Add VictoriaMetrics + Grafana DNS monitoring over the mesh

control runs VictoriaMetrics (loopback) and Grafana; every machine exports
node metrics and the nameservers export Knot stats (mod-stats + knot-exporter).
Scraping and the Grafana UI ride the ZeroTier mesh only, scoped by nftables to
the mesh /88; the public side stays closed by the Hetzner cloud firewall. The
provisioned DNS dashboard includes a per-zone SOA serial table to catch
primary/secondary drift. ZeroTier ULAs are centralised in mesh-hosts.nix.

machines/control/configuration.nix

@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@
   imports = [
     ../../modules/hetzner-firewall.nix
     ../../modules/static-ipv6.nix
+    ../../modules/monitoring/exporters.nix
+    ../../modules/monitoring/server.nix
   ];
 
   clan.core.sops.defaultGroups = [ "admins" ];

machines/ns1/configuration.nix

@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ in
   imports = [
     ../../modules/dns/authoritative.nix
     ../../modules/static-ipv6.nix
+    ../../modules/monitoring/exporters.nix
   ];
 
   clan.core.sops.defaultGroups = [ "admins" ];

machines/ns2/configuration.nix

@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ in
   imports = [
     ../../modules/dns/authoritative.nix
     ../../modules/static-ipv6.nix
+    ../../modules/monitoring/exporters.nix
   ];
 
   clan.core.sops.defaultGroups = [ "admins" ];

modules/dns/authoritative.nix

@@ -1,8 +1,9 @@
 { config, pkgs, ... }:
 let
   # ZeroTier addresses — zone transfers run over the mesh, not the public net.
-  ns1zt = "fd06:1bad:ece2:92ad:ba99:939d:766d:8974";
-  ns2zt = "fd06:1bad:ece2:92ad:ba99:9323:61be:a09e";
+  mesh = import ../mesh-hosts.nix;
+  ns1zt = mesh.hosts.ns1;
+  ns2zt = mesh.hosts.ns2;
 in
 {
   # Shared TSIG key, generated once and copied to every machine that imports

modules/mesh-hosts.nix

@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+# ZeroTier (clan mesh) addresses — the private IPv6 overlay every machine shares.
+# DNS zone transfers and metrics scraping ride this mesh, never the public net.
+rec {
+  hosts = {
+    control = "fd06:1bad:ece2:92ad:ba99:9306:1bad:ece2";
+    ns1 = "fd06:1bad:ece2:92ad:ba99:939d:766d:8974";
+    ns2 = "fd06:1bad:ece2:92ad:ba99:9323:61be:a09e";
+  };
+
+  # RFC 4193 /88 prefix of this ZeroTier network (fd + 8-byte network id + the
+  # 0x9993 marker). Covers every mesh peer — servers and admin laptops alike —
+  # and is used to scope mesh-only firewall rules.
+  subnet = "fd06:1bad:ece2:92ad:ba99:9300::/88";
+}

