Sampler. Visualization for any shell command.

Sampler is a tool for shell commands execution, visualization and alerting. Configured with a simple YAML file.

Installation

macOS

brew cask install sampler

or

sudo curl -Lo /usr/local/bin/sampler https://github.com/sqshq/sampler/releases/download/v1.0.2/sampler-1.0.2-darwin-amd64
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/sampler

Linux

sudo wget https://github.com/sqshq/sampler/releases/download/v1.0.2/sampler-1.0.2-linux-amd64 -O /usr/local/bin/sampler
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/sampler

Note: libasound2-dev system library is required to be installed for Sampler to play a trigger sound tone. Usually the library is in place, but if not - you can install it with your favorite package manager, e.g apt install libasound2-dev

Windows (experimental)

Recommended to use with advanced console emulators, e.g. Cmder

Download .exe

Why do I need it?

You can sample any dynamic process right from the terminal - observe changes in the database, monitor MQ in-flight messages, trigger a deployment script and get notification when it's done.

Sampler is not an alternative to full-scale monitoring systems, it is more like fast and easy to setup development tool. However it can be used as a dashboard for Kubernetes, Github, Spring Boot and anything else - the only limit is your imagination.

Usage

You specify shell commands, Sampler executes them with a required rate. The output is used for visualization.

Using Sampler is basically a 3-step process:

• Define your shell commands in a YAML configuration file
• Run sampler -c config.yml
• Adjust components size and location on UI

Contents

• Components
  • Runchart
  • Sparkline
  • Barchart
  • Gauge
  • Textbox
  • Asciibox
• Bells and whistles
  • Triggers (conditional actions)
  • Interactive shell (database interaction, remote server access, etc)
  • Variables
  • Color theme
• Real-world recipes (contributions welcome!)
  • Databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Neo4j)
  • Kafka
  • Docker
  • SSH
  • JMX

Components

The following is a list of configuration examples for each component type, with macOS compatible sampling scripts.

Runchart

runcharts:
  - title: Search engine response time
    rate-ms: 500        # sampling rate, default = 1000
    scale: 2            # number of digits after sample decimal point, default = 1
    legend:
      enabled: true     # enables item labels, default = true
      details: false    # enables item statistics: cur/min/max/dlt values, default = true
    items:
      - label: GOOGLE
        sample: curl -o /dev/null -s -w '%{time_total}'  https://www.google.com
        color: 178      # 8-bit color number, default one is chosen from a pre-defined palette
      - label: YAHOO
        sample: curl -o /dev/null -s -w '%{time_total}'  https://search.yahoo.com
      - label: BING
        sample: curl -o /dev/null -s -w '%{time_total}'  https://www.bing.com

Sparkline

sparklines:
  - title: CPU usage
    rate-ms: 200
    scale: 0
    sample: ps -A -o %cpu | awk '{s+=$1} END {print s}'
  - title: Free memory pages
    rate-ms: 200
    scale: 0
    sample: memory_pressure | grep 'Pages free' | awk '{print $3}'

Barchart

barcharts:
  - title: Local network activity
    rate-ms: 500        # sampling rate, default = 1000
    scale: 0            # number of digits after sample decimal point, default = 1
    items:
      - label: UDP bytes in
        sample: nettop -J bytes_in -l 1 -m udp | awk '{sum += $4} END {print sum}'
      - label: UDP bytes out
        sample: nettop -J bytes_out -l 1 -m udp | awk '{sum += $4} END {print sum}'
      - label: TCP bytes in
        sample: nettop -J bytes_in -l 1 -m tcp | awk '{sum += $4} END {print sum}'
      - label: TCP bytes out
        sample: nettop -J bytes_out -l 1 -m tcp | awk '{sum += $4} END {print sum}'

