SoFunction
Updated on 2025-05-17

20 essential practical operation and maintenance application tools for Linux by function classification

In the field of Linux operation and maintenance, mastering a series of efficient and powerful tools is the key to improving work efficiency and ensuring the stable operation of the system. The following is a detailed introduction to more than 20 common Linux operation and maintenance tools, including their introduction and advantages.

1. System management and configuration

1.1 Shell

  • Introduction: Shell is one of the core components of the Linux system, which provides an interface for users to interact with the operating system. Shell scripts are the product of Shell programming and are used to automate the execution of a series of commands and tasks. Shell scripts can simplify repetitive system management tasks and improve operation and maintenance efficiency.
  • Advantages: Shell scripts have high flexibility and powerful functions, and can complete almost all tasks on Linux systems. In addition, shell scripts are easy to write and debug, and support rich text processing and string manipulation functions.

1.2 Ansible

  • Introduction:Ansible is an open source automation platform for configuration management, application deployment, and task automation. It adopts a proxyless architecture, communicates with remote hosts through SSH protocol, and realizes automated deployment and management.
  • Advantages:Ansible has the advantages of easy deployment, easy use, and easy to scale. It uses a YAML format script (Playbook) to describe automated tasks, making configuration management more intuitive and easy to understand. In addition, Ansible also supports a wealth of plug-ins and modules, which can be easily integrated into the existing operation and maintenance system.
  • Website：

1.3 Puppet

  • Introduction: Puppet is an open source configuration management tool for automated management of server configuration. It uses a declarative configuration language to describe the target state and communicates with Puppet Master through Puppet Agent to synchronize and update configurations.
  • Advantages: Puppet has strong configuration management capabilities and rich community resources. It supports complex configuration requirements, such as multi-environment management, version control, etc. In addition, Puppet also provides rich reporting and monitoring functions to help timely discover and resolve configuration issues.
  • Website：

1.4 Chef

  • Introduction:Chef is an open source platform for automated configuration, deployment and management. It is written in Ruby language and provides a complete set of configuration management solutions. Chef communicates with Chef Client through Chef Server to synchronize and update configurations.
  • Advantages:Chef has the advantages of strong flexibility and good scalability. It supports a variety of operating systems and platforms, and can be easily integrated into existing IT environments. In addition, Chef also provides rich community resources and document support, which helps users quickly get started and solve problems.
  • Website：/solutions/devops/

2. Monitoring and Alarm

2.1 Prometheus

  • Introduction:Prometheus is an open source system monitoring and alerting tool. It uses a time series database to store monitoring data and provides powerful query language and visualization functions. Prometheus can monitor various resources, such as CPU, memory, disk, network, etc., and provides real-time alerting functions.
  • Advantages:Prometheus has the advantages of high performance, good scalability, and easy integration. It supports a variety of monitoring data sources and alert rules, allowing easy customization and extension of monitoring requirements. In addition, Prometheus also provides a wealth of visualization tools (such as Grafana) to make monitoring data more intuitive and easy to understand.
  • Website：/

2.2 Grafana

  • Introduction: Grafana is an open source data visualization tool that supports a variety of data sources (such as Prometheus, Elasticsearch, MySQL, etc.). It provides a wealth of chart types and visualization options, making monitoring data more intuitive and easy to analyze.
  • Advantages: Grafana has the advantages of beautiful dashboards, easy to customize and expand. It supports a variety of data sources and chart types, which can meet monitoring needs in different scenarios. In addition, Grafana also provides rich plug-ins and community support, which helps users quickly get started and solve problems.
  • Website：/zh-cn/grafana/

2.3 Zabbix

  • Introduction: Zabbix is ​​an open source network monitoring tool that provides comprehensive monitoring functions. It can monitor various resources (such as servers, network devices, applications, etc.) and provide real-time alerts and reporting capabilities. Zabbix also supports distributed monitoring and flexible alarm mechanisms.
  • Advantages: Zabbix has the advantages of comprehensive features, easy configuration and expansion. It supports a variety of monitoring data sources and alarm rules, allowing easy customization and expansion of monitoring requirements. In addition, Zabbix also provides rich reporting and visualization capabilities to help users better understand and analyze monitoring data.
  • Website：/cn

2.4 Nagios

  • Introduction:Nagios is an open source system and network monitoring tool. It can monitor various resources (such as servers, network devices, applications, etc.) and provide real-time alerts and reporting capabilities. Nagios also supports a variety of plug-ins and extensions.
  • Advantages:Nagios has the advantages of powerful monitoring and alarm functions, easy configuration and expansion. It supports a variety of monitoring data sources and alarm rules, allowing easy customization and expansion of monitoring requirements. In addition, Nagios also provides rich community resources and documentation support, which helps users quickly get started and solve problems.
  • Website：/

