Welcome to Foreman! This guide will walk you through the essential first steps to get your mining operation monitoring system up and running. By completing this setup, you'll establish the foundation for effective fleet management and real-time monitoring of your mining infrastructure.

What You'll Accomplish

By the end of this onboarding piece, you will have:

1. Set up roles, users, and company settings – Establish your organizational structure and configure settings that match your operational requirements
2. Get Pickaxe up and running – Connect Foreman's monitoring agent to begin collecting data from your miners
3. Monitor miners – Access real-time visibility into your mining fleet's performance and health

Let's get started!

Step 1: Create Your Foreman Account

Your Foreman account is the central hub for all monitoring activities. Setting it up correctly from the start ensures you have proper access control and personalized settings that align with your operational needs.

How to Create Your Account

1. Navigate to the Foreman registration page
2. Complete the registration form with your information
3. Verify your email address by clicking the link sent to your inbox
4. Log in to your new Foreman account

Step 2: Configure Your Account Settings

Personalizing your account settings ensures that data is displayed in formats you understand (your timezone, preferred currency) and that you receive critical alerts when issues arise. Proper configuration here doesn't make any confusion and missed notifications down the line.

Account Settings Configuration

Once logged in, access your Account Settings by navigating to the icon in the top right corner (a "guy wearing a tie") and then select My Account from the dropdown menu.

Configure the following settings:

Timezone

• What it does: Ensures all timestamps in Foreman match your local time.
• Best practice: Set this to the timezone where you primarily monitor operations.
• How to set: Select your timezone from the dropdown menu.

Fiat Currency

• What it does: Determines the currency used for profitability calculations and financial reporting.
• Best practice: Choose the currency you use for operational accounting and reporting.
• How to set: Select your preferred currency from the available options.

Subscribed to Alert Emails

• What it does: Controls whether you receive email notifications for miner alerts and system events.
• Best practice: Enable this to stay informed of critical issues even when not actively monitoring the dashboard.
• How to set: Toggle the subscription option to enable or disable email alerts.

Step 3: Configure Your Company Settings

Company settings define organization-wide defaults that affect profitability calculations, reporting, and how all users in your organization view data. Accurate power cost configuration is especially critical for meaningful profitability analysis.

Company Settings Configuration

Access Company Settings by navigating to the icon in the top right corner (a "guy wearing a tie") and then selecting Settings from the dropdown menu, and then Company Settings.

Configure the following settings:

Company Label

• What it does: Sets the display name for your organization throughout Foreman.
• Best practice: Use your official company name or a recognizable abbreviation.
• How to set: Enter your company name in the text field.

Power Pricing Model

You have two options for tracking electricity costs:

Fixed Pricing

• When to use: Your power rate is constant, or you want to use an average rate.
• Best for: Operations with stable power contracts or simplified cost tracking.

Variable Pricing

• When to use: Your power costs fluctuate based on market rates or time-of-use.
• Best for: Operations in deregulated markets or those optimizing for real-time energy arbitrage.
• How to set: Select either Fixed or Variable from the pricing model options.

Power Cost Currency

• What it does: Defines the currency used for power cost calculations.
• Best practice: Set this to your local currency to match your actual utility bills.
• How to set: Select your local currency from the dropdown menu.

Power Cost per kWh

Configure based on your pricing model selection:

For Fixed Pricing:

• Enter your average cost per kilowatt-hour in the currency you selected.
• Where to find this: Check your utility bill for the blended rate, including all fees and charges.

For Variable Pricing:

• Select your ISO Zone (Independent System Operator region).
• What this does: Automatically pulls real-time electricity pricing data for your market.
• How to set: Select your appropriate ISO zone from the dropdown menu.

Step 4: Create a Service Account for Pickaxe

Pickaxe is Foreman's monitoring agent that runs on-site to collect data from your miners. A service account provides Pickaxe with secure, programmatic access to your Foreman instance without using personal credentials. This approach follows security best practices by:

• Separating service authentication from user authentication.
• Allowing you to revoke access without affecting user accounts.
• Providing clear audit trails for automated actions.

How to Create Your Service Account

1. Navigate to Service Accounts
   • Log in to your Foreman dashboard.
   • Click on the "guy wearing a tie" icon at the top right of your screen.
   • Navigate to Users > Service Accounts tab.
   • Click the Service Account tab at the far right of your screen.
2. Create the Service Account
   • Click Add Service Account
   • Enter a descriptive name (e.g., "Pickaxe Agent" or "Site 1 Pickaxe")
   • Best practice: Use a naming convention that identifies the purpose and location if you'll have multiple Pickaxe instances.
   • Assign the Admin role
     • Why Admin access: Pickaxe requires Admin permissions to register miners, update status, and manage device configurations.
   • Click Add
3. Retrieve Your API Token
   • Locate your newly created service account in the list.
   • Click Actions > View Token.
   • Copy the API token (this is your apiKey).
   • Important: Store this token securely – it won't be displayed again.
   • Best practice: Use a password manager or secrets management system to store API tokens securely.
4. Next Steps
   • You'll use this API token when configuring Pickaxe in the next article.
   • Keep this token accessible for the Pickaxe installation process.

For detailed instructions with screenshots, see: How To: Create a Service Account for Pickaxe

Step 5: Familiarize Yourself with the Dashboard

Understanding the dashboard layout now will help you quickly locate critical information when monitoring your fleet. Taking a few minutes to explore the interface will save time later when you need to respond to alerts or analyze performance.

For details on how to build a custom dashboard, see: How To: Build A Custom Dashboard Using Page Builder

What's Next?

Congratulations! You've completed the foundational setup for your Foreman account. Your account is now configured with the proper settings, and you have a service account ready for Pickaxe integration.

Next Article:  Installing and Configuring Pickaxe – Learn how to deploy the Pickaxe agent and connect your miners to Foreman for monitoring.