Once you have sucessfully set-up a Cardano pool, then comes the most beautifull part - setting up your Dashboard and Alerts! You surely dont want to gaze the PC whole day, or?

I found it difficult to get all the information at one place so am writing this documentaion and hopeully it helps others as well. This tutorial is for education and learning purpose only.

Prerequisites:

• Ubuntu Server 20.04 LTS (for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS please follow the alternative steps)

• Cardano Block Producer Node (PN) up and running

• Cardano Relay Nodes (RN) up and running

1. Install prometheus node exporter on Block Producing Node

for Ubuntu 20.04

$ sudo apt-get install -y prometheus-node-exporter

$ sudo systemctl enable prometheus-node-exporter.service

for Ubuntu 18.04 install node_exporter as prometheus-node-exporter does not expose all metrics

$ cd $HOME/git
$ wget https://github.com/prometheus/node_exporter/releases/download/v1.1.2/node_exporter-1.1.2.linux-amd64.tar.gz (choose your right server version)
$ tar xvfz node_exporter-1.1.2.linux-amd64.tar.gz

$ sudo cp node_exporter-1.1.2.linux-amd64/node_exporter /usr/local/bin

$ chown node_exporter:node_exporter /usr/local/bin/node_exporter

$ cd /etc/systemd/system

$ sudo nano node_exporter.service

Then, paste the following configuration for your service.

[Unit]
Description=Node Exporter
Wants=network-online.target
After=network-online.target

[Service]
User=<your user name>
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/node_exporter
[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

Exit nano, reload your daemon, and start your service.

$ sudo systemctl daemon-reload

$ sudo systemctl start node_exporter

$ sudo systemctl enable node_exporter.service

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NOTE

for Ubuntu 18.04 use from now on in the tutorial the node_exporter.service instead of prometheus-node-exporter.service

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Update mainnet-config.json config files with new hasEKG and has Prometheus ports.

$ cd $NODE_HOME
$ sed -i mainnet-config.json -e "s/127.0.0.1/0.0.0.0/g"

On PN you need to open ports 12798 and 9100

$ sudo ufw allow proto tcp from <RN IP address> to any port 9100

$ sudo ufw allow proto tcp from <RN IP address> to any port 12798

$ sudo ufw reload

restart the node

$ sudo systemctl restart <your BP node name e.g. cnode>

2. Install Prometheus and prometheus node exporter on Relay Node

Install Prometheus

$ sudo apt-get install -y prometheus

Install prometheus node exporter on RN (Ubuntu 20.04)

$ sudo apt-get install -y prometheus-node-exporter

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NOTE

for Ubuntu 18.04 repeat the steps of PN above in the RN as well and install the node_exporter service instead

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repeat Step 2 for all your RN

3. Install Grafana on Relay Node

$ wget -q -O - https://packages.grafana.com/gpg.key | sudo apt-key add -

$ echo "deb https://packages.grafana.com/oss/deb stable main" > grafana.list
$ sudo mv grafana.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/grafana.list

$ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y grafana

Enable services so they start automatically

$ sudo systemctl enable grafana-server.service
$ sudo systemctl enable prometheus.service
$ sudo systemctl enable prometheus-node-exporter.service

Update prometheus.yml located in /etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml

Change the ip address in the following command

$ cat > prometheus.yml << EOF
global:
  scrape_interval:     15s # By default, scrape targets every 15 seconds.

  # Attach these labels to any time series or alerts when communicating with
  # external systems (federation, remote storage, Alertmanager).
  external_labels:
    monitor: 'codelab-monitor'

# A scrape configuration containing exactly one endpoint to scrape:
# Here it's Prometheus itself.
scrape_configs:
  # The job name is added as a label job=<job_name> to any timeseries scraped from this config.
  - job_name: 'prometheus'

    static_configs:
      - targets: ['localhost:9100']

        labels:
          alias: 'relaynode1'
          type:  'cardano-node'

      - targets: ['<relay node 2 public ip address>:9100']

        labels:
          alias: 'relaynode2'
          type:  'cardano-node'
      - targets: ['<block producer public ip address>:9100']

        labels:
          alias: 'block-producer-node'
          type:  'cardano-node'
     - targets: ['localhost:12798']
        labels:
          alias: 'relaynode1'
          type:  'cardano-node'

     - targets: ['<relay node 2 public ip address>:12798']

        labels:
          alias: 'relaynode2'
          type:  'cardano-node'

     - targets: ['<block producer public ip address>:12798']
        labels:
          alias: 'block-producer-node'
          type:  'cardano-node'

EOF

if you have more than two RNs, add all your Relays as new "targets" in the config above

$ sudo mv prometheus.yml /etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml

restart the services

$ sudo systemctl restart grafana-server.service
$ sudo systemctl restart prometheus.service
$ sudo systemctl restart prometheus-node-exporter.service

Verify that the services are running properly

$ sudo systemctl status grafana-server.service prometheus.service prometheus-node-exporter.service

On RN open ports 3000 for Grafana

$ sudo ufw allow from <your local IP address> to any port 3000

4. Setting up Grafana Dashboard

On RN, open http://localhost:3000 or http://your relaynode ip address:3000 in your local browser. Login with admin / admin Change password

Click the configuration gear icon, then Add data Source Select Prometheus Set Name to "Prometheus" Set URL to http://localhost:9090 Click Save & Test

Download my Dashboard that you see on the top of this page, from the following GitHub link and save the JSON file

SNSKY Dashboard Example

in Grafana, Click Create + icon (in left Menu) > Import Add dashboard by Upload JSON file Click the Import button.

