Tink vs nmon
nmon is Nigel's Monitor — a Linux/AIX resource TUI with CSV capture. It is not a mechanic. Tink installs in one command, watches the Linux host, explains what is wrong, and helps you fix it.
nmon shows the counters. Tink answers “why is this VPS sick?”
Accidental sysadmins land on nmon because IBM shops already know it and nmon -f leaves a file you can graph later. Then disk is at 91%, nginx dies, and nobody is in the TUI — no sentence that says what to run. A filling /var is a Tink warning; it is an nmon DISKBUSY line until you SSH.
Tink is the other job: detect the issue on the machine, say why it happened in plain English, propose the command, and run it only after you approve. Keep using nmon if you already want live AIX-style capture on an SSH session. Use Tink if you run Linux servers and want a mechanic.
| Feature | Tink | nmon |
|---|---|---|
| Setup time | 30 seconds (one curl | sh command) | apt/yum install nmon, pick -f/-s/-c flags, then remember to scp the .nmon file off the box |
| What you get | Working monitoring, diagnosis, and approved fixes | A curses TUI plus optional CSV for nmon_analyser — you still interpret CPU_ALL and DISKBUSY yourself |
| Pricing | Free (Scout) / $9 / $29 per machine per month | Open source. You still pay the person who opens the spreadsheet after the outage |
| Hidden costs | None — fully managed | Cron for nmon -f, disk for .nmon files, Excel/LibreOffice for nmon_analyser, and no pager unless you wrap it |
| Monitoring approach | Agent on the server — CPU, disk, services, logs, certs, ports | Interactive TUI + optional file capture. nmon does not parse auth.log or propose a command |
| Configuration | None after install — heuristics and AI | Refresh interval, which resources to show, capture duration, and which day's .nmon to graph |
| Plain-English diagnosis | Yes — AI explains root cause, impact, and fix | No — you read CPU_ALL, MEM, DISKBUSY, and NET lines yourself |
| Fix execution | Proposes and executes approved commands with an audit trail | Monitoring only — nmon cannot free disk, restart nginx, or rotate a cert |
| Alerting | Built-in across 8 channels | None by default — nmon writes a file; paging is extra |
| Predictive alerts | Yes — disk fills in ~6 days, memory and CPU trends | Historical CSV — nmon_analyser graphs what already happened, not fill time in plain English |
| SSH brute-force detection | Built-in — parses auth.log every scan | Not included — nmon does not read host auth.log or journald |
| Machine offline detection | Agent presence monitoring with multi-channel alerts | If the host is down you cannot SSH into nmon either |
| Public status page | Shareable URL with 90-day history | Not included — nmon has no customer-facing status page |
| Weekly fleet digest | Automated Monday digest + daily brief when issues are open | Not included — a folder of .nmon files is not a plain-English fleet narrative |
| On-call tracking | Built-in /oncall command + incident acknowledgment | Not included — wire something else into PagerDuty |
| Conversation interface | Telegram, WhatsApp, web dashboard, CLI | SSH + a curses TUI. No mechanic you text when /var filled |
| Learning curve | None — works after install | Low to launch; higher to map nmon_analyser sheets back to the process that filled the disk |
| Best for | Freelancers, small teams, accidental sysadmins (1-50 Linux servers) | Operators already SSH'd in who want AIX-style resource capture and Excel graphs on that host |
When nmon is the right choice
Keep using nmon when you already want that exact job:
- Live AIX-style capture — you are already SSH'd in and need CPU_ALL/DISKBUSY on this host right now.
- Spreadsheet graphs —
nmon -fplus nmon_analyser for a day you already logged. - No extra service — a package on the box, not a hub, SaaS, or Telegram bot.
- No conversation layer wanted — some operators prefer a TUI and will never use a mechanic.
The real cost of “just run nmon”
The package is easy to install. A working ops loop for five Linux boxes is not:
- A healthy TUI still means you SSH into the host and change the box by hand when it gets sick
- Host fill, nginx, certs, and SSH brute-force never appear unless you built extra checks
- A filling /var is a Tink disk warning on every scan — nmon stays a DISKBUSY counter until you are looking
- A single VPS with nobody logged in still needs a mechanic, not another curses session
For a 5-server team, Tink Mechanic at $45/month is cheaper than the engineer who opens yesterday's nmon CSV after the outage, and every scan includes a diagnosis a quiet TUI will not type.
No SSH homework. No silent host. One command install.
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