besu/docs/Using-Pantheon/Debugging.md

description: Frequently asked questions FAQ and answers for troubleshooting Pantheon use

Debugging Pantheon

Command Line Options Not Working as Expected

Characters such as smart quotes and long (em) hyphens won't work in Pantheon options. Ensure that quotes have not been automatically converted to smart quotes or that double hyphens have not been combined into em hyphens.

Monitor Node Performance and Connectivity Using the JSON-RPC API

You can monitor node performance using the debug_metrics JSON-RPC API method.

Monitor Node Performance Using Third-Party Clients

Use the --metrics-enabled option to enable the Prometheus monitoring and alerting service to access Pantheon metrics. You can also visualize the collected data using Grafana.

While Prometheus is running, it consumes the Pantheon data directly for monitoring. To specify the host and port on which Prometheus accesses Pantheon, use the --metrics-listen option. The default host and port are 127.0.0.1:9545.

You can install other Prometheus components such as the Alert Manager. Additional configuration is not required for these components because Prometheus handles and analyzes data directly from the feed.

Here's an example of setting up and running Prometheus with Pantheon:

1. Install the prometheus main component. On MacOS you can install with Homebrew:

brew install prometheus

2. Configure Prometheus to poll Pantheon. For example, add the following yaml fragment to the scrape_configs block of the prometheus.yml file:

     job_name: pantheon-dev
     scrape_interval: 15s
     scrape_timeout: 10s
     metrics_path: /metrics
     scheme: http
     static_configs:
     - targets:
       - localhost:9545
   

   !!! note The --host-whitelist option defaults to localhost. If 127.0.0.1 is specified instead of localhost in the prometheus.yml file, add 127.0.0.1 to the host whitelist using --host-whitelist when starting Pantheon.

3. Start Pantheon with the --metrics-enabled option. To start a single node for testing with metrics enabled:

   pantheon --dev-mode --network-id="2018" --miner-enabled --miner-coinbase fe3b557e8fb62b89f4916b721be55ceb828dbd73
   --rpc-cors-origins="all" --rpc-enabled --metrics-enabled
   

4. In another terminal, run Prometheus specifying the prometheus.yml file:

   prometheus --config.file=config.yml 
   

5. Open a web browser to http://localhost:9090 to view the Prometheus graphical interface.

6. Choose Graph from the menu bar and click the Console tab below.

7. From the Insert metric at cursor drop-down, select a metric such as pantheon_blockchain_difficulty_total or pantheon_blockchain_height and click Execute. The values are displayed below.

   Click the Graph tab to view the data as a time-based graph. The query string is displayed below the graph. For example: {pantheon_blockchain_height{instance="localhost:9545",job="prometheus"}