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Main => General Discussion => Topic started by: xeroc on March 26, 2015, 03:01:26 pm

Title: [Wiki] Chainservers
Post by: xeroc on March 26, 2015, 03:01:26 pm
Due to recent events I though I'd take the time and summaries some chain servers in the wiki:
http://wiki.bitshares.org/index.php/BitShares/Chain-Server#List_of_chain_servers
Are there more known chain servers?
Title: Re: [Wiki] Chainservers
Post by: arubi on March 26, 2015, 04:11:40 pm
Does anyone know how much bandwidth these take up on average?
I might run one if its not /too/ demanding.
Title: Re: [Wiki] Chainservers
Post by: wackou on March 26, 2015, 04:15:39 pm
I also have one at 46.226.109.66:1375  (from my proposal here: https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=12534.0)

although it is currently down because it is on a fork and I'm having a hard time bringing it back on the main one... It is usually always up, though (it's my seed node, too)
Title: Re: [Wiki] Chainservers
Post by: wackou on March 26, 2015, 04:40:25 pm
in praise of the chain servers, I'd like to add that it is the surest and fastest way to get back on the main chain if you are stuck on a minority fork: just resync from a chain server that's on the main chain, and bam! There you are, too. Works kind of like a warp zone to the main chain :D
Title: Re: [Wiki] Chainservers
Post by: wackou on March 26, 2015, 04:41:47 pm
Does anyone know how much bandwidth these take up on average?
I might run one if its not /too/ demanding.

at the moment, not too much, given that it's a very little known feature and not many people use it. This could increase a lot, though, if people would start using them more...
Title: Re: [Wiki] Chainservers
Post by: xeroc on March 26, 2015, 05:03:58 pm
I also have one at 46.226.109.66:1375  (from my proposal here: https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=12534.0)

although it is currently down because it is on a fork and I'm having a hard time bringing it back on the main one... It is usually always up, though (it's my seed node, too)
added you
in praise of the chain servers, I'd like to add that it is the surest and fastest way to get back on the main chain if you are stuck on a minority fork: just resync from a chain server that's on the main chain, and bam! There you are, too. Works kind of like a warp zone to the main chain :D
Does anyone know how much bandwidth these take up on average?
I might run one if its not /too/ demanding.

at the moment, not too much, given that it's a very little known feature and not many people use it. This could increase a lot, though, if people would start using them more...
That is exactly why I added an article to the wiki ..
reminds me of adding link to the main_page too .. :)
Title: Re: [Wiki] Chainservers
Post by: wackou on March 26, 2015, 07:03:59 pm
although it is currently down because it is on a fork and I'm having a hard time bringing it back on the main one... It is usually always up, though (it's my seed node, too)

it's back up and running!
Title: Re: [Wiki] Chainservers
Post by: Thom on March 27, 2015, 05:13:14 pm
Can multiple chainservers be listed in the chainservers: [69.90.132.209:1375, 46.226.109.66:1375] array, or would this defeat the purpose?

For example if one was down it would connect to the next one, or if the code queried each one to see which had the most recently signed block (highest blk #)?

I upgraded our delegate node within a few hrs of Vikram's announcement & it still got on the wrong fork.
Title: Re: [Wiki] Chainservers
Post by: xeroc on March 27, 2015, 05:22:42 pm
Can multiple chainservers be listed in the chainservers: [69.90.132.209:1375, 46.226.109.66:1375] array, or would this defeat the purpose?

For example if one was down it would connect to the next one, or if the code queried each one to see which had the most recently signed block (highest blk #)?

I upgraded our delegate node within a few hrs of Vikram's announcement & it still got on the wrong fork.
Good questions... @modprobe ?
Title: Re: [Wiki] Chainservers
Post by: Thom on March 27, 2015, 05:38:34 pm
We'll see how long it takes to get back in sync. I added nathan hourt's chainserver node, removed the logs,exceptions & peerLevelDb folders & restarted. This is on a 2GB vps with 6GB of swap. Not quite half way there at 28 weeks old so far out of 46 or so. Swap is being consumed quite quickly now, up to 900MB so far.
Title: Re: [Wiki] Chainservers
Post by: wackou on March 27, 2015, 07:30:26 pm
We'll see how long it takes to get back in sync. I added nathan hourt's chainserver node, removed the logs,exceptions & peerLevelDb folders & restarted. This is on a 2GB vps with 6GB of swap. Not quite half way there at 28 weeks old so far out of 46 or so. Swap is being consumed quite quickly now, up to 900MB so far.

that's strange, I did sync from liondani's chain server yesterday, and ram usage never went above 500M... After that, it connected to the p2p network and then ram jumped to 1G (it's my seed node with ~100 connections). Are you sure it is actually syncing from the chain server? You can make sure it does by looking at your network connections, if it is 0 then you're good.
Title: Re: [Wiki] Chainservers
Post by: xeroc on March 27, 2015, 09:02:04 pm
I thing nathans chainserver is offline ..
Do you see a "fast sync" message after starting the client? It should not connect to th p2p network before having dled all blocks from the chainserver
Title: Re: [Wiki] Chainservers
Post by: Thom on March 27, 2015, 11:04:37 pm
Bummer. Hours wasted... and counting.

