Tink vs Nomad
Nomad is a HashiCorp scheduler. It also exposes client host gauges and alloc counters 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.
Nomad scrapes the cluster. Tink answers “why is this VPS sick?”
Accidental sysadmins land on Nomad because every HashiCorp diagram includes a client agent. Then the volume fills, nginx dies, and Grafana still shows running allocs — no PromQL matched host fill. A filling /var is a Tink warning; it is not a Nomad job unless the scheduler 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 Nomad if you already operate a cluster and need job SLOs. Use Tink if you run Linux servers and want a mechanic.
| Feature | Tink | Nomad |
|---|---|---|
| Setup time | 30 seconds (one curl | sh command) | Hours — Nomad servers, Raft, client agents, job HCL, telemetry stanza, and prometheus.yml scrape |
| What you get | Working monitoring, diagnosis, and approved fixes | A scheduler 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 | Nomad OSS is free. Nomad Enterprise is paid. You still pay Prometheus, Grafana, and the engineer who owns the cluster |
| Hidden costs | None — fully managed | A stalled client, Raft peer loss, an alloc that never starts, and a second tool to tell you the box is sick |
| Monitoring approach | Agent on the server — CPU, disk, services, logs, certs, ports | nomad_client_allocs, job summaries, and client host gauges. Nomad does not watch a quiet cert unless you wrote that job |
| Configuration | None after install — heuristics and AI | server/client mode, retry_join, ACLs, telemetry prometheus, and which PromQL actually pages you |
| Plain-English diagnosis | Yes — AI explains root cause, impact, and fix | You graph nomad_client_host_cpu in Grafana, then SSH in to change the box |
| Fix execution | Proposes and executes approved commands with an audit trail | Telemetry only — Nomad cannot free disk, restart nginx, or rotate a cert |
| Alerting | Built-in across 8 channels | Not a Nomad job — Prometheus rules and Alertmanager have to fire |
| Predictive alerts | Yes — disk fills in ~6 days, memory and CPU trends | Not a Nomad job — a client host gauge does not forecast a quiet volume filling up |
| SSH brute-force detection | Built-in — parses auth.log every scan | Never — Nomad does not read auth.log, journald, or host firewall state |
| Machine offline detection | Agent presence monitoring with multi-channel alerts | Silence if the Nomad client dies — unless you built an up{job="nomad"} deadman check |
| Public status page | Shareable URL with 90-day history | None — Nomad has no customer-facing status page |
| Weekly fleet digest | Automated Monday digest + daily brief when issues are open | None — a Nomad telemetry scrape 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 | nomad status and Grafana. No mechanic you text when /var filled and allocs still showed running |
| Learning curve | None — works after install | Steep — Raft, client agents, job HCL, telemetry, PromQL, and which alloc drop actually pages |
| Best for | Freelancers, small teams, accidental sysadmins (1-50 Linux servers) | Teams that already run Nomad and need scheduler scrapes, not a sick-VPS mechanic |
When Nomad telemetry is the right choice
Keep scraping Nomad when you already want that exact job:
- Scheduler SLOs — you need alloc health, job summaries, and client host gauges, not a mechanic.
- An existing Nomad cluster — Raft, ACLs, and job HCL matter more than host nginx, certs, and SSH on a quiet VPS.
- An existing Prometheus + Grafana stack — Nomad already clusters, telemetry already scrapes, and someone owns the jobs.
- Hosts that only page on Nomad — you already run exporters and PromQL, not a sick-box SSH loop.
The real cost of “just scrape Nomad”
Nomad is in every HashiCorp scheduling diagram. A working ops loop for five Linux boxes is not:
- A healthy nomad_client_allocs 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 — Nomad will stay quiet until the scheduler itself is the failure
- A single VPS with a dead Nomad client still needs a mechanic, not another job scrape
For a 5-server team, Tink Mechanic at $45/month is cheaper than Nomad plus the engineer who keeps Prometheus scrapes and job telemetry alive, and every scan includes a diagnosis a quiet Grafana board will not type.
No scheduler homework. No silent host. One command install.
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