Start With the Basics
Before adding complex observability stacks, master the tools already on your server.
Core Tools
- htop — real-time CPU and memory usage
- iotop — disk I/O by process
- netstat / ss — active connections and listening ports
- journalctl — centralized log inspection
When to Upgrade
Move to Prometheus, Grafana, or a hosted APM when you need historical trends, alerting, and team dashboards.