Understand the fundamentals
Follow two paths at the same time
The information path carries work to the miner. It runs from the pool, through the internet connection and the site network, to the miner’s control board. The control board is the small computer that runs the miner. It passes the work to the mining chips, and results travel back the same way. The energy path runs from the site’s electrical system, through the power supply, to the electronics. The electronics turn that energy into heat, which the cooling system must remove. Both paths must work together.
A site may also use a management server. It collects readings from the miners and can send them approved commands. Its screen is used to watch and control machines, but it only shows what it last collected. A stale screen, one that has not updated recently, can be wrong about a machine’s current condition. Also, a healthy management connection does not prove that shares are reaching the pool.
See how it works
Some dependencies are shared
A network switch connects many network devices together. A power distribution unit (PDU) feeds power to a group of machines. One air-handling system or liquid cooling loop may cool many machines. Machines that depend on the same service can fail together, even when the parts inside each miner are healthy.
This is why it matters where each machine sits and how it is identified on the network. A report saying “twelve units stopped at 14:05 in container B” is much more useful than twelve unrelated notes saying “bad miner.” The shared time and place suggest checking shared services first. They do not yet prove which service caused the problem.
Connect it to the field
Give each team the right evidence
Miner Technicians, facilities staff, network administrators and specialist repair staff each have different responsibilities. As a new Miner Technician, learn where your work hands off to these other teams, and record what you observe within your authorization. If you suspect a power problem, do not do electrical work yourself. Stop, report it, and leave it to authorized, qualified personnel.
Picture a miner connected to a pool through a router and a switch. The router links the site network to the internet. The miner’s control board sends work to its hashboards, the boards that hold the mining chips. Its power supply provides energy, and its cooling system removes heat. A failed switch cuts the information path. Blocked exhaust restricts the heat path. Both can reduce useful work, but each one points the team to a different place to investigate.
Terms used in this lesson
- Energy path
- Carries power from the site’s electrical system, through the power supply, to the equipment.
- Information path
- Carries work from the pool to the mining chips, and results back to the pool.
- Heat path
- Moves the heat produced by computing out of the equipment and facility.
Optional references & further reading
Use current manufacturer instructions for the exact equipment and your site’s approved procedures. Course levels do not grant task authorization.