Safe Network node Dashboard

vdash is a terminal based dashboard for monitoring Safe Network nodes. It is written in Rust. The terminal GUI is implemented using ratatui and it monitors one or more node logfiles using linemux.

Status: working on Windows, MacOS and Linux with public test networks.

vdash is already capable of monitoring multiple logfiles on the local machine, showing multiple metrics for each node including number of PUTS (chunks stored), current price being charged for storage, and node earnings. Many metrics appear both as numeric values and can be viewed in real-time graphical charts over time.

Using rsyslog it should be possible to monitor logfiles for the local machine and from multiple remote machines too, though I have not tried this myself yet.

Here's an early vdash (v0.2.0) working with a local testnet node:

Features

vdash will load historic metrics from one or more Safe node logfiles and display these with live updates in the terminal (see above).

'<-' and '->': When monitoring multiple nodes you can cycle through them using the left/right arrow keys.

'i' and 'o': Zoom the timeline scale in/out using 'i' and 'o' (or '+' and '-').

't' and 'T': Three timelines are visible at any one time but you can cycle through all timelines to bring them all into view by pressing 't' (forward) and 'T' (backward).

'm' or 'M': The Storage Cost timeline displays minimum, mean and maximum values in each time-slot. To cycle through the min, mean and max displays press 'm' or 'M'.

'q': Press 'q' to quit.

Feature requests and discussion are currently summarised in the opening post of the Safe Network forum topic: node Dashboard ideas please!.

For more details and progress see Roadmap (below).

Operating Systems

• Linux: works on Linux (tested on Ubuntu).
• Windows: works on Windows 10. Not tested recently.
• MacOS: works on MacOS. Not tested recently.

Install using Linux package manager

vdash has been packaged for debian thanks to the generous efforts of Jonas Smedegaard. From late 2023 it will begin to be available in many downstream Linux distributions, but due to the pace of updates the packaged version is likely to be behind the version published at crates.io which is always up to date.

You can check the status of package safe-vdash in your distribution and choose whether to install from there or get the most recent version as explained below.

Install from crates.io

1 Install Rust via https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/getting-started/installation.html

2a. Linux (Ubuntu)

sudo apt-get install build-essential

2b. Linux/MacOS install vdash:

cargo install vdash
vdash --help

2c. Windows install vdash:

Windows has not been tested recently so you may like to try using cargo insall vdash first to see if that now works. If not, you will need to build using Rust Nightly.

Until the 'itarget' feature becomes part of 'stable', build manually and use the Rust Nightly compiler first install Rust Nightly using rustup:

rustup toolchain install nightly

To build vdash on Windows, clone vdash, build with +nightly and use the binary it creates under ./taget/release:

git clone https://github.com/happybeing/vdash
cd vdash
cargo +nightly build -Z features=itarget --bin vdash --release --no-default-features

./target/release/vdash --help

Using vdash - a Safe Network node Dashboard

vdash provides a terminal based graphical dashboard of Safe Network node activity on the local machine. It parses input from one or more node logfiles to gather live node metrics which are displayed using terminal graphics.

Get Safe Network pre-requisites

1. Get Rust: see: https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/getting-started/installation.html

2. Get the Safe CLI: either download using an install script or build the Safe CLI locally. Instructions for both options are here.

3. Get the Safe node: when you have the Safe CLI working you can install the node software with the command safe node install (details here).

You are now ready to install vdash and can test it by running a local test network.

Usage

For help:

vdash --help

Typically you can just pass the paths of one or more node logfiles you want to monitor. For example, to run vdash first start your Safe Network node(s) with one or more safenode commands. Then, assuming their logfiles are in the standard location start vdash with:

Linux:

vdash ~/.local/share/safe/node/*/logs/safenode.log

Mac:

vdash "/Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/safe/node/*/logs/safenode.log"

Windows:

vdash C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\safe\node\*\logs\safenode.log

Keyboard commands for vdash are summarised in the introduction above.

vdash and 'glob' paths

vdash accepts one or more file paths, but you can also specify one or more 'glob' paths which can scan a directory tree for matching files. This enables you to pick up new nodes added after vdash starts, either using the 'r' (re-scan) keyboard command, or automatically by giving a re-scanning period using the --glob-scan option on the command line.

vdash scans all 'glob' paths provided on start-up and again whenever you press 'r'.

Note that unlike a file path you must use quotation marks around a 'glob' path to prevent the shell from trying to expand it. In the examples you will need to replace <USER> with the appropriate home directory name for your account.

Examples for Linux:

vdash --glob-path "/home/<USER>/.local/share/safe/node/*/logs/safenode.log"

vdash -g "$HOME/.local/share/safe/node/**/safenode.log" -g "./remote-node-logs/*/logs/safenode.log" --glob-scan 5

Using double rather than single quotes enables you to use '$HOME' in the path instead of giving the home directory explicitly.

