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How to install a node in Alastria Red-T (GoQuorum Technology) and tips to deploy and use it

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Alastria Node for Alastria-T Network

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Alastria-T Network is a GoQuorum public-permissioned network that uses the IBFT 1.0 consensus algorithm, and it's managed by Alastria partners.

GoQuorum it's a fork of Geth (the Official Go implementation of the Ethereum protocol) ownership by Consensys that implements Raft and IBFT consensus algorithm, and is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0

In Alastria-T Network there are 3 types of nodes.

  • Validators: Nodes that are in charge of guaranteeing the consensus of the network and the generation of blocks. To do this, they run the consensus algorithm (IBFT).
  • Bootnodes: Authorization or enabling of the Permitting Nodes to the Regular Nodes so that, using the gas limit granted, they propose (initiate), carry out (write), or consult (read) transactions. They acts like proxy between Regular and Validator nodes.
  • Regular: They participate by replicating the blockchain, accepting the blocks generated by the validators and executing the transactions included in them. They are also allowed to inject transactions into the Network from sources external to the blockchain. These kind of nodes are use for the interaction from Web3.JS, EtherJS and Smart Contracts, and should be the option for deploy uses cases of Blockchain.

There are 2 main steps to set up an Alatria Node:

1. Installation & configuration: Follow the Docker installation steps and your node will be ready to be permissioned.

2. Getting permissioned: In order to use Alastria Network, your node must be previously accepted, after filling the form.

If a member wants to remove a node from the network, please send us a removal request using the same electronic form.

1) Installation

The following process explain the installation for a Regular (also called general) nodes:

  • Clone or download this repository to the machine where you want to install and operate the Red T node and enter into the cloned directory.

  • 🔥 Edit the .env file and modify the lines with:

  • NODE_TYPE if your not sure what option its need, select general
  • NODE_NAME attribute according to the name you want for this node. The name SHOULD follow the convention: TYPE_COMPANY_T_Y_Z_NN

Where TYPE is the rol for the node in the network (use REG for regular/general nodes), XX is your company/entity name, Y is the number of processors of the machine, Z is the amount of memory in Gb and NN is a sequential counter for each machine that you may have (starting at 00). For example:

  • NODE_NAME="REG_IN2_T_2_8_00"
  • NODE_NAME="REG_DigitelTS_T_2_8_00"

This is the name that will appear in the public listings of nodes of the network. It does not have any other usage.

  • 🔥 Edit the docker-compose.yml file, and make your own changes.

  • In the root directory of the repository (where the file docker-compose.yml exists) run:

$ docker-compose up -d
  • The command runs the service in the background, and you can check it's activity by running:
$ docker-compose logs -f --tail=20
  • You're done! 😎 💃 ✌️ 🍻

💡 Quick Guide for docker-compose

💡 For more specific information about to using or updating to higher versions of GoQuorum, please, refer to this section.

2) Permissioning new node

You should see the node initializing and starting to try to contact peers. However, the node is not yet permissioned, so it can not participate in the blockchain network yet.

All nodes in Alastria Networks must be permissioned. To ask for permission you must enter your data in this electronic form, providing these information of your node:

1. ENODE: String ENODE from ENODE_ADDRESS (enode://ENODE@IP:21000?discport=0)

2. Public IP: The external IP of your node.

3. System details: Hosting provider, number of cores (vCPUs), RAM Memory and Hard disk size.

In order to get permissioning, follow these steps to get the information that you will be asked for in the previous form:

  • Display the contents the ENODE_ADDRESS (put the name of the docker container of the node in place of the container name in the example):
$ docker exec -it REG_ExampleOrg_T_2_8_00 geth --exec "admin.nodeInfo.enode" attach /root/alastria/data/geth.ipc
  • Get the IP address of your node, as seen from the external world.
$ curl https://ifconfig.me/
  • Once your request is fulfilled after form submission, you will see that your node starts connecting to its peers and starts synchronizing the blockchain. The process of synchronization can take hours or even one or two days depending on the speed of your network and machine.

Now it's time to start knowing more about GoQuorum:

Upgrading to higher GoQuorum versions

NOTE: Don't follow this instructions if you never started the syncing process (or if you are not sure about it)

If your node is fully synced with the chain, you can skip step 1. To see if your node is still syncing or not, you can use the following RPC call:

$ curl -X POST -H "Content-type: application/json" --data '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"eth_syncing","params":[],"id":1}' http://127.0.0.1:22000

If the response contains a "result":false, your node is already synced and you can go ahead to step 2.