modules/monitoring/dashboards/dns.json

@@ -0,0 +1,171 @@
+{
+  "uid": "cnx-dns",
+  "title": "CNX DNS",
+  "tags": ["dns", "knot", "cnx"],
+  "timezone": "browser",
+  "schemaVersion": 39,
+  "version": 1,
+  "refresh": "30s",
+  "time": { "from": "now-6h", "to": "now" },
+  "templating": { "list": [] },
+  "annotations": { "list": [] },
+  "panels": [
+    {
+      "type": "row",
+      "title": "DNS / Zones",
+      "id": 1,
+      "gridPos": { "h": 1, "w": 24, "x": 0, "y": 0 }
+    },
+    {
+      "type": "table",
+      "title": "Zone SOA serial (per nameserver)",
+      "description": "ns1 and ns2 should report the same serial per zone. A divergence here is the secondary-out-of-sync condition.",
+      "id": 2,
+      "datasource": { "type": "prometheus", "uid": "victoriametrics" },
+      "gridPos": { "h": 8, "w": 12, "x": 0, "y": 1 },
+      "options": { "showHeader": true },
+      "fieldConfig": {
+        "defaults": { "custom": { "align": "auto" } },
+        "overrides": []
+      },
+      "targets": [
+        {
+          "refId": "A",
+          "datasource": { "type": "prometheus", "uid": "victoriametrics" },
+          "expr": "knot_zone_serial",
+          "format": "table",
+          "instant": true,
+          "legendFormat": "{{zone}} @ {{instance}}"
+        }
+      ]
+    },
+    {
+      "type": "timeseries",
+      "title": "Seconds until zone expiry",
+      "description": "On secondaries this counts down between successful transfers; a steady decline toward zero means transfers are failing.",
+      "id": 3,
+      "datasource": { "type": "prometheus", "uid": "victoriametrics" },
+      "gridPos": { "h": 8, "w": 12, "x": 12, "y": 1 },
+      "fieldConfig": { "defaults": { "unit": "s" }, "overrides": [] },
+      "targets": [
+        {
+          "refId": "A",
+          "datasource": { "type": "prometheus", "uid": "victoriametrics" },
+          "expr": "knot_zone_status_expiration",
+          "legendFormat": "{{zone}} @ {{instance}}"
+        }
+      ]
+    },
+    {
+      "type": "timeseries",
+      "title": "Query rate by nameserver",
+      "id": 4,
+      "datasource": { "type": "prometheus", "uid": "victoriametrics" },
+      "gridPos": { "h": 8, "w": 12, "x": 0, "y": 9 },
+      "fieldConfig": { "defaults": { "unit": "qps" }, "overrides": [] },
+      "targets": [
+        {
+          "refId": "A",
+          "datasource": { "type": "prometheus", "uid": "victoriametrics" },
+          "expr": "sum by (instance) (rate(knot_stats_request_protocol_total[5m]))",
+          "legendFormat": "{{instance}}"
+        }
+      ]
+    },
+    {
+      "type": "timeseries",
+      "title": "Response codes",
+      "id": 5,
+      "datasource": { "type": "prometheus", "uid": "victoriametrics" },
+      "gridPos": { "h": 8, "w": 12, "x": 12, "y": 9 },
+      "fieldConfig": { "defaults": { "unit": "qps" }, "overrides": [] },
+      "targets": [
+        {
+          "refId": "A",
+          "datasource": { "type": "prometheus", "uid": "victoriametrics" },
+          "expr": "sum by (type) (rate(knot_stats_response_code_total[5m]))",
+          "legendFormat": "{{type}}"
+        }
+      ]
+    },
+    {
+      "type": "row",
+      "title": "Hosts",
+      "id": 6,
+      "gridPos": { "h": 1, "w": 24, "x": 0, "y": 17 }
+    },
+    {
+      "type": "timeseries",
+      "title": "CPU busy %",
+      "id": 7,
+      "datasource": { "type": "prometheus", "uid": "victoriametrics" },
+      "gridPos": { "h": 8, "w": 12, "x": 0, "y": 18 },
+      "fieldConfig": {
+        "defaults": { "unit": "percent", "min": 0, "max": 100 },
+        "overrides": []
+      },
+      "targets": [
+        {
+          "refId": "A",
+          "datasource": { "type": "prometheus", "uid": "victoriametrics" },
+          "expr": "100 - (avg by (instance) (rate(node_cpu_seconds_total{mode=\"idle\"}[5m])) * 100)",
+          "legendFormat": "{{instance}}"
+        }
+      ]
+    },
+    {
+      "type": "timeseries",
+      "title": "Memory used %",
+      "id": 8,
+      "datasource": { "type": "prometheus", "uid": "victoriametrics" },
+      "gridPos": { "h": 8, "w": 12, "x": 12, "y": 18 },
+      "fieldConfig": {
+        "defaults": { "unit": "percent", "min": 0, "max": 100 },
+        "overrides": []
+      },
+      "targets": [
+        {
+          "refId": "A",
+          "datasource": { "type": "prometheus", "uid": "victoriametrics" },
+          "expr": "100 * (1 - node_memory_MemAvailable_bytes / node_memory_MemTotal_bytes)",
+          "legendFormat": "{{instance}}"
+        }
+      ]
+    },
+    {
+      "type": "timeseries",
+      "title": "Root filesystem used %",
+      "id": 9,
+      "datasource": { "type": "prometheus", "uid": "victoriametrics" },
+      "gridPos": { "h": 8, "w": 12, "x": 0, "y": 26 },
+      "fieldConfig": {
+        "defaults": { "unit": "percent", "min": 0, "max": 100 },
+        "overrides": []
+      },
+      "targets": [
+        {
+          "refId": "A",
+          "datasource": { "type": "prometheus", "uid": "victoriametrics" },
+          "expr": "100 * (1 - node_filesystem_avail_bytes{mountpoint=\"/\",fstype!=\"tmpfs\"} / node_filesystem_size_bytes{mountpoint=\"/\",fstype!=\"tmpfs\"})",
+          "legendFormat": "{{instance}}"
+        }
+      ]
+    },
+    {
+      "type": "timeseries",
+      "title": "Load average (1m)",
+      "id": 10,
+      "datasource": { "type": "prometheus", "uid": "victoriametrics" },
+      "gridPos": { "h": 8, "w": 12, "x": 12, "y": 26 },
+      "fieldConfig": { "defaults": { "unit": "short" }, "overrides": [] },
+      "targets": [
+        {
+          "refId": "A",
+          "datasource": { "type": "prometheus", "uid": "victoriametrics" },
+          "expr": "node_load1",
+          "legendFormat": "{{instance}}"
+        }
+      ]
+    }
+  ]
+}

