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Monitoring my Minecraft server with OpenTelemetry and Prometheus

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Re: Monitoring my Minecraft server with OpenTelemetry and Prometheus

#11

Post by jauntywundrkind »

strogonoff wrote: post #10
ajmurmann wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am currently planning adding monitoring to some toy apps I hosted on a raspberry pi cluster. The intent is that this might safe me time and stress further down the road. If a new version makes performance worse, I want to see that in the data. If resource needs go up, I want to know that before it's time to move, so that I can plan without any kind of scheduling stress. (I also want to do this in part as an exercis…

Well, as far as I’m concerned, if they are toy apps, why stress? If they are going to go in production at some point, then sure; but this certainly is not happening with a family game server.

Seeing what computers are doing is good, actually. Period.

Re: Monitoring my Minecraft server with OpenTelemetry and Prometheus

#12

Post by strogonoff »

dpe82 wrote: post #8
strogonoff wrote: post #7

Monitoring and metric collection makes a lot of sense when you run a production system, or a personal but critical system. Promoting a telemetry solution when it comes to a hobby server, which you host for yourself and which can’t bankrupt you by running up a massive AWS bill, doesn’t seem to make much sense when simply bottling it up in Docker and being able to restart or recreate at will is enough (mount volumes fo…

Have you never just built something for fun?

I have built a panel like the one I mentioned for fun with friends!

The goal of my comment was to highlight opportunities for more fun and less what seems like toil.

Furthermore, this is an article about a telemetry solution posted on a site of that telemetry solution. They make money from this.

Re: Monitoring my Minecraft server with OpenTelemetry and Prometheus

#13

Post by ajmurmann »

strogonoff wrote: post #10
ajmurmann wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am currently planning adding monitoring to some toy apps I hosted on a raspberry pi cluster. The intent is that this might safe me time and stress further down the road. If a new version makes performance worse, I want to see that in the data. If resource needs go up, I want to know that before it's time to move, so that I can plan without any kind of scheduling stress. (I also want to do this in part as an exercis…

Well, as far as I’m concerned, if they are toy apps, why stress? If they are going to go in production at some point, then sure; but this certainly is not happening with a family game server.

Family game server going down can be very stressful, especially if you have kids.

Also, I've had phone tech support sessions with family that were more stressful than calls with large banks who were worried about losing very large amounts of money in case of an outage. Different stressful, but nonetheless...

Re: Monitoring my Minecraft server with OpenTelemetry and Prometheus

#14

Post by strogonoff »

ajmurmann wrote: post #13
strogonoff wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, as far as I’m concerned, if they are toy apps, why stress? If they are going to go in production at some point, then sure; but this certainly is not happening with a family game server.

Family game server going down can be very stressful, especially if you have kids. Also, I've had phone tech support sessions with family that were more stressful than calls with large banks who were worried about losing very large amounts of money in case of an outage. Different stressful, but nonetheless...

> Family game server going down can be very stressful, especially if you have kids.

Telemetry does not address this, though. Shoving it into a container and assigning it a simple “restart if down” rule does. Minecraft is a flaky beast, if you run snapshots and/or mods. Metrics or not, often “start again” is all you need.

Furthermore, this is a game that adds new gameplay features multiple times per month. If you do not update it frequently and your kid misses out on a new mob, you run into the same stress. Containerizing it makes the upgrade very straightforward, and once you run a couple of containerized instances… Do you not struggle to see the value of detailed system monitoring?

Re: Monitoring my Minecraft server with OpenTelemetry and Prometheus

#15

Post by koinedad »

strogonoff wrote: post #7

Monitoring and metric collection makes a lot of sense when you run a production system, or a personal but critical system. Promoting a telemetry solution when it comes to a hobby server, which you host for yourself and which can’t bankrupt you by running up a massive AWS bill, doesn’t seem to make much sense when simply bottling it up in Docker and being able to restart or recreate at will is enough (mount volumes fo…

I’ve recently added telemetry to some “toy” apps at my house because a power outage or other unforeseen issue has caused things like my Siri enabled garage doors to stop working. Now I get alerts through grafana and telegram for basically free which comes in handy.

