openblockperf 0.0.35

The OpenBlockperf client

OpenBlockperf

- A cli tool and systemd service to capture and share network metrics from a cardano relay node.

The OpenBlockperf Client is a cli tool that collects various data points from a local Cardano relay node, run by a stake pool operator. If you are setting up or operating a stake pool, start with this guideline: https://developers.cardano.org/docs/operate-a-stake-pool/

openBlockperf is designed to run on relay nodes located between the stake pool (producer) node and the global network. It can also run on producer nodes if desired, albeit it is not recommended. In normal operation, OpenBlockperf runs as a systemd service. OpenBlockPerf watches and monitors the global data flow between the relay nodes of different stake pools.

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Installation / Get started

The installer targets Linux environments typically used for Cardano nodes (for example Ubuntu/Debian server setups with systemd) and requires some specific traceOptions enabled in the configuration (see Trace Options Guide )

Install OpenBlockperf with the installer script below, or alternatively

• See Installer Guide for all installer modes and options.
• See Manual Installation Guide for step-by-step manual setup.
• See OpenBlockPerf Client Overview for a high-level explanation of what the client does and why the shared telemetry matters.

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cardano-foundation/openblockperf/main/blockperf-install.sh -o blockperf-install.sh
chmod +x blockperf-install.sh
sudo ./blockperf-install.sh

interactive

By default this starts an interactive command line wizard that guides you step by step through the installation and configuration:

OpenBlockPerf installer overview
  Version: 0.1.1
  1) Check/install prerequisites (Debian/Ubuntu and RHEL-family)
  2) Resolve service user/group, node name, and cardano-node unit/config
  3) Resolve network and API-key strategy
  4) Install venv/package, write env+unit+wrapper, enable service
  5) Print summary and next steps

Continue? [y/N]: y

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Step 1/5  Check/install prerequisites...

[INFO]  Verifying: Python (python3), jq, curl, systemd, core utilities, ensurepip...
[INFO]    Status: satisfied — no extra OS packages needed.
[ OK ]  All prerequisites are ready.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Step 2/5  Configure service user, node name, cardano-node unit and config...

[INFO]  Using Python 3.12 (python3)
[INFO]  determining openblockperf service identity (user and group)
Service user [user1] (Enter to keep):
Service group [user1] (Enter to keep):
[INFO]  Service identity: user1:user1

You can contribute blockperf data from multiple relay nodes and assign them individual
names for your internal use only. These names will not be shared publicly.
This systems name [relay-seoul]:
[INFO]  Node name: relay-seoul

[INFO]  Cardano node unit: cnode.service
[INFO]  Node config: /opt/cardano/cnode/files/config.json (from cnode.service ExecStart/Environment)
[ OK ]  Node config JSON OK (/opt/cardano/cnode/files/config.json).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Step 3/5  Configure network and API key...

[INFO]  Network: mainnet (from Shelley genesis networkMagic)
Do you already have a Blockperf API key? [y/N]: y
Enter OPENBLOCKPERF_API_KEY value (input hidden):

OpenBlockPerf Installer (install)
  Version:       0.1.2
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
  Install dir:   /opt/cardano/openblockperf
  Python:        python3
  Package:       openblockperf
  Service user:  user1:user1
  Node name:     relay-seoul
  Node unit:     cnode.service
  Node config:   /opt/cardano/cnode/files/config.json
  Network:       mainnet
  API key:       set
  Service file:  /etc/systemd/system/openblockperf.service
  Env file:      /etc/default/openblockperf
  Command:       /usr/local/bin/blockperf
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Step 4/5  Install virtualenv, package, env file, systemd unit, and wrapper...

[ OK ]  Creating installation directory: /opt/cardano/openblockperf
[INFO]  Changing ownership of /opt/cardano/openblockperf to mtn:mtn before venv/pip (pip runs as this user).
[ OK ]  Creating virtual environment at /opt/cardano/openblockperf/venv ...
[ OK ]  Installing openblockperf from PyPI ...
[ OK ]  Ownership of /opt/cardano/openblockperf set to mtn:mtn.
Environment file /etc/default/openblockperf already exists. Replace with a new file from this run, or keep the existing file? [R/k] (default R):
[ OK ]  Replacing existing environment file: /etc/default/openblockperf
[ OK ]  Writing environment file: /etc/default/openblockperf

[ OK ]  Writing systemd unit: /etc/systemd/system/openblockperf.service
[ OK ]  Writing wrapper command: /usr/local/bin/blockperf
[ OK ]  Reloading systemd daemon ...
[ OK ]  Enabling openblockperf.service ...
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/openblockperf.service → /etc/systemd/system/openblockperf.service.
[ OK ]  Service enabled. To start use 'systemctl start openblockperf.service'.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Step 5/5  Optional service start and installation summary...

Start openblockperf.service now (API key is configured)? [y/N]: y
[ OK ]  Started openblockperf.service.

Installation complete.

Next steps (API key not set in this run):
  1. Register and obtain an API key:
       /opt/cardano/openblockperf/venv/bin/blockperf register
     A Calidus key is required;
  2. Set OPENBLOCKPERF_API_KEY in /etc/default/openblockperf
  3. Start the service:  systemctl start openblockperf.service
  4. Status:  systemctl status openblockperf.service
  5. Logs:    journalctl -fu openblockperf.service

Once installed you should have a 'blockperf' executable installed.

