Telegram Bash System Monitoring

A single-file, agentless Linux server monitoring script that sends Telegram alerts for the stuff that actually wakes you up: CPU/RAM/disk/load, temperature, SSH/SFTP logins, reboots, and remote host/service reachability.

Designed to run once at boot via crontab @reboot and then stay alive as a lightweight supervisor + monitoring loops. No cron spam. No “run every minute” duct tape.

If bash monitoring scripts had a flagship phone — this is the Pro model.

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What this is

• One script: system-monitoring.sh
• One job: run it at boot (@reboot) and let it monitor continuously
• One output: Telegram notifications (with smart cooldowns so you don’t get spammed)

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Features

Local server monitoring (Telegram alerts)

• CPU usage alerts with spike filtering (sustained-high logic, not random peaks)
• RAM usage alerts
• Disk usage alerts (single target or multi-mount via a list file)
• CPU temperature alerts with “best sensor wins” auto-detection (thermal zones + hwmon)
• Load Average alerts (LA1, LA5, LA15) with sane auto-thresholds based on CPU cores
• Reboot detection (alerts when boot-time changes since last run)

SSH/SFTP activity monitoring (security + ops)

• SSH login monitoring with Active/Ended alerts
• SFTP session monitoring with Active/Ended alerts (maps processes to sockets; includes IP details)
• Flash detection from auth logs/journald for sessions that start/end between polling ticks
• Noise control: exclude trusted IPs/CIDRs (IPv4 + IPv6) with correct ipaddress matching

Remote monitoring (Ping + TCP)

• Monitor external hosts/services with:
  • ICMP ping (IPv4/IPv6-aware)
  • TCP port checks (22/80/443/etc.) using Python sockets (more reliable than bash hacks)
• Stateful alerts: UP/DOWN only on transitions (and after configurable consecutive failures)
• Smart behavior during maintenance lock:
  • If Telegram alerts are locked, “DOWN” is queued once and delivered after unlock (if still down)

Operational polish

• Secure secrets handling:
  • Stored in /etc/telegram.secrets (root-owned, 600, not a symlink)
  • Parsed as data (not executed)
  • Interactive first-run setup hides the bot token input
• Maintenance mode (instant mute): lock file '/etc/telegramm_lock.state'
• Single-instance enforcement (flock lock; PID fallback)
• Control plane:
  • --STATUS / --RELOAD / --KILL (must be used alone)
• Self-checks dependencies with distro-aware install hints (and can Telegram-notify on startup failures)

Screenshots

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Quick start

1) Install (one line)

sudo curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/russellgrapes/telegram-bash-system-monitoring/main/system-monitoring.sh -o /usr/local/bin/system-monitoring.sh \
  && sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/system-monitoring.sh

2) Telegram setup (bot token + group/chat id)

You need two values:

• BOT_TOKEN (from BotFather)
• GROUP_ID (Telegram chat/group id where alerts go)

Follow the guide below: Telegram credentials.

3) First run (interactive, creates /etc/telegram.secrets)

Run it once in a real terminal (TTY) as root. It will:

• prompt for GROUP_ID and BOT_TOKEN
• create /etc/telegram.secrets securely
• send a Telegram test message

Example (pick what you want to monitor):

sudo system-monitoring.sh --NAME MyServer --CPU --RAM --DISK --LA1 --LA5 --LA15 --SSH --SFTP --REBOOT

Stop it after the test message if you want (Ctrl-C is fine). Then move to @reboot.

