linux-sysadmin Skill Inventory & Gap Analysis

Generated: 2026-03-02

Current Skill Inventory (94 skills)

Monitoring & Performance (14)

Skill	Description
`btop`	Interactive resource monitor TUI (CPU/memory/disk/network)
`htop`	Classic interactive process viewer
`glances`	All-in-one system monitor with web API
`netdata`	Real-time high-granularity monitoring agent
`prometheus`	Metrics collection and alerting (CNCF)
`grafana`	Observability dashboards and visualization
`node-exporter`	Prometheus metrics exporter for Linux hosts
`loki`	Grafana log aggregation system
`iostat`	Disk I/O and CPU statistics (sysstat)
`iotop`	Disk I/O usage per process
`vmstat`	Virtual memory and system statistics
`perf`	Linux kernel performance profiling
`dmesg`	Kernel ring buffer messages
`journald`	systemd journal log management

Storage & Filesystems (13)

Skill	Description
`btrfs`	Copy-on-write filesystem with snapshots
`ext4`	Standard Linux filesystem
`xfs`	High-performance journaling filesystem
`zfs`	OpenZFS storage platform
`lvm`	Logical Volume Manager
`mdadm`	Software RAID administration
`nfs`	Network File System server and client
`samba`	SMB/CIFS file server
`fdisk-parted`	Disk partitioning tools
`lsblk`	Block device listing
`df`	Disk space usage
`ncdu`	NCurses disk usage analyzer
`exfat-ntfs`	Cross-platform filesystem support

Networking — DNS & DHCP (6)

Skill	Description
`bind9`	Authoritative DNS server
`bind-utils`	DNS query tools (dig, nslookup, host)
`coredns`	Pluggable DNS server (cloud-native)
`dnsmasq`	Lightweight DNS forwarder + DHCP
`unbound`	Recursive DNS resolver
`dhcp`	ISC DHCP server

Networking — Proxies & Load Balancers (2)

Skill	Description
`haproxy`	High-performance TCP/HTTP load balancer
`traefik`	Cloud-native reverse proxy with auto-TLS

Networking — VPN & Tunneling (3)

Skill	Description
`wireguard`	Modern WireGuard VPN protocol
`openvpn`	Battle-tested SSL/TLS VPN
`tailscale`	Zero-config mesh VPN (WireGuard-based)

Networking — Diagnostics (7)

Skill	Description
`iperf3`	Network bandwidth measurement
`mtr`	Combined traceroute + ping
`nmap`	Network scanner and port mapper
`ss`	Socket statistics (netstat replacement)
`tcpdump`	CLI packet capture
`avahi`	mDNS/zeroconf daemon
`pihole`	Network-wide ad blocker and DNS sinker

Web Servers (3)

Skill	Description
`apache`	Apache HTTP Server
`nginx`	nginx web server and reverse proxy
`caddy`	Modern web server with automatic HTTPS

Containers & Virtualization (5)

Skill	Description
`docker`	Container runtime
`docker-compose`	Multi-container application orchestration
`podman`	Rootless container runtime
`lxc-lxd`	System containers
`proxmox`	Bare-metal hypervisor (KVM + LXC)

Security (10)

Skill	Description
`fail2ban`	Intrusion prevention via log analysis
`crowdsec`	Collaborative IPS with behavior analysis
`certbot`	Let's Encrypt certificate automation
`openssl-cli`	TLS certificate and crypto operations
`age`	Modern file encryption
`step-ca`	Private certificate authority
`ufw`	Uncomplicated Firewall frontend
`firewalld`	Zone-based dynamic firewall
`sshd`	OpenSSH server
`ssh-keygen`	SSH key management

Mail (3)

Skill	Description
`postfix`	MTA (mail transfer agent)
`dovecot`	IMAP/POP3 server
`opendkim`	DKIM signing daemon

Databases (4)

Skill	Description
`mariadb`	MySQL-compatible relational database
`postgresql`	Advanced relational database
`redis`	In-memory data store and cache
`sqlite`	Embedded SQL database

Backup & Sync (2)

Skill	Description
`borg`	Deduplicating, encrypted backup
`rclone`	Cloud storage sync (70+ providers)

File Sync & Transfer (2)

Skill	Description
`rsync`	File synchronization and transfer
`smartctl`	SMART disk health monitoring

Self-Hosted Services (10)

