SPO Performance Monitoring Service

This proposal aims to build the first infrastructure and required tools to evolve the project and it is the first proposal of a series that will continue over the next funding rounds.

We aim to build SPO toolsets and applications, "tailor-made" solutions, and with that, form the beginning of the SPO Toolmakers Guild. An assembly of highly engaged and committed SPOs and Catalyst Members.

The SPO Toolmakers Guild also provides Guidance and Mentorship to the SPO ecosystem and builds the framework for various Business opportunities taking place over time.

By my engagement as a SPOCRA board member and SPO Mentor, I am in constant contact with many stake pool operators. One of the biggest issues we identified is that currently, many Stake Pool Operators lack live monitoring tools that would provide information about their Stake Pool Performance. This leads to several problems for Pool Operators and it impacts the whole network's ecosystem.

Additionally, Delegators don't know how the pool has performed during the last epochs as there is no real data on how many blocks were assigned and how many were minted.

Having these tools, Stake Pool Operators could present live data about their stake pool to their delegators and use this tool as proof of their pool's performance. Currently, the only measurement of the pool's performance is based on average block assignment calculations, which don't show the real picture.

The overall situation brings us to the point where effective SPO Business opportunities need high-quality toolsets and frameworks to build a sustainable business.

One of the main features of using this tool would be to monitor the pool's performance (data available only to Stake Pool Operator/owner)

Many critical data points need to be monitored:

- expired kes keys certificates
- outdated Cardano node versions (missing mandatory updates)
- server (relays/nodes) issues like:
 * running out of disc space (crashing node process),
 * running out of RAM (crashing node process),
 * CPU overloads (leads to missing leadership checks)
 * incoming/outgoing connections, etc

with this project we are going to solve several issues:

- Lack of standard Stake Pool operator Tools
- Lack of tracking live block producing data
- Lack of open-source infrastructure monitoring for SPOs networks
- Lack of bridge-building tools and structures for SPOs and their delegators
- Lack of transparency on pool performance.

General Project Goal

This proposal aims to build the first infrastructure and required tools to evolve the project and it is the first proposal of a series that will continue over the next funding rounds.

Information

To tackle those problems is to create a simply designed dashboard that allows Operators and delegators to have a live overview of the Stake Pool performance and activity.

The Dashboard will provide two types of information.
- Based on easy to use web interface for SPOs and Delegators to determine overall pools performance
- Open-source monitoring data gathering scripts on relays/bp nodes

We also aim to develop some common SPO dashboard standards which might help and support the broader Stake pool ecosystem to develop and build required tools and services. Based on this service we could also introduce it in the future across pool SPO infrastructure certification systems.

The dashboard will provide the following information

(1) Relay/bp node live monitoring data
(2) Server Monitoring data ( free space / used RAM / CPU load etc / missed leadership checks)
(3) Block Status:

• Pending blocks - assigned block to the pool
• Minted blocks - successfully minted blocks by the pool
• Failed - was assigned, but failed to successfully mint (slot battles, orphaned blocks, etc)

(B) Public information

(1) assigned blocks to a Pool
(2) planner/failed/minted Blocks
(3) Relay/bp node overall health
(4) Pool rewards information

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By exploring and establishing the first open source-based tools and infrastructure to the SPOs and the ecosystem, we aim to support SPOs to use our tools and to improve their delegator's relationships and bonds. This proposal aims to provide effective solutions to both, SPOs and Delegators.

As I am a Stake Pool operator since 2019, a board member of SPOCRA and the elected SPO representative of the Catalyst Circle version1, leading a 600+ Support group for SPOs, and am a developer myself, I am sure I would ensure the overall success of an implementation of this proposal. We also have the full support from @Catalyst Swarm to help us to find the right people at the right time to move this project forward.

We will set up a GitHub repository where everyone can have insights into the project development.
We will provide a monthly report to the community via a Town Hall presentation.

As we know the ecosystem rapidly changes and there are daily new tools and solutions which are released. We design our proposal on an open-source approach, which allows us to stay flexible and dynamic in case that other initiatives like this. Proposals might evolve over the next months so that we can connect our engagements easily to them.  

Roadmap:

January 2022

• Setting up the data collection points
• leadership log script adjustment
• data requirement research and already available tool/library research

February 2022

• Based on gathered data and required information from January, we start to develop the first relay/bp monitoring scripts
• Working on UI/UX designs

March 2022

• First MVP and beta - onboarding user to establish feedback loop for needed performance and interface improvements

April 2022

• Public Release version1

The goal is as well to constantly evolve and improve the Dashboard and to adjust and adapt required aspects to potential happenings in the ecosystem

KPIs / OKRs:

• design-time series DB
• developing the relay performance monitoring scripts
• developing the Block Producing node monitoring scripts
• developing API for receiving data
• developing API for persisting data
• developing web dashboard

Budget breakdown (3 months)

• Server Costs - USD (usd/p/hrs) 2160h $0.1 $216.00
• UI/UX Designer - USD (usd/p/hrs) 160h $45 $7,200.00
• Developer Python/Rust - USD (usd/p/hrs) 480h $40 $19,200.00
• Project Management - USD (usd/p/hrs) 480h $20 $9,600.00

Requested funds in USD

$36,500