Witness Essentials: Watcher
received an update, which includes:
- New command:
test
which can be used to test notifications & failover in case of missed blocks. - After a specific time, since the last missed block (1 day default), key-rotation rounds and the missed block threshold will be reset to prevent unnecessary failover
- The
interval
variable inside config.json is in minutes but has been in seconds in code. This has been changed to minutes now.
Github: https://github.com/witness-essentials/watcher
PR: https://github.com/witness-essentials/watcher/pull/3 (plus PR #4 and #5)
What is Witness Essentials?
Witness Essentials
is a collection of important tools for witnesses.
Witness Essentials: Watcher
is a script for Steem Witnesses to watch for missed blocks, failover towards backup-nodes & alert via multiple services.
- Multiple alert options available (TELEGRAM, SMS <NEXMO, TWILIO>, EMAIL)
- Transaction signing either via private signing-key or private active-key
- RPC Failover
- Rotation between keys supported
- Robust error handling
Github Organization: https://github.com/witness-essentials
Getting Started
You can find a detailed guide on Github
Update Information
- Update your packages if you're running it locally (npm update/yarn)
- Add
"MAX_AGE_LAST_MISSED_DAYS": 1
to yourconfig.json
.1
is the default value and should be replaced depending how long it takes for your witness to produce a block. - For testing, simply run:
npm run test
oryarn run test
. You're then able to choose between testing failover via real key signing (+ choose if you want to skip disabling of witness) and testing notifications. - Make sure the
interval
(minutes) inside config.json is correctly set
Quick note: the test
command is currently not available via docker, only directly via npm/yarn.
Alright, that's it regarding the new update.
I hope my fellow witnesses find this useful as monitoring & watching your witness-nodes is quite important.
All the best,
Wolf

Do you believe that my work is valuable for Steem? Then please vote for me as witness.