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Overview

Nekotopia operates a comprehensive monitoring infrastructure to ensure service reliability, performance optimisation, and proactive issue detection. Our telemetry stack is built on industry-standard open-source tools, providing real-time visibility into network health and VPN service performance.

Monitoring Stack

Core Components

data (interfaces,
Component Purpose VersionDescription
Prometheus Metrics DatabaseTime-series metrics collection and storage Latestwith powerful query language (PromQL)
Grafana VisualisationDashboards, alerting, and dashboarding Latestexploration
MKTXP MikroTik ExporterExports RouterOS metrics exporter Latestqueues, firewall, wireless)
Node Exporter LinuxHost host metricsMetrics LatestCPU, memory, disk, network stats from Linux servers
cAdvisor Container resource metricsMetrics LatestDocker container resource usage and performance
pmacct Flow AnalysisNetFlow/IPFIX traffic accounting and analysisLatest

Architecture

The monitoring system follows a pull-based collection model with centralised storage and visualisation:

ArchitectureData Flow

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                        DATA SOURCES                              │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                                  │
│   ┌─────────────┐    ┌─────────────┐    ┌─────────────┐         │
│   │  MikroTik   │    │   Linux     │    │   Docker    │         │
│   │   Router    │    │   Hosts     │    │ Containers  │         │
│   └──────┬──────┘    └──────┬──────┘    └──────┬──────┘         │
│          │                  │                  │                │
│          ▼                  ▼                  ▼                │
│   ┌─────────────┐    ┌─────────────┐    ┌─────────────┐         │
│   │    MKTXP    │    │    Node     │    │  cAdvisor   │         │
│   │  (Exporter) │    │  Exporter   │    │             │         │
│   └──────┬──────┘    └──────┬──────┘    └──────┬──────┘         │
│          │                  │                  │                │
└──────────┼──────────────────┼──────────────────┼────────────────┘
           │                  │                  │
           │    :9436/metrics │   :9100/metrics  │  :8080/metrics
           │                  │                  │
           ▼                  ▼                  ▼
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                       MikroTik      │────▶│   Prometheus    │────▶│    Grafana      │
│   RouterPROMETHEUS                                 │
│                    (Metrics DB)Database)                            │
│                                                                  │
│   • Scrapes exporters every 15 seconds                          │
│   • Stores 30 days of metrics                                   │
│   • Evaluates alerting rules                                    │
└─────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────┘
                              │
                              │  :9090/api
                              ▼
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                         GRAFANA                                  │
│                      (Dashboards)                                │
│                                                                  │
│   • VPN User Statistics        • Router Health                  │
│   • Bandwidth by Tier          • Container Resources            │
│   • Traffic Analysis           • Alert Management               │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

NetFlow Traffic Analysis

┌─────────────┐          ┌─────────────┐          ┌─────────────┐
│  MikroTik   │  NetFlow │   pmacct    │  metrics │ Prometheus  │
│   Router    │────────▶ │  Collector  │────────▶ │             │
│             │   v9     │             │          │             │
└─────────────┘          └─────────────────┘          └─────────────────┘
                                │
                                ▲
│ NetFlowAggregated v9flow │data
                                ▼
                         │
┌─────────────────┐
                         │   │     pmacctGrafana   │─────────────┘
                         │  (FlowTraffic   │
                         │  Analysis)  │
                         └─────────────────┘

Key Metrics Collected

Network Metrics

  • Interface throughput - Bytes in/out per interface
  • Packet rates - Packets per second, errors, drops
  • Queue statistics - Per-user bandwidth enforcement
  • Firewall counters - Rule hit counts, blocked connections
  • WireGuard peers - Handshake status, data transfer

System Metrics

  • CPU/Memory - Server and router resource usage
  • Disk I/O - Storage performance
  • Container health - Docker service status
  • Process monitoring - Critical service uptime

Traffic Analysis

  • Flow records - Source/destination IP, ports, protocols
  • Bandwidth by user - Per-VPN-peer traffic accounting
  • Top talkers - Highest bandwidth consumers
  • Protocol distribution - Traffic breakdown by application

Access

Grafana dashboards are available to administrators at the internal monitoring endpoint. User-facing statistics are exposed through the Nekotopia dashboard where appropriate.

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