Safe Node Setup

IMPORTANT: You must ensure the node logfile includes the telemetry information used by vdash by setting the logging level to 'trace' when you start your node (as in the example below). You control the node logging level by setting the environment variable SN_LOG.

killall safenode
rm -rf ~/.local/share/safe/node
SN_LOG=all safenode

To start a node using safenode you should check you are using the correct parameters for your system setup.

When your node or nodes have started, run vdash, typically in a different terminal:

vdash ~/.local/share/safe/node/*/safenode.log

Note:

• killall safenode makes sure no existing nodes are still running, and deleting the node directory prevents you picking up statistics from previous logfiles. If you leave the logfile in place then vdash will waste time processing that, although you can skip that process using a command line option.

• setting SN_LOG ensures the logfiles contain the data which vdash needs, and excludes some that gets in the way.

• On Windows to set SN_LOG environment variable:

  Using Windows Command Line:

   set SN_LOG="all"
   safenode
  

  Using Windows PowerShell:

   $env:SN_LOG="all"
   safenode
  

Using vdash With a Local Test Network

IMPORTANT: This section is out of date and so will not work as shown. You can try vdash by participating in one of the public test networks which are announced on the Safe Network forum. These are happening about once per week during 2023.

1. Start a local test network: follow the instructions to Run a local network, for example:

   rm -rf ~/.safe/node/local-test-network/
   cd safe_network
   killall safenode || true && SN_LOG=all cargo run --bin testnet -- -b --interval 100
   

   Windows: see "Note" immediately above for how to set SN_LOG on Windows.

2. Run vdash: in a different terminal window, start vdash with: You can then run vdash, typically in a different terminal:

   vdash ~/.safe/node/local-test-network/safenode-*/safenode.log
   

   Or with a live network:

   vdash ~/.safe/node/local-node/safenode.log
   

3. Upload files using Safe CLI: using the Safe CLI you can perform operations on the local test network that will affect the node and the effects will be shown in vdash. For example, to use the Safe CLI to upload files:

   safe files put ./<some-directory>/ --recursive
   

If you want to try vdash with a live network, check to see if one is running at the Safe Network community forum: https://safenetforum.org

Build

See Get Safe Network Pre-requisites.

Get code

git clone https://github.com/happybeing/vdash
cd vdash

Build - Linux / MacOS / Windows 10

Note: MacOS and Windows are untested but may 'just work' - please report success or failure in an issue.

cargo build --release

If built for target 'musl' vdash uses considerably less memory:

rustup target add x86_64-unknown-linux-musl
cargo build --release --target x86_64-unknown-linux-musl

Comparing memory use (using htop on Linux):

VIRT   RES  SHR
803M  9372 4716 x13 threads (release)
32768 6848 2440 x13 threads (release/musl)

Note: the above figures are out of date but illustrate the point.

Roadmap

Where vdash is headed:

• implement ability to parse logfiles
  • add --debug-parser to show results in second logfile
  • implement parsing log file for simple metrics and timeline
  • keep the debug UI available (selected with 'D' when using --debug-parse)
• change events to use tokio mpsc (unbounded) channel
• does tokio mpsc fix loss of updates from linemux (see linemux issue #17)
• implement node dashboard
  • node status summary page (single node)
  • debug window (--debug-window)
  • add basic node stats (age/PUTs/GETs)
  • scroll node logfile (arrow keys)
  • multiple nodes (navigate with tab and arrow keys)
  • add a timeline
    • simple timeline with PUTS and GETS
    • implement multiple timeline durations (hour, minute etc)
    • add status/timeline for ERRORS
    • anchor 'now' to right border
    • mod sparkline widget to have a minimum Y scale (e.g. 10 units)
  • reduce lag in processing logfile changes
    • implement simple rate limit on redraws
    • implement update/redraw tick (for timeline and stats)
    • fix load from logfile to timeline (currently all ends up in last bucket)
    • change timeline scaling to use +/- an i/o keys rather than s, m, d etc
    • optimise redraw rate limit
    • make a CLI option for redraw rate limit
  • track safenode issue #1126 (maintain Get/Put response in)
  • implement storage 'meter'
    • code to get node storage used
    • code to get free space on same device
    • implement storage used/free 'progress' bar
  • implement bandwidth 'meter'
    • code to get node bandwidth
    • code to get total bandwidth
    • implement bandwidth node/total/max in last day 'progress' bar
• Implement DashOverview: all nodes on one page (rename from DashSummary)
• trim NodeMetrics timeline
• Implement popup help on ?, h, H
• FIXED by upate to tui-rs v0.11.0 Issue #382: Window titles corrupted when using --debug-window
• switch to crossterm only (v0.9.0)
• port from tui-rs (deprecated) to ratatui (supported fork of tui-rs)
• Ability to provide 'glob' paths and re-scan them to add new nodes while running
• Implement logfile checkpoints to allow re-starting vdash quickly, and without losing data

LICENSE

Everything is GPL3.0 unless otherwise stated. Any contributions are accepted on the condition they conform to this license.

See also ./LICENSE