2.5 ELK Stack（Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana）

  • Introduction:ELK Stack is a comprehensive solution for log collection, analysis and visualization. Elasticsearch is a distributed search and analysis engine, Logstash is a log collection and processing tool, and Kibana is a visualization tool. Together, they enable the collection, storage, analysis and visualization of log data.
  • Advantages: ELK Stack has the advantages of real-time search, powerful analysis capabilities and intuitive dashboard display. It can process large-scale log data and provides rich query and analysis capabilities. In addition, ELK Stack also supports a variety of data sources and plug-in extensions, which helps users better understand and analyze log data.
  • Website：/

3. Containers and arrangements

3.1 Docker

  • Introduction:Docker is an open source containerized platform for automated application deployment and management. It enables the application to run consistently in different environments by packaging the application and its dependencies into a container. Docker containers are lightweight and fast deployment.
  • Advantages: Docker has high flexibility and scalability. It supports a variety of operating systems and platforms, and can be easily integrated into existing IT environments. In addition, Docker also provides rich community resources and document support, which helps users quickly get started and solve problems. Docker also supports container orchestration and cluster management, which can further improve the availability and scalability of applications.
  • Website：

3.2 Kubernetes（K8s）

  • Introduction: Kubernetes is an open source container orchestration platform for automated deployment and management of containerized applications. It provides powerful automatic orchestration, elastic scaling and self-healing capabilities. Kubernetes realizes the automated deployment and management of containerized applications through cluster management, service discovery, load balancing and other means.
  • Advantages: Kubernetes is highly scalable and reliable. It supports a variety of operating systems and platforms, and can be easily integrated into existing IT environments. In addition, Kubernetes also provides rich community resources and documentation support, which helps users quickly get started and solve problems. Kubernetes also supports microservice architecture and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD), which can further improve the efficiency of application development and deployment.
  • Website：/zh-cn/

3.3 Podman

  • Introduction:Podman is a daemon-free container engine used to manage Docker containers. It provides similar command line interfaces and features as Docker, but does not require running the Docker daemon. Podman manages containers by communicating directly with container runtimes (such as containerd).
  • Advantages: Podman has higher security and lower resource consumption. Since it does not require running the Docker daemon, it can reduce potential security vulnerabilities and resource usage. In addition, Podman supports Docker-compatible image and container formats, allowing easy migration and use of existing Docker resources.
  • Website：/

3.4 containerd

  • Introduction: containerd is an open source container runtime that provides support for container orchestration systems such as Kubernetes. It provides core functions such as container lifecycle management, mirror management, and network management. containerd is one of the core components of the Docker container runtime, but can also be used independently.
  • Advantages: containerd has the advantages of high performance, stability, reliability and easy integration. It supports a variety of container formats and mirror formats (such as the OCI standard), and can be easily integrated with other container tools and platforms. In addition, containerd also provides rich logging and monitoring functions, which helps users better understand and manage the container runtime.
  • Website：/

IV. Network and Security

4.1 Nginx

  • Introduction:Nginx is a high-performance HTTP and reverse proxy web server, and also provides IMAP/POP3/SMTP proxy services. It adopts an event-driven architecture and asynchronous I/O model, with extremely high concurrency processing capabilities and resource utilization. Nginx also supports load balancing, caching, compression and other functions.
  • Advantages:Nginx has the advantages of high performance, stability, reliability and easy configuration. It supports a variety of operating systems and platforms, and can be easily integrated into existing web servers and applications. In addition, Nginx also provides a wealth of plug-in and module extension functions, which helps users achieve more flexible and efficient Web services.
  • Website：/

4.2 OpenSSH

  • Introduction: OpenSSH is a protocol and tool set for secure remote login and file transfer. It provides SSH client and server programs, as well as related key management and authentication functions. OpenSSH supports a variety of encryption algorithms and protocol versions to ensure the security of remote login and file transfer.
  • Advantages: OpenSSH is highly secure and easy to use. It supports a variety of encryption algorithms and protocol versions, ensuring the security of remote login and file transfer. In addition, OpenSSH also provides rich configuration options and command line parameters, which helps users achieve more flexible and secure remote management.
  • Website：/

4.3 Wireshark

  • Introduction:Wireshark is an open source network protocol analyzer for capturing and analyzing network packets. It supports a variety of network protocols and interface types, and can capture and analyze network traffic in real time. Wireshark also provides a wealth of filters and view options to help users analyze network packets more efficiently.
  • Advantages:Wireshark has powerful analytics and rich filter options. It can capture and analyze data packets of various network protocols and provide detailed protocol parsing and statistics. In addition, Wireshark also supports a variety of plug-ins and extension functions, which helps users achieve more complex and efficient network analysis.
  • Website：/

