Observability is a major challenge in the Polkadot ecosystem, builders, node operators and parachains do not have proper tooling for having a full insight into their nodes and dApps performance.
Developers currently depends on traditional monitoring tools like Prometheus and Grafana, which fail to capture chain-specific data and require extensive technical knowledge and effort to set up. This reliance leads to delayed error detection and negatively impacts network health.
Also, while handling logs and metrics is straightforward with these tools, tracing is more challenging. Effective tracing demands that each component is in a request’s path forwards tracking information, a complex task in decentralized blockchain systems compared to centralized platforms.
Currently, most chains directly apply Web2 observability tools and methods to Web3 dApps without taking note of the nuances we have with web3 dApps. There is no standardized approach for instrumenting, monitoring, and reporting in the realm of dApps and Web3 protocols.`
To ensure the reliability of parachains and nodes, it’s essential to develop a robust Web3 observability infrastructure that addresses these challenges.
Let’s ask ourselves the following Questions:
- What is the ease of access for developers to view events log for a chain without needing to set up their own node?
- Is there a reliable and verifiable source for obtaining metrics, logs, and traces from blockchain nodes? Similar to how Subscan provides detailed on-chain transactions, how can we monitor and evaluate the performance of the constituent nodes of a blockchain in a decentralized manner?
A good observable system should be able to i) capture data with context, ii) query data to get full insight iii) proactively report on the insight found and use that in either debugging an issue or preventing a major issue from happening.
How do we achieve this?
Introducing Telescope
Telescope is a one-stop tool for web3 observability, telescope helps builders and networks collect, store and visualize all monitoring data such as metrics, logs, traces and runtime events thereby saving time and money by reducing operational overhead, improving security and helping deliver a consistent, seamless observability expereince.
What does an Ideal Solution looks like?
- Generally available yet verifiable Node Observability:
- Parachains gain comprehensive insight into all Node Operators running their clients.
- Node Operators receive a ready-to-use monitoring solution for their entire node fleet.
- Ready-to-Use Monitoring:
- Early warning alerts for node performance issues.
- Web3-focused insights specifically tailored for Polkadot Parachain operations.
- Deep insight & analytics into all Node Operators running their Charon clients
- Node Operators & Enterprise Customers should have deep out of the box Monitoring solution for all their node fleets.
- Multiple Channels Alert subscription for Node Operators receive customized alerts.
- Integrated SLO for both Node Operator and Networks
- Intelligent Log Analysis
- Central Node Observability: Node Operators receive a ready-to-use monitoring solution for their entire node fleet and Parachains gain comprehensive insight into all Node Operators running their clients.
Back-of-Napkin Architecture Overview
Core Features
- Easy to Setup
- Privacy Preserving Observability Setup
- Zero Setup Costs & Fixed Monthly Fee
- Handoff observability & focus on core business logic
- Supports Multiple Observability Signals(logs, traces, metrics)
- AI powered log ag and event analysis: threat and anomaly detection, event correlation and automated retrospective
- Multi-Tenancy setup for both networks and builders
- Simple Dashboard that only displays what matters
- Built-in Runbook
- Observability API that allows client to automate their entire observability pipeline alongside their application deployments
Benefits
- Proactive Incident Management: Improve developer experience by allowing your team to prevent issues before they happen.
- Performance Efficiency: Understand and increase the performance and efficiency of your app.
- Full Application Insight: Gain insights about user behavior and growth trends that are currently unavailable.
- Seamless Integration: Telescope has a cli and sdk that makes it easy for developers to instruments observability into their dApps and also Node Operators to easily install a one in all observability toolingNode Operators receive a ready-to-use monitoring solution for their entire node fleet.
- Parachains gain comprehensive insight into all Node Operators running their clients.
About Us
Blockops is a platform that makes it extremely easy for builders, solo-stakers and node-operators to deploy, maintain and manage their nodes ANYWHERE with complete observability.
Our products include:
- Mission Control for effortless multi-node deployment and maintenance ANYWHERE, and
- Telescope, a privacy-preserving web3 observability tool for Node Operators and Blockchain Networks
Our key features offer:
- One Click Node Deployment platform ANYWHERE
- Cost-effective hosting solutions tailored for running validator nodes
- Scalable Node Deployments optimised for avoiding network penalties during migrations
- Privacy-Preserving Observability with Telescope for all signals (metrics, logs, traces), giving operators full visibility into node performance.
- Real-time customizable monitoring dashboards and alerts
- Detailed analytics and insights to optimise performance proactively
- Vault or Web3Signer Integration
- Node Fleet Management support (client upgrades, upscaling and downscaling of nodes with NO Slashing and Zero Downtime)
- Alert Integration with support for Telegram, Slack, Email, Pagerduty and SMS as integration channels
- Tracing Instrumentation with Telescope
We built a POC inspired from Grafana-agent and Open Telemetry and you can check it out here GitHub - blockopsnetwork/telescope: Node Monitoring Platform for blockchain nodes