info, for monitoring the network iftop, etc. etc.

NoaHall
November 6th, 2009, 07:10 PM
Hm, you might want to have a play with Conky.

CJ Master
November 6th, 2009, 07:15 PM
Hm, you might want to have a play with Conky.

I was thinking the same thing.

earthpigg
November 6th, 2009, 07:16 PM
man lshw
example:

sudo lshw | grep product

always nice to run from a LiveCD before purchasing a used computer. in addition to the obvious badblocks and memtest86+.

access all your music and movies from anywhere in the world (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=8246884) that you have internet access:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/SSH
combined with free services provided by these guys if you have a dynamic IP:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyndns

(ssh can obviously do a lot more than that, but you get the idea :D )


if you limit yourself only to GUI apps, you will be severely crippling yourself.

Sealbhach
November 6th, 2009, 07:26 PM
hardinfo gives a nice overview of your system.

Etherape gives a visual display of your internet connections.

tdfsb is a fun thing to play with.

.

jnew93
November 6th, 2009, 07:33 PM
Something like htop is a nice terminal tool for actually managing system processes. If you just want neat graphs and cool readouts, use conky and write a cool config. :p

Wee_Guy
November 6th, 2009, 07:36 PM
Install Screenlets (http://www.screenlets.org/index.php/Home), then enable the Sysmonitor screenlet (seen on the right side of this screenshot (http://www.screenlets.org/index.php/Image:Widget_Layer.png))

sudo apt-get install screenletsAlso, there are many system monitors for the menu bar, for example GNOME Sensors Applet (http://sensors-applet.sourceforge.net/), which monitors system temperatures and fanspeeds.

sudo apt-get install sensors-applet

Roasted
November 6th, 2009, 08:44 PM
Guys - I've been on Ubuntu for several years. I have no issues working with the command line.

It's just my problem is, we're in a Windows environment, and with a network this big we have several tools to help manage our stuff.

I always try to think about what it would be like with Ubuntu in the same large environment. What tools would we use to get the same jobs done we do with Windows computers? What network admin program could we use to manage all VNC connections and connect remotely on the fly? What program could manage our servers and tell me the current status of them?

Command line or GUI, it's all the same to me. Point is I'm curious what comparable applications there are for large Ubuntu networks.

Dragonbite
November 6th, 2009, 08:55 PM
I assume you mean FREE (or at least free)? Otherwise, Canonical uses Landscape (http://www.canonical.com/projects/landscape) and I'm sure Red Hat should have some tools to help.

I know it wasn't on a large scale (and heaven knows I'm not very server/network savvy) but when I installed CentOS a while back they had a couple of (GUI) tools to help manage Samba and Apache. I haven't found them anywhere else.

earthpigg
November 6th, 2009, 09:16 PM
What program could manage our servers and tell me the current status of them?

Command line or GUI, it's all the same to me. Point is I'm curious what comparable applications there are for large Ubuntu networks.

i told you, ssh :D

observe:

(i've sensored my user name and domain name)

(red stuff is where something interesting just happened)


[chris: ~]$ df -Th && uname -a
Filesystem Type Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 ext4 11G 5.5G 4.4G 56% /
none tmpfs 3.0G 160K 3.0G 1% /dev
none tmpfs 3.0G 0 3.0G 0% /dev/shm
/dev/sda2 ext4 49G 28G 19G 61% /home
Linux chris-desktop 2.6.31-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue Oct 13 11:33:39 CEST 2009 x86_64 Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux
[chris: ~]$ callmom
Connecting...
username@domain.homelinux.net's password:
[chris@mom-desktop ~]$ df -Th && uname -a
Filesystem Type Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda2 ext4 28G 2.5G 24G 10% /
tmpfs tmpfs 1003M 0 1003M 0% /lib/init/rw
varrun tmpfs 1003M 120K 1003M 1% /var/run
varlock tmpfs 1003M 0 1003M 0% /var/lock
udev tmpfs 1003M 144K 1002M 1% /dev
tmpfs tmpfs 1003M 1.4M 1001M 1% /dev/shm
/dev/sda3 ext4 198G 125G 64G 67% /home
Linux mom-desktop 2.6.28-15-generic #52-Ubuntu SMP Wed Sep 9 10:49:34 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux
[chris@mom-desktop ~]$ logout
Connection to domain.homelinux.net closed.
[chris: ~]$

i can fully administer and control my mom's computer from anywhere i am at with my netbook. or any other computer i trust with ssh installed. i can do and control everything. install stuff, delete stuff, kill frozen applications she has running, check uptime, launch Synaptic Package Manger with its GUI (synaptic is not even installed on my computer), view logfiles, etc. everything, just as if i where physically sitting at the 'server' itself.