4) Run on every boot (core idea)

Edit root’s crontab:

sudo crontab -e

Add one line (recommended with logs):

@reboot /usr/local/bin/system-monitoring.sh --NAME MyServer --CPU --RAM --DISK --TEMP --LA1 --LA5 --LA15 --SSH --SFTP --REBOOT >>/var/log/system-monitoring.log 2>&1

Or discard output:

@reboot /usr/local/bin/system-monitoring.sh --NAME MyServer --CPU --RAM --DISK --LA1 --LA5 --LA15 --SSH --SFTP --REBOOT >/dev/null 2>&1

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Usage

Common setups

Classic “server health + security”

sudo system-monitoring.sh --NAME prod-api-1 --CPU 85 --RAM 85 --DISK 90 --TEMP 70 --LA1 --LA5 --LA15 --SSH --SFTP --REBOOT

Disk-heavy server with multiple mounts

sudo system-monitoring.sh --NAME storage-1 --DISK-LIST /etc/system-monitoring.disk.list --REBOOT

Monitor remote infrastructure (router + DNS + HTTPS)

sudo system-monitoring.sh --NAME monitorbox \
  --PING "Name=router|Host=10.10.10.1|Ping=true|Port=22,80,443|Interval=10|MaxFails=3" \
  --PING "Name=cloudflare-dns|Host=1.1.1.1|Ping=true|Port=-|Interval=30|MaxFails=2" \
  --PING "Name=my-site|Host=example.com:443|Ping=false|Interval=15|MaxFails=2"

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Disk monitoring

Single target

sudo system-monitoring.sh --NAME MyServer --DISK 90

Or specify a mount point (must be an actual mount point, not just any folder):

sudo system-monitoring.sh --NAME MyServer --DISK 90 --DISK-TARGET /mnt/data

Multi-target via --DISK-LIST

Create /etc/system-monitoring.disk.list:

# One entry per line. '#' comments allowed.
Mount=/|Threshold=90
Mount=/mnt/data|Threshold=85

# OR simple:
/var 70
/mnt/data 85

Run:

sudo system-monitoring.sh --NAME MyServer --DISK-LIST /etc/system-monitoring.disk.list

Notes:

• Entries are deduped by mountpoint (last definition wins; CLI overrides file).
• If you pass a path that isn’t a real mount point, the script will reject it (on purpose).

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Remote monitoring

Target spec format (--PING)

Recommended key/value format (order doesn’t matter):

Name=<name>|Host=<host>|Ping=true|Port=22,80,443|Interval=11|MaxFails=3

Rules that matter:

• Host supports IPv4, IPv6, DNS
• Host=example.com:443 is valid (if Port= is omitted, it becomes a single port check)
• Ping=false skips ICMP and checks only TCP ports
• A config that disables ping and has no ports is rejected (it would do nothing)
• Duplicate Name+Host entries are rejected (state keys would collide)

--PING-LIST

Create /etc/system-monitoring.ping.list:

# One spec per line. '#' comments allowed.
Name=router|Host=10.10.10.1|Ping=true|Port=22,80,443|Interval=11|MaxFails=3
Name=dns1|Host=1.1.1.1|Ping=true|Port=-|Interval=30|MaxFails=2
Host=8.8.8.8
Name=v6-web|Host=[2001:db8::10]|Ping=false|Port=443|Interval=11|MaxFails=3

Run:

sudo system-monitoring.sh --NAME MonitorBox --PING-LIST /etc/system-monitoring.ping.list

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SSH/SFTP monitoring

Enable:

• --SSH for SSH logins
• --SFTP for SFTP sessions

What you get:

• “Active” and “Ended” notifications (stateful, no spam)

• A snapshot file updated every fast tick:

  • /var/lib/system-monitoring/ssh_activity_logins.txt (safe to tail)

Excluding trusted IP ranges

Create /etc/system-monitoring.exclude.ip.list (auto-loaded if it exists — no flag required):

# One IP/CIDR per line. '#' comments + blank lines allowed.
10.10.0.0/16
192.168.1.0/24
203.0.113.25
2001:db8::/32

Or load a custom file:

sudo system-monitoring.sh --NAME MyServer --SSH --SFTP --EXCLUDE-IP-LIST /path/to/exclude.list

CIDR matching is done with Python’s standard ipaddress module (correct for IPv4 + IPv6). Changes apply on --RELOAD (re-reads the active exclude file and restarts loops in-place).

Flash detection (the hidden killer feature)

Some sessions start/end between polls. This script reads auth logs (or journald) and emits “Flash” alerts so you don’t miss them.