Step 1: Syncing the node

For GoQuorum versions strictly higher than v21.1.0 the node won't sync with the chain. To get your node syncing you must downgrade your node's version to v21.1.0, or less. Also, you must set the syncing option to fast: --syncmode fast.

Once your node is fully synced, you can got to step 2.

Step 2: Upgrading GoQuorum version

To upgrade your node's GoQuorum version you must follow this instructions:

Adding automatic checking for updates in node lists

If your installation was done with docker-compose everything is set up in the container and there's nothing else to do 🎉

However, if your installation was done prior to June 2022, ensure you have the more up-to-date code running in your machine following these steps:

  • Stop the node with docker-compose down
  • Do a backup of the docker-compose.yml and the .env files to make sure you don't lose any configuration
  • Pull the more current code from the repository with git pull
  • Edit the docker-compose.yml and the .env files if you need a custom configuration in volumes and ports sections, and to set the type and the name of your node
  • Start the container forcing the image to be build again with docker-compose up --build -d

Infraestructure details

System requirements

Hardware Minimum Desired
CPU's 2 4
Memory 4Gb (8Gb for Validator nodes) 8Gb (16Gb for Validator nodes)
Hard Disk 300 Gb 512 Gb

DLT database grows 1Gb/week: keep in mind for future updates. SSD disc it's also mandatory.

System ports (INPUT)

The following ports must be open, at least, to the nodes defined in the /root/alastria/data/static-nodes.json and /root/alastria/data/permissioned-nodes.json files. We recommend that these ports be universally open: the whisper protocol defined in GoQuorum is robust enough to be published without the need for control through the firewall.

Port Type Definition
21000 TCP/UDP Geth process application port (inbound and outbound for ethereum traffic)
53 TCP/UDP Access to external Internet based resolvers
6060 TCP Scraping Prometheus metrics from Alastria from IP address 18.201.52.140

tcp/21000 and udp/21000port are mandatory, as is the common standard for the Alastria-T Network.

Other ports are optional, and can be used from applications like Metamask, Truffle or Remix

Port Type Definition
22000 TCP Optional port for JSON-RPC connections
22001 TCP Optional port for WebSockets connections

Mandatory parameters

Some parameters are high hardcoded in this installer, but can be change:

  • Working directory: The install procedure expect use of /root/alastria/data as the main directory.
  • GoQuorum and Go versions: Changing the alastria-node/Dockerfile it's easy to change the build version.
  • Data directory: Because of the size that the DLT database can reach, a Docker volume has been deployed to set the storage on some independent path from the one set by the Docker installation. This parameter is set in docker-compose.yml, in volumes tag.
  • Geth parameters: Other geth options can be personalized in geth.node.bootnode.sh, geth.node.general.sh or geth.node.validator.sh.

Environment Variables

These variables should be use for any script in:

  • NODE_TYPE=[general|boot|validator]: Rol for your node in the network.
  • NODE_NAME=REG_ExampleOrg_T_2_8_00: Name for your node.
  • NODE_BRANCH=main: Used for future improvements.

Monitoring

The default Alastria configuration exposes GoQuorum metrics on the tcp/6060 port and provides the http://node_ip:6060/debug/metrics/prometheus endpoint for integration into your local monitoring infrastructure. For more information on this topic, refer to the "Metrics collection" section in https://blog.ethereum.org/2019/07/10/geth-v1-9-0 and https://grafana.com/grafana/dashboards/14360-goquorum-overview/. Please, keep this access restricted to authorized hosts, as described in the documentation.

NOTE: Keep this access restricted to authorized hosts, as

Regular Node

Maintenance

You can use the standard docker-compose commands to manage your node. For example:

# Stop node:
$ docker-compose down

# To restart the node:
$ docker-compose restart

# Delete current container
$ docker rm REG_ExampleOrg_T_2_8_00

Node management is done through the geth console. It can be accessed through the following commands:

$ geth attach http://localhost:22000 (in case geth were started with --rpc options)
# or
$ geth attach /root/alastria/data/geth.ipc
$ curl -X POST --header 'Content-Type: application/json' --data '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"admin_nodeInfo","params":[], "id":1}' http://127.0.0.1:22
000

The commands can be invoked from the Docker client, or by accessing the container:

$ docker ps -a
# or
$ docker exec -it <container_name> /bin/bash

Some useful commands:

root@62369c8b018e:/usr/local/bin# geth attach /root/alastria/data/geth.ipc
Welcome to the Geth JavaScript console!

