This article is part of a series about Steiger, a Software-as-a-Service platform to manage all aspects of professional mining farms.
Articles in the series:
1. Getting Started With Steiger (this article)
2. Using Steiger’s Pre-Recording System
Steiger is a Software-as-a-Service management suite for cryptocurrency mining facilities of all sizes. It is able to manage all aspects of a mining operation — be it 3 or 30000 machines. Every step in the lifecycle of a mining rig (we call them “units”) — from the initial recording, the configuration and pool settings of the machine, to the monitoring of performance and temperature as well as location of individual machines within the farm — Steiger has a solution for it.
Steiger also offers pro features like labourer tracking, invoicing and a ticketing system that big scale operations and colocation providers missed so far.
Steiger is web based — you only need a browser to use it. However, to properly control your units and gather their stats, you need to install a local management service, we call ‘Kumpel’
Steiger main goal is simplicity and ease-of-use. Once Kumpel is set up, all important aspects of your miners can be administered within the Steiger software. There is no need to install software on your ASICs or ever login to any of your units again!
Is Steiger the right tool for you?
As avid miners ourselves, we started developing Steiger for ourselves with 2 main goals in mind: Quick setup of new, and easy monitoring of running machines. Since we started the development 2 years ago, lots of pro features were added, like a ticketing system including the ability to track labourers time and proper invoicing. Thus, Steiger works very well for large scale operations.
Regardless, Steiger of course also works well for small operations. If you run 3 miners in your garage you will profit from the comprehensible dashboard, hassle free pool management and easy setup of new machines. Your miners start mining as soon as you plug them into your network!
Now, without further ado, let's get started with setting up an account for the platform:
Registration
Creating an account is as easy as it gets:
- go to my.steiger.app
- click “REGISTER”
- provide some basic information (you can add more users for the same account later)
- confirm your email
- on your first login, a wizard will guide through you the setup process
The wizard guides you through the process of adding your machines to the system in no time. You will add a location, pool settings and a Kumpel to Steiger.
Talking about Kumpel …
What does Kumpel do and why do I you need it, you might ask, and rightly so! While some solutions in the space require you to install a software on your ASICs, we chose a different approach.
Steiger relies on a management agent called Kumpel, running in the local (where your miners run) network. This agent then passes the configuration you set in the web app to your machines, and collects statistics from your machines to conveniently display them on the dashboard.
The wizard you went through on your first login, gives you 2 values: a customerKey and an accessKey. Take good notes of these values — your Kumpel uses these to login to Steiger!
First Steps
Now you've navigated through the wizard and have an accesskey and a customerkey. Great! But what now?
Before we set up your first Kumpel, you need to make a decision on how you want to configure your miners network. Kumpel has a built in DHCP server that enables you to have unparalleled time-to-mine, should you choose to use it. You can deactivate that feature of course. However, if you let Kumpel hand out IP addresses in your miners network, you will be able to achieve an unparalleled time-to-mine. The moment you connect a new miner to the network, it immediately starts to mine. No other solution on the market is able to do that.
If you already have a DHCP server running and your miners working with that — don't worry about it. You can safely disable that feature!
Setting up Kumpel
First, on a computer running in the same network as your miners (this can be anything from a Raspberry Pi to a VM on a virtual machine host), download the Kumpel binary:
Once the download has finished, unpack the binary and create the config file in the same folder you unpacked the Kumpel executable to. Name the config file kumpel.json and with a text editor of your choice, you fill it like so:
{
"customerKey": "your_customer_key",
"accessKey": "your_access_key",
"dhcp": {
"enabled": true,
"range": [
"192.168.199.10", "192.168.199.200"
],
"netmask": "255.255.255.0",
"router": [
"192.168.199.1"
],
"dns": ["8.8.8.8", "1.1.1.1"],
"broadcast": "192.168.199.255",
"server": "192.168.199.1",
"tftpServer": "192.168.199.1"
}
}This is the version with the built in DHCP server enabled. If you do not want to use that feature, the config file should look like this:
{
"customerKey": "your_customer_key",
"accessKey": "your_access_key",
"dhcp": {
"enabled": false
}
}If you want to use the built-in DHCP server, Kumpel needs the according privileges. The easiest way is to run it Kumpel as root. For improved security it is recommended, to have a non-root user running Kumpel. For Kumpel to still be able to bind to the DHCP port, you need to explicitly allow it (you’ll need Linux kernel > 2.6.24)
setcap 'cap_net_bind_service=+ep' /usr/local/sbin/kumpel/kumpelNow you only need to start Kumpel:
$ kumpel updateKumpel will now try to update itself if necessary and then connect to Steiger.
Check out Kumpel in Steiger!
If you open my.steiger.app now, you should see the Kumpel you just set up in the 'Kumpels' section of Steiger. If you activated Kumpels DHCP server, the units connected to Kumpel will automatically be added to Steiger. If you chose to not use the DHCP server, you can scan for your units using the 'Scan For Units' button in Steigers Kumpel details section:
What's next ?
Once your mining rigs are recorded, Steiger will automatically start to apply the pool settings you defined in the wizard and your machines immediately start mining for you!
If you have further question, check out our documentation on docs.steiger.app or join our Discord!
That's it for now! In other posts we're going to explore more advanced features of the system like the built-in inventory, the setup helper Eisen, the agency system with built in ticketing and more!
