Solana Status Page Guide: Monitor Network Health.

Okay, so you're Solana's network status, right? The big screw up most folks do? They hit up some random explorer, see a green dot, and call it good. But boom - two hours later, their bot's choking on congestion because they missed the validator delinquency spike. Happens all the time. I did it myself back when I first staked. Don't sweat it. The fix? Use the actual status tools properly. Start with the official endpoints and layer on monitors. You'll spot issues before they bite.

In my experience, Solana's network health boils down to a few checks: RPC health, validator votes, epoch progress, and TPS spikes. Why does this matter? Because Solana cranks ~2,000-4,000 TPS normally, but dips under 1,000 scream trouble. And during peaks? It can hit 65,000. Ignoring that leads to failed txs costing you ~0.000005 SOL per retry.

Grab the Official Solana Status Page - It's Your Starting Line

Look, Solana doesn't have one flashy "status page" like AWS. It's spread out. But the closest? Head to status.solana.com. Nah, wait - actually, that's not live yet in my checks, but the real deal is baked into RPC calls and cluster explorers. The thing is, you query it live via CLI or code.

First off, install the Solana CLI if you haven't. Super quick: sh -c "$(curl -sSfL https://release.solana.com/stable/install)". Boom, done. Now set your cluster - mainnet beta for live action: solana config set --url https://api.mainnet beta.solana.com.

What's next? Run solana health. That's your instant network pulse. It pings the RPC node. Green means good. Red? Node's down or lagged. I usually run this every 5 mins in a script.

Quick CLI Commands to Nail Basic Health

solana get health - RPC node okay? ~0.1s response if healthy.
solana get version - Software version. Mismatch from latest? Update your node.
solana cluster version - Whole cluster's version. Sync issues show here.
solana get genesis hash - Confirms you're on the right chain.

These are from Helius RPC guides - dead simple, no fluff. Run 'em in terminal, watch the output. If get health hangs over 2s, switch RPC endpoints. Free public ones overload fast.

Dashboards That Actually Work - Skip the Hype, Use These

Validators.app - Best for validator health. See delinquency, vote success (aim for 99%+), stake concentration.
Solana Beach - Epoch info, TPS live, block production. I check APYs here for staking.
Stakewiz - Delinquent validators list. If over 10% delinquent, network's wobbly.
SolanaFM - Real time tx metrics, wallet tracking. Great for spotting congestion via failed tx rate.

But here's the kicker - don't just stare. Set alerts. Validators.app has email pings for delinquency. Sound familiar? Yeah, I got burned once without 'em.

Tool	Best For	Free Tier Limits	Alert Options
Validators.app	Validator delinquency, latency	Unlimited views	Email, basic
Solana Beach	TPS, epochs	Full access	None native
Stakewiz	Staking APY, distribution	Public dashboards	Pro only
SolanaFM	Tx failures, network stats	Real time free	Wallet watches

Pro tip: Pin these in tabs. Refresh every 30s during high volume like memecoin pumps. TPS drops below 500? Prepare for 10x fee spikes to ~0.00002 SOL.

CLI Power Moves - Monitor Like a Validator

Now, level up. If you're running a node or just want deep dives, CLI's king. I usually cron these.

solana catchup your validator pubkey - Shows skip rate. Over 5% skips? Hardware issue likely. CPU pegged at 100% or disk I/O lagging.

And solana get epoch info? Gold. Current epoch k as of now, slot distance tells lag. Ideal: under 10 slots behind leader.

Potential issue: CLI timeouts on public RPCs. Fix? Use private like Helius or QuickNode. Free tier gives 1M credits/month - plenty for monitoring.

Sign up Helius.dev, grab RPC URL.
solana config set --url YOURHELIUSURL
Loop: while true; do solana health && sleep 10; done
Parse output in bash: grep "ok" or exit 1 for alerts.

Honestly, this script saved my ass during a 2025 outage. Network dipped to 200 TPS - caught it early, paused bots.

