The Book Of Secret Knowledge

# Sysadmin Handbook Sysadmin Handbook v2.0.0 — a thorough sysops toolkit for system administrators. Record, track, and manage all aspects of system administration from the command line. Every action is timestamped and logged locally for full auditability. ## Why Sysadmin Handbook? - Works entirely offline — your data never leaves your machine - Simple command-line interface, no GUI needed - Timestamped logging for every operation - Export to JSON, CSV, or plain text anytime - Automatic history and activity tracking - Searchable records across all operation types ## Getting Started ```bash # See all available commands sysadmin-handbook help # Check current health status sysadmin-handbook status # View summary statistics sysadmin-handbook stats ``` ## Commands ### Operations Commands Each command works in two modes: run without arguments to view recent entries, or pass input to record a new entry. | Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | `sysadmin-handbook scan <input>` | Record a scan operation (port scans, vulnerability scans, network sweeps) | | `sysadmin-handbook monitor <input>` | Log monitoring observations (service health, uptime checks, resource usage) | | `sysadmin-handbook report <input>` | Create report entries (incident reports, audit summaries, status updates) | | `sysadmin-handbook alert <input>` | Record alert events (threshold breaches, security warnings, service failures) | | `sysadmin-handbook top <input>` | Log top-level metrics (CPU hogs, memory consumers, disk leaders) | | `sysadmin-handbook usage <input>` | Track usage data (disk usage, bandwidth, API calls, license counts) | | `sysadmin-handbook check <input>` | Record health checks (service checks, config validation, dependency tests) | | `sysadmin-handbook fix <input>` | Document fixes applied (patches, config changes, workarounds) | | `sysadmin-handbook cleanup <input>` | Log cleanup operations (temp files, old logs, orphaned processes) | | `sysadmin-handbook backup <input>` | Track backup operations (full backups, incrementals, snapshots) | | `sysadmin-handbook restore <input>` | Record restore operations (data recovery, config rollbacks) | | `sysadmin-handbook log <input>` | General-purpose log entries (freeform notes, observations) | | `sysadmin-handbook benchmark <input>` | Record benchmark results (performance tests, load tests, I/O benchmarks) | | `sysadmin-handbook compare <input>` | Log comparison data (before/after, environment diffs, config comparisons) | ### Utility Commands | Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | `sysadmin-handbook stats` | Show summary statistics across all log categories | | `sysadmin-handbook export <fmt>` | Export all data (formats: `json`, `csv`, `txt`) | | `sysadmin-handbook search <term>` | Search across all entries for a keyword | | `sysadmin-handbook recent` | Show the 20 most recent history entries | | `sysadmin-handbook status` | Health check — version, data dir, entry count, disk usage | | `sysadmin-handbook help` | Show the built-in help message | | `sysadmin-handbook version` | Print version (v2.0.0) | ## Data Storage All data is stored locally in `~/.local/share/sysadmin-handbook/`. Structure: - **`scan.log`**, **`monitor.log`**, **`report.log`**, etc. — one log file per command, pipe-delimited (`timestamp|value`) - **`history.log`** — unified activity log across all commands - **`export.json`** / **`export.csv`** / **`export.txt`** — generated export files Each entry is stored as `YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM|<input>`. Use `export` to back up your data anytime. ## Requirements - Bash 4+ (uses `set -euo pipefail`) - Standard Unix utilities (`date`, `wc`, `du`, `tail`, `grep`, `sed`, `cat`) - No external dependencies or internet access needed ## When to Use 1. **Incident response tracking** — Log scan results, alerts, and fixes during an active incident so you have a complete timeline for the post-mortem 2. **Daily ops journaling** — Record monitoring observations, health checks, and cleanup tasks as you go through your sysadmin routine 3. **Backup & restore auditing** — Track every backup and restore operation with timestamps to prove compliance or diagnose failures 4. **Performance benchmarking** — Store benchmark results over time and use `compare` to track regressions or improvements across deploys 5. **Team handoff documentation** — Log everything during your shift so the next admin can run `recent` or `search` to get up to speed instantly ## Examples ```bash # Record a network scan result sysadmin-handbook scan "192.168.1.0/24 — 14 hosts up, 3 with open SSH" # Log a monitoring observation sysadmin-handbook monitor "web-prod-01 CPU at 92% for 15 minutes" # Document a fix you applied sysadmin-handbook fix "Increased nginx worker_connections from 1024 to 4096" # Track a backup operation sysadmin-handbook backup "Full backup of /data completed — 48GB, 23 min" # Export everything to JSON for archival sysadmin-handbook export json # Search all logs for a keyword sysadmin-handbook search "nginx" # View recent activity across all commands sysadmin-handbook recent ``` ## Output All commands output to stdout. Redirect to a file if needed: ```bash sysadmin-handbook stats > report.txt sysadmin-handbook export csv ``` ## Configuration Set `SYSADMIN_HANDBOOK_DIR` environment variable to override the default data directory (`~/.local/share/sysadmin-handbook/`). --- Powered by BytesAgain | bytesagain.com | hello@bytesagain.com