Next generation of Peerbox-info

Projects
1

Hello,

I have re-designed peerbox-info script. Actually, only thing it shares with last one is the name and fact that it shows output from ppcoind.

It is made in python, and this was actually a side project in my endeavours to create Peerbox Config Framework which I have mentioned before. This program will become part of that framework which will allow easy configuration and monitoring of Peerbox, all in nice packaging presentable to end user. Also, it lays foundations to future projects like Peerbox webgui. But, more on that some other time, now check out the script.

If started with “-p” or “–ppcoin” it will do exactly what “ppcoind getinfo” would do.

If stared with “-h” flag, you are greeted with expected output.

peerbox-info -h

I know you guys will love “–public” since it allows you to post it directly on forum without need to photo-edit screenshot to hide balance or IP.

Other flags are “-a” which displays all the info possible, and “-s” which displays only system info (system load, version, serial, board revision, etc).

There is one more, but I guess it wont be used much if you are not developer.
“-o” will dump everything to stdout, so use case is something like:

peerbox-info -o | grep serial

Next release, which will complete v0.22 release of Peerbox will include color output.
And any other reasonable features you propose.

2

I would like to see temperature and CPU load information added. The heat sink I installed on my raspi is hot to the touch. [tt]/opt/vc/bin/vcgencmd measure_temp[/tt] (or [tt]/sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/temp[/tt] ) shows that the temperture is about 50C when the box is open, which is tolerable to commercial components. Although northern summer is tapering out I still like to check load and temp of the pi.

3

Great idea peerchemist! Your peerbox is getting better and better ;D

4

deal

5

I have added colour output and temperature statistics.

…along with warning as you can see.
This is just for test, I have set warning threshold on 76 Degrees Centigrade.

6

Wow that is fast. Excellent.

76C… I can envisage a bumper sticker, “My hand wamer also mints Peercoin.” :))

Oh, just another thought. Because a wallet often goes for a long time without finding any block, checking status by loggin in gets tedious after a while. I know the on-board LEDs are (almost?) all used by the system, is it possible to blink one of them when a POS block is found (i.e. stake <> 0) so one can see at a glance if the peerbox has found anything? In a related thought, can peerbox send me an email when it finds a block?

7

Wow that is fast. Excellent.

76C… I can envisage a bumper sticker, “My hand wamer also mints Peercoin.” :))

Oh, just another thought. Because a wallet often goes for a long time without finding any block, checking status by loggin in gets tedious after a while. I know the on-board LEDs are (almost?) all used by the system, is it possible to blink one of them when a POS block is found (i.e. stake <> 0) so one can see at a glance if the peerbox has found anything? In a related thought, can peerbox send me an email when it finds a block?[/quote]

For all of your requests I have to wait for next release of Peercoin, which will enable such functions.

8

Very nice. What do you think about PoS difficulty? Maybe it’s not necessary here but I’ve always thought it should be in ppcoind getinfo :wink:

9

Yep, I have written that down to my notebook last night :slight_smile:
It won’t take more than 5min to implement.

10

No problems. Take your time.

ps. What does the following mean?

[quote=“peerchemist, post:1, topic:2829”]You can install it with this command:

sudo pacman -Sy peerbox-info

WARNING
Do not install.[/quote]

Do you mean when asked if install or not, [Y/n], do not install? Why?

I didn’t see this before installing and now ppcoind doesn’t start upon reboot :frowning:

[sunny@peerbox ~]$ sudo  systemctl status ppcoind.service
* ppcoind.service - PPCoin Daemon
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/ppcoind.service; enabled)
   Active: activating (auto-restart) (Result: exit-code) since Sat 2014-08-30 08
:51:53 BST; 2s ago
  Process: 487 ExecStart=/usr/bin/ppcoind -daemon -conf=/etc/peercoin/peercoin.c
onf -pid=/run/ppcoind/ppcoind.pid -datadir=/var/lib/ppcoind $ARGS (code=exited,
status=217/USER)

Aug 30 08:51:53 peerbox systemd[1]: Unit ppcoind.service entered failed state.

What should I do?

11

@mhps

I did that too. I had to reflash. I couldn’t find another solution. :frowning:

I would love to hear a better one^^

12

[quote=“willywithcoinnode, post:11, topic:2829”]@mhps

I did that too. I had to reflash. I couldn’t find another solution. :frowning:

I would love to hear a better one^^[/quote]

Thanks. I backed up everything including the blockchain and reinstalled v0.21. Now I am back to where I was before installing the new peerbox-info.

13

Sorry you both, I’ve encountered critical bug with filesystem package. And since peerbox-info depends on newer version of it it pulled the bug too. That is why I placed WARNING.
I’m still thinking on best solution to this. Peerbox-info will go with v0.22 by default, please wait.

14

I think this script is done, for now.

I’ve implemented all requested features, and tested it.

Screen shot of PoS difficulty:

15

Maybe to add something that the box is minting on the main chain.

I’d like to see a short format that shows the parameters that often change:
connection, balance, diff, staked, last block number and how long ago it was found (health indicator), CPU load, temperature.

16

[quote=“mhps, post:15, topic:2829”]Maybe to add something that the box is minting on the main chain.

I’d like to see a short format that shows the parameters that often change:
connection, balance, diff, staked, last block number and how long ago it was found (health indicator), CPU load, temperature.[/quote]

Requested feature has been added.
You can test it with new release, or update peerbox-info on your existing installation.

Update peerbox-info:

sudo pacman -Sy peerbox-info

peerbox-info --health

17

I have a few questions about peerbox monitoring.

My raspberry peercoin-qt process crashed a few days ago and I didn’t noticed it immediately (it’s not using peerbox).

I had nothing setup to monitor this process and send some alert in case it couldn’t be restarted.

Does such monitoring exists for peerbox? Can some alerts be send my mail or other ways if needed?

Thanx for your answers.

18

[quote=“mably, post:17, topic:2829”]I have a few questions about peerbox monitoring.

My raspberry peercoin-qt process crashed a few days ago and I didn’t noticed it immediately (it’s not using peerbox).

I had nothing setup to monitor this process and send some alert in case it couldn’t be restarted.

Does such monitoring exists for peerbox? Can some alerts be send my mail or other ways if needed?

Thanx for your answers.[/quote]

Such monitoring systems will be possible when peercoin 0.5 is released.

However I would even guarantee that peercoin daemon will never crash on peerbox, even if it does crash it will be re-started automatically within seconds.

19

Hi, is there any chance to develop peerbox as operating system based on debian distribution? Or just to install as package through command line in some debian os(ubuntu,mint etc) ?
I have bunch of these and wanted to set it as node http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/nuc/nuc-kit-dccp847dye.html

20

[quote=“denyzabac, post:19, topic:2829”]Hi, is there any chance to develop peerbox as operating system based on debian distribution? Or just to install as package through command line in some debian os(ubuntu,mint etc) ?
I have bunch of these and wanted to set it as node http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/nuc/nuc-kit-dccp847dye.html[/quote]

But why don’t you use ArchLinux on those? No, I will not work with Debian as it is archaic. Package management is too complex if compared to pacman and it still does not use systemd. It is also far less flexible.
Also it can not be installed with apt-get as it is more then few packages, it is full OS and it’s architecture is not compatible with Debian.

Peerbox will soon receive x86_64 port for virtual machine hypervisors. I’ll star with native KVM image, so you can set up KVM on your debian installation and run Peerbox OS with less then 1% performance overhead while retaining all security features of Peerbox.