Skill	Description
`gitea`	Self-hosted Git server
`immich`	Google Photos alternative
`jellyfin`	Open-source media server
`nextcloud`	Self-hosted file sync and collaboration
`vaultwarden`	Bitwarden-compatible password manager
`node-red`	Flow-based IoT automation
`mosquitto`	MQTT broker
`zigbee2mqtt`	Zigbee device bridge
`zwave-js`	Z-Wave device control
`grafana`	Already listed under monitoring

System Administration (14)

Skill	Description
`systemd`	Init system and service manager
`cron`	Job scheduler
`logrotate`	Log file rotation
`tmux`	Terminal multiplexer
`ripgrep`	Fast recursive search (rg)
`awk-sed`	Stream editors
`jq`	JSON processor
`curl-wget`	HTTP client tools
`strace`	System call tracer
`lsof`	List open files
`ss`	Already listed under networking
`chrony`	NTP time synchronization
`glances`	Already listed under monitoring
`netdata`	Already listed under monitoring

CLI Tools (3)

Skill	Description
`ripgrep`	High-speed search
`jq`	JSON processing
`awk-sed`	Text transformation

Gap Analysis

Priority Legend

🔴 High — Very high homelab/sysadmin demand; absence is a notable gap
🟡 Medium — Moderate demand; commonly used but not critical
🟢 Low — Niche use cases; useful but not widely needed

1. Backup & Recovery

Tool	Priority	Notes
restic	🔴	The most popular alternative to borg. Deduplication, encryption, multi-backend support (S3, SFTP, REST). Frequently mentioned alongside borg; arguably more widely used in 2025/2026.
kopia	🟡	Modern borg/restic alternative with GUI. Faster than both, cloud-native design, good for teams. Emerging as the "third pillar" of backup tools.
timeshift	🟡	System snapshot tool (rsync or btrfs snapshots). The go-to for OS-level recovery. Commonly paired with btrfs skill.

2. Modern CLI Utilities (The "Rust Replacement" Stack)

These are collectively known as the "modern CLI" or "Rust tools" generation. Enormous adoption in developer and sysadmin communities.

Tool	Priority	Notes
fzf	🔴	Fuzzy finder for shell history, file selection, and interactive filtering. Integrates with ripgrep, fd, tmux, vim. One of the most universally installed CLI tools.
fd	🔴	`find` replacement with intuitive syntax, respects `.gitignore`, parallel execution. Paired constantly with ripgrep and fzf.
bat	🔴	`cat` with syntax highlighting, line numbers, Git integration. Widely used; 50K+ GitHub stars.
eza	🟡	`ls` replacement with colors, icons, tree view, Git status. (Replaces unmaintained `exa`.)
zoxide	🟡	Smarter `cd` with frecency-based memory. `z` or `zi` to jump to frequently used dirs.
dust	🟡	`du` replacement with visual tree output.
duf	🟡	`df` replacement with colored, human-readable output.
delta	🟡	Syntax-highlighting pager for git diffs. Highly popular in developer workflows.
procs	🟢	`ps` replacement with colors and extra columns. Less universally adopted than the others.
atop	🟡	Advanced performance monitor with historical logging (unlike htop/btop which are live-only). Useful for post-incident analysis.
nmon	🟢	IBM-origin performance monitor with CSV capture mode for long-term recording.
s-tui	🟢	Stress terminal UI — CPU/temperature monitoring with built-in stress testing. Niche but useful.
hyperfine	🟢	CLI benchmarking tool. Useful for sysadmins benchmarking scripts and commands.

3. Networking

Tool	Priority	Notes
nftables	🔴	Modern replacement for iptables, now default in major distros (RHEL 8+, Debian 10+, Ubuntu 20.10+). Skills for `ufw` and `firewalld` exist but nftables is the underlying framework both use; direct nftables skill is missing.
headscale	🔴	Self-hosted Tailscale coordination server. High homelab demand — lets you use Tailscale clients without the Tailscale cloud. Directly extends the existing `tailscale` skill.
iftop	🟡	Per-connection network bandwidth monitor. Complements `ss` and `tcpdump` for diagnosing bandwidth hogs.
nethogs	🟡	Per-process network bandwidth usage. Fills a gap none of the existing networking skills address.
bandwhich	🟢	Rust-based terminal bandwidth utilization tool — shows per-process, per-connection bandwidth with PTR lookups.
nebula	🟢	Overlay networking by Slack — lightweight mesh VPN for overlapping with wireguard use cases.
zerotier	🟢	Virtual networking platform, alternative to WireGuard for site-to-site.
ip	🟡	The `ip` command (iproute2) — routing, addresses, links. `ifconfig` is dead; `ip` is the replacement and deserves its own cheatsheet skill.

