Pickaxe is Foreman's on-site monitoring agent that discovers, connects to, and continuously monitors your mining hardware. This guide will help you properly size your Pickaxe hardware, install the software, and use the two primary methods for discovering and onboarding your miners into Foreman.

What You'll Accomplish

By the end of this guide, you will have:

1. Properly sized Pickaxe hardware – Understand the hardware requirements for reliable monitoring at your scale.
2. Installed Pickaxe – Deploy the monitoring agent on your local network.
3. Discovered your miners – Use Interactive Add or Remote Discovery to bring your mining fleet into Foreman.

Step 1: Understanding Pickaxe Hardware Requirements

Pickaxe runs continuously on your local network, collecting data from potentially hundreds or thousands of miners. Undersized hardware can lead to missed data, delayed updates, or system instability. Properly sizing your Pickaxe ensures reliable, real-time monitoring of your entire fleet.

Hardware Requirements

Your Pickaxe hardware needs will scale based on the size of your mining operation:

• Reference this article for further details: Hardware Requirements To Run Foreman 

CPU Requirements

• Minimum: 4 cores / 8 threads
• Recommended: 6-8 cores with multi-threading support
• Why it matters: More cores and threads allow Pickaxe to query multiple miners simultaneously, reducing scan times and improving responsiveness

RAM Requirements

• Minimum: 8 GB
• Why it matters: RAM stores cached miner data and active monitoring sessions

Step 2: Installing Pickaxe

Proper installation ensures Pickaxe can reliably communicate with both your miners (on your local network) and Foreman's cloud platform (via the internet). Following the official installation process ensures all dependencies and configurations are correctly established.

Installation Steps

1. Access the Installation Guide
   • Found within the knowledge base here: How To: Install Pickaxe
2. Download the Installer
   • Follow the provided link to download the appropriate Pickaxe installer for your operating system.
3. Configure Pickaxe
   • During installation, you'll be prompted to enter your API Key (the service account token you created in the previous article).
4. Verify Pickaxe is Online
   • After installation completes, return to your Foreman dashboard.
   • Look for the Pickaxe status indicator in the top-left of the dashboard.
   • Green indicator = Pickaxe is online and communicating with Foreman.
   • Red/offline indicator = Connection issue (see Troubleshooting below).

Troubleshooting Installation Issues

Common troubleshooting with Pickaxe can be found here: Common Troubleshooting: Pickaxe

Step 3: Discovering Your Miners

Once Pickaxe is installed and online, you're ready to discover and onboard your miners. Foreman offers two primary discovery methods, each suited to different scenarios.

Method 1: Interactive Add

When to Use Interactive Add

Interactive Add is ideal for:

• Onboarding new miners with precise location tracking.
• Creating or updating a detailed site map with physical rack positions.
• Scenarios where you need to physically verify each miner as it's added.
• Small to medium batches where walking to each miner is practical.

This method allows you to associate each detected miner with a specific rack position by physically pressing the IP Report button on each ASIC.

How Interactive Add Works

Interactive Add puts Pickaxe into "listening mode" where it waits for miners to broadcast their network information. When you press a miner's IP Report button, it sends a broadcast that Pickaxe captures, allowing you to match that physical miner to a specific position in your digital site map.

Step-by-Step: Using Interactive Add

1. Verify Pickaxe Status

• Ensure your Pickaxe shows a green indicator in the top-left of the dashboard.
• Confirm Pickaxe is on the same network subnet as your miners.
• Why this matters: Pickaxe must be able to receive broadcast packets from miners on the local network.

2. Navigate to Interactive Add

• In the Foreman dashboard, navigate to Pickaxe > Interactive Add.

3. Create or Select a Miner Profile

• Click Add to create a new profile
• Configure the profile settings:
  • Profile Name: Enter a descriptive name (e.g., "Building A - Rack 1-10")
  • Rack Size: Select the dimensions (Height x Width) that match your physical rack layout
    • Example: A rack with 4 shelves and 3 miners per shelf would be 4 x 3

4. Start Listening

• Click the Listen button to put Pickaxe in broadcast listening mode.
• You'll see the profile view with cells representing each rack position.
• One cell will be blinking – this indicates which position Pickaxe is waiting to assign.