if it's only use was as a server, i would have absolutely no need for a keyboard, mouse, or monitor to be attached to it any longer.

how do you perform the expected computer tech support for your mother?

:D


edit:

this line from my ~/.bashrc may be helpful...

alias callmom='echo "Connecting..." && ssh -X -p 11111 loginname@domain.homelinux.net'

11111 is not actually the port number i use. loginname and domain aren't actually the login name or domain i use. you get the idea, though.

edit2:

i also use it to store movies and music, so i can listen or watch them wherever i am at with my netbook.


alias mountmedia='sshfs -p 11111 loginname@domain.homelinux.net:/home/media ~/mount'

and poof, my netbook with its 8gb hard drive now has a folder containing 200gb of music and movies that i can navigate to.

the 'server' has a user named 'media'. me and my mother have full read/write access to all of username media's stuff, and there is no way to actually login as user 'media'.

also serves as an easy way to do periodic offsite backup.


how much does a Windows sysadmin guy get paid to set something like that up, out of curiosity? and, since we have some professional IT tech's in the windows world around, how much would the needed software cost?

Roasted
November 6th, 2009, 09:27 PM
Yeahhhhhhhhh okay how about a GUI tool then. :lolflag:

earthpigg
November 6th, 2009, 09:34 PM
Yeahhhhhhhhh okay how about a GUI tool then. :lolflag:

*nix servers traditionally do not have any GUI installed. would be very limiting.

Ubuntu's server edition does not come with one, but you could install one if you wish. it is entirely possible to simply use remote desktop viewer to 'physically' take control of the mouse and see the screen on the 'server', of course, but that isn't fun.

and this stuff isn't that hard. it took me about two hours to learn how ssh works, set it up, and have it fully configured (http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/SSH). ive never done anything similar in the past, and have zero IT education or certifications. and im a slow learner.

are you really going to let yourself be intimidated by something a dumb Marine grunt can set up? you are an IT professional! :D

NoaHall
November 6th, 2009, 09:38 PM
You should write some scripts to do things. I currently have >50 scripts that I wrote to perform various things.

Roasted
November 6th, 2009, 09:44 PM
*nix servers traditionally do not have any GUI installed. would be very limiting.

Ubuntu's server edition does not come with one, but you could install one if you wish. it is entirely possible to simply use remote desktop viewer to 'physically' take control of the mouse and see the screen on the 'server', of course, but that isn't fun.

and this stuff isn't that hard. it took me about two hours to learn how ssh works, set it up, and have it fully configured (http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/SSH). ive never done anything similar in the past, and have zero IT education or certifications. and im a slow learner.

are you really going to let yourself be intimidated by something a dumb Marine grunt can set up? you are an IT professional! :D

Ahhh, duh. I don't know why I wasn't thinking about that.

You see, my Ubuntu desktop at home runs Samba, so I kept thinking my computer = ubuntu = gui = samba = file server, blah blah.

So anyway, I guess my question is kind of flawed, because you guys are right - I'd be using CLI if I were on a true Ubuntu Server. My idea in the back of my mind while asking the question was an Ubuntu desktop edition, though.

So, let me ask a stupider question yet: If I were running Ubuntu desktop edition as a server, how could I apply my original question to this?

twright
November 6th, 2009, 09:48 PM
Ahhh, duh. I don't know why I wasn't thinking about that.

You see, my Ubuntu desktop at home runs Samba, so I kept thinking my computer = ubuntu = gui = samba = file server, blah blah.

So anyway, I guess my question is kind of flawed, because you guys are right - I'd be using CLI if I were on a true Ubuntu Server. My idea in the back of my mind while asking the question was an Ubuntu desktop edition, though.

