lshw

Have you ever needed to know the hardware configuration of a linux box that sits halfway across the country?  I recently needed to determine exactly what kind of ram was needed for a server sitting 4 states away from where I live – and not only what kind of ram it used, but how much it already had and in what configuration.  For years I have used cat /proc/meminfo to determine the amount of ram installed in a box, but it does not give configuration info.  This morning I discovered a little tool called lshw (Project Page) that shows exactly what I was after.  It not only tells you how much ram is installed, it formats handy output that is plenty readable in a terminal.  Here is what I learned about the box in question.

It will also output in XML and HTML, and quoting from the project homepage: "It can report exact memory configuration, firmware version, mainboard configuration, CPU version and speed, cache configuration, bus speed, etc."