alpaca-exporter

Export metrics from ASCOM devices via Alpaca in a form that Prometheus can scrape.

Setup

install requirements
install all ASCOM drivers needed
install Alpaca (ASCOM Remote)
configure ASCOM Remote

# install required modules
pip3 install -r requirements.txt

Usage

Run the exporter with the port to expose metrics on, the base alpaca URL, and the device IDs of all devices to monitor. If you have more than one of a type of device simply use the device twice.

The following runs the exporter for one telescope and two cameras.

python src/alpaca-exporter.py --port 8001 --alpaca_base_url http://127.0.0.1:11111/api/v1/ --refresh_rate 10 --telescope 0 --camera 0 --camera 1

Verify

In your favorite browser look at the metrics endpoint. If it's local, you can use http://localhost:8001

Configuration Files

global.yaml

Configure global labels. They are applied to every single device metric. Each of the configured labels must be available for all devices!

labels:
- alpaca_name: name of the alpaca property [required]
  label_name: override alpaca name to something else [optional]
  cached: 1 # if 1, values are cached for 60 seconds

device_type.yaml

The filename is used to group configuration for a specific device.

Three things to configure:

base metric name
device specific labels
the metrics

The metric_prefix is prepended to each metric name.

metric_prefix: alpaca_telescope_

The device specific labels behave the same as global.yaml labels, except specific to this device. See global.yaml.

The metrics are similar to labels but result in a metric at the end.

metrics:
- alpaca_name: name of the alpaca property [required]
  metric_name: override alpaca name to something else [optional]
  cached: 1 # if 1, values are cached for 60 seconds

And the metric_prefix is prepended. For example, the alpaca_telescope_tracking_rage metric is created from:

metric_prefix: alpaca_telescope_

metrics:
- alpaca_name: trackingrate
  metric_name: tracking_rate
  cached: 1

Note it overrides the property in Alpaca and caches the result (not expected to change often).

Troubleshooting

Connection Issues

On startup the exporter lists what could be connected and what couldn't. In addition, there is a alpaca_device_connected metric that indicates what is connected over time.

Missing Metrics

PR's welcome! The config/ directory contains all the configurations. Everything is device specific with the exception of global.yaml. The global configuration applies labels to every metric you export.

Switch Configuration

Unfortunetly switches are special. There is an id query param required for getting the individual switch device metrics. This is managed in the exporter code and you do not have to worry about it in the configuration. The downside is every switch device is queried, which may result in higher traffic.

jewzaam/alpaca-exporter