modules/monitoring/exporters.nix

@@ -0,0 +1,93 @@
+# Metric exporters, imported by every machine. Host metrics everywhere; Knot DNS
+# metrics on the nameservers. Everything is reachable only over the ZeroTier mesh
+# (see the firewall rule at the bottom); the public side is already closed by the
+# Hetzner cloud firewall.
+{
+  config,
+  lib,
+  pkgs,
+  ...
+}:
+let
+  mesh = import ../mesh-hosts.nix;
+  knotEnabled = config.services.knot.enable;
+  # node_exporter on every host; knot-exporter only where Knot runs.
+  ports = [ 9100 ] ++ lib.optional knotEnabled 9433;
+in
+{
+  # extraInputRules (the mesh-scoped accept below) needs the nftables firewall
+  # backend. allowedTCP/UDPPorts used elsewhere (53, 9993) translate unchanged.
+  networking.nftables.enable = true;
+
+  # Host metrics: CPU, memory, disk, network, systemd unit state.
+  services.prometheus.exporters.node = {
+    enable = true;
+    # Listen on all interfaces (incl. the v6 mesh). We deliberately do NOT bind
+    # to the ZeroTier ULA: the node module renders --web.listen-address without
+    # IPv6 brackets, and binding a single ULA would also race ZeroTier bring-up
+    # at boot. Reachability is constrained by the firewall rule instead.
+    listenAddress = "";
+    port = 9100;
+    enabledCollectors = [ "systemd" ];
+  };
+
+  # Knot DNS metrics. The exporter reads Knot's control socket, so it runs as the
+  # knot user; mod-stats (below) populates the query/response counters it exports.
+  systemd.services.knot-exporter = lib.mkIf knotEnabled {
+    description = "Prometheus exporter for Knot DNS";
+    after = [ "knot.service" ];
+    wants = [ "knot.service" ];
+    wantedBy = [ "multi-user.target" ];
+    serviceConfig = {
+      ExecStart = lib.concatStringsSep " " [
+        "${pkgs.prometheus-knot-exporter}/bin/knot-exporter"
+        "--web-listen-addr ::"
+        "--web-listen-port 9433"
+        "--knot-library-path ${pkgs.knot-dns.out}/lib/libknot.so"
+        "--knot-socket-path /run/knot/knot.sock"
+      ];
+      User = "knot";
+      Group = "knot";
+      Restart = "on-failure";
+      RestartSec = 5;
+      NoNewPrivileges = true;
+      ProtectSystem = "strict";
+      ProtectHome = true;
+      PrivateTmp = true;
+      ProtectKernelTunables = true;
+      ProtectControlGroups = true;
+      RestrictAddressFamilies = [
+        "AF_INET"
+        "AF_INET6"
+        "AF_UNIX"
+      ];
+    };
+  };
+
+  # mod-stats: per-query/zone counters exposed over the control socket and read
+  # by knot-exporter. Loaded as a global module on the default template so it
+  # applies to every zone. (Merges with the zone/acl/policy settings elsewhere.)
+  services.knot.settings = lib.mkIf knotEnabled {
+    "mod-stats" = [
+      {
+        id = "default";
+        "request-protocol" = true;
+        "server-operation" = true;
+        "response-code" = true;
+        "query-type" = true;
+        "reply-nodata" = true;
+      }
+    ];
+    template = [
+      {
+        id = "default";
+        global-module = [ "mod-stats/default" ];
+      }
+    ];
+  };
+
+  # Scrape ports reachable only from the ZeroTier mesh.
+  networking.firewall.extraInputRules = ''
+    ip6 saddr ${mesh.subnet} tcp dport { ${lib.concatMapStringsSep ", " toString ports} } accept
+  '';
+}

