Did you know that the Linux **sos** command is available in most Linux distributions and that in **53****^(\*)** seconds it generates a compressed and encrypted tar file of less than **15MB** containing over **10,000** text files, including logs, output from more than **500** diagnostic commands, and over **1,800** configuration files? This file can then be transferred to a secure server so that the information can be analyzed by your team (or by an AI) making it easy to be integrated into your existing CI/CD pipeline.

In less than a minute, you have all the information needed to detect problems, find root causes (RCA), take inventory, review system security, or measure system performance without needing to establish a single server session. This translates to greater security and less exposure, and the ability to analyze the same information simultaneously by different teams (SRE, NetTeam, DBA, DevOps, SecOps, QA, etc.).

This compressed and encrypted tar file is known as a **sosreport**. And if you maintain a history of **sosreports** for each server, you can compare them or the same server over time to identify discrepancies in behavior, configuration changes, and keep an inventory of hardware and software.

**sos** is not a monitoring system or a SIEM. It's a diagnostic tool. And it's completely open-source.

I write articles about the **sos** command because there is much more to say about it. Visit my blog [https://sos-vault.com/blog/sos-command](https://sos-vault.com/blog/sos-command)

Do you use the sos command?

\* *The above numbers can vary significantly depending of the size and load of the server. The numbers shown were taken from a small idle server*

Did you know these facts about sos?