5

Here in a list of tools I install after a fresh install (debian most of time):

  • logcheck: to check the log files and generate reports
  • apticron: send me e-mails when packages updates are available
  • aide: to check the system integrity
  • vim: ;-)
  • ethtool & ifstat: to get my network interface speed
  • denyhosts or fail2ban: to block bruteforce ssh connection attempts
  • chkrootkit: check for rootkits
  • openntpd: for ntp synchro
  • upgrade-system: to keep the system up-to-date

update:

  • sysstat: system statistics (iostat, sar...)

and you? do you know any other useful tools?

3

7 Answers 7

6

screen... when its not there your workstation is 100% more likely to crash.

5

There are similar post here

4

I'd recommand the following tools:

  • munin(-node): monitoring ressources
  • htop
  • nload
  • nmap
  • dnsutils
  • smartmontools
  • ntpd
2

sysstat - for system resource monitoring, always useful. More information on this post.

0
2

Tools:

  • tcptraceroute (great for troubleshooting when idiots block ICMP)
  • iptraf (great for watching bandwith usage in realtime)
  • vmware tools (I know, specific to vmware installs, but people often forget this and then complain about time skew)

Not-so-very-tools-but-worth-mentioning:

  • thttpd (redirect-only to simplify life for users who keeps accessing http://smtp.company.com when they should be accessing http://webmail.company.com)
  • ee (make life happy for those old FreeBSD admins)
  • postfix (simply because we want to use the same MTA for both remote and local mailservices)
2

I'd throw in

  • gnu bc
  • wireshark/tshark
  • openssl (encrypting log files)
  • deborphan (check for unused packages later)
  • svn (I manage /etc with it)
  • dmidecode (it can come handy sometimes)
  • make, m4 and sqlite3 (i generate configuration files with repeating pattern)
  • mutt (a good MUA is a must)
  • any kind of ntp daemon, but you have mentioned it
  • p7zip (can come handy with exotic compression formats)
  • rsync
  • screen

as well ;)

1

PSAD is a collection of three lightweight system daemons (two main daemons and one helper daemon) that run on Linux machines and analyze iptables log messages to detect port scans and other suspicious traffic. A typical deployment is to run psad on the iptables firewall where it has the fastest access to log data.

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