Deprecations v190

Deprecations

Type: Reference Scope: Components excluded from 1.x core contract, transitional items, removal schedule Since: v1.88.0 (formal deprecation tracking) Terminology: Glossary & Vocabulary

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Purpose

This page tracks components that are deprecated, transitional, or excluded from the 1.x core contract. Items listed here still exist in code but are not part of the canonical metrics or architecture surface.

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Deprecation Categories

Category	Meaning
DEPRECATED	Actively being removed. Do not build on these.
TRANSITIONAL	Still needed by downstream consumers. Will be removed when migration completes.
OUT OF SCOPE (1.x)	Not part of 1.x contract. May appear in 2.x or later.
LEGACY	Superseded by newer implementation. Safe to remove.

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Deprecated Components

Web GUI (nftban-ui) and PAM auth daemon (nftban-ui-auth)

Property	Value
Status	RETIRED in v1.100.1b.A
Components	nftban-ui binary, nftban-ui-auth binary, nftban-ui.service, nftban-ui-auth.service, nftban-ui-auth.socket, PAM config
Reason	Lifecycle simplification before v2.0; PAM build-dependency reduction; SLSA coverage scoped to nftban-core
Replacement (v1.100.x)	None — operators use the nftban CLI directly
Transitional handling	Package upgrade hooks (DEB prerm, RPM %pre) stop, disable, mask, and remove orphaned units + binaries on existing installs

Source trees, cross-cutting references, and broader documentation cleanup are tracked as later stabilization releases (v1.100.1b.B, .C, .D). See archive/Web-GUI-and-nftban-ui-retired for the full historical record.

Sampler (internal/metrics/sampler.go)

Property	Value
Status	DEPRECATED
Metrics	16 gauges on custom prometheus.NewRegistry()
Consumer	nftban-ui (current UI, under redesign)
Reason	Creates parallel truth system. UI should consume daemon /metrics.
Removal	When nftban-ui is replaced by GOTH-based UI

The sampler maintains its own health gauge, network stats, and ring buffer of samples. This duplicates the daemon's authoritative metrics and creates a second health interpretation that may diverge from the watchdog and validator.

The new UI architecture (GOTH) will consume the daemon /metrics endpoint or IPC, not maintain its own collector.

Analytics Prometheus Metrics (internal/analytics/prometheus.go)

Property	Value
Status	DEPRECATED
Metrics	3 (bans_total, persistent_offenders_total, unique_ips_by_country)
Reason	RegisterPrometheus() is never called from daemon. Metrics are defined but invisible.
Removal	Wire to daemon if needed, or delete registration code

Legacy Shell Exporters (3 files)

File	Status	Reason
nftban_firewall_exporter.sh	LEGACY — remove	Fully superseded by unified exporter
nftban_geoban_exporter.sh	LEGACY — remove	Fully superseded by unified exporter
nftban_portscan_exporter.sh	LEGACY — remove	Fully superseded by unified exporter

These write to separate .prom files or append to nftban.prom. The unified exporter covers all their metrics. They can be removed without downstream impact.

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Transitional Components

GUI Cache Exporter (nftban_exporter_gui_cache.sh)

Property	Value
Status	TRANSITIONAL
Output	traffic_history.json, dropped_by_country.json, dropped_by_port.json
Consumer	Current nftban-ui
Blocker	UI redesign must provide alternative data path
Removal	After GOTH UI ships with its own data fetching

JSON Compatibility Exporter (nftban_exporter_json_compat.sh)

Property	Value
Status	TRANSITIONAL
Output	dynamic.json, inventory.json, combined.json
Consumers	Portal (pro.nftban.com), external tools reading legacy JSON
Blocker	Portal must migrate to daemon API or new JSON schema
Removal	After portal migration completes

Both are sourced by the unified exporter during its collection cycle. They are not independent — removing them requires verifying no downstream consumer depends on the JSON files they produce.

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Out of Scope (1.x)

Suricata SID Statistics Metrics

Property	Value
Status	OUT OF SCOPE (1.x)
File	internal/suricata/stats/metrics.go
Metrics	17 (promauto, but only initialized from nftban-core CLI)
Reason	Not on daemon /metrics. Only available during CLI suricata sid-stats invocations.
Future	May be moved to daemon in 2.x if Suricata integration remains

GOTH UI Architecture

Property	Value
Status	OUT OF SCOPE (1.x)
Reason	UI is under full redesign. Current UI code is deprecated.
Design principle	UI is a consumer, not a collector. It will consume daemon /metrics or IPC.

OpenTelemetry Export

Property	Value
Status	OUT OF SCOPE (1.x)
Reason	No demand signal. Prometheus-compatible surface covers known use cases.

Prometheus Remote Write

Property	Value
Status	OUT OF SCOPE (1.x)
Reason	No demand signal. Scrape + textfile covers all deployment scenarios.

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Naming Corrections Pending

These metric names have known issues per Prometheus conventions. Corrections are planned for the v1.90 metrics contract freeze.

Current Name	Issue	Planned Name
nftban_go_goroutines	Collides with go_goroutines	nftban_runtime_goroutines
nftban_go_gc_cpu_fraction	Collides with go_gc_*	nftban_runtime_gc_cpu_fraction
nftban_go_gc_pause_seconds	Collides with go_gc_*	nftban_runtime_gc_pause_seconds
nftban_go_heap_alloc_bytes	Collides with go_heap_*	nftban_runtime_heap_alloc_bytes
nftban_go_heap_inuse_bytes	Collides with go_heap_*	nftban_runtime_heap_inuse_bytes
nftban_go_heap_released_bytes	Collides with go_heap_*	nftban_runtime_heap_released_bytes
nftban_softnet_drops_total	_total on gauge	nftban_softnet_drops
nftban_softnet_time_squeeze_total	_total on gauge	nftban_softnet_time_squeeze
nftban_nic_rx_dropped_total	_total on gauge	nftban_nic_rx_dropped

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Evidence Snapshot Refactor Pending

The evidence layer (internal/metrics/evidence_*.go) currently makes 19 redundant nft CLI calls per snapshot, querying kernel data that the validator already has from its nft -j list ruleset call. This is an architectural debt item — evidence should consume validator output, not re-query the kernel.

Planned for v1.89. See METRICS_COLLECTOR_EXPORTER_COMBINE.md section 8 for the full duplicate query map.