Creating A Change Logger Script In Ubuntu OS
Specification
The report is prepared for creation of a change logger script created in ubuntu OS and management of the regular activity of the user using the system. For the development of the shell script the details of the system is extracted using different shell command and the output is stored in an HTML file that would help the administrator to monitor the status of the system. The pre-installed command line tools are used for the creation of the shell script and the output is stored in a temporary log file for the management of the changes in the logs and identify the changes in made in the current system.
Specification
The shell script is created using the nano editor and it is named as “mySysMonitor.sh”, and proper permission is added to the shell script for running it. Administrative permission is needed for running the shell script and thus “chmod +x mySysMonitor.sh” command is used for providing appropriate permission and running the shell script. “sudo ./mySysMonitor.sh”, command is used for running the shell script as root user and generate the output in a HTML file.
Design Consideration
The shell script is designed using separate command for getting each of the information necessary for the development of the change logger script. The main function of the script is to monitor the current computer system and the activity of the user for creating a log with the key information. The script is named as “mySysMonitor.sh” which automatically and regularly writes the information in log file named “mySysMonitor.log”.
The output of the shell script is stored in the html file and it uses the “mySysMonitor.log” as a temporary file for storing the result of the command executed in the shell script. Since the contents of the file is copied in a temporary file and “tail -f” command is used for comparing the changes in the log file and identification of the changes made in the current system. For constructing the shell script the the following commands are used such as:
printf “At %s: n” “$(date)” // displays the data and time of the system
ps // displays the current processes running on the system
who // finds the users logged into the system
lsusb // finds the usb devices plugged in with the system
df -h /boot|awk ‘{print $5 ” “$6}’ // used for displaying the overall disk usage
df -h /home|sed -n ‘2p’ |awk ‘{print $5 ” “$6}’ // lists the home directory of the user
df -h // lists the other key directories of the system
ip link show // displays the network interface used for connecting with the internet
ping -c 1 google.com &> /dev/null && echo -e “Internet: Connected” || echo -e “Internet: Disconnected”; // used for finding the connection is active or disconnected
(uptime | awk ‘{print $3,$4}’ | cut -f1 -d,) // used for finding the system uptime
Extensive test result and exemplary log and screen output
The shell script prepared for management of the change log is given below:
Design Consideration
#! /bin/bash
#Author : – Student
#Date : – 29 November, 2018
#Check if the script is executed as ROOT. The script must be run from a root user for maintaining proper directory structure:
if [ $EUID != 0 ]
then
echo “Run the script as root for viewing all the details! Better run with sudo.”
exit 1
fi
#Declaring variables
#set -x
Number_of_Process=`ps -ef | wc -l`
Currently_logged_in_users=`who`
Plugged_in_Devices=`lsusb`
Root_size=`df -h /dev/sda1 | tail -1 | awk ‘{print$2}’`
Disk_usage=`df -h /boot|awk ‘{print $5 ” “$6}’`
Users_home_directory=`df -h /home|sed -n ‘2p’ |awk ‘{print $5 ” “$6}’`
ip_add=`ip link show | grep “inet addr” | head -2 | tail -1 | awk {‘print$2’} | cut -f2 -d:
ping -c 1 google.com &> /dev/null && echo -e “Internet: Connected” || echo -e “Internet: Disconnected”;`
root_fs_pc=`df -h /dev/sda1 | tail -1 | awk ‘{print$5}’`
upt=`uptime | awk {‘print$3′} | cut -f1 -d’,’`
#load_avg=`uptime | cut -f5 -d’:’`
ram_usage=`free -m | head -2 | tail -1 | awk {‘print$3’}`
ram_total=`free -m | head -2 | tail -1 | awk {‘print$2’}`
inode=`df -i / | head -2 | tail -1 | awk {‘print$5’}`
#Creating a directory if it doesn’t exist to store reports first, for easy maintenance.