4. Monitoring, Observability & Alerting

Tool	Priority	Notes
uptime-kuma	🔴	Self-hosted uptime monitoring with a polished dashboard. Checks HTTP, TCP, DNS, keywords. One of the most recommended homelab tools in 2024-2026 community lists.
influxdb	🔴	Purpose-built time-series database; the primary data store for Telegraf metrics. Commonly paired with Grafana.
telegraf	🔴	InfluxData metrics collection agent with 300+ input plugins. Natural pair for influxdb + grafana.
zabbix	🔴	Enterprise-grade infrastructure monitoring — SNMP, agent-based, agentless. Major gap for users managing larger server fleets.
victoria-metrics	🟡	High-performance Prometheus-compatible time-series DB. Faster and more storage-efficient than Prometheus for large-scale setups.
opensearch	🟡	AWS fork of Elasticsearch 7.10; free security and alerting features. The preferred self-hosted alternative to ELK for log analytics.
graylog	🟡	Centralized log management with structured search. Simpler to operate than full ELK for sysadmins.
monit	🟡	Lightweight service watchdog — monitors processes, files, and restarts failed services automatically.
nagios	🟢	The classic monitoring platform (now largely superseded by Zabbix/Prometheus, but still widely encountered in enterprises).
jaeger	🟢	Distributed tracing for microservices environments. More DevOps than sysadmin.

5. Configuration Management & Automation

Tool	Priority	Notes
ansible	🔴	Biggest single gap in the plugin. The most widely used agentless configuration management tool. YAML playbooks, SSH-based, no agent install required. Every serious sysadmin needs ansible skills.
terraform / opentofu	🟡	Infrastructure as Code. Terraform (BSL license) or OpenTofu (MIT fork). Critical for cloud infrastructure but also used for homelab VM provisioning.
saltstack	🟢	Agent-based config management, faster than Ansible for large fleets but steeper learning curve.
puppet	🟢	Mature model-driven config management; still used in large enterprises.

6. Container Orchestration

Tool	Priority	Notes
k3s	🔴	Lightweight Kubernetes for edge and homelab. Single binary, ~70MB RAM overhead vs full k8s. The dominant "run Kubernetes at home" option.
portainer	🔴	Web UI for Docker and Kubernetes management. Extremely popular homelab tool — greatly lowers the barrier to managing containers.
docker-swarm	🟡	Docker's built-in clustering. Simpler than k3s/k8s; used for small multi-node homelab setups.
nomad	🟡	HashiCorp workload orchestrator — single binary, manages containers + non-containers. Simpler than Kubernetes; strong for mixed workloads.
helm	🟢	Kubernetes package manager; required knowledge for anyone running k3s in homelab.

7. CI/CD & Developer Tools

Tool	Priority	Notes
woodpecker-ci	🟡	Lightweight self-hosted CI/CD, pairs naturally with Gitea/Forgejo. Docker-native pipelines, very low resource footprint. Growing fast.
forgejo	🟡	Community-driven Gitea fork (fully FOSS). Increasingly preferred over Gitea in homelab communities. Could be a joint `gitea-forgejo` skill.
jenkins	🟢	The original CI/CD server; still widely deployed in enterprises despite its complexity.
gitlab-ce	🟢	Full DevOps platform; heavy (requires 4+ GB RAM) but complete. Preferred over Gitea in teams needing built-in CI/CD.

8. Self-Hosted Services — Media & "Arr Stack"

The "arr stack" (Sonarr, Radarr, Prowlarr, etc.) is one of the most common homelab setups.

Tool	Priority	Notes
sonarr	🟡	TV show automated download management. Core component of the arr stack.
radarr	🟡	Movie automated download management. Identical architecture to Sonarr.
prowlarr	🟡	Unified indexer manager for the arr stack; replaces Jackett.
bazarr	🟢	Subtitle management companion to Sonarr/Radarr.
jellyseerr	🟢	Media request management UI for Jellyfin (like Overseerr for Plex).
plex	🟢	Commercial (but free tier) media server — alternative to Jellyfin. High demand but proprietary.

