Sysadmin Toolbox

What it does

The Sysadmin Toolbox provides curated recommendations and practical shell one-liners to assist with common server administration tasks. It helps IT professionals streamline troubleshooting by offering readily available tools and commands for debugging network connectivity, analyzing system performance, and working with logs. The skill focuses on providing relevant references and suggesting appropriate command-line utilities based on the user's request.

When to use it

This skill is helpful in these situations:

• Debugging network connectivity issues or port problems.
• Troubleshooting DNS or SSL/TLS configurations.
• Analyzing process activity, memory usage, or disk space.
• Working with system logs and diagnostic data.
• Writing shell scripts or needing quick command-line solutions.
• Seeking recommendations for suitable CLI tools for a specific task.
• Performing security audits or penetration testing (within permitted boundaries).
• Managing containers using Docker or Kubernetes.

Key capabilities

• Provides curated lists of CLI and web-based tools.
• Offers practical shell one-liners for various tasks like terminal usage, networking, and SSL management.
• Includes guides on shell scripting tricks and techniques.
• Recommends specific tools for network debugging (e.g., mtr, tcpdump), DNS analysis (dig, dnsdiag), SSL/TLS testing (openssl, testssl.sh), process monitoring (htop, strace), log analysis (lnav, GoAccess), and container management (dive, lazydocker).
• Automatically refreshes its references weekly.

Example prompts

• "Why is this port not responding?"
• "What's a good tool for testing SSL?"
• "Show me how to find large files."

Tips & gotchas

• The skill prioritizes safety and will not execute potentially destructive commands without explicit user request.
• Ensure you have permission to scan or assess any hosts, domains, or networks before using the suggested tools.
• Always understand what a command does before executing it in a production environment.