Ansible Role :lock_with_ink_pen: :link: Zecminer

Table of Contents

• Supported Platforms
• Requirements
• Role Variables
  • Install
  • Config
  • Launch
  • Uninstall
• Dependencies
• Example Playbook
• License
• Author Information

Ansible role that installs and configures EWBF's Zcash Zecminer: a CUDA-based GPU miner for solving the Equihash Proof-of-Work Algorithm.

Supported Platforms:

* Redhat(CentOS/Fedora)
* Ubuntu

Requirements

Requires the unzip/gtar utility to be installed on the target host. See ansible unarchive module notes for details.

Role Variables

Variables are available and organized according to the following software & machine provisioning stages:

• install
• config
• launch
• uninstall

Install

zecminer_user: <service-user-name> (default: zecminer)

• dedicated service user and group used by zecminer for privilege separation (see here for details)

install_type: <archive> (default: archive)

• archive: currently compatible with tar formats, installation of Zecminer via compressed archives results in the direct download of its component binaries, consisting of the zecminer mining software.

  note: archived installation binaries can be obtained from the official releases site or those generated from development/custom sources.

install_dir: </path/to/installation/dir> (default: /opt/zecminer)

• path on target host where the zecminer binaries should be extracted to.

archive_url: <path-or-url-to-archive> (default: see defaults/main.yml)

• address of a compressed tar or zip archive containing zecminer binaries. This method technically supports installation of any available version of traefik. Links to official versions can be found here.

archive_options: <untar-or-unzip-options> (default: [])

• list of additional unarchival arguments to pass to either the tar or unzip binary at runtime for customizing how the archive is extracted to the designated installation directory. See man tar and man unzip for available options to specify, respectively.

Config

Zecminer supports specification of various options controlling aspects of the Zcash miner's behavior and operational profile. Each configuration can be expressed via either the tool's command-line interface or within in an INI-sytle configuration file. The following details the facilities provided by this role to manage the contents of the aforementioned configuration file.

In typical INI or TOML fashion, individual sets of configurations consist of definitions representing config sections and associated setting key-value pairs. These sections and settings are made up of common miner options and custom Zcash server pool properties to access.

Reference here for a list of server pool connection settings and here for an example config.

config_dir: </path/to/configuration/dir> (default: {{ install_dir }})

• path on target host where the zecminer configuration file should be rendered

Each of these configurations can be expressed using the zecminer_config hash, which contains a list of various zecminer configuration options (hash) objects organized according to the following:

• common - miner configuration options common to all server connections
• server - custom server connection and operational configuration options to the specified server

Each zecminer_config entry is a hash representing the equivalent of a configuration section as expected to be expressed by the zecminer server. As previously described, these hashes are structured by config section and associated key-value setting pairs.

[zecminer_config: <entry>:] name: <common|server> (default: required)

• name of the configuration section to render

[zecminer_config: <entry>:] settings: <YAML> (default: )

• specifies parameters that manage various aspects of the Zcash miner's operations

Example

 zecminer_config:
   - name: common
     settings:
       log: 0
       logfile: /var/log/miner.log
       api: 127.0.0.1:42000
   - name: server
     settings:
       server: zec-us-east1.nanopool.org
       port: 6666
       user: user1-key
       pass: user1-password

Launch

extra_run_args: <zecminer-cli-options> (default: [])

• list of zecminer commandline arguments to pass to the binary at runtime for customizing launch

Supporting full expression of zecminer's cli and, conserquently the full set of configuration options as referenced and described above, this variable enables the launch to be customized according to the user's exact specification.

custom_unit_properties: <hash-of-systemd-service-settings> (default: [])

• hash of settings used to customize the [Service] unit configuration and execution environment of the zecminer systemd service.

Uninstall

perform_uninstall: <true | false> (default: false)

• whether to uninstall and remove all artifacts and remnants of this zecminer installation on a target host (see: handlers/main.yml for details)

Dependencies

• 0x0i.systemd

Example Playbook

default example:

- hosts: all
  roles:
  - role: 0x0I.zecminer

download and install specific version of zecminer binaries:

- hosts: all
  roles:
  - role: 0x0I.zecminer
    vars:
      install_type: archive
      archive_url: https://github.com/nanopool/ewbf-miner/releases/download/v0.1.0b/Zec.miner.0.1.0b.Linux.Bin.tar.gz

enable debug logging for troubleshooting purposes:

- hosts: all
  roles:
  - role: 0x0I.zecminer
    vars:
      zecminer_config:
        - name: common
          settings:
            log: 1
            logfile: /var/log/miner.log

enable mining API server on custom listening port (via API command-line + config):

- hosts: all
  roles:
  - role: 0x0I.zecminer
    vars:
      extra_run_args:
        - --api 0.0.0.0:12345
      zecminer_config:
        - name: common
          settings:
            api: 0.0.0.0:12345

configure main and backup server pools for mining operations:

 zecminer_config:
   # main server pool connection properties
   - name: server
     settings:
       server: zec-us-east1.nanopool.org
       port: 6666
       user: user-key
       pass: user-password
   # back server pool connection properties
   - name: server
     settings:
       server:  zec-eu1.nanopool.org
       port: 6666
       user: user-key
       pass: user-password

manage host resource allocation for mining operations:

- hosts: all
  roles:
  - role: 0x0I.zecminer
    vars:
      custom_unit_properties:
        CPUQuota: 400%
        MemoryLimit: 4GB

License

MIT

Author Information

This role was created in 2020 by O1.IO.