Using wackou's bts_tools (run command) I don't think you don't see the actual stdout of the client. I think the python script scarfs that up. If I'm wrong about that I never noticed any unusual messages. info returned 0.01% of delegate participation, which I thought was normal until the node sync was complete, but if nathan's chain server was offline it probably went right to p2p connections.

I just restarted it with liondani's chain server, but I need to restart it once again as I see there are 27 net connections but it isn't synced yet. I am repeating the deletion of the 3 folders I mentioned above, this time with liondani's chainserver in the config.

Is there a way to check if liondani's chainserver is online?

This is a real PITA! After removing the exceptions,logs & peers.leveldb folders and restarting the client with liondani's chain_server IP, I still get 9 connections. Upon looking at the config.json file closer I see a list of 17 default peers. The wiki didn't say a word about those, should they be removed? If the code goes 1st the chainserver before any peers until the blkchn is synced, why are there 9 connections right off the bat?

Ha ha!!! After removing all but liondani's IP address from the list of default peers & restarting, the first msg to appear was:
Code: [Select]
merging 16 peers into config.json

so if one of those default peers is on a short fork I may not get back onto the main fork! It's on blk 2041604, 12 days old. I'll check it again in a couple of hrs I need to be somewhere else now.

Title: Re: [Wiki] Chainservers
Post by: modprobe on March 28, 2015, 03:34:32 am
I thing nathans chainserver is offline ..
Do you see a "fast sync" message after starting the client? It should not connect to th p2p network before having dled all blocks from the chainserver

Sadly, yes. I've been unable to get it working correctly since 0.8.1 as it keeps hanging. I've rebuilt, reindexed and resynced it each several times, but no joy.
Title: Re: [Wiki] Chainservers
Post by: cube on March 28, 2015, 05:30:31 am
I thing nathans chainserver is offline ..
Do you see a "fast sync" message after starting the client? It should not connect to th p2p network before having dled all blocks from the chainserver

Sadly, yes. I've been unable to get it working correctly since 0.8.1 as it keeps hanging. I've rebuilt, reindexed and resynced it each several times, but no joy.

Chain servers play an important role, especially to the delegates. I hope the devs can help you fix your server up soon.
Title: Re: [Wiki] Chainservers
Post by: cube on March 28, 2015, 07:08:31 am
...
I just restarted it with liondani's chain server, but I need to restart it once again as I see there are 27 net connections but it isn't synced yet. I am repeating the deletion of the 3 folders I mentioned above, this time with liondani's chainserver in the config.

Is there a way to check if liondani's chainserver is online?

This is a real PITA! After removing the exceptions,logs & peers.leveldb folders and restarting the client with liondani's chain_server IP, I still get 9 connections. Upon looking at the config.json file closer I see a list of 17 default peers. The wiki didn't say a word about those, should they be removed? If the code goes 1st the chainserver before any peers until the blkchn is synced, why are there 9 connections right off the bat?

Ha ha!!! After removing all but liondani's IP address from the list of default peers & restarting, the first msg to appear was:
Code: [Select]
merging 16 peers into config.json

so if one of those default peers is on a short fork I may not get back onto the main fork! It's on blk 2041604, 12 days old. I'll check it again in a couple of hrs I need to be somewhere else now.

You would see "fast sync..." message and nothing else.  If you start seeing 'Adding peers...' messages, it means the chain downloading has stopped. You will need to restart the client.
Title: Re: [Wiki] Chainservers
Post by: wackou on March 28, 2015, 12:07:33 pm
Using wackou's bts_tools (run command) I don't think you don't see the actual stdout of the client.

You should definitely see stdout using "bts run" (as well as stdin, you wouldn't be able to open and unlock the wallet otherwise). I think that for the chain sync to kick in, you need to resync the whole blockchain. Try the following:

Code: [Select]
bts run -- --resync-blockchain

If your config.json contains a chain server correctly configured, then it should use it.
Title: Re: [Wiki] Chainservers
Post by: liondani on March 28, 2015, 03:23:37 pm
@Thom
I can't check it now but I had updated successfully my chainserver chain server details:    185.25.22.21:1375

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