if [ ! -d ${HOME}/system_reports ]
then
mkdir ${HOME}/system_reports
fi
html=”${HOME}/system_reports/System-Health-Report-`hostname`-`date +%y%m%d`-`date +%H%M`.html”
email_add=”[email protected]“
for i in `ls /home`; do sudo du -sh /home/$i/* | sort -nr | grep G; done > /tmp/mySysMonitor.log
#Generating HTML file
echo “<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN” “https://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd”>” >> $html
echo “<html>” >> $html
echo “<link rel=”stylesheet” href=”https://unpkg.com/[email protected]/build/pure-min.css”>” >> $html
echo “<body>” >> $html
echo “<fieldset>” >> $html
echo “<center>” >> $html
echo “<h2>Linux System Change Logger Script” >> $html
echo “<h3><legend>Script authored by Student</legend></h3>” >> $html
echo “</center>” >> $html
echo “</fieldset>” >> $html
echo “<br>” >> $html
echo “<center>” >> $html
echo “<h2>System Details : </h2>” >> $html
echo “<table class=”pure-table”>” >> $html
echo “<thead>” >> $html
echo “<tr>” >> $html
echo “<th>Number_of_Process</th>” >> $html
echo “<th>Currently_logged_in_users</th>” >> $html
echo “<th>Plugged_in_Devices</th>” >> $html
echo “<th>Uptime</th>” >> $html
echo “</tr>” >> $html
echo “</thead>” >> $html
echo “<tbody>” >> $html
echo “<tr>” >> $html
echo “<td>$Number_of_Process</td>” >> $html
echo “<td>$Currently_logged_in_users</td>” >> $html
echo “<td>$Plugged_in_Devices</td>” >> $html
echo “<td>$upt</td>” >> $html
echo “</tr>” >> $html
echo “</tbody>” >> $html
echo “</table>” >> $html
echo “<h2>Resources Utilization : </h2>” >> $html
echo “<br>” >> $html
echo “<table class=”pure-table”>” >> $html
echo “<thead>” >> $html
echo “<tr>” >> $html
echo “<th>Overall Disk Usage</th>” >> $html
echo “<th>The user’s home directory</th>” >> $html
echo “<th>Other key directories</th>” >> $html
echo “<th>Network Interface and their states</th>” >> $html
echo “<th>Used RAM(in MB)</th>” >> $html
echo “<th>Total RAM(in MB)</th>” >> $html
echo “<th>iNode Status</th>” >> $html
echo “</tr>” >> $html
echo “</thead>” >> $html
echo “<tbody>” >> $html
echo “<tr>” >> $html
echo “<td><center>$$Root_size</center></td>” >> $html
echo “<td><center>$root_fs_pc</center></td>” >> $html
echo “<td><center>$Users_home_directory</center></td>” >> $html
echo “<td><center>$ip_add</center></td>” >> $html
echo “<td><center>$ram_usage</center></td>” >> $html
echo “<td><center>$ram_total</center></td>” >> $html
echo “<td><center>$inode</center></td>” >> $html
echo “</tr>” >> $html
echo “</tbody>” >> $html
Extensive test result and exemplary log and screen output
echo “</table>” >> $html
while read size name;
do
echo “<td>$size</td>” >> $html
echo “<td>$name</td>” >> $html
echo “</tr>” >> $html
echo “</tbody>” >> $html
done < /mySysMonitor.log
echo “</table>” >> $html
echo “</body>” >> $html
echo “</html>” >> $html
echo “Report has been generated in ${HOME}/mySysMonitor with file-name = $html. Report has also been sent to $email_add.”
#Sending Email to the user
cat $html | mail -s “`hostname` – mySysMonitor” -a “MIME-Version: 1.0” -a “Content-Type: text/html” -a “From: user <[email protected]>” $email_add
Conclusion
The creation of the shell script helps in reducing the effort of the network engineer for monitoring and management of the activity of the user. The shell script can be executed for getting all the information about the current system by using a single command and the user does not need to use individual command for analysing each of the activity. Apart form the advantage it also have some disadvantage that is the speed of execution is slower when the shell script is compared with the different programming language that can eb used alternatively for monitoring the activity of the current user and management of the changes made in the current system.
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