Gauge

gauges:
  - title: Minute progress
    rate-ms: 500        # sampling rate, default = 1000
    scale: 2            # number of digits after sample decimal point, default = 1
    percent-only: false # toggle display of the current value, default = false
    color: 178          # 8-bit color number, default one is chosen from a pre-defined palette
    cur:
      sample: date +%S  # sample script for current value
    max:
      sample: echo 60   # sample script for max value
    min:
      sample: echo 0    # sample script for min value
  - title: Year progress
    cur:
      sample: date +%j
    max:
      sample: echo 365
    min:
      sample: echo 0

Textbox

textboxes:
  - title: Local weather
    rate-ms: 10000      # sampling rate, default = 1000
    sample: curl wttr.in?0ATQF
    border: false       # border around the item, default = true
    color: 178          # 8-bit color number, default is white
  - title: Docker containers stats
    rate-ms: 500
    sample: docker stats --no-stream --format "table {{.Name}}\t{{.CPUPerc}}\t{{.MemUsage}}\t{{.PIDs}}"

Asciibox

asciiboxes:
  - title: UTC time
    rate-ms: 500        # sampling rate, default = 1000
    font: 3d            # font type, default = 2d
    border: false       # border around the item, default = true    
    color: 43           # 8-bit color number, default is white
    sample: env TZ=UTC date +%r

Bells and whistles

Triggers

Triggers allow to perform conditional actions, like visual/sound alerts or an arbitrary shell command. The following examples illustrate the concept.

Clock gauge, which shows minute progress and announces current time at the beginning of each minute

gauges:
  - title: MINUTE PROGRESS
    position: [[0, 18], [80, 0]]  
    cur:
      sample: date +%S
    max:
      sample: echo 60
    min:
      sample: echo 0
    triggers:
      - title: CLOCK BELL EVERY MINUTE
        condition: '[ $label == "cur" ] && [ $cur -eq 0 ] && echo 1 || echo 0'  # expects "1" as TRUE indicator
        actions:
          terminal-bell: true  # standard terminal bell, default = false
          sound: true    # NASA quindar tone, default = false
          visual: false  # notification with current value on top of the component area, default = false
          script: say -v samantha `date +%I:%M%p`  # an arbitrary script, which can use $cur, $prev and $label variables

Search engine latency chart, which alerts user when latency exceeds a threshold

runcharts:
  - title: SEARCH ENGINE RESPONSE TIME (sec)
    rate-ms: 200
    items:
      - label: GOOGLE
        sample: curl -o /dev/null -s -w '%{time_total}'  https://www.google.com
      - label: YAHOO
        sample: curl -o /dev/null -s -w '%{time_total}'  https://search.yahoo.com     
    triggers:
      - title: Latency threshold exceeded
        condition: echo "$prev < 0.3 && $cur > 0.3" |bc -l  # expects "1" as TRUE indicator
        actions:
          terminal-bell: true  # standard terminal bell, default = false
          sound: true   # NASA quindar tone, default = false
          visual: true  # visual notification on top of the component area, default = false
          script: 'say alert: ${label} latency exceeded ${cur} second' # an arbitrary script, which can use $cur, $prev and $label variables

Interactive shell support

In addition to the sample command, one can specify init command (executed only once before sampling) and transform command (to post-process sample command output). That covers interactive shell use case, e.g. to establish connection to a database only once, and then perform polling within interactive shell session.

Basic mode

textboxes:
  - title: MongoDB polling
    rate-ms: 500
    init: mongo --quiet --host=localhost test # executes only once to start the interactive session
    sample: Date.now();                       # executes with a required rate, in scope of the interactive session
    transform: echo result = $sample          # executes in scope of local session, $sample variable is available for transformation

PTY mode

In some cases interactive shell won't work, because its stdin is not a terminal. We can fool it, using PTY mode:

textboxes:
  - title: Neo4j polling
    pty: true  # enables pseudo-terminal mode, default = false
    init: cypher-shell -u neo4j -p pwd --format plain
    sample: RETURN rand();
    transform: echo "$sample" | tail -n 1
  - title: Top on a remote server
    pty: true  # enables pseudo-terminal mode, default = false
    init: ssh -i ~/user.pem ec2-user@1.2.3.4
    sample: top    

Multistep init

It is also possible to execute multiple init commands one after another, before you start sampling.