$ blockperf version
Installed version: 0.0.25
Python version: 3.12.3
Platform: Linux-6.8.0-100-generic-x86_64-with-glibc2.39

non-interactive

You can also run the installer in non-interactive mode with command line options, or predefine settings via environment variables (useful for containerized/deployment automation workflows: see Installer Guide).

When no explicit API key is provided, non-interactive --yes now defaults to --api-key-mode relay and attempts automatic public-IP registration. You can force legacy behavior with --api-key-mode calidus.

install result

• systemd unit: openblockperf.service
• env file: /etc/default/openblockperf
• CLI wrapper: /usr/local/bin/blockperf
• app install + venv: /opt/cardano/openblockperf
• logs: journalctl -fu openblockperf.service

Updates

Use update mode to check for both installer and OpenBlockperf client updates and install them if confirmed.

sudo ./blockperf-install.sh --update

blockperf usage

The installer configures and starts OpenBlockperf as a systemd service, which is the recommended way to run it continuously on node hosts.

You can also run it in your console for tests and explorations.

Command structure

blockperf [SHARED OPTIONS] <COMMAND> [COMMAND OPTIONS]

Shared options must appear before the subcommand name; they are inherited by every subcommand.

Shared option	Default	Description
-n, --network {mainnet,preprod,preview}	mainnet (or OPENBLOCKPERF_NETWORK)	Cardano network. Selects the network-specific API URL and chain magic.
--api-url URL	network-specific	Override the API URL (full URL including port and path, e.g. http://localhost:8000/api/v0).
-c, --config FILE	unset	Path to a JSON or YAML configuration file (.json, .yaml, .yml) used to seed settings.

Subcommands

Command	Purpose	Command-specific options
version	Print client version	(none)
run	Start the metrics collector (long-running)	--node-unit-name TEXT — systemd unit to read from journald (default cardano-tracer).
register-ip	Register for an API key bound to this relay's public IP	--force-renewal, --update-ip (mutually exclusive).
register-calidus	Register for an API key via Calidus challenge/response	-p, --pool-id BECH32, --calidus-skey FILE.

Examples

# Run with defaults (mainnet)
blockperf run

# Use preprod
blockperf --network preprod run

# Or use an environment variable
export OPENBLOCKPERF_NETWORK=preprod
blockperf run

# Load configuration from a file
blockperf --config /etc/blockperf/config.json run

# Config file + override one value via flag (the flag wins)
blockperf --config /etc/blockperf/config.json --network preview run

# Local backend during development
blockperf --api-url http://localhost:8000/api/v0 run

Configuration file

The --config flag accepts a JSON or YAML file whose keys correspond to AppSettings fields (without the OPENBLOCKPERF_ prefix). Use this to keep settings under version control or share them across deployments. Values are layered with the following precedence (highest wins):

1. CLI flags
2. Environment variables (OPENBLOCKPERF_*)
3. .env file
4. --config file

Example config.json:

{
  "network": "mainnet",
  "api_key": "pk_replace_me",
  "api_port": 443,
  "node_name": "relay-seoul",
  "node_unit_name": "cardano-node",
  "ekg_url": "http://localhost:12798/metrics",
  "sync_check_enabled": true,
  "sync_check_threshold": 99.9
}

The equivalent YAML:

network: mainnet
api_key: pk_replace_me
api_port: 443
node_name: relay-seoul
node_unit_name: cardano-node
ekg_url: http://localhost:12798/metrics
sync_check_enabled: true
sync_check_threshold: 99.9

Service activity and common file locations

# Check service state
sudo systemctl status openblockperf.service

# Follow OpenBlockperf logs
sudo journalctl -fu openblockperf.service

Registration

OpenBlockperf is built around a shared global view: distributed stake pool operators submit relay-side block samples and peering events into a common backend. In return, each contributing operator gets insights about their own block propagation and relay connectivity. To contribute data, each stake pool registers once and receives an API key. There are two ways to register for an ApiKey.

Calidus Key Registration

Initial operator identification uses the Calidus Stake Pool Key:

You can generate and register your own stake pools Calidus key for example with this SPO script or by using the CNTools text UI (Pool > Calidus > ...)

During registration the blockperf register-calidus command gets a challenge and will sign it with your Calidus key. The provided API key is assigned to this Calidus Keys Stakepool(s).

blockperf register-calidus --pool-id [your pools bech32 id] --calidus-skey [path to your calidus skey file]

IP based registration

For public relay IP-bound registration (IPv4/IPv6 probes as available), use:

blockperf register-ip

This will store the IP address of the machine that send the request. Only that IP will be able to use that ApiKey.

register-ip also supports --force-renewal (issue a new API key, invalidating the old one) and --update-ip (rebind an existing API key to a new relay IP). These two flags are mutually exclusive.

Relay-IP registration is intended for operators without stake-pool credentials who want to participate with a single relay node. For SPO-level participation across a whole pool infrastructure (multiple relays reported as one entity), use a Calidus-registered API key.

You only need to run register-calidus and provide your Calidus skey once on one of your relay nodes to obtain the API key for your stake pool. After that, you can copy and use this API key on additional relay nodes.

Uninstall

When openBlockperf is no longer needed, it can be completely removed using the blockperf-install.sh --remove parameter.