So, let me ask a stupider question yet: If I were running Ubuntu desktop edition as a server, how could I apply my original question to this?
Exactly the same way... (most of server stuff is installed anyway)

Actually if you wanted an nice GUI way of doing things you could try Webmin or Landscape from Canonical.

earthpigg
November 6th, 2009, 09:51 PM
Ahhh, duh. I don't know why I wasn't thinking about that.

You see, my Ubuntu desktop at home runs Samba, so I kept thinking my computer = ubuntu = gui = samba = file server, blah blah.

So anyway, I guess my question is kind of flawed, because you guys are right - I'd be using CLI if I were on a true Ubuntu Server. My idea in the back of my mind while asking the question was an Ubuntu desktop edition, though.

So, let me ask a stupider question yet: If I were running Ubuntu desktop edition as a server, how could I apply my original question to this?

the difference between a 'server' and 'desktop', in the linux world, is very trivial. you can use "Ubuntu Server Edition" as a desktop, and "Ubuntu Desktop Edition" as a server.

or, you can use desktop as both:
the 'server' in all the examples above is my mother's home desktop, with a desktop version of ubuntu installed. she plays facebook games on it every day, often at the same time as i am streaming music from it onto my netbook at my girlfriends house. the server-type stuff was added & configured as an afterthought. and there are a dozen ways i could have gone about it. i happened to pick ssh.

every *nix machine is potentially a server. thats how unix started, after all. just install a few apps, configure them, and you are done.

benj1
November 6th, 2009, 09:59 PM
are you really going to let yourself be intimidated by something a dumb Marine grunt can set up? you are an IT professional!

do we have to imagine the drill sergeant from full metal jacket shouting that ?

SIR YES SIR :lolflag:

@OP
im sure linux probably has more and better tools for this kind of thing, after all it actually has a majority market share in the server market.

Roasted
November 6th, 2009, 10:01 PM
Do you have to ssh through terminal in the moms computer vs my netbook @ GF's house situation?

Like if I want to SSH into my Ubuntu desktop at my house from my buddys house on my Ubuntu laptop, what do I need? Forwarded ports on the router? external IP address?

And how do you stream music through the terminal? Or so you SSH through the GUI somehow so you can see and navigate to the files and double click to play?

CharlesA
November 6th, 2009, 10:20 PM
Like if I want to SSH into my Ubuntu desktop at my house from my buddys house on my Ubuntu laptop, what do I need? Forwarded ports on the router? external IP address?

And how do you stream music through the terminal? Or so you SSH through the GUI somehow so you can see and navigate to the files and double click to play?

The only thing you would need to know to SSH to your desktop at your place from anywhere else is to forward the port on your home router and either know yer external IP address or setup dynamic DNS. Oh, and you'd need an SSH client. ;)

From what I understand you mount it as sshfs and it acts just as a local drive, but streams stuff over the internet. You'd access it from the desktop.

I think the only real tool I use is SSH to access my server.

twright
November 6th, 2009, 11:36 PM
The only thing you would need to know to SSH to your desktop at your place from anywhere else is to forward the port on your home router and either know yer external IP address or setup dynamic DNS. Oh, and you'd need an SSH client. ;)

From what I understand you mount it as sshfs and it acts just as a local drive, but streams stuff over the internet. You'd access it from the desktop.

I think the only real tool I use is SSH to access my server.
Never mind messing around sshfs on the commandline, just use "Connect to Server..." in the places menu and you can connect via SSH, FTP or just about anything else for that matter.

CharlesA
November 7th, 2009, 02:14 AM
Never mind messing around sshfs on the commandline, just use "Connect to Server..." in the places menu and you can connect via SSH, FTP or just about anything else for that matter.

Oh nice! Thanks for the infos.

I wonder if you would be able to do that with Putty...

Roasted
November 7th, 2009, 06:51 AM
Never mind messing around sshfs on the commandline, just use "Connect to Server..." in the places menu and you can connect via SSH, FTP or just about anything else for that matter.

I don't mean to sound like an idiot, but SSH is something I only started playing with about, oh, a day ago... so I'm still getting my feet wet with it.

Say my external IP is 208.100.200.4, and my internal IP is 192.168.1.100.

