RackPulse

Multi-rack power and infrastructure monitoring for PDUs, HP/Dell/Lenovo servers, PVE nodes, NAS, switches, and GPU hosts. Stores history locally, shows a live terminal dashboard, and optionally serves a web dashboard with alerting.

Evolved from PDU-Power-Monitor — same rack dashboard UX, RackPulse backend for all device types.

Setup guides: Mac · Linux (CLI)

Install matrix

Install	What you get
pip install -e .	CLI, terminal dashboard, polling engine (no HTTP deps)
pip install -e ".[api]"	JSON HTTP API
pip install -e ".[web]"	Web dashboard + config UI + API
pip install -e ".[everything]"	Same as [web] (convenience alias)

Alert delivery (email + webhooks) is built into the core package and activates when configured in config.yaml.

Quick start

python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
./scripts/bootstrap_venv.sh

cp config.example.yaml config.yaml
# Edit config.yaml — use $secret for passwords (stored in data/secrets.db)

rackpulse list
rackpulse test pdu-1
rackpulse poll
rackpulse watch

Web dashboard (optional)

pip install -e ".[web]"
rackpulse serve --web

• Dashboard: http://127.0.0.1:8080/
• Config UI: http://127.0.0.1:8080/config

Enable auth before exposing beyond localhost:

auth:
  enabled: true
  api_key: $secret   # stored in data/secrets.db when saved via config UI

The browser prompts for your API key on first visit (stored in session storage).

Secrets (passwords outside config.yaml)

Sensitive values use $secret in config.yaml and are stored in a local SQLite secrets database (default ./data/secrets.db):

secrets:
  path: ./data/secrets.db

devices:
  - name: hp-server
    type: hp_server
    password: $secret

The config UI writes secrets to the database automatically. Config export never includes plaintext passwords.

You can also use environment variables: password: $env:MY_BMC_PASSWORD

Alerting (optional)

Configure in config.yaml:

alerts:
  cooldown_minutes: 15
  smtp:
    host: smtp.company.com
    port: 587
    security: tls
    username: alerts@company.com
    password: $secret
    from_address: rackpulse@company.com
    recipients:
      - ops@company.com
  webhooks:
    - name: Ops Slack
      url: https://hooks.slack.com/services/...
      format: slack
      enabled: true

maintenance:
  enabled: false
  silence_alerts: true
  message: ""
  until: null

Alerts fire on rack Warning/Danger threshold crossings, device unreachable events, and recoveries. Cooldown prevents repeat notifications. Maintenance mode suppresses delivery while polling continues.

Device types

Type	What it covers	Metrics
pdu	Rack PDU (SNMP)	Power (W), energy (kWh)
hp_server	HP server BMC (iLO / Redfish)	Power (W), temperature
dell_server	Dell server BMC (iDRAC / Redfish)	Power (W), temperature
lenovo_server	Lenovo server BMC (XCC / Redfish)	Power (W), temperature
pve	Proxmox VE node	CPU/RAM, VM inventory
nas	NAS appliance (SNMP)	CPU, RAM, temperature
arista_switch / cisco_switch / dell_switch	Switches (ENTITY-SENSOR-MIB)	Power (W), volts, amps
gpu	GPU workstation (nvidia-smi)	GPU power, utilization

See config.example.yaml for full examples (PVE tokens, GPU over SSH, PDU divisors, etc.).

Commands

rackpulse poll [--json]
rackpulse watch
rackpulse test <device>
rackpulse history <device> [--hours 168]
rackpulse list
rackpulse serve              # JSON API only ([api])
rackpulse serve --web        # dashboard + config UI ([web])
rackpulse dashboard          # shortcut for serve --web
rackpulse migrate-config        # convert PDU-Power-Monitor / v1 → v2
rackpulse migrate-config --dry-run old-config.yaml
python scripts/migrate_config.py config.yaml

Migration from PDU-Power-Monitor

Legacy key	RackPulse key
racks[].pdus[]	racks[].devices[] with type: pdu
racks[].description	racks[].location
racks[].warning_kw / critical_kw	same
snmp.power_oid / power_divisor	pdu.power_oid / pdu.power_divisor
alert_cooldown_minutes	alerts.cooldown_minutes
smtp / webhooks	alerts.smtp / alerts.webhooks
maintenance	same
Plaintext passwords	$secret (stored in data/secrets.db)

Run the web UI with rackpulse serve --web for the same dashboard experience, now covering all RackPulse device types.

Migrate an existing config:

# From PDU-Power-Monitor or RackPulse v1 config.yaml:
rackpulse migrate-config
# Or: python scripts/migrate_config.py /path/to/old-config.yaml -o config.yaml

Creates a .bak backup, converts structure to v2, and moves passwords into secrets.db.

Docker

cp config.example.yaml config.yaml
docker compose up rackpulse   # web dashboard + API on :8080

Project layout

rackpulse/
  cli.py                 Terminal commands
  config.py              YAML configuration + secrets resolution
  secrets.py             SQLite secrets store
  storage.py             SQLite history
  collectors/            Device-specific collectors
  engine/poller.py       Polling engine + alert hook
  display/terminal.py    Rich terminal dashboard
  presentation/          Dashboard JSON for web UI
  alerts/                Email + webhook delivery
  api/                   FastAPI (JSON + optional web routes)
  web/                   Dashboard templates + static assets

License

MIT