Frequently Asked Questions

How much does Dashboard cost?

Dashboard has two plans:

  • Free: up to 3 servers, 7-day metric retention, community support.
  • Pro ($3/node/month, first 3 nodes free): unlimited servers, 90-day metric retention, unlimited notification channels, AI analysis (Gemma 4), bench-glassmkr MCP API access, email support. Example: 10 servers is $21/month (only 7 are charged).

All plans include the full set of 38 alert rules and the Crucible agent at no extra cost.

What happens if I remove my payment method on the Pro plan?

The first 3 servers stay active permanently — the Free quota is preserved on Pro accounts so service doesn't drop abruptly. Servers beyond 3 are disabled at the end of your current billing period (or at customer.created_at + 30 days, whichever is later). Disabled servers continue to ingest snapshots so historical data is preserved; they just stop firing notifications and disappear from the active dashboard.

Dashboard sends warning emails when the payment method is removed, 3 days before disable, 1 day before disable, and at the moment of disable. The dashboard surfaces a dunning banner with the disable date and a "Resolve" link to the billing portal.

Restoration is one click once a card is on file: Settings → Disabled servers → Restore all. Individual servers can also be restored or deleted from the same screen if you'd rather drop into the free quota than pay.

Which operating systems does Crucible support?

Crucible runs on Linux. The following distributions are tested and supported:

  • Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04, 24.04
  • Debian 11, 12
  • RHEL 8, 9
  • Rocky Linux 8, 9
  • AlmaLinux 8, 9
  • Arch Linux (rolling)
  • Amazon Linux 2, 2023

Crucible requires systemd and a Linux kernel 4.18 or newer. It works on both x86_64 and aarch64 (ARM64) architectures.

Windows and macOS are not supported. For monitoring non-Linux systems, consider using the Dashboard API directly with a custom metrics collector.

How much CPU and memory does Crucible use?

Crucible is designed to be lightweight:

  • Memory: approximately 90 MB RSS. Varies by hardware: servers with more IPMI sensors use more.
  • CPU: less than 0.5% of a single core on a typical server. Collection runs are brief (under 500 ms) and occur once per interval (default: 300 seconds).
  • Disk: the binary is about 12 MB. Log files are rotated at 50 MB by default.
  • Network: each metrics push is approximately 2-5 KB of compressed JSON. At the default 300-second interval, this is about 1 KB/minute or 1.5 MB/day.

On machines with many disks (50+) or network interfaces (20+), resource usage may be slightly higher. You can reduce overhead by excluding unused interfaces and disks in the configuration.

Where is my data stored?

Metric data is stored on Glassmkr infrastructure in the EU (Frankfurt, Germany). All data is encrypted at rest using AES-256 and in transit using TLS 1.3.

Dashboard does not store raw system logs, process lists, or file contents. The data collected is limited to numerical metrics (CPU percentages, memory amounts, disk usage, network counters) and hardware status identifiers (SMART health, RAID state, sensor readings).

You can delete all data for a server at any time by removing the server from the Dashboard dashboard. Account deletion removes all data within 30 days.

How do I uninstall Crucible?

To completely remove Crucible from a server:

# Stop and disable the service
sudo systemctl stop glassmkr-crucible
sudo systemctl disable glassmkr-crucible

# Remove the systemd unit file
sudo rm /etc/systemd/system/glassmkr-crucible.service
sudo systemctl daemon-reload

# Remove the npm-installed package
sudo npm uninstall -g @glassmkr/crucible

# Remove configuration (contains the collector key)
sudo rm -rf /etc/glassmkr

Optionally, delete the server from the Dashboard dashboard to remove its stored metrics and free up a server slot on your plan.

Does Crucible need root access?

The Crucible agent runs as root by default because reading SMART data, IPMI sensors, and certain system files requires elevated privileges. If you do not need SMART, IPMI, or ECC monitoring, you can run Crucible as a non-root user by disabling those collectors and ensuring the user has read access to /proc and /sys.

How long is metric data retained?

