🔧 Monitoring Server Health with a Python Script That Runs Every Minute

Emmanuel Onesime — Thu, 15 May 2025 08:54:26 +0000

Introduction
In any production environment, monitoring server performance is essential for maintaining availability and preventing system failures. For system administrators, real-time information about memory, CPU, and disk usage is crucial to ensure that infrastructure remains healthy.
In this article, we'll walk through creating a Python script that runs every minute, collects server health metrics, and sends a report via email to a system administrator. We'll also log each execution and use tail -f to monitor logs in real-time.
Steps to Follow:
Prepare Your Environment

1.1 First, create a Python virtual environment:

1.2 install the required packages:

Create a .env File for Your Secrets In your home directory, create the file /home/emma/.env with the following content (replace with your actual credentials):

Notice: The EMAIL_PASSWORD is your Google App Password, not your real Gmail password.

Write the Python Script Create the file /home/emma/server_health_report.py with the following code:

Schedule the Script to Run Every Minute 4.1 Edit your crontab:

4.2 Add the following line:
****/home/emma/env/bin/python3/home/emma/server_health_report.y

Monitor the Log in Real-Time

Conclusion
By following these steps, you've built an automated monitoring system using Python that runs every minute, gathers key server metrics, logs the results, and sends real-time performance data via email. This setup enhances visibility and helps system administrators react promptly to any issues - improving reliability and efficiency in server management.

DEV Community: Emmanuel Onesime

🔧 Monitoring Server Health with a Python Script That Runs Every Minute