If you nodes are in several time zones, it is usefull to add the Grafan Clock panel

$ grafana-cli plugins install grafana-clock-panel

Installed panels are available immediately in the Dashboards section in your Grafana main menu.

To see a list of installed panels, click the Plugins item in the main menu. Both core panels and installed panels will appear.

5. Add Data from Adapools to the Dashboard

Copy your JSON link or your Pool ID from Share/Promote Tab and JSON data outputs in adapools.org

Prometheus can work only with numeric data, so we must first trim non numeric strings which is returned from the JSON file. Lets create a shell script getstat.sh for the same

cd /$NODE_HOME

mkdir -p poolStat

cd poolStat

echo "curl https://js.adapools.org/pools/< YOUR POOL ID >/summary.json 2>/dev/null \

| jq '.data | del(.pool_id_bech32, .hist_bpe, .handles, .hist_roa, .db_ticker, .db_name, .db_url, .ticker_orig, .group_basic, .pool_id, .direct, .db_description, .tax_ratio_old, .tax_fix_old)' \

| tr -d \\\"{},: \

| awk NF \

| sed -e 's/^[ \t]*/adapools_/' > poolStat.prom" > getstats.sh

chmod +x getstats.sh

./getstats.sh

check the content of adapools.prom and it should not contain only numeric values

$ nano poolStat.prom

Configure promethues-node-exporter.service to grab data from poolStat.prom file

$ sudo cp /lib/systemd/system/prometheus-node-exporter.service /lib/systemd/system/prometheus-node-exporter.service_backup

$ sudo nano /lib/systemd/system/prometheus-node-exporter.service

Change ExecStart line to

ExecStart=/usr/bin/prometheus-node-exporter --collector.textfile.directory=< YOUR NODE FULL PATH >/poolStat --collector.textfile

Reload daemon and restart services

$ sudo systemctl daemon-reload

$ sudo systemctl restart prometheus-node-exporter.service

$ sudo systemctl restart prometheus.service

Now you should see in the Dashboard all Adapool statistics

Since the statistics will change, lets set cron job to update data from ADApools everyday

$ crontab -e

##############################

#Get data from ADApools every day at 06:00

0 6 * * * <YOUR NODE FULL PATH >/poolStat/getstats.sh

##############################

Done!

6. As last step let's now setup Grafana Alerting and Email Notifications

Setup SMTP in Grafana

$ sudo nano /etc/grafana/grafana.ini

Edit the SMTP section

#############################

[smtp]
enabled = true
host = smtp.<email server>:465
user = <email user name>
# If the password contains # or ; you have to wrap it with triple quotes. Ex """#password;"""
password = <email password>
from_address = [email protected]
from_name = Grafana

#############################

Login to Grafana with username and password.

Click on the "Bell" icon on the left sidebar.

Select "Notification channels."

Click on "Add Channel." This will open a form for adding new notification channel.

Give a name to this channel. I am using "Alert"

Select Email from "Type" as we want to send notifications over email.

Check the "Send on all alerts" in case you want email on all alerts.

Select the checkbox of "Include image" in case you want to include the image of the panel as the body in the notification email.

Add the target email in "Email addresses" text area. You can use multiple email address separated by ";"

Click on "Send Test" if you want to verify your settings. This will send a sample email using the SMTP details we configured earlier.

Click on "Save" to add this channel

Create an Alert if PN is not reachable

Please not that Alerts can only be created for "Graph" panels!

Now we create an Alert to get an emaial if the PN is not reachable

In the "Connected Peers" panel go to Alerts

Define the Rule "Connected Peer Alert" Evaluate every "1m" For "2m"

Condition

WHEN "last()" OF "query(A, 1m, now)" "HAS NO VALUE"

No Data & Error Handling

If no data or all values are null SET STATE TO "No Data"

If execution error or timeout SET STATE TO "Alerting"

Notifications

Send To - Choose your notofication channel, which in my case is "Alert"

Message - type in your alert message that should appear in the email

Press on "test Rule" to ensure that the Alert is correct and has no issues.

Now you are done! Stop you PN and you should get an Alert within 4min.

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NOTE

If everything works, now you should have a smile on your face! And if you wish to support the Tutorial work, you could donate or delegate to my pool - SNSKY

Donation Address addr1qyyhd8cpv4gmhr5axerhezhtzldrw4rp9ayf0fc6arnme4cg46du2qg366943uy0dw5yjmna7arfw265lu4r2fjccl4scf7xrw

SNSKY Pool ID

075578defd7ee97cbeaa2937e5819099cb3835ac9f9c8b1a2c3a3578

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Recommended: Disabling Grafana Registrations and Anonymous Access

We should make Grafana a bit more sucure and to do so lets change two settings

$ sudo nano /etc/grafana/grafana.ini

Locate the following allow_sign_up directive under the [users] heading and change the line to as follows

##########

[users] # disable user signup / registration

allow_sign_up = false

##########

Next, locate the following enabled directive under the [auth.anonymous] heading and change the line to as follows

[auth.anonymous]

enabled = false

Save the file and exit your text editor and to activate the changes, restart Grafana.

$ sudo systemctl restart grafana-server

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NOTE

I have included a panel on Leader Slots, which can Alert in case your pool is selected as a leader for the next Epoch. It is a bit more complicated, so will leave it out of the tutorial, but in principle there is script running on the PN which updates the leader query result in a prom file which is parsed by the node exporter, exposing this metrics to the RN. In case you wish to use it and need the details, just drop me a message on Telegram.

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