5. Register Each Miner

• Walk to the physical miner that corresponds to the blinking cell position.
• Press the IP Report button on the miner (typically located on the top-right of most ASICs).
  • What this does: The miner broadcasts its network information (IP address, MAC address, etc.) on the local network.
• Watch the Remote Commands window in Foreman – you'll see "In Progress" status.
• When the miner is detected, a checkmark will appear, and the miner will be listed.
• Select the detected miner from the list.
• Click Next to move to the next rack position.

6. Repeat Until Complete

• Continue the Listen → Press IP Report → Select → Next cycle for each miner.
• The blinking cell indicator will move to each position sequentially.
• Best practice: Work systematically (left-to-right, top-to-bottom) to avoid confusion.

7. Finalize the Profile

• Choose your destination:
  • Main Site: Select your primary site location.
  • Pickaxe: Select the Pickaxe instance that will monitor these miners.

• Once all miners have been added, click Finalize.

   

Best Practices for Interactive Add

• Label physical racks to match your digital profile layout before starting.
• Work with a partner – one person at the dashboard, one at the miners.
• Use a mobile device if available to view the dashboard while walking the site.

Method 2: Remote Miner Discovery

When to Use Remote Discovery

Remote Discovery is the most frequently used approach for discovering miners and is ideal for:

• Large-scale deployments where walking to each miner is impractical.
• Initial site setup when you need to quickly discover all miners on the network.
• Regular resyncs to detect new miners or changes in your fleet.
• Scenarios where physical location is less critical than rapid onboarding.

This method scans network ranges and automatically detects all compatible miners.

How Remote Discovery Works

Pickaxe scans specified IP address ranges and attempts to connect to miners using the credentials you provide. When a miner responds, Pickaxe identifies its model, retrieves its current status (hashrate, temperature, etc.), and adds it to your Foreman dashboard.

Step-by-Step: Using Remote Discovery

1. Navigate to Scan Creation

• In the Foreman dashboard, navigate to Pickaxe > Create Scan

2. Configure Your Scan

Scan Type Options:

• One-time Scan: Runs immediately and discovers miners once.
• Recurring Resync: Automatically runs on a schedule to detect new miners and update existing ones.
  • Best for: Production environments where miners are frequently added or replaced.
  • How To: Make Foreman Update IPs Automatically (Even if they change DHCP)

Network Range:

• Enter your subnet range using CIDR notation.
  • Example: 192.168.10.0/24 (covers IPs from 192.168.10.1 to 192.168.10.254)
• Best practice: Scan only the subnets where miners are located to reduce scan time

Miner Types/Profiles:

• Select which miner manufacturers and models Pickaxe should look for.
• Why this matters: Limiting the search to expected miner types speeds up discovery.
• Best practice: If unsure, select all miner types for the first scan.

Authentication Credentials:

• Enter the username and password used to access your miners' web interfaces
• Common default credentials:
  • Antminer models: root / root
  • Whatsminer models:  admin / admin
  • AvalonMiner models:  root / root
• If you've changed default passwords, enter your custom credentials.

3. Start the Scan

• Click Start
• Pickaxe will begin scanning the specified ranges.

4. Review Discovered Miners

• As miners are discovered, they'll appear in the results list
• For each miner, you'll see:
  • IP Address: The miner's current network address
  • Model: Detected hardware model (e.g., "Antminer S19 Pro")
  • Hashrate Preview: Current mining performance

5. Accept or Reject Miners

• Review the discovered miners list.

6. Assign to Site and Location 

• If applicable

Best Practices for Remote Discovery

• Start with a small test scan (a single /24 subnet) to verify credentials and settings before scanning your entire network
• Schedule recurring scans during low-activity periods to minimize performance impact
• Document your credential strategy – if different racks or buildings use different passwords, plan your scans accordingly

• Review discovered miners promptly – new miners won't appear in monitoring dashboards until you accept them

   

Choosing the Right Discovery Method

You can use both methods: Many operators use Remote Discovery for initial bulk onboarding, then use Interactive Add when physical location accuracy is needed.

What's Next?

Congratulations! Your Pickaxe installation is complete, and your miners are now discoverable in Foreman.

Next Steps:

1. Monitoring Your Miners – Learn how to use Foreman's dashboard to track performance, respond to alerts, and optimize your operation.
2. Pickaxe Advanced Configurations – Explore advanced Pickaxe settings, scheduling, and optimization.