9. Self-Hosted Services — General

Tool	Priority	Notes
minio	🔴	S3-compatible object storage. Used for: photo backups, Immich storage backend, Loki/Tempo/Mimir backends, and any S3-dependent app. Massive adoption.
homer / homarr	🟡	Dashboard for homelab services. Simple YAML-driven bookmarks page (Homer) or feature-rich dashboard (Homarr). Nearly universal in homelab setups.
frigate	🟡	NVR with real-time object detection via YOLO. Major Home Assistant integration; growing fast with IP camera adoption.
home-assistant	🟡	Smart home automation platform. (Could overlap with the existing `home-assistant-dev` plugin, but a sysadmin skill for running/maintaining the HA service is distinct from developing integrations.)
uptime-kuma	🔴	Already listed above under Monitoring.
adguard-home	🟡	DNS-based ad blocker — often preferred over Pi-hole for its modern UI and config. Covers the same use case as pihole but worth a companion skill.
paperless-ngx	🟡	Document management system with OCR. Popular in paperless office homelab setups.
mealie	🟢	Recipe management; less sysadmin-focused.
seafile	🟢	Fast file sync platform; alternative to Nextcloud.

10. Security & Auditing

Tool	Priority	Notes
lynis	🟡	System security audit and hardening tool. Generates hardening suggestions for CIS benchmarks.
auditd	🟡	Linux audit daemon — tracks system calls, file accesses, user actions. Required for compliance (PCI-DSS, HIPAA, etc.).
suricata	🟡	Network IDS/IPS — detects intrusions at the packet level. Commonly paired with CrowdSec or fail2ban.
rkhunter	🟢	Rootkit detection scanner.
openvas / greenbone	🟢	Open-source vulnerability scanner. Niche but powerful.
trivy	🟢	Container and filesystem vulnerability scanner (Aqua Security). Critical for container-heavy homelabs.

11. Databases — Gaps

Tool	Priority	Notes
mongodb	🟡	The major NoSQL database. No document database skill exists. Used by Nextcloud, Graylog, and many self-hosted apps.
influxdb	🔴	Already listed under Monitoring — worth a dedicated skill since it's both a database and a monitoring component.
adminer	🟡	Single-file PHP web database manager supporting MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, Oracle. Lighter than phpMyAdmin; popular in homelab.
pgbouncer	🟢	PostgreSQL connection pooler.
valkey / dragonfly	🟢	Redis-compatible alternatives (Valkey is the FOSS Redis fork post-license change).

12. System Utilities — Missing

Tool	Priority	Notes
nala	🟢	Modern apt frontend with parallel downloads and better UX. Debian/Ubuntu specific.
tldr	🟡	Simplified community man pages — `tldr tar` gives you what you actually need. Very popular.
entr	🟢	Run commands when files change — useful for dev workflows.
watch	🟢	Execute a command periodically, display output fullscreen. Built into most distros but worth a quick skill.
at	🟢	One-shot job scheduling (complement to cron).
parallel	🟢	GNU Parallel — run commands in parallel across CPUs or machines.

Candidate Skills by Impact Tier

Tier 1 — Implement First (🔴 High Priority, 5+ tools affected)

Skill Name	What It Covers
`ansible`	The #1 missing skill. Playbooks, inventory, ad-hoc commands, vault, roles.
`restic`	Backup: `restic init`, `backup`, `restore`, `forget`, `prune`, cloud backends.
`uptime-kuma`	Monitoring dashboard setup, monitor types, status page config, notifications.
`nftables`	Packet filtering: tables, chains, sets, NAT. Migration from iptables.
`headscale`	Self-hosted Tailscale: install, user/node management, ACLs, relay config.
`influxdb`	Time-series DB: buckets, retention, Flux queries, Grafana integration.
`telegraf`	Metrics agent: input/output plugins, aggregators, systemd integration.
`minio`	S3 object storage: bucket management, policies, lifecycle rules, TLS, Prometheus metrics.
`fzf`	Fuzzy finder: shell integration, key bindings, environment variables, ripgrep integration.
`fd`	Modern find: patterns, types, exec, parallel, integration with fzf.
`bat`	Syntax-highlighted cat: themes, paging, git integration, use as MANPAGER.
`k3s`	Lightweight Kubernetes: install, kubeconfig, deployments, ingress, storage.
`portainer`	Docker/K8s UI: stacks, container management, registries, users.
`zabbix`	Enterprise monitoring: agents, templates, triggers, SNMP, alerting.