If I go to places - connect to server, what all am I doing to connect to my computer? This is assuming I am connecting from an Ubuntu laptop on my work network to my Ubuntu desktop at home.

cariboo
November 7th, 2009, 07:11 AM
If you don't have port forwarding setup in router nothing will happen. Unless you leave your server on 24/7 and never reboot, I would suggest setting up a static ip address on the server, then forward from that ip address to port 22 on your router, you'll have to check with your router documentation, how to exactly do port forwarding.

Once that is setup, just access your external ip from your work network. For example if you wanted to copy a file from your server using nautilus, type in the location bar:


sftp://you@<your_external_ip_address>

I would also suggest setting up key based ssh access instead of using just a password. Have a look here (http://https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SSH/OpenSSH/Keys) for a howto.

How come no-one has mentioned Hot Babe?

Roasted
November 7th, 2009, 07:51 AM
If you don't have port forwarding setup in router nothing will happen. Unless you leave your server on 24/7 and never reboot, I would suggest setting up a static ip address on the server, then forward from that ip address to port 22 on your router, you'll have to check with your router documentation, how to exactly do port forwarding.

Once that is setup, just access your external ip from your work network. For example if you wanted to copy a file from your server using nautilus, type in the location bar:


sftp://you@<your_external_ip_address>

I would also suggest setting up key based ssh access instead of using just a password. Have a look here (http://https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SSH/OpenSSH/Keys) for a howto.

How come no-one has mentioned Hot Babe?

Ahh, I see. So once the external connection hits my router, my router already knows port 22 is forwarded to me.

The million dollar question is - what if I need 2 computers on my network to be SSH-able?

cariboo
November 7th, 2009, 07:56 AM
I would suggest using different ports 22 for one and 2200 for the other.

LookTJ
November 7th, 2009, 08:19 AM
You can monitor bandwidth on your computer with vnstat.

LookTJ
November 7th, 2009, 08:25 AM
I would suggest using different ports 22 for one and 2200 for the other.
Can't you map port 22 with different IPs to different host ports in the router?

for example. private:22 to public:22 and other-private:22 to public:2220?

or would it be much simpler changing the SSH configuration?

Bodsda
November 7th, 2009, 08:52 AM
Not relevant to the current direction of the conversation, but I recently came across a small program that I think is quite handy. It's called Angry IP Scanner. You can get downloads here (http://www.angryip.org/w/Download).

Angry IP Scanner can scan subnets and give you information on live IP's. Quite a useful way of making sure Scott the Script Kiddie next door isn't hopping on your network.

00ber n00b
November 7th, 2009, 09:19 AM
*nix servers traditionally do not have any GUI installed. would be very limiting.

Ubuntu's server edition does not come with one, but you could install one if you wish. it is entirely possible to simply use remote desktop viewer to 'physically' take control of the mouse and see the screen on the 'server', of course, but that isn't fun.

and this stuff isn't that hard. it took me about two hours to learn how ssh works, set it up, and have it fully configured (http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/SSH). ive never done anything similar in the past, and have zero IT education or certifications. and im a slow learner.

are you really going to let yourself be intimidated by something a dumb Marine grunt can set up? you are an IT professional! :D

Grrrrrrrr Kill!

I will be subscribing to your ssh thread...will need it in the future.

earthpigg
November 8th, 2009, 02:43 AM
The million dollar question is - what if I need 2 computers on my network to be SSH-able?

the way i set it up:

the one computer is accessible from the outside world as established in the router's settings.

from there, i use a command line web browser (lynx) to view the 'local' IP's of the others on the LAN.

each computer has a single port open (none use 22), a list is maintained on the primary 'server' computer as an alias in my .bashrc. once i ssh to the server, i type 'listports' and it reminds me what ports each computer listens to.

then i go ahead and type 'callrouter' and open the router's web interface in lynx (again, alias in .bashrc). go to its 'status' page and it shows the internal IP addresses of other computers on the LAN.

using that, i ssh to other computer from the first ssh connection.

netbook ---(ssh)---> mom's desktop ---(ssh)---> other computers on the LAN.


ssh within ssh. have played with ssh within ssh within ssh within ssh within ssh, to eventually open a terminal in the computer i was currently using. no useful reason to do that, except i was playing around.