Pulse/docs/FAQ.md

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

🛠️ Installation & Setup

What's the easiest way to install?

If you run Proxmox VE, use the signed LXC installer flow in INSTALL.md and replace vX.Y.Z with the exact release tag you want.

If you prefer Docker:

Use a pinned image tag such as rcourtman/pulse:vX.Y.Z instead of :latest.

See INSTALL.md for all options (Docker Compose, Kubernetes, systemd).

How do I add a node?

Go to Settings → Infrastructure → Install on a host for systems that should run the unified agent directly.

• Recommended (agent setup): copy the generated install command and run it on the target host.
• Manual/API-backed platforms: use Settings → Infrastructure → Platform connections for systems such as Proxmox, PBS, PMG, or TrueNAS that connect over an API instead of running the agent locally.

If you want Pulse to find servers automatically, enable discovery in Settings → System → Network and then review discovered servers in Settings → Infrastructure.

How do I change the port?

• Systemd: sudo systemctl edit pulse, add Environment="FRONTEND_PORT=8080", restart.
• Docker: Use -p 8080:7655 in your run command.

Does updating the Pulse server update every agent immediately?

No. The server and agent have separate update lifecycles. Eligible v6 agents check for and apply the server's target version asynchronously. v5 agents, PVE host agents, agents with auto-update disabled, and agents with failed or missing update prerequisites need a manual command.

Open an outdated-agent notice or /settings/infrastructure?agentDoctor=1 to open Agent Doctor and copy the correct per-host command. The surface does not remotely execute the update. Use Settings → Infrastructure → Install on a host for first installs and v5-to-v6 upgrades. See Unified Agent.

Why can't I change settings in the UI?

If a setting is disabled with an amber warning, it's being overridden by an environment variable (e.g., DISCOVERY_ENABLED). Remove the env var to regain UI control.

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🔍 Monitoring & Metrics

What do Relay, Pro, and Cloud unlock?

Relay adds secure remote access to the Pulse web UI, Pulse Mobile pairing for handoff, push notifications, and 14-day history. Pro and Cloud unlock hands-on Patrol modes, issue investigation, governed fixes, verified outcomes, and 90-day history along with the broader operations feature set. Existing legacy Pro+ holders keep their current continuity, but self-hosted pricing no longer sells more monitoring volume. Pulse Patrol is available to everyone on Community with BYOK and provides scheduled, cross-system analysis that correlates real-time state, recent metrics history, and diagnostics to surface actionable findings.

Example output includes trend-based capacity warnings, backup regressions, Kubernetes cluster analysis, and correlated container failures that simple threshold alerts miss. See Pulse Intelligence, Plans and entitlements, and https://pulserelay.pro.

Why do VMs show "-" for disk usage?

Proxmox API returns 0 for VM disk usage by default. You must install the QEMU Guest Agent inside the VM and enable it in Proxmox (VM → Options → QEMU Guest Agent). See VM Disk Monitoring for details.

Does Pulse monitor Ceph?

Yes! If Pulse detects Ceph storage, it automatically queries cluster health, OSD status, and pool usage. No extra config needed.

Does Pulse monitor TrueNAS?

Yes. Pulse v6 includes first-class TrueNAS SCALE/CORE integration. Add your TrueNAS server in Settings → TrueNAS with the URL and API key. Pulse monitors the appliance, native VMs, apps, pools, datasets, disks, ZFS snapshots, replication tasks, and alerts. TrueNAS resources appear in the TrueNAS, Infrastructure, Storage, and Recovery views.

Where did my pages go? (Unified Navigation)

Pulse v6 organises the UI by task instead of platform:

• Infrastructure → all hosts (Proxmox, Docker, K8s, TrueNAS)
• Workloads → VMs, LXCs, containers, pods
• Storage → all storage pools
• Recovery → backups, snapshots, replication

Legacy URLs (/proxmox, /docker, /kubernetes, /hosts, /services) redirect automatically. See Migration Guide for the full mapping.

Can I disable alerts for specific metrics?

Yes. Go to Alerts → Thresholds and use the On/Off toggle next to any metric while editing, or set the value to -1. You can do this globally or per-resource (VM/Node).

How do I monitor temperature?

Recommended: install the unified agent on your Proxmox hosts with Proxmox integration enabled:

1. Install lm-sensors on the host (apt install lm-sensors && sensors-detect)
2. Install pulse-agent with --enable-proxmox

If you do not run the agent, Pulse can collect temperatures over SSH. When the agent is reporting usable temperatures, Pulse uses the agent path and does not also require SSH for that host. See Temperature Monitoring.

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🔐 Security & Access

I forgot my password. How do I reset it?

Docker:

docker exec pulse rm /data/.env
docker restart pulse
# Access UI again. Pulse will require a bootstrap token for setup.
# Get it with:
docker exec pulse /app/pulse bootstrap-token

Systemd: Delete /etc/pulse/.env and restart the service. Pulse will require a bootstrap token for setup:

sudo pulse bootstrap-token

Proxmox LXC (installed from the Proxmox shell): Pulse runs inside the container, so run the same steps through pct exec on the Proxmox host:

pct exec <ctid> -- rm /etc/pulse/.env
pct exec <ctid> -- systemctl restart pulse
pct exec <ctid> -- pulse bootstrap-token

If you only missed the token during a fresh install (no password set yet), skip the first two commands and just read it back with the last one.

How do I enable HTTPS?

Set HTTPS_ENABLED=true and provide TLS_CERT_FILE and TLS_KEY_FILE environment variables. See Configuration.

Can I use Single Sign-On (SSO)?

Yes. Pulse supports OIDC and SAML SSO providers, with multi-provider support (multiple IdPs active simultaneously). Configure in Settings → Security → SSO Providers. Pulse also supports Proxy Auth (Authentik, Authelia, Cloudflare). See Proxy Auth Guide.

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⚠️ Troubleshooting

No data showing?

• Check Proxmox API is reachable (port 8006).
• Verify credentials in Settings → Infrastructure.
• Check logs: journalctl -u pulse -f or docker logs -f pulse.

Connection refused?

• Check if Pulse is running: systemctl status pulse or docker ps.
• Verify the port (default 7655) is open on your firewall.

CORS errors?

Pulse defaults to same-origin only. If you access the API from a different domain, set Settings → System → Network → Allowed Origins or use ALLOWED_ORIGINS (single origin, or * if you explicitly want all origins).

High memory usage?

If you are storing long history windows, reduce metrics retention (see METRICS_HISTORY.md). Also confirm your polling intervals match your environment size.