4.4 Fail2ban

  • Introduction: Fail2ban is an intrusion prevention system used to protect Linux servers from brute-force attacks. It automatically blocks malicious IP addresses by monitoring the number of failed login attempts in the system log file. Fail2ban also supports a variety of authentication mechanisms and log formats, which can be flexibly configured and used.
  • Advantages: Fail2ban has a high degree of security and automation. It can automatically block malicious IP addresses and reduce the risk of brute-force attacks in the system. In addition, Fail2ban also supports a variety of log formats and authentication mechanisms, which can flexibly adapt to different systems and application environments.
  • Website：https://

5. Backup and Restore

5.1 rsync

  • Introduction:rsync is a tool for file synchronization and backup. It determines whether a file needs to be transferred by comparing the contents of a file or modifying the time. rsync supports local and remote synchronization, as well as incremental backup and compressed transmission functions.
  • Advantages:rsync is efficient, reliable and easy to use. It can be remotely synchronized through security protocols such as SSH to ensure the security of data transmission. In addition, rsync also supports functions such as incremental backup and compressed transmission, which can save bandwidth and storage space and improve backup efficiency.

5.2 Bacula

  • Introduction:Bacula is an open source backup solution that provides enterprise-level data backup and recovery capabilities. Bacula supports a variety of storage media and backup policies, allowing for the flexibility to configure and manage backup tasks.
  • Advantages: Bacula has high scalability and flexibility. It supports a variety of storage media and backup strategies, which can meet the backup needs in different scenarios. In addition, Bacula also provides rich reporting and monitoring functions, which helps users better understand the execution of backup tasks and the security of data.
  • Website：/

5.3 Duplicity

  • Introduction:Duplicity is an encryption-based backup tool that supports a variety of backend storage (such as S3, FTP, SSH, etc.) and encryption methods (such as GPG, AES, etc.). Duplicity can automatically delete old backups to save space and supports functions such as incremental backups and compression.
  • Advantages:Duplicity has a high degree of security and flexibility. It supports multiple encryption methods and storage backends, ensuring the security and reliability of backup data. In addition, Duplicity also supports incremental backup and compression functions, which can save storage space and improve backup efficiency.

6. Log Management

6.1 Logstash

  • Introduction(It has been mentioned in ELK Stack, but its log management features are explained separately here): Logstash is an open source log collection, processing and forwarding tool. It can collect logs from multiple data sources (such as files, networks, databases, etc.), parse and convert them through filters, and finally send the processed logs to the specified output (such as Elasticsearch, files, databases, etc.).
  • Advantages:Logstash has powerful log collection and processing capabilities. It supports a variety of data sources and output methods, allowing for the flexibility to configure and manage log collection tasks. In addition, Logstash also provides rich filter options and plug-in support, which helps users achieve more complex and efficient log processing needs.
  • Website：/logstash

6.2 Fluentd

  • Introduction: Fluentd is an open source log collection, aggregation and forwarding tool. It adopts a plug-in architecture and supports a variety of data sources and output methods. Fluentd can efficiently collect and process log data and send it to a designated storage or analysis system.
  • Advantages: Fluentd has high performance, scalability and flexibility. It supports a variety of data sources and output methods, and can be easily integrated into existing log management systems. In addition, Fluentd also provides rich plug-ins and community support to help users quickly get started and solve problems.
  • Website：/

7. Virtualization and cloud management

7.1 VirtualBox

  • Introduction: VirtualBox is an open source virtualization software that allows users to run multiple operating systems on the same physical machine. VirtualBox provides an easy-to-use graphical user interface and command line interface, as well as rich configuration options and extensions.
  • Advantages: VirtualBox is highly compatible and easy to use. It supports a variety of operating systems and platforms to easily create and manage virtual machines. In addition, VirtualBox also provides advanced functions such as snapshots and cloning, which helps users achieve more flexible and efficient virtualization needs.
  • Website：/

7.2 OpenStack

  • Introduction:OpenStack is an open source cloud computing management platform that provides virtualization and management functions for computing, storage and network resources. OpenStack supports a variety of virtualization technologies (such as KVM, Xen, etc.) and provides rich API and plug-in support for integration with other cloud services and applications.
  • Advantages: OpenStack is highly scalable and flexible. It supports a variety of virtualization technologies and storage backends, which can meet the cloud needs in different scenarios. In addition, OpenStack also provides rich API and plug-in support, which helps users achieve more complex and efficient cloud management needs.
  • Website：/

To sum up, these commonly used Linux operation and maintenance tools have significant advantages and characteristics in their respective fields, and together they form a complete tool chain for Linux operation and maintenance. Mastering the methods and techniques of using these tools will help improve operation and maintenance efficiency, ensure the stable operation of the system and promote the rapid development of the business.

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