instance: Geth/REG_DigitelTS-pre_T_2_4_00/v1.8.18-stable(quorum-v2.2.3-0.Alastria_EthNetstats_IBFT)/linux-amd64/go1.9.5
coinbase: 0x1e02232b297055717e3381ad458f8b23cb9ada03
at block: 60568501 (Mon, 25 Jan 2021 21:37:51 UTC)
 datadir: /root/alastria/data
 modules: admin:1.0 debug:1.0 eth:1.0 istanbul:1.0 miner:1.0 net:1.0 personal:1.0 rpc:1.0 txpool:1.0 web3:1.0

> personal.newAccount()
Passphrase:
Repeat passphrase:
"0x1234..."
> admin.peers
> admin.nodeInfo
> eth.blockNumber
> eth.syncing
> eth.mining
> eth.coinbase
> web3.version.network
> net.peerCount
> admin.datadir
> txpool.status

Full documentacion can be found in https://geth.ethereum.org/docs/interface/javascript-console

An easy way to test that your node is operating normally is to generate a fund transfer transaction from the node's account, itself from 0 weis.

> personal.unlockAccount(eth.accounts[0],"_your_eth0_password_",2000)
> Unlock account 0x1234...
Passphrase:
true
> eth.sendTransaction({from: eth.accounts[0], to: eth.accounts[0], value:0 })
"0x1234..."

If the transaction appears in Alastria-T Network explorer, the node it's working correctly.

Backup

The following items should be backed up:

  • /root/alastria/data/geth/nodekey: This file contains the cryptographic information for joying the network. This file can be restored to start over a new installation without restarting the permissioning process.
  • /root/alastria/data/keystore/: This directory contains local accounts created from the node.

Backup/Restore LevelDB

LevelDB is the storaga format used by geth (and GoQuorum):

$ ./geth export /mnt/dump.gz --datadir /root/alastria/geth_root_directory --syncmode full

Resetting DLT

$ cp /root/alastria/data/geth/nodekey <enode-backup>
$ geth removedb_DONOTDELETEACCIDENTALY --datadir /root/alastria/data
$ geth --datadir /root/alastria/data init /root/genesis.json
$ cp <enode-backup> /root/alastria/data/geth/nodekey
$ (restart-container)

Istanbul Governance IBFT

As the T-network uses the Istanbul BFT consensus protocol, the way to generate new blocks in the test-net is to have validator nodes available in the network and integrate them into the set of nodes that are part of the validation round.

Each round is initiated by a different node that "proposes" a set of transactions in a block and distributes them to the rest of the nodes.

The validator nodes must focus on operating the consensus protocol, integrating the transactions in the blockchain and distributing them to the rest of the nodes.

geth args for regular/general Nodes

NODE_ARGS=' --rpc --rpcaddr 0.0.0.0 --rpcport 22000 --rpccorsdomain "*" --rpcvhosts "*" --rpcapi admin,db,eth,debug,miner,net,shh,txpool,personal,web3,quorum,istanbul'

Also WebSockets connection is allowed:

NODE_ARGS=${NODE_ARGS}' --ws --wsaddr 0.0.0.0 --wsport 22001 --wsorigins "*" --wsapi admin,db,eth,debug,miner,net,shh,txpool,personal,web3,quorum,istanbul'

NOTE: use of GraphQL will be available soon.

Application Ports

To use your node through web3 applications, some connection method must be enabled. In this case, the following connection methods are offered:

  • JSON-RPC connection: you should upgrade the following files, in order to allow Web3.JS or EtherJS connections; docker-compose.yml allow new connection from tcp/22000, or the one defined in alastria-node-data/env/geth.common.sh related to JSON-RPC connections.

NOTE: exposing this port should be controlled by any kind of firewall, or using any proxy filtering, as proposed in alastria-access-point project.

Boot Nodes

Boot nodes are responsible for permitting the nodes in the network. They are visible to all types of nodes. The boot node should not be used in any case to operate directly with it to interact with the network, so only IPC ports are allowed.

geth args for boot nodes

NODE_ARGS="--maxpeers 256"

Validator Nodes

The validator nodes should not be used in any case to operate directly with it to interact with the network, so nor JSON-RPC nor WebSockets ports are not allowed.

  • istanbul.getValidators() retrieves the list of validators that make up the validation round.

