🚀 Creating a Dynamic MOTD Dashboard for Ubuntu EC2 with Logs, AWS Metadata & Alerts

🧭 Introduction

When you SSH into your Linux server, you’re greeted with a simple Message of the Day (MOTD). But what if it could show real-time disk alerts, AWS metadata, failed services, and log summaries right away?

In this blog, I’ll show how I progressively customized /etc/update-motd.d/ to build a DevOps-style MOTD dashboard for my Ubuntu EC2 instance running MKCloudAI.

🪜 Step 1: Start Simple — Basic Banner & Uptime

🧱 Goal

Display a welcome message and key server details.

📄 Script: 99-custom

#!/bin/bash

echo ""
echo "╔══════════════════════════════════════╗"
echo "║   🚀 Welcome to MKCloudAI Server     ║"
echo "╠══════════════════════════════════════╣"
echo "║ 🔒 Secured Ubuntu Server - DevOps    ║"
echo "║ 🕒 Uptime: $(uptime -p)              ║"
echo "║ 💡 Tip: Keep your system updated!    ║"
echo "╚══════════════════════════════════════╝"
echo ""
echo "🌐 Hostname: $(hostname)"
echo "🕒 Uptime: $(uptime -p)"

🔧 Place this file in /etc/update-motd.d/99-custom and make it executable with chmod +x.

🪜 Step 2: Add Disk and Memory Usage

💾 Disk + 🧠 RAM

echo "💾 Disk Usage: $(df -h / | awk 'NR==2 {print $5 " used"}')"
echo "🧠 Memory Usage: $(free -m | awk '/Mem:/ {printf("%.1f%% used\n", $3/$2*100)}')"

Now it starts to feel useful — I can spot memory or disk issues the moment I log in.

🪜 Step 3: Add 🚨 Disk Usage Alert

🚨 Goal

Trigger a warning if disk usage exceeds 80%.

disk_usage=$(df / | awk 'NR==2 {gsub("%","",$5); print $5}')
if [ "$disk_usage" -ge 80 ]; then
    echo "🚨 ALERT: Root disk usage is above 80% ($disk_usage%)"
fi

Now I don’t need to manually run df -h — it warns me instantly.

🪜 Step 4: Add ☁️ AWS EC2 Metadata

☁️ Add Instance Info Using Instance Metadata Service

meta_base="http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data"
instance_id=$(curl -s ${meta_base}/instance-id)
instance_type=$(curl -s ${meta_base}/instance-type)
region=$(curl -s ${meta_base}/placement/availability-zone | sed 's/[a-z]$//')

echo "☁️ AWS Instance ID: $instance_id"
echo "☁️ AWS Type: $instance_type | Region: $region"

This helps identify which EC2 instance I’m on, especially when working across multiple environments.

🪜 Step 5: Add ❌ Failed System Services

failed_services=$(systemctl --failed --no-legend)
if [ -n "$failed_services" ]; then
    echo "❌ Failed Services:"
    echo "$failed_services" | awk '{print "   → " $1 " (" $2 ")"}'
fi

This was a game-changer — no more missing broken services like postfix, nginx, or docker.

🪜 Step 6: Add 📅 Cron Job Preview

echo "📅 Upcoming Cron Jobs:"
(crontab -l 2>/dev/null; sudo crontab -l 2>/dev/null) | grep -v '^#' | awk 'NF' | while read -r job; do
    echo "   → $job"
done

Now I can double-check scheduled jobs at a glance after each login.

🪜 Step 7: Add 📜 Meaningful Log Summaries

Here’s the fun part — summarizing key log files for:

  • syslog (general issues)
  • auth.log (SSH logins/failures)
  • Apache error logs
  • WordPress debug logs
bashCopyEditecho ""
echo "📜 Log Summary (last 10 relevant entries):"

echo "• Syslog:"
grep -iE "error|fail|warn" /var/log/syslog | tail -n 10 2>/dev/null

echo "• SSH Logs:"
grep -iE "Accepted|Failed|authentication failure" /var/log/auth.log | tail -n 10 2>/dev/null

echo "• Apache Errors:"
tail -n 10 /var/log/apache2/error.log | grep -iE "error|warn|fail" 2>/dev/null

wp_log="/var/www/html/wp-content/debug.log"
if [ -f "$wp_log" ]; then
    echo "• WordPress Errors:"
    tail -n 10 "$wp_log" | grep -iE "error|warn|notice"
fi

This gives me daily visibility of real issues — without digging through log files manually.

🪜 Step 8: Add ⏰ Time-Based Greetings

hour=$(date +"%H")
if [ "$hour" -lt 12 ]; then
    greeting="🌅 Good morning"
elif [ "$hour" -lt 18 ]; then
    greeting="☀️ Good afternoon"
else
    greeting="🌙 Good evening"
fi

echo "║ $greeting!                           ║"

A simple touch that adds personality to the login experience.

✅ Final Result: Beautiful, Intelligent MOTD

Edit╔══════════════════════════════════════╗
║   🚀 Welcome to MKCloudAI Server     ║
╠══════════════════════════════════════╣
║ ☀️ Good afternoon!                   ║
║ 🔒 Secured Ubuntu Server - DevOps    ║
║ 🕒 Uptime: up 7 days, 3 hours         ║
║ 💡 Tip: Keep your system updated!    ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════╝

🌐 Hostname: ip-172-26-8-36
🕒 Uptime: up 7 days, 3 hours
💾 Disk Usage: 83% used
🧠 Memory Usage: 55.4% used
🚨 ALERT: Root disk usage is above 80% (83%)
☁️ AWS Instance ID: i-xxxxxxxxx
☁️ AWS Type: t3.micro | Region: eu-west-2
❌ Failed Services:
   → apache2.service (failed)
📅 Upcoming Cron Jobs:
   → 0 4 * * * /usr/bin/apt upgrade
📜 Log Summary:
• SSH Logs:
Failed password for root from 192.168.1.10
Accepted publickey for ubuntu from 172.20.1.5
...

🛡️ Final Tips

  • Make sure your script is executable:
    chmod +x /etc/update-motd.d/99-custom
  • Test it with:
    run-parts /etc/update-motd.d/
  • For persistent MOTD updates, avoid static /etc/motd.

📌 Summary

With just one script, I turned a boring login into a DevOps dashboard that:

  • Shows alerts
  • Tracks logs
  • Surfaces metadata
  • Adds personality

If you’re managing AWS servers or want a smart CLI dashboard — try this out and customize it for your own workflows.

🙋 Want the Full Script?

👉 Download it from GitHub Gist (link your repo)
👉 Or contact me via mkcloudai.com

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