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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