Tier 2 — High Value (🟡 Medium Priority)

Skill Name	What It Covers
`kopia`	Next-gen backup with GUI/CLI hybrid and cloud storage.
`woodpecker-ci`	Self-hosted CI/CD: pipeline YAML, Docker runners, Gitea integration.
`forgejo`	Gitea fork: migration, Actions CI, API. (Could extend `gitea` skill.)
`adguard-home`	DNS ad-blocking: setup, custom filters, clients, rewrites, upstream DNS.
`suricata`	Network IDS: rules, EVE JSON logs, Grafana integration.
`lynis`	Security audit: hardening index, categories, custom tests, CI integration.
`auditd`	Audit daemon: rules, ausearch, aureport, compliance use cases.
`victoria-metrics`	Prometheus-compatible TSDB: vmagent, vmui, PromQL, retention.
`opensearch`	Log search: index management, dashboards, alerting, ingest pipelines.
`mongodb`	NoSQL: CRUD, indexes, aggregation pipeline, replica sets, auth.
`eza`	Modern ls: icons, tree, git status, long format.
`zoxide`	Frecency-based cd: shell init, `zi` interactive mode, query mode.
`timeshift`	System snapshots: rsync and btrfs modes, scheduling, restore.
`nomad`	Workload orchestration: jobs, task groups, service discovery, Consul integration.
`ip`	iproute2 ip command: links, addresses, routes, namespaces, tuntap.
`iftop`	Per-connection bandwidth: filters, sort modes, display modes.
`nethogs`	Per-process bandwidth: interface selection, refresh rate.
`monit`	Service watchdog: process checks, file checks, HTTP tests, alert email.
`homer`	Homelab dashboard: YAML config, service groups, service checks.
`paperless-ngx`	Document management: import, tagging, OCR, API.
`frigate`	NVR + object detection: cameras, zones, MQTT, Home Assistant integration.
`sonarr`	TV show management: indexers, download clients, quality profiles.
`radarr`	Movie management: same architecture as Sonarr, collection management.
`tldr`	Simplified man pages: usage, custom pages, shell completion.
`atop`	Advanced monitoring with historical logging: modes, rotation, atopsar.
`delta`	Git diff pager: themes, side-by-side, line numbers, hyperlinks.

Tier 3 — Nice to Have (🟢 Lower Priority)

graylog, nagios, jenkins, gitlab-ce, helm, docker-swarm, prowlarr, bazarr, nmon, s-tui, dust, duf, procs, bandwhich, nebula, zerotier, trivy, rkhunter, openvas, pgbouncer, valkey, adminer, nala, entr, parallel, plex, seafile, mealie, hyperfine

Notes on Skill Groupings

Some gaps could be addressed by extending existing skills rather than creating new ones:

gitea → gitea-forgejo: Forgejo is a direct fork; the skills are nearly identical. A single skill covering both (with a "Forgejo notes" section) is more efficient.
tailscale → extend with headscale section: Headscale replaces the Tailscale coordination server; users install standard Tailscale clients. An extended tailscale skill section on self-hosting makes sense.
pihole → pihole-adguard: AdGuard Home and Pi-hole address the same use case. A shared skill with a comparison table and tool-specific config sections avoids redundancy.
influxdb + telegraf: These almost always appear together. A joint influxdb-telegraf skill mirrors the docker-compose pattern of covering tightly coupled tools together.
sonarr + radarr + prowlarr: The arr stack is commonly deployed as a unit. Consider an arr-stack skill covering the full pipeline rather than three thin individual skills.

Coverage Heatmap by Category

Category	Coverage	Key Gaps
Filesystems	████████░░ 80%	restic, timeshift
DNS / DHCP	█████████░ 90%	nftables (upstream of firewalld/ufw)
Web servers	█████████░ 90%	Minor
Monitoring	███████░░░ 70%	zabbix, influxdb, telegraf, uptime-kuma, victoria-metrics
Containers	████████░░ 80%	k3s, portainer
Security	███████░░░ 70%	lynis, auditd, suricata, nftables
Config Mgmt	█░░░░░░░░░ 10%	ansible (critical), terraform
Self-hosted	██████░░░░ 60%	minio, arr stack, homer, home-assistant, frigate
CLI tools	████░░░░░░ 40%	fzf, fd, bat, eza, zoxide, delta
Databases	███████░░░ 70%	mongodb, influxdb
Mail	████████░░ 80%	rspamd
Backups	██████░░░░ 60%	restic, kopia

Research sourced from: homelab community forums (r/selfhosted, linuxcommunity.io), TechHut homelab guides, tecmint.com CLI tool surveys, allthingsopen.org backup survey, signoz.io monitoring comparisons, Tavily web search (2026-03-02).

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