Advanced Post-installation Tasks¶

This page explains some advanced tasks and configuration options that can be performed after the bot installation and may be uselful in some environments.

If you do not know what things mentioned here mean, you probably do not need it.

Running multiple instances of Freqtrade¶

This section will show you how to run multiple bots at the same time, on the same machine.

Things to consider¶

Use different database files.
Use different Telegram bots (requires multiple different configuration files; applies only when Telegram is enabled).
Use different ports (applies only when Freqtrade REST API webserver is enabled).

Different database files¶

In order to keep track of your trades, profits, etc., freqtrade is using a SQLite database where it stores various types of information such as the trades you performed in the past and the current position(s) you are holding at any time. This allows you to keep track of your profits, but most importantly, keep track of ongoing activity if the bot process would be restarted or would be terminated unexpectedly.

Freqtrade will, by default, use separate database files for dry-run and live bots (this assumes no database-url is given in either configuration nor via command line argument). For live trading mode, the default database will be tradesv3.sqlite and for dry-run it will be tradesv3.dryrun.sqlite.

The optional argument to the trade command used to specify the path of these files is --db-url, which requires a valid SQLAlchemy url. So when you are starting a bot with only the config and strategy arguments in dry-run mode, the following 2 commands would have the same outcome.

freqtrade trade -c MyConfig.json -s MyStrategy
# is equivalent to
freqtrade trade -c MyConfig.json -s MyStrategy --db-url sqlite:///tradesv3.dryrun.sqlite

It means that if you are running the trade command in two different terminals, for example to test your strategy both for trades in USDT and in another instance for trades in BTC, you will have to run them with different databases.

If you specify the URL of a database which does not exist, freqtrade will create one with the name you specified. So to test your custom strategy with BTC and USDT stake currencies, you could use the following commands (in 2 separate terminals):

# Terminal 1:
freqtrade trade -c MyConfigBTC.json -s MyCustomStrategy --db-url sqlite:///user_data/tradesBTC.dryrun.sqlite
# Terminal 2:
freqtrade trade -c MyConfigUSDT.json -s MyCustomStrategy --db-url sqlite:///user_data/tradesUSDT.dryrun.sqlite

Conversely, if you wish to do the same thing in production mode, you will also have to create at least one new database (in addition to the default one) and specify the path to the "live" databases, for example:

# Terminal 1:
freqtrade trade -c MyConfigBTC.json -s MyCustomStrategy --db-url sqlite:///user_data/tradesBTC.live.sqlite
# Terminal 2:
freqtrade trade -c MyConfigUSDT.json -s MyCustomStrategy --db-url sqlite:///user_data/tradesUSDT.live.sqlite

For more information regarding usage of the sqlite databases, for example to manually enter or remove trades, please refer to the SQL Cheatsheet.

Multiple instances using docker¶

To run multiple instances of freqtrade using docker you will need to edit the docker-compose.yml file and add all the instances you want as separate services. Remember, you can separate your configuration into multiple files, so it's a good idea to think about making them modular, then if you need to edit something common to all bots, you can do that in a single config file.

---
version: '3'
services:
  freqtrade1:
    image: freqtradeorg/freqtrade:stable
    # image: freqtradeorg/freqtrade:develop
    # Use plotting image
    # image: freqtradeorg/freqtrade:develop_plot
    # Build step - only needed when additional dependencies are needed
    # build:
    #   context: .
    #   dockerfile: "./docker/Dockerfile.custom"
    restart: always
    container_name: freqtrade1
    volumes:
      - "./user_data:/freqtrade/user_data"
    # Expose api on port 8080 (localhost only)
    # Please read the https://www.freqtrade.io/en/latest/rest-api/ documentation
    # before enabling this.
     ports:
     - "127.0.0.1:8080:8080"
    # Default command used when running `docker compose up`
    command: >
      trade
      --logfile /freqtrade/user_data/logs/freqtrade1.log
      --db-url sqlite:////freqtrade/user_data/tradesv3_freqtrade1.sqlite
      --config /freqtrade/user_data/config.json
      --config /freqtrade/user_data/config.freqtrade1.json
      --strategy SampleStrategy

  freqtrade2:
    image: freqtradeorg/freqtrade:stable
    # image: freqtradeorg/freqtrade:develop
    # Use plotting image
    # image: freqtradeorg/freqtrade:develop_plot
    # Build step - only needed when additional dependencies are needed
    # build:
    #   context: .
    #   dockerfile: "./docker/Dockerfile.custom"
    restart: always
    container_name: freqtrade2
    volumes:
      - "./user_data:/freqtrade/user_data"
    # Expose api on port 8080 (localhost only)
    # Please read the https://www.freqtrade.io/en/latest/rest-api/ documentation
    # before enabling this.
    ports:
      - "127.0.0.1:8081:8080"
    # Default command used when running `docker compose up`
    command: >
      trade
      --logfile /freqtrade/user_data/logs/freqtrade2.log
      --db-url sqlite:////freqtrade/user_data/tradesv3_freqtrade2.sqlite
      --config /freqtrade/user_data/config.json
      --config /freqtrade/user_data/config.freqtrade2.json
      --strategy SampleStrategy

You can use whatever naming convention you want, freqtrade1 and 2 are arbitrary. Note, that you will need to use different database files, port mappings and telegram configurations for each instance, as mentioned above.

