How to set up the Stupid Simple Server Monitoring app on Linux

The Stupid Simple Server Monitor application is an open source tool for the Linux platform that aims to deliver a useful, simple server monitoring platform. It provides real-time data on servers about bandwidth, performance, memory usage, etc.

It’s clear that there are dozens of server monitoring dashboards on Linux, like Fedora’s Cockpit, Linux Dash and others. However, Stupid Simple Server stands out from the pack due to how easy it is to get going. No coding or advanced Linux knowledge required; sign up and go!

Create SSSM account

Creating an account is required to access the SSSM system. To do this, head over to the Stupid Simple Server Monitor website. Once you’re on the page, scroll through and read about the app, as it’ll help you know a little bit more about what you’re getting into.

When you’re done reading the home page of the app, look for the blue “Create an account” button and click on it. Then, use the user and password box to sign up for the service. Be sure to use a secure password during this process to protect yourself.

If you can’t figure out a password that is secure, don’t worry! There’s an excellent tool out there called Strong password generator. With it, users can automatically generate useful, secure passwords for accounts they use online.

Once your new account is created, sign in to the service and move on to the next step in the process.

Install Cron and Curl

SSSM works with the help of Cron and Curl. So, to install the program, you need to install both of these tools on your Linux server system. Luckily, both Cron and Curl are found on almost every Linux OS on the market so it won’t be hard to get going.

To install, open up a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Shift + T or Ctrl + Alt + T and use SSH to log in to your Linux server remotely. Or, sit down in front of your server and use the console directly.

Ubuntu

Both Curl and Cron are available to Ubuntu Linux users on “Ubuntu Main,” but the popular Cronie app isn’t, so on Ubuntu Linux, you’ll need to install the standard “cron” package as Canonical doesn’t make Cronie available.

To get both Curl and Cron on Ubuntu, use the Apt command below.

sudo apt install cron curl

Debian

Debian users can install the Curl app via “Debian Main,” but just like Ubuntu Linux, Debian Linux doesn’t make the Cronie application available to users on their software repositories, opting instead to distribute the standard “cron” package.

To install these apps on your Debian system, use the following Apt-get command.

sudo apt-get install curl cron

Arch Linux

Curl is part of the standard system utilities for Arch Linux, so there’s no need to install it. However, Cron isn’t. On Arch, users have access to both Cronie and Fcron. For this guide, we will go with Cronie, however the other app is located here.

sudo pacman -S cronie

Fedora

Cronie is available for Fedora Linux, as well as Curl in the primary software source, so users don’t need to jump through any hoops to get these packages installed. Instead, just launch a terminal window and use the Dnf command below in a terminal window.

sudo dnf install curl cronie

OpenSUSE

To get access to Cron on OpenSUSE, you have multiple choices. That said, in this guide we generally suggest Cronie, as it is very similar to the standard Cron tool. To install it, along with the Curl downloader tool which is required, enter the following Zypper command in a terminal window.

sudo zypper install curl cronie

Enable SSSM via Cron

Stupid Simple Server Monitor is really clever. Instead of having users go through the trouble of downloading their monitoring tool, compiling source code or dealing with things like Snap packages, they’ve provided an automatic downloader script that can take care of everything for you.

The script works through the help of Curl (for the downloading part) and Cron. To start the setup process, open up a terminal window and use the crontab command to access your Cron system.

sudo EDITOR=nano crontab -e

With the new Crontab open and accessible, go back to the SSSM website and sign into your new account. You should then see their dashboard. On the dashboard, click the blue “New server” button.

Selecting “New server” will auto-generate a new tab for Cron. Copy the command and paste it into the Nano editor. Then, press Ctrl + O to save the command into the system.

Exit Cron by pressing Ctrl + X. As soon as you exit Cron, the system should apply the new Curl command. From there, go back to the SSSM dashboard and refresh the page (after 1 minute has passed.)

After refreshing the page, you should see all of your server stats in a nice neat graph system.