ff-node-monitor

This is a simple web service for Freifunk networks that lets node operators register to monitor their nodes. It uses the nodes.json from hopglass to detect which nodes are online, and sends notifications when the online status changes.

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Setup

The setup consists of three parts: Getting the service built, getting the database set up, and configuring the service to be run as a daemon.

I have tested the following steps on a Debian Stretch system; if you are using a different version or a different distribution, you might have to change some of the steps accordingly.

Make sure you have at least 1.5 GB free disk space.

Build Process

1. First, let's create a user for this service, and change to its home directory:

   sudo adduser ff-node-monitor --home /opt/ff-node-monitor --system
   

2. We need some development libraries for the build process:

   sudo apt install libssl-dev libpq-dev libc6-dev curl gcc pkg-config
   

3. Fetch the ff-node-monitor sources:

   sudo -u ff-node-monitor git clone https://github.com/freifunk-saar/ff-node-monitor.git ~ff-node-monitor/src
   cd ~ff-node-monitor/src
   

4. ff-node-monitor is written in Rust using Rocket. Any recent stable version of Rust should work:

   curl https://sh.rustup.rs -sSf > rustup.sh
   sudo -u ff-node-monitor sh rustup.sh
   rm rustup.sh
   

5. Build ff-node-monitor:

   sudo -u ff-node-monitor ~ff-node-monitor/.cargo/bin/cargo build --release
   

   The build process takes a while, you can already finish the Database Setup (steps 7. and 8.) and part of the Service Setup (step 9. and 11.) in a second shell as the build process continues.

6. This step is optional, but if you want to save some disk space, you can now clean up the build directory:

   rm -rf target/release/{build,deps,incremental,.fingerprint}
   

   Over time, you will also accumulate more and more different Rust versions. You can use

   sudo -u ff-node-monitor ~ff-node-monitor/.cargo/bin/rustup toolchain list
   

   to see which versions you have installed, and then toolchain uninstall the ones you do not need any more (all but the last, most likely).

Database setup

7. ff-node-monitor needs PostgreSQL as a database backend:

   sudo apt install postgresql
   

8. We will use the ff-node-monitor system user to access PostgreSQL, and we need to create a database for the service:

   sudo -u postgres psql -c 'CREATE ROLE "ff-node-monitor" WITH LOGIN;'
   sudo -u postgres psql -c 'CREATE DATABASE "ff-node-monitor" WITH OWNER = "ff-node-monitor" LC_COLLATE = '\''de_DE.utf8'\'' TEMPLATE template0;'
   

   You may have to install the de_DE.UTF-8 locale before this works. On Debian, run sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales to do so.

Service setup

9. The service loads its configuration from a Rocket.toml file in the source directory. You can start by copying the template:

   cd ~ff-node-monitor/src
   sudo -u ff-node-monitor cp Rocket.toml.dist Rocket.toml
   chmod 600 Rocket.toml
   

   Most of the values in your Rocket.toml will need to be changed; see the comments in the template for what to do and how.

10. To run the service using systemd, the .service file needs to be installed:

    sudo cp ff-node-monitor.service /etc/systemd/system/
    sudo systemctl daemon-reload
    sudo systemctl enable ff-node-monitor
    sudo systemctl start ff-node-monitor
    sudo systemctl status ff-node-monitor
    

    If the last command does not show the service as running, you need to debug and fix whatever issue has come up.

11. To expose the service on the internet, set up a reverse proxy in your main web server. If you are not already running a web server, nginx is a good choice. You will have to edit your site configuration, usually located at /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default. Here's the necessary snippet, mounting the node monitor in the node-monitor subdirectory:

    location /node-monitor/ {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8833/;
    }
    # Directly serve static files, no need to run them through the app
    location /node-monitor/static/ {
        alias /opt/ff-node-monitor/src/static/;
    }
    

    Test your configuration and reload nginx:

    nginx -t
    service nginx reload
    

    Now, accessing the service at whatever root URL you configured in the Rocket.toml should work.

12. Finally, the service relies on a cron job to regularly check in on all the nodes and send notifications when their status changed:

    sudo crontab -e -u ff-node-monitor
    

    Add the following line to that crontab, replacing $ROOT_URL by your root URL (as configured in Rocket.toml):

    */5 * * * *    curl -s $ROOT_URL/cron
    

That's it! The service should now be running and working.

Upgrade

To upgrade the service to the latest git version, follow these steps:

cd ~ff-node-monitor/src/
git pull
sudo rm target/release/ff-node-monitor
sudo -u ff-node-monitor ~ff-node-monitor/.cargo/bin/cargo build --release
sudo systemctl restart ff-node-monitor

Check the CHANGELOG to see if any manual steps are needed.

Debugging

When something goes wrong, the first step should be to look at the error log:

sudo journalctl -u ff-node-monitor.service

Customization

If you want to adapt the node monitor to the layout of your web presence, you can set stylesheet to an external CSS file in your Rocket.toml. Put any images and other static data into src/static/. Here a CSS-example:

#title {
    padding-top: 131px;
    background: url('static/logo.png');
    background-repeat: no-repeat;
}

Development Virtual Environment

You can easily set up a test VM using Vagrant.

If you want to tweak the default configuration (which you do not have to), first copy the default config file vagrant.config.dist to vagrant.config and customize the configuration. Then follow these steps:

sudo apt install vagrant
cd vagrant
vagrant up ff-service

This will take a while, downloading the Vagrant box and install a running system inside. You can adapt bootstrap.sh as you like to test around with different settings. In your real setup you at least have to change the root URL where you will be hosting ff-node-monitor.

You can then access the vagrant box at http://localhost:8833. If you want to login the server use

vagrant ssh ff-service

If you want to delete and start over use

vagrant destroy ff-service
vagrant up ff-service

If you want to send out emails, one easy option is msmtp.

For gmail (with deactivated 2-factor login) use this configuration in /etc/msmtprc:

# Set default values for all following accounts.
defaults
port 587
tls on
tls_trust_file /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt

account gmail
host smtp.gmail.com
from <user>@gmail.com
auth on
user <user>
password <your password>

# Set a default account
account default : gmail

To test it run

echo -e "Subject: msmtp test\nhello test." | msmtp _recipient_address_

You should find your sent e-mail in the recipient's inbox shortly afterwards.

vagrant troubleshooting

In case the install in the mashine fails, consider to upgrade your vagrant box with

vagrant box update