Configure the bot running as a systemd service¶

Copy the freqtrade.service file to your systemd user directory (usually ~/.config/systemd/user) and update WorkingDirectory and ExecStart to match your setup.

Note

Certain systems (like Raspbian) don't load service unit files from the user directory. In this case, copy freqtrade.service into /etc/systemd/user/ (requires superuser permissions).

After that you can start the daemon with:

systemctl --user start freqtrade

For this to be persistent (run when user is logged out) you'll need to enable linger for your freqtrade user.

sudo loginctl enable-linger "$USER"

If you run the bot as a service, you can use systemd service manager as a software watchdog monitoring freqtrade bot state and restarting it in the case of failures. If the internals.sd_notify parameter is set to true in the configuration or the --sd-notify command line option is used, the bot will send keep-alive ping messages to systemd using the sd_notify (systemd notifications) protocol and will also tell systemd its current state (Running or Stopped) when it changes.

The freqtrade.service.watchdog file contains an example of the service unit configuration file which uses systemd as the watchdog.

Note

The sd_notify communication between the bot and the systemd service manager will not work if the bot runs in a Docker container.

Advanced Logging¶

On many Linux systems the bot can be configured to send its log messages to syslog or journald system services. Logging to a remote syslog server is also available on Windows. The special values for the --logfile command line option can be used for this.

Logging to syslog¶

To send Freqtrade log messages to a local or remote syslog service use the --logfile command line option with the value in the following format:

--logfile syslog:<syslog_address> -- send log messages to syslog service using the <syslog_address> as the syslog address.

The syslog address can be either a Unix domain socket (socket filename) or a UDP socket specification, consisting of IP address and UDP port, separated by the : character.

So, the following are the examples of possible usages:

--logfile syslog:/dev/log -- log to syslog (rsyslog) using the /dev/log socket, suitable for most systems.
--logfile syslog -- same as above, the shortcut for /dev/log.
--logfile syslog:/var/run/syslog -- log to syslog (rsyslog) using the /var/run/syslog socket. Use this on MacOS.
--logfile syslog:localhost:514 -- log to local syslog using UDP socket, if it listens on port 514.
--logfile syslog:<ip>:514 -- log to remote syslog at IP address and port 514. This may be used on Windows for remote logging to an external syslog server.

Log messages are send to syslog with the user facility. So you can see them with the following commands:

tail -f /var/log/user, or
install a comprehensive graphical viewer (for instance, 'Log File Viewer' for Ubuntu).

On many systems syslog (rsyslog) fetches data from journald (and vice versa), so both --logfile syslog or --logfile journald can be used and the messages be viewed with both journalctl and a syslog viewer utility. You can combine this in any way which suites you better.

For rsyslog the messages from the bot can be redirected into a separate dedicated log file. To achieve this, add

if $programname startswith "freqtrade" then -/var/log/freqtrade.log

to one of the rsyslog configuration files, for example at the end of the /etc/rsyslog.d/50-default.conf.

For syslog (rsyslog), the reduction mode can be switched on. This will reduce the number of repeating messages. For instance, multiple bot Heartbeat messages will be reduced to a single message when nothing else happens with the bot. To achieve this, set in /etc/rsyslog.conf:

# Filter duplicated messages
$RepeatedMsgReduction on

Logging to journald¶

This needs the systemd python package installed as the dependency, which is not available on Windows. Hence, the whole journald logging functionality is not available for a bot running on Windows.

To send Freqtrade log messages to journald system service use the --logfile command line option with the value in the following format:

--logfile journald -- send log messages to journald.

Log messages are send to journald with the user facility. So you can see them with the following commands:

journalctl -f -- shows Freqtrade log messages sent to journald along with other log messages fetched by journald.
journalctl -f -u freqtrade.service -- this command can be used when the bot is run as a systemd service.

There are many other options in the journalctl utility to filter the messages, see manual pages for this utility.

On many systems syslog (rsyslog) fetches data from journald (and vice versa), so both --logfile syslog or --logfile journald can be used and the messages be viewed with both journalctl and a syslog viewer utility. You can combine this in any way which suites you better.