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.

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Monitoring Stack

Core Components

Component	Purpose	Description
Prometheus	Metrics Database	Time-series collection and storage with powerful query language (PromQL)
Grafana	Visualisation	Dashboards, alerting, and data exploration
MKTXP	MikroTik Exporter	Exports RouterOS metrics (interfaces, queues, firewall, wireless)
Node Exporter	Host Metrics	CPU, memory, disk, network stats from Linux servers
cAdvisor	Container Metrics	Docker container resource usage and performance
pmacct	Flow Analysis	NetFlow/IPFIX traffic accounting and analysis

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Architecture

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

Data Collection Flow

1. Data Sources generate metrics:

• MikroTik Router (network stats, queues, firewall)
• Linux Hosts (system resources)
• Docker Containers (application metrics)

2. Exporters expose metrics in Prometheus format:

• MKTXP → MikroTik metrics on :9436
• Node Exporter → Host metrics on :9100
• cAdvisor → Container metrics on :8080

3. Prometheus scrapes all exporters every 15 seconds and stores 30 days of time-series data.

4. Grafana queries Prometheus and displays dashboards for operators.

Visual Flow

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐╔═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
│║                        DATA SOURCES                               │║
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤╠═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╣
│║                                                                   │║
│║   ┌─────────────┐    ┌─────────────┐    ┌─────────────┐          │║
│║   │  MikroTik   │    │   Linux     │    │   Docker    │          │║
│║   │   Router    │    │   Hosts     │    │ Containers  │          │║
│║   └──────┬──────┘    └──────┬──────┘    └──────┬──────┘          │║
║          │                  │                  │                 │║
│
│║          ▼                  ▼                  ▼                 │║
│║   ┌─────────────┐    ┌─────────────┐    ┌─────────────┐          │║
│║   │    MKTXP    │    │    Node     │    │  cAdvisor   │          ║
║   │  :9436      │    │  (Exporter):9100      │    │  Exporter:8080      │          │║
│         │
│║   └──────┬──────┘    └──────┬──────┘    └──────┬──────┘          │║
│          │╚══════════╪══════════════════╪══════════════════╪══════════════════╝
           │                  │                  │
           └──────────┼──────────────────┼──────────────────┼────────────────┘
           │                  │                  │
           │    :9436/metrics │   :9100/metrics  │  :8080/metrics
           │                  │
                              │
                              ▼
              ▼╔═══════════════════════════════╗
              ▼
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│║        PROMETHEUS             │║
              │║      (Metrics Database)       │║
              │║                               │║
              │║  • Scrapes exporters every 15 secondssec       ║
              ║  • 30 day retention           ║
              ║  • Alerting rules             ║
              ╚═══════════════╤═══════════════╝
                              │
                              │   • Stores 30 days of metrics                                   │
│   • Evaluates alerting rules                                    │
└─────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────┘
                              │
                              │  :9090/api
                              ▼
              ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐╔═══════════════════════════════╗
              │║          GRAFANA              │║
              │║        (Dashboards)           │║
              │║                               │║
              │║  • VPN User Statistics             •║
              Router Health                  │
│║  • Bandwidth byGraphs           Tier║
              ║  • ContainerSystem ResourcesHealth              │║
              │   • Traffic Analysis           • Alert Management               │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘╚═══════════════════════════════╝

NetFlow Traffic Analysis

For detailed traffic analysis, NetFlow data follows a separate path:

┌─────────────┐         ┌─────────────┐         ┌─────────────┐
│  MikroTik   │ NetFlow │   pmacct    │ metrics │ Prometheus  │
│   Router    │── ──────▶ │  Collector  │── ──────▶ │             │
│             │   v9    │             │         │             │
└─────────────┘         └───────┬──────┘         └─────────────┘
                               │
                                │ Aggregated flow data
                               ▼
                        ┌─────────────┐
                        │   Grafana   │
                        │  (Traffic    │
                        │  Analysis)Analysis   │
                        └─────────────┘

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Key Metrics Collected

Network Metrics

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Metric	Description
Interface throughputThroughput	Bytes in/out per interface
Packet ratesRates	Packets per second, errors, drops
Queue statisticsStatistics	Per-user bandwidth enforcement
Firewall countersCounters	Rule hit counts, blocked connections
WireGuard peersPeers	Handshake status, data transfer

System Metrics

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Metric	Description
CPU/Memory	Server and router resource usage
Disk I/O	Storage performance
Container healthHealth	Docker service status
Process monitoringMonitoring	Critical service uptime

Traffic Analysis

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by user -
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Metric	Description
Flow recordsRecords	Source/destination IP, ports, protocols
User Bandwidth	Per-VPN-peer traffic accounting
Top talkersTalkers	Highest bandwidth consumers
Protocol distributionDistribution	Traffic breakdown by application

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Access

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