Gather telemtry

[Aleksandergreg]

User Story

As a Team Member participating in a server administration exercise,
I want to execute various terminal commands to gather server telemetry data (CPU, Load, Memory, Network, Disk),
so that I can gain hands-on experience with basic server monitoring tools and understand how to interpret their output to assess server performance.

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Acceptance Criteria

• Successfully execute the top command and observe CPU usage, running processes, and memory overview.
• Successfully execute the uptime command and identify the server's load average.
• Successfully execute the free -m command and identify total, used, and free memory.
• Successfully execute grep and dmesg commands to search logs for evidence of processes killed due to Out-Of-Memory errors.
• Successfully install (if necessary) and run iftop to monitor network connection usage.
• Successfully install (if necessary) and run nethogs to monitor network bandwidth usage per process.
• Successfully execute df -h to view filesystem disk space usage.
• Successfully execute du -h (in a relevant directory) to view directory disk space usage.
• Participate in a group discussion about the findings from each command.
• Write down your findings and share it in our docs folder

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Tasks

• Access the target server's terminal environment.
• Run top and observe the output for at least one refresh cycle.
• Run uptime and note the load averages.
• Run free -m and note the memory figures.
• Run grep -i -r 'killed process' /var/log/ to search log files.
• Run dmesg | grep -i 'killed process' to search kernel messages.
• Check if iftop and nethogs are installed; install using sudo apt-get install iftop nethogs if needed.
• Run sudo iftop and observe network traffic flow.
• Run sudo nethogs and observe per-process network traffic.
• Run df -h and identify the main filesystem's usage.
• Run du -h (e.g., du -h /var/log or du -h ~) and observe directory sizes.
• Collaborate with team members to discuss the meaning of the output from each command set.

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INVEST Principle

I: Independent, N: Negotiable, V: Valuable, E: Estimable, S: Small, T: Testable

• Independent: Yes, this exercise focuses specifically on command-line telemetry gathering and can be completed independently of other features, although it might be part of a broader training module.
• Negotiable: Yes, the specific commands or the depth of analysis could be slightly adjusted based on the learning goals or available time. For instance, different flags for du could be explored.
• Valuable: Yes, provides direct, practical value to anyone needing to understand or troubleshoot server performance by teaching fundamental diagnostic commands.
• Estimable: Yes, the effort can be reasonably estimated based on the number of commands to run and the expected time for group discussion (e.g., likely 1-3 hours depending on depth).
• Small: Yes, the scope is limited to executing a defined set of commands and basic interpretation, making it suitable for a single learning session or lab.
• Testable: Yes, the acceptance criteria are directly testable by verifying that each command was run, output was observed, and discussion occurred.

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Additional Context / Notes (Optional)

• This exercise is designed for learning and exploration, not for setting up a persistent monitoring solution.
• Emphasis should be placed on understanding the type of information each command provides.
• This is intended as group work, encouraging discussion and shared learning.
• Root/sudo privileges may be required for some commands (iftop, nethogs, potentially apt-get).