To observe server performance I have a separate monitor on my desk that I use to SSH from terminator with split screen. I usually use trafshow and htop to monitor and occasionally tail -f log messages. Which are mostly enough for basic server monitoring.

But if you are looking to make your server monitoring a lot more interesting (besides using woopra), you should definitely try out “logstalgia“. Also known as “ApachePong“, it displays apache access log as a retro arcade game-like simulation in real time. Warning! This is extremely entertaining and you might end up spending a lot of your time watching server logs, which you otherwise wouldn’t. It basically works by accessing your apache access log and piping it to logstalgia installed in your local machine. Depending on the location of your log the command would look like this: ssh user@yourserver.com tail -f /usr/local/apache/log/access.log | logstalgia -

logstalgia in action on linuxhaxor server logs

Thanks to Debian Package Of the Day for this great information. You can download binaries from here.