Tink vs Keepalived
Keepalived is the VRRP daemon for Linux virtual IPs. It also exposes MASTER, BACKUP, and FAULT gauges for Prometheus. That is not a mechanic. Tink installs in one command, watches the Linux server, explains what is wrong, and helps you fix it.
Keepalived holds the VIP. Tink answers “why is this VPS sick?”
Accidental sysadmins land on Keepalived because every nginx HA guide ships a vrrp_instance. Then the volume fills, nginx dies, and Grafana still shows MASTER — no PromQL matched host fill. A filling /var is a Tink warning; it is not a VRRP job unless the VIP itself is the failure.
Tink is the other job: detect the issue on the machine, say why it happened in plain English, propose the command, and run it only after you approve. Keep scraping Keepalived if you already operate VIP pairs and need VRRP SLOs. Use Tink if you run Linux servers and want a mechanic.
| Feature | Tink | Keepalived |
|---|---|---|
| Setup time | 30 seconds (one curl | sh command) | Hours — keepalived.conf, vrrp_instance, track_script, notify hooks, keepalived_exporter, and prometheus.yml scrape |
| What you get | Working monitoring, diagnosis, and approved fixes | A VRRP scrape target. Host disk fill, nginx, Postgres, and certs stay your problem until PromQL fires and you SSH in |
| Pricing | Free (Scout) / $9 / $29 per machine per month | Open-source (GPL). You still pay the pair of boxes, the VIP, Prometheus, Grafana, and the engineer who owns keepalived.conf |
| Hidden costs | None — fully managed | Split-brain VIPs, preempt races, FAULT flapping, track_script timeouts, and a second tool to tell you the box is sick |
| Monitoring approach | Agent on the server — CPU, disk, services, logs, certs, ports | keepalived_vrrp_state and checker gauges. Keepalived does not watch host fill or a quiet cert unless you added another exporter |
| Configuration | None after install — heuristics and AI | virtual_router_id, priority, advert_int, nopreempt, track_script, and which PromQL actually pages you |
| Plain-English diagnosis | Yes — AI explains root cause, impact, and fix | You graph keepalived_vrrp_state in Grafana, then SSH in to change the box |
| Fix execution | Proposes and executes approved commands with an audit trail | Metrics only — Keepalived cannot free disk, restart nginx, or rotate a cert |
| Alerting | Built-in across 8 channels | Not a Keepalived job — Prometheus rules and Alertmanager have to fire |
| Predictive alerts | Yes — disk fills in ~6 days, memory and CPU trends | Not a Keepalived job — a VRRP scrape does not forecast a quiet volume filling up |
| SSH brute-force detection | Built-in — parses auth.log every scan | Never — Keepalived does not read auth.log, journald, or host firewall state |
| Machine offline detection | Agent presence monitoring with multi-channel alerts | Silence if the agent dies — unless you built an up{job="keepalived"} deadman check |
| Public status page | Shareable URL with 90-day history | None — Keepalived has no customer-facing status page |
| Weekly fleet digest | Automated Monday digest + daily brief when issues are open | None — a VRRP scrape target is not a plain-English fleet narrative |
| On-call tracking | Built-in /oncall command + incident acknowledgment | Not included — wire Alertmanager into PagerDuty or another incident tool |
| Conversation interface | Telegram, WhatsApp, web dashboard, CLI | ssh and Grafana. No mechanic you text when /var filled and the VIP still answered pings |
| Learning curve | None — works after install | Steep — VRRP states, preempt vs nopreempt, track_script, unicast peers, and which MASTER/BACKUP counter actually pages |
| Best for | Freelancers, small teams, accidental sysadmins (1-50 Linux servers) | Teams that already run Keepalived VIP pairs and need VRRP scrapes, not a sick-VPS mechanic |
When Keepalived metrics are the right choice
Keep scraping Keepalived when you already want that exact job:
- Linux VIP pairs — you need VRRP MASTER/BACKUP, track_script, and gratuitous ARP counters, not a mechanic.
- Failover at pair scale — preempt, unicast peers, and virtual_router_id matter more than host nginx, certs, and SSH on a quiet VPS.
- An existing Prometheus + Grafana stack — keepalived_exporter already scrapes, and someone owns keepalived.conf.
- Hosts that only page on VRRP — you already run exporters and PromQL, not a sick-box SSH loop.
The real cost of “just scrape Keepalived”
Keepalived is a serious VRRP daemon. A working ops loop for five Linux boxes is not:
- A healthy keepalived_vrrp_state still means you SSH in and change the box by hand
- Host fill, nginx, certs, and SSH brute-force never appear unless Prometheus scraped those signals and a rule fired
- A filling /var is a Tink disk warning on every scan — Keepalived will stay quiet until the VIP itself is the failure
- A single VPS with a dead MASTER still needs a mechanic, not another VRRP scrape
For a 5-server team, Tink Mechanic at $45/month is cheaper than Keepalived plus the engineer who keeps Prometheus scrapes and VRRP track_script rules alive, and every scan includes a diagnosis a quiet Grafana board will not type.
No VRRP homework. No silent host. One command install.
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