Pyssel

Updated 2026-01-19 ! Having some Linux servers up and running I checked out  monitoring tools like Nagios, Zabbix, Cockpit or Prometheus. For small setups, home labs, or lightweight environments, those solutions can feel like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. In this post, I’ll show you how to build a   lightweight monitoring agent   using nothing more than a Bash script, MQTT, and Node-RED. The script collects key metrics from your server — disk usage, memory consumption, CPU load, and available package upgrades — then publishes them to an MQTT broker. From there, Node-RED visualizes the data in a clean, real-time dashboard. The result? A simple but powerful monitoring system that works across multiple servers, scales with your needs, and gives you instant visibility into the health of your infrastructure. And the best part: you control every piece of it.

In previous posts , I’ve been testing and figuring out how to manage my old control system for our underfloor heating. Now, it was time for something more bold, and since I’m increasingly impressed with Home Assistant(HA) and its software capabilities, that’s exactly what I did. Industrial-style ESP32 boards are becoming increasingly popular for Home Assistant and automation projects, especially when they include Ethernet, isolated inputs and relay outputs on a single PCB. The Waveshare ESP32-S3-ETH-8DI-8RO (W8) is one such board: it’s compact, well-equipped and clearly designed for serious control applications, rather than just hobbyist breadboards. In this post, I’ll share my experience setting up this board using ESPHome , pointing out the main configuration points, common mistakes and practical lessons I’ve learned along the way.