Re: Monitoring my Minecraft server with OpenTelemetry and Prometheus

#16

Post by strogonoff »

koinedad wrote: post #15
strogonoff wrote: post #7

Monitoring and metric collection makes a lot of sense when you run a production system, or a personal but critical system. Promoting a telemetry solution when it comes to a hobby server, which you host for yourself and which can’t bankrupt you by running up a massive AWS bill, doesn’t seem to make much sense when simply bottling it up in Docker and being able to restart or recreate at will is enough (mount volumes fo…

I’ve recently added telemetry to some “toy” apps at my house because a power outage or other unforeseen issue has caused things like my Siri enabled garage doors to stop working. Now I get alerts through grafana and telegram for basically free which comes in handy.

A garage door is a security concern.

For a game, a solution that simply restarts the container if it’s down solves the issue. You can mount game logs in a volume if you want, and you can see resource usage in container host dashboard. What value do detailed system metrics bring?

Furthermore, you don’t care what software you run to make your garage door system Siri-enabled, as long as it does its job and is not vulnerable; whereas with a game that adds new gameplay features multiple times per month, you do want to update it frequently. Babysitting a snowflake server makes it way more difficult than it should be.

Re: Monitoring my Minecraft server with OpenTelemetry and Prometheus

#17

Post by gmuslera »

strogonoff wrote: post #7

Monitoring and metric collection makes a lot of sense when you run a production system, or a personal but critical system. Promoting a telemetry solution when it comes to a hobby server, which you host for yourself and which can’t bankrupt you by running up a massive AWS bill, doesn’t seem to make much sense when simply bottling it up in Docker and being able to restart or recreate at will is enough (mount volumes fo…

Implementing proper monitoring in a toy system doesn't prepare you to do it in a massive critical system, but at least you may had learn something in the process, and notice things that in big scale may not be as evident.

In any case, fun starts when the system have more interdependent components.

Re: Monitoring my Minecraft server with OpenTelemetry and Prometheus

#18

Post by strogonoff »

gmuslera wrote: post #17
strogonoff wrote: post #7

Monitoring and metric collection makes a lot of sense when you run a production system, or a personal but critical system. Promoting a telemetry solution when it comes to a hobby server, which you host for yourself and which can’t bankrupt you by running up a massive AWS bill, doesn’t seem to make much sense when simply bottling it up in Docker and being able to restart or recreate at will is enough (mount volumes fo…

Implementing proper monitoring in a toy system doesn't prepare you to do it in a massive critical system, but at least you may had learn something in the process, and notice things that in big scale may not be as evident. In any case, fun starts when the system have more interdependent components.

I think there is value in learning which pattern is good to apply in which scenario, and I will argue that in this case the best pattern is “servers are cattle”.

Re: Monitoring my Minecraft server with OpenTelemetry and Prometheus

#19

Post by strogonoff »

jauntywundrkind wrote: post #11
strogonoff wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, as far as I’m concerned, if they are toy apps, why stress? If they are going to go in production at some point, then sure; but this certainly is not happening with a family game server.

Seeing what computers are doing is good, actually. Period.

This is a real-time game. What the computer is doing is directly in front of your eyes.

Re: Monitoring my Minecraft server with OpenTelemetry and Prometheus

#20

Post by jauntywundrkind »

strogonoff wrote: post #19
jauntywundrkind wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seeing what computers are doing is good, actually. Period.

This is a real-time game. What the computer is doing is directly in front of your eyes.

I know I sound like a freak to you, but you sound like a deranged freak to me too. Who would opt for ignorance? Who would opt not to have data? Who would opt not to see more? Its insanity to me to resist enrichment so.

Limiting yourself to only naive senses is a wild proposition to me. The scientific mindset compels us to see further: it is a wild privilege to see more, to build and use tools that expand how we can see.

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