minerstat mining tutorial #1: How to start

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minerstat

8 min readJul 16, 2018

minerstat is a remote management and monitoring software for the mining operation of any size.

When we designed the new version of minerstat we wanted to make everything as simple as possible for mining managers who need to manage a large number of rigs and want to do it as fast as possible and with total control over any aspect of the mining process.

There are several mining management services out there and since we took a different approach, we will guide you through a series of minerstat tutorials, showing you how to use it and where and how to take advantage of minerstat features.

Today, we will start with the basics - how to start with minerstat and what should you need to know before you start.

About minerstat

Like mentioned before, minerstat is a remote management and monitoring software - this means that you might be interested in using minerstat if:

You have one or more mining rigs and you want to monitor the performance of your mining activity, which also includes notifications and alerts when the temperature is too high, when the rig goes offline and when it comes back online, and when hashrate or efficiency drop.
You have one or more mining rigs and want to use a profit switch function to switch between the coins of your choosing.
You are a mining manager with customers and want to have a better and clearer outlook over each of their mining activities.
You are not satisfied with mining on Windows and want to switch to Linux mining OS or vice-versa.
You want to monitor the balance on your wallets and pools.
You are switching between different mining addresses regularly.

minerstat is not a cloud mining company or intermediary - this means that you will mine on the pool(s) you have selected and the pool will pay you the coins you mined there. This also means that minerstat might not be suitable for complete beginners in mining - you will need a basic knowledge of how to use pools, how to generate wallets, what are the mining clients and how to change their configs.

Registration

You can start using minerstat as soon as you create a new account. Here is the registration page. After you have entered your email address the system will log you in and send you a confirmation email to the address you used. Confirming your address will allow you to use all functions the free account has. We strongly suggest to set up 2FA as soon as you log in for the first time and confirm your email address.

After that, your account is ready to use and you can prepare the mining software.

Mining software

There are different options when choosing mining software.

1) GPU rig(s)

If you want to use minerstat on your GPU rig(s), then you need to decide if you will use Windows for Windows mining or you want to use a bootable Linux mining OS. We would suggest the second, but it is entirely up to you.

Windows
Windows users can download their software as a direct installer or as a portable ZIP. After you have downloaded it, just follow the installation process and the software will be ready to use.

To run Windows node you will need to: enter the access key and worker’s name.

🎁 Bonus: 3 steps to set up a Windows node

msOS
Linux users can download their software directly or with a torrent. After you have downloaded it, you will need to flash the msOS to USB or SSD/HDD. You can do this by using Etcher - all details are explained on our help page. Please double check your “config.js” file to avoid any problems with connectivity. The config file should look like this:
global.accesskey = "4c355k3y"; global.worker = "Rig1080Ti";

Where 4c355k3y is the access key and Rig1080Ti is the worker’s name. Please note that the access key and worker’s name are case sensitive, need to be in quotations and each in their own line, and there is a semicolon at the end of each line.

To run msOS you will need to: flash OS to USB 3.0 with at least 16GB space or SSD/HDD and enter the access key and worker’s name to the config file.

🎁 Bonus: 5 steps to set up msOS

2) ASIC

Run ASIC Hub (Non-SSH) on a Linux, Mac, or Raspberry Pi computer (or set up a virtual box on Windows computer) to monitor and manage the ASICs in the local network.

To run ASIC Hub (Non-SSH) you will need a separate computer that will work as a server, access key and worker’s group.

🎁 Bonus: How to set up ASIC Hub

Now that the software is (almost) ready, it’s time to continue to the dashboard.

Dashboard

First, let’s navigate to Workers. You can see a blank page inviting you to add your first worker. Click on [Add new worker] and fill-up the form:

Decide on the worker’s name
Select the type of worker (Nvidia, AMD, or ASIC)
Select system.
- For Nvidia and AMD you can choose between Windows or msOS (Linux).
- For ASIC you can choose between different ASIC manufacturers.
- You will also see that for ASIC, you need to enter a few more things: Local IP, SSH username, and SSH password.
Add additional groups if you like. Some miners like to segment their workers to distinguish between them faster. Groups are useful because:
- You can filter workers faster on the workers' page;
- In the config editor and profit switch, you will be able to select groups and update the settings for all workers in the groups at the same time;
- You will be able to analyse an individual group in the per group statistics.
Click on [Add worker].

After all the fields are filled, you have successfully added your first worker.

You can now enter the worker's name or group to the downloaded software or config file if you are using msOS.

Custom configuration

In the last step, you will need to configure your workers to mine the desired coin through your minerstat dashboard.

1) Your first step is address editor.

Address editor is like your mining address book where you can save all of your favorite pools and wallets addresses and assign them a tag. This tag can then be used in clients' configurations or in profit switch option.

We have filled some tags and suggested you some pools, but you can edit any of the tags, or add your own pools and name them as you like.

For example, let’s say you want to start with mining Ethereum with your GPU rigs. We have prepared a pool for mining Ethereum under the tag name POOL:ETH. You can change the pool or leave it like this.

To mine Ethereum you will also need a valid Ethereum address. In the beginning, you can find a tag WALLET:ETH where the official Ethereum donation address is entered. You can replace it with your own ETH address. Don’t forget to use the full address (starting with 0x in the case of Ethereum). Click [Save] and your wallet address will be saved.

Later you can return to add more pools and more wallet addresses.

2) Navigate to worker config or go to the workers’ list and click on the config icon (hint: the wrench icon)

If you have clicked worker config, then you see that you need to first select a worker or a group of workers. Click on the input field and select your worker’s name from the drop-down. The page will refresh and you will be in the edit mode for your worker.

Worker config offers you a lot of things to edit and update, but we will first make sure your worker is running and continue with the others the next time.

Because in our example we want to mine Ethereum, we will use Claymore Ethereum miner and update its config for mining Ethereum.

First, if the default client isn’t included for updating yet, click on the gray empty square beside “Default client” to activate it for updating. Then select “CLAYMORE-ETH” from the list.

Scroll down to find the mining client with the name CLAYMORE-ETH. Again, click on the gray empty square beside the client’s name to activate it for updating. We have selected this client because it is available for mining on AMD or Nvidia and Windows or msOS rigs and should work on any system.

Because you have defined your POOL:ETH and WALLET:ETH addresses, this client should be ready to use without any changes. If you have named your pool or wallet tags any differently, you can click on POOL:ETH or WALLET:ETH and selected the correct pool and wallet tag from the drop-down.

Scroll down and click Save. This will restart your worker and send it the information to mine on pool defined in POOL:ETH and to wallet defined in WALLET:ETH.

If you are using the Windows node, don’t forget to click [Start mining].

3) Navigate to workers and wait for your worker to come online.

Please note that the dashboard refreshes every minute. If you don’t see your worker online after this time, there will be some troubleshooting required. You can join us on Discord where we will help you out or if you are an advanced user, you can examine the console log shown in your Windows node or by clicking your local IP and opening the terminal of msOS at your worker’s profile page (click on eye icon or on the worker’s name to get there).

A similar procedure can be used for setting up ASIC.

🎁 Bonus: Read more about worker configuration

Your worker should now be up and running - ready for you to explore more advanced features that will be presented in the next tutorials.

Happy mining!

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