textboxes:
  - title: Java application uptime
    multistep-init:
      - java -jar jmxterm-1.0.0-uber.jar
      - open host:port # or local PID
      - bean java.lang:type=Runtime
    sample: get Uptime

Variables

If the configuration file contains repeated patterns, they can be extracted into the variables section. Also variables can be specified using -v/--variable flag on startup, and any system environment variables will also be available in the scripts.

variables:
    mongoconnection: mongo --quiet --host=localhost test
barcharts:
  - title: MongoDB documents by status
    items:
      - label: IN_PROGRESS
        init: $mongoconnection
        sample: db.getCollection('events').find({status:'IN_PROGRESS'}).count()
      - label: SUCCESS
        init: $mongoconnection
        sample: db.getCollection('events').find({status:'SUCCESS'}).count()
      - label: FAIL
        init: $mongoconnection
        sample: db.getCollection('events').find({status:'FAIL'}).count()

Color theme

theme: light # default = dark
sparklines:
  - title: CPU usage
    sample: ps -A -o %cpu | awk '{s+=$1} END {print s}'

Real-world recipes

Databases

The following are different database connection examples. Interactive shell (init script) usage is recommended to establish connection only once and then reuse it during sampling.

MySQL

# prerequisite: installed mysql shell

variables:
  mysql_connection: mysql -u root -s --database mysql --skip-column-names
sparklines:  
  - title: MySQL (random number example)
    pty: true
    init: $mysql_connection
    sample: select rand();

PostgreSQL

# prerequisite: installed psql shell

variables:
  PGPASSWORD: pwd
  postgres_connection: psql -h localhost -U postgres --no-align --tuples-only
sparklines:
  - title: PostgreSQL (random number example)
    init: $postgres_connection
    sample: select random();

MongoDB

# prerequisite: installed mongo shell

variables:
  mongo_connection: mongo --quiet --host=localhost test
sparklines:
  - title: MongoDB (random number example)
    init: $mongo_connection
    sample: Math.random();

Neo4j

# prerequisite: installed cypher shell

variables:
  neo4j_connection: cypher-shell -u neo4j -p pwd --format plain
sparklines:
  - title: Neo4j (random number example)
    pty: true
    init: $neo4j_connection
    sample: RETURN rand();
    transform: echo "$sample" | tail -n 1

Kafka

Kafka lag per consumer group

variables:
  kafka_connection: $KAFKA_HOME/bin/kafka-consumer-groups --bootstrap-server localhost:9092
runcharts:
  - title: Kafka lag per consumer group
    rate-ms: 5000
    scale: 0
    items:
      - label: A->B
        sample: $kafka_connection --group group_a --describe | awk 'NR>1 {sum += $5} END {print sum}'
      - label: B->C
        sample: $kafka_connection --group group_b --describe | awk 'NR>1 {sum += $5} END {print sum}'
      - label: C->D
        sample: $kafka_connection --group group_c --describe | awk 'NR>1 {sum += $5} END {print sum}'

Docker

Docker containers stats (CPU, MEM, O/I)

textboxes:
  - title: Docker containers stats
    sample: docker stats --no-stream --format "table {{.Name}}\t{{.CPUPerc}}\t{{.MemPerc}}\t{{.MemUsage}}\t{{.NetIO}}\t{{.BlockIO}}\t{{.PIDs}}"

SSH

TOP command on a remote server

variables:
  sshconnection: ssh -i ~/my-key-pair.pem ec2-user@1.2.3.4
textboxes:
  - title: SSH
    pty: true
    init: $sshconnection
    sample: top

JMX

Java application uptime example

# prerequisite: download [jmxterm jar file](https://docs.cyclopsgroup.org/jmxterm)

textboxes:
  - title: Java application uptime
    multistep-init:
      - java -jar jmxterm-1.0.0-uber.jar
      - open host:port # or local PID
      - bean java.lang:type=Runtime
    sample: get Uptime
    transform: echo $sample | tr -dc '0-9' | awk '{printf "%.1f min", $1/1000/60}'