Getting Started

Step 1: Create a Forge account

Go to forge.glassmkr.com and sign up with email, Google, or GitHub. Free accounts can monitor up to 3 servers with 7-day retention.

Step 2: Register a server

After logging in, click "+ Add Server" on the dashboard. Enter a name for your server (e.g., web-01 or db-prod).

Forge generates a server API key that starts with col_. This key is shown once. Copy it.

Step 3: Install Crucible

SSH into your server and run the install command. The dashboard shows the exact command with your server name and API key pre-filled:

curl -sf https://forge.glassmkr.com/install | sudo FORGE_API_KEY=col_your_key_here bash

The FORGE_API_KEY is the server API key from step 2. The installer reads it automatically.

The installer:

• Installs Node.js 22 if not present
• Installs smartmontools (for SMART disk monitoring)
• Installs ipmitool (for IPMI hardware monitoring, if available)
• Creates /etc/glassmkr/collector.yaml with your config
• Creates and starts a systemd service (glassmkr-crucible)

Prefer not to pipe to bash? Manual setup:

# Install Crucible via npm
sudo npm install -g @glassmkr/crucible

# Create config directory
sudo mkdir -p /etc/glassmkr /var/lib/glassmkr

# Create config file
sudo tee /etc/glassmkr/collector.yaml > /dev/null <<EOF
server_name: "web-01"
collection:
  interval_seconds: 300
  ipmi: true
  smart: true
forge:
  enabled: true
  url: "https://forge.glassmkr.com"
  api_key: "col_your_key_here"
EOF

# Lock down config (contains API key)
sudo chmod 600 /etc/glassmkr/collector.yaml

# Start the service
sudo systemctl enable glassmkr-crucible
sudo systemctl start glassmkr-crucible

Step 4: Verify

Check that Crucible is running:

sudo systemctl status glassmkr-crucible

You should see active (running). Check the logs for the first collection:

sudo journalctl -u glassmkr-crucible --since "5 min ago" --no-pager

Expected output (the first collection may take a few seconds longer than subsequent ones):

[collector] Starting. Server: web-01. Interval: 300s
[collector] IPMI: enabled, SMART: enabled
[collector] Forge: https://forge.glassmkr.com
[collector] Collecting...
[collector] Collected in 1013ms. Alerts: 0 active, 0 new, 0 resolved

=== First collection complete ===
Server: web-01 (Ubuntu 24.04 LTS)
CPU:    5.3% (load: 0.14)
RAM:    12.1% (1940 / 16036 MB)
Disk:   23% (/)
SMART:  2 drive(s) checked
Network: eth0, eth1
IPMI:   available
Active alerts: 0
Forge: enabled

[forge] Push successful. Active alerts: 0

Within 5 minutes (one collection interval), the server will appear on your Forge dashboard with live data. Forge evaluates all 38 alert rules on each push.