Validator Specific? Solana Watchtower Is Clutch

If you're staking or running a validator, skip straight to solana watchtower. Install: cargo install solana watchtower. Monitors delinquency, active stake, cluster wide issues.

The thing is, it notifies Slack/Discord/Telegram. Setup's a bit fiddly first time.

Telegram Alerts in 5 Mins

Message @BotFather on Telegram, /newbot, name it SolanaHealthBot. Grab token.
Message your bot "/start". Get chat_id from updates API (curl trick).
Export vars: export TELEGRAMBOTTOKEN=yourtoken TELEGRAMCHATID=yourid
Run: solana watchtower --monitor active stake --validator identity YOUR_PUBKEY

Boom. Pings if delinquent. I usually add --monitor cluster for network wide alerts. Cluster delinquency over 33%? Consensus at risk.

Common glitch: Env vars not set. Double check with echo $TELEGRAMBOTTOKEN. Empty? Restart shell.

Code It Up - RPC Calls for Devs

Not CLI fan? JS or Python. Super practical for bots.

In Node.js, use @solana/web3.js. Connect to mainnet RPC.

const { Connection, clusterApiUrl } = require('@solana/web3.js');
const connection = new Connection(clusterApiUrl('mainnet beta')); async function checkHealth() { const health = await connection.getHealth(); console.log(health ? 'Network healthy' : 'Issues!');
} setInterval(checkHealth, 5000);

Expand: getEpochInfo() for epoch progress. getVoteAccounts() for delinquent count. Current delinquent threshold: under 1% ideal.

Python? Solana py lib. Same deal.

Why code? Polling explorers is laggy. This hits ~50ms latency. During Jito MEV spikes, fees jump 5x - health checks prevent burning SOL.

Spotting Congestion Before It Hits

Solana clogs when TPS overloads. Watch getRecentPrioritizationFees RPC. Average ~0.001 lamports, but peaks at 10k mean auctions raging.

Also, getSlotLeaders for block production. Gaps? Leaders skipping.

In my experience, pair with Jito Explorer for MEV tips. High tips = crowded mempool. Solution: Bump priority fee to 0.0001 SOL min.

No lists here - just watch these three metrics daily: TPS (via SolanaFM), delinquency (Validators.app), epoch slot delta (CLI). Under 1s delta? Smooth sailing.

Advanced: Geyser and Streaming for Pros

Okay, you're hooked. Go real time with Geyser plugins. Streams blocks/transactions direct from validators. Low latency, no polling.

Build a dashboard? Streamlit + Bitquery like tutorials show. Python script grabs TPS, latency live. I built one - refreshes every block (~0.4s).

Issue: High volume floods your stream. Filter: only subscribe to vote accounts or leaders. Saves bandwidth.

Fees and Costs - Don't Get Nickel Dimed

Monitoring's cheap. Public RPC: free, but rate limited req/s. Private: Helius starter $0, scales to $49/mo for heavy.

Tx retries during bad health? Each ~0.000005 SOL base + priority. 100 fails = 0.0005 SOL gone. Health checks prevent that.

Check	Normal Value	Warning	Critical
TPS	2k-4k	<1k	<500
Delinquent Validators	<1%	5%	20%+
Priority Fee Avg	0.001 lamports	100	10k+
Slot Delta	<10	50	200+

Troubleshoot Common Hiccups

Health red but network fine? Your RPC's bad. Switch to https://rpc.ankr.com/solana or Helius.

CLI "connection refused"? Firewall or VPN block. Test: curl https://api.mainnet beta.solana.com -X POST -H "Content Type: application/json" -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"getHealth"}'

Watchtower no alerts? Bot token revoked. Remake via BotFather.

And for devs: getSignatureStatuses failing? Use confirmed commitment, not finalized during load.

That's the flow. Mix these, stay ahead. Your bots'll thank you. Hit snags? Tweak and retry.