modules/monitoring/server.nix

@@ -0,0 +1,117 @@
+# Monitoring server, imported by control only: VictoriaMetrics (TSDB + scraper)
+# and Grafana. VictoriaMetrics binds loopback (only Grafana, on the same host,
+# reads it). Grafana is reachable over the ZeroTier mesh, scoped by the firewall
+# rule at the bottom; the Hetzner cloud firewall keeps it off the public net.
+{
+  config,
+  lib,
+  pkgs,
+  ...
+}:
+let
+  mesh = import ../mesh-hosts.nix;
+  vmPort = 8428;
+  grafanaPort = 3000;
+  controlV6 = mesh.hosts.control;
+
+  # A single scrape target with a friendly instance label. IPv6 mesh addresses
+  # must be bracketed for Prometheus-style targets.
+  target = name: addr: port: {
+    targets = [ "${addr}:${toString port}" ];
+    labels.instance = name;
+  };
+  v6 = addr: "[${addr}]";
+
+  adminPasswordFile = config.clan.core.vars.generators.grafana-admin.files."password".path;
+in
+{
+  services.victoriametrics = {
+    enable = true;
+    listenAddress = "127.0.0.1:${toString vmPort}";
+    retentionPeriod = "180d";
+    prometheusConfig = {
+      global.scrape_interval = "30s";
+      scrape_configs = [
+        {
+          job_name = "node";
+          static_configs = [
+            # control scrapes its own node_exporter over loopback so host metrics
+            # survive even if the mesh is down; ns1/ns2 are scraped over the mesh.
+            (target "control" "127.0.0.1" 9100)
+            (target "ns1" (v6 mesh.hosts.ns1) 9100)
+            (target "ns2" (v6 mesh.hosts.ns2) 9100)
+          ];
+        }
+        {
+          job_name = "knot";
+          static_configs = [
+            (target "ns1" (v6 mesh.hosts.ns1) 9433)
+            (target "ns2" (v6 mesh.hosts.ns2) 9433)
+          ];
+        }
+      ];
+    };
+  };
+
+  # Admin password generated once and stored as a clan secret. Retrieve with:
+  #   clan vars get control grafana-admin/password
+  clan.core.vars.generators.grafana-admin = {
+    files."password" = {
+      secret = true;
+      owner = "grafana";
+      group = "grafana";
+    };
+    runtimeInputs = [ pkgs.openssl ];
+    script = ''
+      openssl rand -base64 24 | tr -d "\n" > "$out"/password
+    '';
+  };
+
+  services.grafana = {
+    enable = true;
+    settings = {
+      server = {
+        http_addr = "::";
+        http_port = grafanaPort;
+        root_url = "http://${v6 controlV6}:${toString grafanaPort}/";
+      };
+      security = {
+        admin_user = "admin";
+        admin_password = "$__file{${adminPasswordFile}}";
+      };
+      "auth.anonymous".enabled = false;
+      users.allow_sign_up = false;
+    };
+    provision = {
+      enable = true;
+      datasources.settings = {
+        apiVersion = 1;
+        datasources = [
+          {
+            name = "VictoriaMetrics";
+            type = "prometheus";
+            uid = "victoriametrics";
+            access = "proxy";
+            url = "http://127.0.0.1:${toString vmPort}";
+            isDefault = true;
+          }
+        ];
+      };
+      dashboards.settings = {
+        apiVersion = 1;
+        providers = [
+          {
+            name = "cnx";
+            options.path = ./dashboards;
+            options.foldersFromFilesStructure = false;
+          }
+        ];
+      };
+    };
+  };
+
+  # Grafana reachable only from the ZeroTier mesh (admin laptops + servers).
+  networking.firewall.extraInputRules = ''
+    ip6 saddr ${mesh.subnet} tcp dport ${toString grafanaPort} accept
+  '';
+}