Retention depends on your plan:

  • Free: 7 days at full resolution.
  • Pro: 90 days. Data older than 7 days is downsampled to 5-minute resolution. Data older than 30 days is downsampled to 1-hour resolution.

Can I monitor Docker containers or Kubernetes pods?

Crucible currently monitors the host system, not individual containers. Container-level CPU and memory usage are visible in the host metrics as part of the total. Dedicated container and Kubernetes monitoring is on the roadmap.

If you run Crucible inside a Docker container, it needs access to the host's /proc, /sys, and device files via volume mounts. This is not the recommended setup; installing directly on the host is simpler and more reliable.

Can I export my data?

Yes. You can pull metric data via the Health History API endpoint. The response is JSON and can be piped into any analytics tool. For bulk exports, contact support for a CSV or Parquet dump of your account's data.

What sign-in methods does Dashboard support?

Email + password, Google OAuth, and GitHub OAuth. Connect or disconnect OAuth providers from Settings → Account. There is no built-in TOTP / 2FA today; rely on your OAuth provider's two-factor configuration if you sign in via Google or GitHub.

What is per-core CPU monitoring?

When per_core: true is set in the CPU collector configuration (requires Crucible 0.3.0+), Crucible reports individual CPU core utilization in addition to aggregate metrics. This enables the per-core CPU chart in the dashboard expanded view and gives the AI analysis engine awareness of per-core load patterns. This is useful for detecting single-threaded bottlenecks, core pinning issues, and uneven load distribution. Per-core monitoring increases data volume proportionally to the core count.

How does alert muting work?

You can mute specific alert rules on a per-server basis from the server detail page or via the configuration file. Muted rules are not evaluated and do not fire notifications. This is useful during maintenance windows, RAID rebuilds, or when a known condition is expected. Unmuting takes effect on the next ingest cycle. Alerts do not fire retroactively for conditions that occurred while muted.

What do the P1-P4 priority levels mean?

Every alert has a priority from P1 (critical, immediate action required) to P4 (informational). Priority determines the badge color on alert cards and the emoji prefix in Telegram/Slack notifications. P1 alerts indicate data loss or service outage. P2 alerts indicate significant degradation. P3 alerts are early warnings. P4 alerts are proactive recommendations. See the Alert Priorities documentation for the full mapping.

How does AI analysis work?

On the Pro plan, Dashboard uses Gemma 4 to analyze your server health data when alerts fire. The AI reviews the current metrics (including per-core CPU data if available), recent trends, and the alert context to provide a one-sentence summary of the likely cause. AI analysis is shown on the alert card in the dashboard and included in Telegram/Slack notifications. It is a diagnostic aid, not a replacement for human investigation.

What happens if the Dashboard API is unreachable?

Crucible continues collecting metrics locally and buffers up to 60 data points (about 5 hours at the default 300-second interval) in memory. When connectivity is restored, the buffered data is pushed in order, so you will not lose data during brief outages. If the buffer fills, the oldest data points are dropped first.

How do I update Crucible?

Update the npm-installed package and restart the service:

sudo npm install -g @glassmkr/crucible@latest
sudo systemctl restart glassmkr-crucible

To pin to a specific version, replace latest with a version number (e.g. @0.9.1). Docker images are at ghcr.io/glassmkr/crucible:<version> and glassmkr/crucible:<version>. Configuration in /etc/glassmkr/collector.yaml is preserved across upgrades. Check the running version with:

glassmkr-crucible --version

Is there an API rate limit?

Yes. Dashboard uses a token-bucket limiter with overlapping per-IP, per-key, and per-account tiers, plus per-endpoint sub-limits for write actions. Per-IP is 100 burst at 10/sec; per-key is 1000 burst at 100/sec; per-account is 5000 burst at 500/sec. Server registration / deletion / key rotation each have their own hourly sub-limits. Ingest is rate-limited to one push per server per 55 seconds. See the API Reference for the full table.

How do I contact support?

Email [email protected] with your account email and server ID. Include the output of sudo journalctl -u glassmkr-crucible --since "1 hour ago" --no-pager if the issue is agent-side.