  • istanbul.propose ("0x ...", true) votes for the validator represented by the coinbase to be integrated into the validation round. It must be accepted by at least half of the nodes.

  • istanbul.propose ("0x ...", false) votes for the validator represented by the coinbase to be excluded from the validation round. It must be rejected by at least half of the nodes.

  • istanbul.getSnapshot() get current status for changes in validator nodes.

$ geth attach alastria/data/geth.ipc
> istanbul.getValidators() 
[...]
> istanbul.getSnapshot()
[...]
> istanbul.getSignersFromBlock()
[...]
> istanbul.propose("_coinbase_of_node_validator_", true) #add validator node
> istanbul.propose("_coinbase_of_node_validator_", false) #remove validator node
>

geth args for validator nodes

NODE_ARGS=" --maxpeers 32 --mine --miner.gastarget 8000000 --miner.gaslimit 10000000 --minerthreads $(grep -c "processor" /proc/cpuinfo) --miner.extradata $NODE_NAME"

Other Resources

Contributing

The following developments are in place or in backlog. Any help/volunteers are welcomed:

  • Create Ansible, Swarm, Makefile, Chef,... recipes in order to performing node installs.
  • Upgrade to the new EVM and the new GoQuorum version. WIP 🔥🔥🔥
  • Netstats improvements, to allow this tool to handle a very big number of nodes.
  • Validator nodes automatic round, to allow the network to make automatic change of the validator nodes without intervention of the humans administrators, in case of any fault/malfunctioning of the nodes.
  • HardFork to upgrade Geth binary to prepare for Gas implementation Faucet or Gas Distributor.
  • Upcoming releases of Alastria-T Network will use Orion or EtherSigner as layer for private transactions.
  • Promote the use of local explorers.
  • Improve monitoring system for nodes in network.

Help Resources

Please, use Github to contribute and collaborate on open issues that are in development on Alastria Github platform. Do not hesitate to contact Alastria Support Team to solve any doubt in [email protected].

Changes from alastria-node repo

The following lines are changes from testnet2 branch:

FAQs

  • Q: How conncent Truffle with AlastriaB network?
  • A: Lastest versions of GoQuorum use HDWallet for accesing the node. This is an example:
const fs = require("fs");
const HDWalletProvider = require("@truffle/hdwallet-provider");
const keythereum = require('keythereum');

/**
 * Use https://iancoleman.io/bip39/ for generate a .secret file
 */
const mnemonic = fs.readFileSync(".secret").toString().trim();
const localNode = "http://your-node:22000"

module.exports = {
  networks: {
    'alastriaT': {
      gasPrice: 0x0,
      provider: () => {
        return new HDWalletProvider(mnemonic, localNode);
      },
      network_id: "83584648538",
    },
  },
  compilers: {
    solc: {
      version: "0.5.17",
      settings: {
        optimizer: {
          enabled: true,
          runs: 100
        },
        evmVersion: "byzantium"
      }
    }
  }
}

  • Q: How to recover a DLT copy from a backup?
  • A: A full copy of the Alastria DLT currently occupies approximately 300GB (as of the first quarter of 2024). In the event of a node issue, recovering a hot copy can take around 4 days. However, with a backup available, the recovery time can be significantly reduced. If you trust another partner or a backup provided by Alastria dated 20240302 at block 179598083, you can add it to your node.
# Stop the contanier
# Be sure about the directory you are working on
# Make a copy of the private key (the nodekey file)
# Delete the old database
# Decompress de the new one
# Restore the private key
# Start the container

# Example
$ docker stop <contaner_name>
$ pwd
/home/ubuntu/alastria-t-boot/data
$ ls -ltr
total 84
drwx------ 2 root root  4096 Apr 19  2023 keystore
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    12 Apr 25  2023 INITIALIZED
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 36040 Mar 14 17:17 static-nodes.json
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 36040 Mar 14 17:17 permissioned-nodes.json
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root  4096 Mar 14 17:17 geth
srw------- 1 root root     0 Mar 14 17:17 geth.ipc
$ cp geth/nodekey /root/nodekey.root
$ rm -rf geth_DONOTCOPYANDPASTE
$ tar zxvf geth.20240302.179598083.tar.gz -C .
$ cp /root/nodekey.root geth/nodekey 
$ docker start <contaner_name>

Operation documents of Alastria nodes

Other guides related with operation of Alastria Node are available in following documents:

Based on the work of:

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How to install a node in Alastria Red-T (GoQuorum Technology) and tips to deploy and use it

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