Server monitoring with Telegram

INFO: Those who already have a Telegram Botfather Token and want to skip the intro can directly access the Github Repository

At the end of this intro, you will have logs like this:

Step 1: Create Telegram access token with Botfather

Open this link on your computer or phone: https://telegram.me/botfather and click on Send Message. You need telegram installed on your computer or phone. A new windows will open. Type in /start and send the message. After that, some available commands will be shown. Send /newbot in order to crate a bot and set a unique name as requested by the bot. An access key will be shown to you if everything works out:

> [...]Use this token to access the HTTP API: 123456789:AAEHUDJAN[...].

Now switch to the chat and write a message. A simple Hi is sufficient. Now we need to find our the ChatID. This can be done by opening this url:

> https://api.telegram.org/bot[ACCESS-TOKEN]/getUpdates

The output should like this:

{"ok":true,"result":[{"update_id":123456789,
"message":{"message_id":3,"from":{"id":123456789,"is_bot":false,"first_name":"Ralph","language_code":"de"},"chat":{"id":987654321,"first_name":"Ralph","type":"private"},"date":1558263909,"text":"Hi"}}]}

The id that is shown here will be important in the next part.

Step 2: Prepare server

Clone repository and setup

ahmet@server1:~$ git clone https://github.com/ahoz/Telegram-Server-Monitoring

Adapt api key and chat id in monitoring.py. Insert your disk name in checkdisks and change the settings as you want.

Step 3: Start monitoring

In order to monitor user logins the /etc/profile file needs to be adapted.

ahmet@server1:~$ echo "/opt/monitoring.py 1 >/dev/null 2>&1 ">> /etc/profile

Additional cronjobs are needed to monitor everything regulary

ahmet@server1:~$ echo "0 */2   * * *   root    /bin/bash /opt/monitoring.py 2 >/dev/null 2>&1" >> /etc/crontab
ahmet@server1:~$ echo "0 */2   * * *   root    /bin/bash /opt/monitoring.py 3 >/dev/null 2>&1" >> /etc/crontab

Executing the scripts with user root will always work. It is recommended to change this user to a non privileged user. I also want to emphasise that this script is developed in a short spare time. It should be polished before using it on a production environment.