If your auth logs are non-standard, you can force the source:

export SSHD_LOG_SOURCE="/var/log/auth.log"
# or:
export SSHD_LOG_SOURCE="JOURNAL"

If sshd’s LogLevel is too quiet (e.g. ERROR), flash detection can’t see “Accepted …” lines. The script will warn (stderr + Telegram).

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Maintenance mode (mute Telegram alerts)

Core switch:

• /root/telegramm_lock.state

Mute:

echo 1 | sudo tee /root/telegramm_lock.state >/dev/null

Unmute:

sudo rm -f /root/telegramm_lock.state
# or:
echo 0 | sudo tee /root/telegramm_lock.state >/dev/null

When you unlock, the script resets cooldown state so alerts resume immediately (you don’t miss real issues because of “cooldown time written while muted”).

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Managing a running instance

These flags must be used alone:

Status:

sudo system-monitoring.sh --STATUS

Reload config (secrets + --DISK-LIST + --PING-LIST + exclude IP list, restarts loops in-place):

sudo system-monitoring.sh --RELOAD

Stop it cleanly:

sudo system-monitoring.sh --KILL

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Secrets and security

Where credentials live

• /etc/telegram.secrets

• Must be:

  • owned by root:root
  • permissions 600
  • not a symlink

The script enforces this and refuses to run if the file is unsafe.

Expected file format:

GROUP_ID="12345678"
BOT_TOKEN="123456:ABC..."

CLI overrides (not recommended)

You can run with:

• --GROUP-ID <chat_id>
• --BOT-TOKEN <token>

But it’s dangerous because CLI args can leak via logs and process lists (ps, top, etc.). Use the secrets file instead.

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Full CLI reference

Run:

system-monitoring.sh --help

Supported flags:

• --NAME <host_name>
• --CPU [percent] (default 86)
• --RAM [percent] (default 86)
• --DISK [percent] (default 90)
• --DISK-TARGET <mount_point> (must be used with --DISK)
• --DISK-LIST <file>
• --TEMP [celsius] (default 65)
• --LA1 [threshold] (omit threshold for auto = CPU cores)
• --LA5 [threshold] (omit threshold for auto = 75% of CPU cores)
• --LA15 [threshold] (omit threshold for auto = 50% of CPU cores)
• --SSH
• --SFTP
• --EXCLUDE-IP-LIST <file>
• --REBOOT
• --PING <spec> (repeatable)
• --PING-LIST <file>
• --GROUP-ID <chat_id> (override; unsafe)
• --BOT-TOKEN <token> (override; unsafe)
• --STATUS (alone)
• --RELOAD (alone)
• --KILL (alone)

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Telegram credentials

Creating a Telegram Bot

1. Open the Telegram app and search for "@BotFather", which is the official bot for creating other bots.
2. Send the /newbot command to BotFather and follow the instructions. You will be asked to provide a name and a username for your bot.
3. After the bot is created, BotFather will provide a token for your new bot. Keep this token secure as it will be used to control the bot.

Getting the Group ID

1. Create a new group in Telegram or use an existing one where you want to receive alerts.
2. Add your newly created bot to the group as a member.
3. Send a dummy message to the group to initialize the chat with the bot (tip: mention the bot or send a command like /start so the bot definitely receives an update).
4. Visit https://api.telegram.org/bot<YourBOTToken>/getUpdates in your web browser, replacing <YourBOTToken> with the token you received from BotFather.
5. Look for a JSON response that contains "chat":{"id": followed by a long number. This number is your group ID. Note it down as you will need to enter it into the script's configuration.

Notes:

• Group IDs are often negative numbers (that’s normal). Copy the value exactly as shown.

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Contributing

⭐ Star this repo if it helps.

Then fork it and open a pull request, or create an issue tagged enhancement.

License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.

Author

I write loops to skip out on life's hoops.

Russell Grapes - www.grapes.team

Project Link: https://github.com/russellgrapes/telegram-bash-system-monitoring