VitaGuard: My First Real-Time Linux System Health Monitor in Bash

While learning Linux system administration, I wanted a lightweight tool that mirrors what I actually check when supporting or troubleshooting a Linux system. CPU usage, memory, disk space, running processes and whether or not anything critical is showing up in the logs.

Not something complicated or over-engineered.
Just fast, short and sweet, directly in the terminal.

So I built VitaGuard, a real-time system health monitor written entirely in Bash.

What the script does
VitaGuard provides a continuously updating overview of system health:
Resource usage

• CPU usage with visual progress bars
• Memory usage (used vs total)
• Disk usage for the root filesystem
• Automatic warnings for high usage thresholds

System information

• System uptime and load average
• Active network interfaces

Processes

• Top 5 processes by CPU usage
• Clean, readable table output

Logs
Scans recent system logs for critical issues
Filters for errors such as:

• kernel issues
• failed services
• OOM events
• Reduces common log noise and limits output to the most recent entries

Services
Checks the status of common services:

• Sshd
• Docker
• Nginx

All of this runs in an auto refreshing loop, updating every 5 seconds until you exit.

Why I built it
I built VitaGuard to practice Linux administration fundamentals, not just scripting syntax.

Things I specifically wanted to work on:

• Turning raw system metrics into a readable output
• Building visual progress bars and color-based alerts
• Filtering noisy logs to surface useful signals
• Writing Bash that's structured, readable and most importantly safe
• Creating something practical that can be dropped onto a server and be used immediately

This is the kind of script I'd want to have available when I SSH into a VPS or troubleshooting a system under load.

Challenges & Fixes

• Colors weren't showing up on the progress bars at first. Fixed it by using printf "%b" to make the escape codes work.
• Syslog was dumping a ton of random noise. Added some grep -v filters to remove junk like "workqueue" and "drm".
• The top processes table looked messy initially. Used awk with fixed widths to align everything nicely.

What I learned

• How to pull system info (CPU, memory, disk) from commands like top, free, and df and clean it up with awk.
• Using color codes in the terminal to make warnings stand out (green for good, red for bad).
• Writing Bash scripts that don't break easily, adding checks, handling empty results and keeping it readable.

What's next
Planned improvements for VitaGuard:

• Configurable refresh interval
• Optional non-interactive / one-shot mode
• Improved compatibility across Linux distributions
• Optional HTML/JS dashboard for remote monitoring

Source code
The full script is available on GitHub:

N4V1CKAS / VitaGuard

VitaGuard is a lightweight Bash-based system health monitor that provides real-time insights into CPU, memory, disk usage, processes, logs, network interfaces and service status on Linux systems.

🛡️ VitaGuard

Quickly monitor your Linux server's vital signs straight from the terminal

🛠️ Technologies

• Bash scripting
• Core Linux tools: top, free, df, ps, grep, awk, tail

🚀 Features

• Real-time updates (refreshes every 5 seconds)
• Color-coded progress bars for CPU, memory, disk
• Uptime and load average
• Top 5 processes by CPU usage (clean table)
• Recent critical errors from syslog (filtered, max 3 lines)
• Awesome ASCII art header

💡 Why I built it

This script was created to practice my Linux administration and Bash scripting skills:

• Creating visual progress bars and color alerts
• Filtering log noise for useful error reporting
• Making something truly practical that anyone can pick up and run with ease

🔍 How it works

The script runs in an infinite loop that:

• Clears the terminal screen
• Collects system metrics using standard Linux utilities
• Renders color-coded progress bars and warnings
• Displays process, log and service information
• Sleeps for 5…

View on GitHub