Heya Steemians and fellow Smarties! Welcome to my Steemit !

At this time of writing there are 905 Smartnodes with NEW_START_REQUIRED status, while another 37 with EXPIRED status. Chances are high that these 942 Smartnodes may miss out on the current payout period.

We all know how important it is to keep our Smartnodes up and running all the time, just 1 hour of downtime will cause our Smartnodes to miss out on the current payout period which by today's standards could take up to 11 days!

What I've observed is that Smartnodes smartcashd program is a very stable program, however, due to external factors it may come down unannounced. Some of these issues can range from disk space , network, resource constraints, file permissions, hung process , etc..

Most of these issues are preventable and some, automatically resolvable if common problem areas are checked routinely and ensuring that the officially prescribed maintenance scripts are put in place.

I thought I'd lend a hand a bit to some of those who maybe struggling to keep their once ENABLED Smartnodes to stay up and running all the time.

Smartnode First Aid kit

Let me introduce you to Smartnode First Aid kit ( smartnode_first_aid.sh ) , its an open source program available in GitHub that you can use to verify the health of your Smartnodes. It makes an attempt to quickly identify common issues with your server and Smartnode setup. It will also provide tips to help you resolve these identified issues.

This script will not change anything in your Smartnode host, but just diagnose issues and report health status.

Below is a screenshot on how to use and what to expect with the tool ( demo here with Failures ) :

After applying fixes to the issues identified, then rerun the tool:

Features

1. check_smartcashd_process - Checks if your smartcashd daemon process is running
2. check_sc_status - Checks status of your smartcashd. Runs smartcash-cli smartnode status
3. check_crons - Checks if your smartcashd daemon is configured to start automatically after reboot
4. check_cron_scripts_if_official - Checks your cron scripts if they are identical to the official Smartcash Smartnode scripts and if they are configured in CRON. It will recommend a script to configure your CRON with the latest official Smartnode scripts.
5. check_sc_port - Checks smartcashd daemon port to ensure its listening and its not blocked by internal/external firewalls.
6. check_web_status - Checks smartcashd daemon port, verifies if its communicable from external internet.
7. check_system_stats - Checks your server's CPU and MEMORY stats and verify if its within reasonable thresholds
8. check_disk_space - Checks each filesystem is within space thresholds
9. check_debug_log - Verifies the space usage of your debug log. Provides tips how to clear it and long term fix.
   

How to download and run Smartnode First Aid Kit script

Run commands below on your Smartnode host as "root" or "smartadmin" user :
1. wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/popcornpopper/Smartnode_Scripts/master/grab_and_run_smartnode_first_aid.sh
2. bash ./grab_and_run_smartnode_first_aid.sh

DM me at Smartcash Discord, your comments and feedback are all welcome.
Over and out here .. you're friendly neighborhood "popcornpopper"