Tanglemonitor

Visualization and detailed live metrics of the IOTA confirmation process.

Tanglemonitor is part of the EDF funded UNIO project. Hence, you are now able to run your own instances. The goal of UNIO is, to combine three well established Tangle analytics tools (tangle.glumb, tanglebeat & tanglemonitor) into one collaborating project. For more details on this, please see the annoucement and our proposal document. Fully open sourcing Tanglemonitor and providing following instructions is just one of the first steps of our combined efforts project. Later on, we will provide a single repository with detailed instructions and a simple deployment process. For now however, if you like to deploy Tanglemonitor check out following preliminary instructions.

Installation

Instructions for Linux (Ubuntu)

First get sure you have the required programs installed:

sudo apt-get install git nodejs

Within your desired folder clone this git repository:

git clone https://github.com/unioproject/tanglemonitor.git

Then go into the backend folder and install the NodeJS backend:

cd tanglemonitor/backend
npm install

Tip: If you get permission errors from npm, try: sudo chown -R $(whoami) ~/.npm

That's it, now you can start Tanglemonitor:

nodejs tanglemonitor-server.js --net mainnet

or simply ..

nodejs tanglemonitor-server.js

.. because mainnet is the default net.

Note: Please see the configuration section for more details on how to run Tanglemonitor!

pm2 - process manager

If you intend to run Tanglemonitor as a service or several nets simultaneously, it is recommended to run it via a process manager, like pm2:
Simply install it via:

sudo npm install pm2 -g
pm2 completion install

Go into the backend folder and run:

pm2 start tanglemonitor-server.js

Setting flags in pm2 is a bit different to normal NodeJS (note the double dash):

pm2 start tanglemonitor-server.js -- --net mainnet

You can stop it again with:

pm2 stop tanglemonitor-server

Note: For more information on pm2 visit their documentation.

Configuration

Tanglemonitor is configured by the config.js file within the backend/config folder:

Option	Description	Default
webServer.domain	Where should this instance be hosted? If public, adapt to your URL (e.g. tanglemonitor.com)	localhost
webServer.standalone	If you do not have any webserver installed or configured on your machine you can utilize the standalone feature. However, if you prefer running something dedicated, like Apache or nginx, set standalone to 'false'	true
webServer.port	If standalone webserver is set true, specify a 'port' where the front-end will be reachable at (e.g. http://localhost:4000)	4000
apiMaxTransactions	This limits the maximum amount of TX history which can be requested by the user (front-end). It is particularly useful, if you are hosting the service to the public, as frequent requests of huge TX amounts can result in bad response performance.	50000
logging.showZmqNodeStatus	Show constant info about ZMQ connection status to each node	false
DB.driver	The 'standalone' driver utilizes an in-memory DB (LokiJS). This DB is very fast but not suitable to store larger amounts of TX history. If you want to keep more than a few hours of TX history please consider to utilize a MongoDB instance. Currently MongoDB is the default as it is utilized as default with the docker deployment (which is considered the primary deployment method, utilizing tanglebeat as metric source). If you do not have a MongoDB running or intend to run tanglemonitor standalone, please choose 'standalone' as driver.	MongoDB
DB.storageDuration	Amount of minutes of Tangle tx history, which will be stored. If set to 0 all history of the transactions will be lost on restart. Non-persistence usually only makes sense in combination with 'standalone' DB driver.	120
DB.MongoDB.host	The MongoDB host can also be on a remote location or localhost. 'mongodb' is the default, as it is utilized within the primary docker deployment method.	mongodb
DB.MongoDB.port	Specify the port of the MongoDB instance.	27017
DB.MongoDB.name	Specify the name of the MongoDB instance.	tanglemonitor
DB.MongoDB.credentials	Specify the credentials (user, password) of the MongoDB instance. Defaults are set in alignment with the docker deployment method.	''
environments	You can add as many nets as you like in this list, however only one of those nets will be initialized. 'mainnet' is the default net when you start via 'node tanglemonitor.js' or pm2. Other nets can be deployed via the --net flag, for example: node tanglemonitor.js --net devnet. pm2 handles command line flags a bit differently: pm2 start tanglemonitor.js -- --net devnet Be aware to include the double dash --.
environments.netName	Name of the net (which needs to be declared via command line flag if it is not 'mainnet', see 'environments')	mainnet
environments.subdomain	If you are running this instance on a subdomain you need to declare it here (e.g: spamnet.tanglemonitor.com)	''
environments.apiServer.port	Port on which the API runs - Important that this port is matched within the front-end if you modify it (particularly when running several nets simultaneously on the same machine / domain).	4433
environments.apiServer.ssl	If you run this instance public and use ssl you need to enable via 'true'. Certificates need to be placed in folder backend/ssl - see section ssl	false
environments.socketioServer.port	Port on which the WebSocket runs - Important that this port is matched within the front-end if you modify it (particularly when running several nets simultaneously on the same machine / domain)	4434
environments.socketioServer.ssl	If you run this instance public and use ssl you need to enable via 'true'. Certificates need to be placed in folder backend/ssl - see section ssl	false
environments.maxAmountZmqConnections	Defines the maximum amount of connections to ZMQ nodes (which are defined at 'zmqNodes' below). Please include at least two different sources of nodes to get the best results.	3
environments.nodeSyncDeltaThreshold	Each node is regularly sync checked (Delta between LSSMI & LSMI) if 'syncCheck' is set 'true' on 'zmqNodes'. The threshold specifies at which delta a node should be considered 'unsynced' and thus be disconnected	10
environments.zmqNodes	Pool of nodes which will potentially be connected to. First nodes in the list are prioritized. If a node gets out of sync or the connection is lost, another node will be tried. Maximum simultaneous connections to ZMQ nodes is set with the option 'maxAmountZmqConnections'
environments.zmqNodes.host	IP / URL of the ZMQ node (e.g. node.myiotanode.com).	localhost
environments.zmqNodes.port	ZMQ port of the node.	5556
environments.zmqNodes.api	IRI API port of the ZMQ node (needed for sync checks).	14265
environments.zmqNodes.ssl	true if IRI API port has ssl encryption (very likely if IRI API port is 443).	false
environments.zmqNodes.syncCheck	Should the ZMQ node be sync checked? 'zmqNodes.api' needs to be specified. Also see 'nodeSyncDeltaThreshold'.	true

SSL

If SSL is enabled via the options environments.apiServer.ssl: true and environments.socketioServer.ssl: true you need to include your SSL certificates into the backend/ssl folder. The validity of the certificate has to match the host name specified at webServer.domain. crt.pem (certificate), ca.pem (ca certificate) and priv.pem (private key) are in conformity with the output format of letsencrypt.