Multi-node

Automated Localnet with Ignite CLI

Once you have installed ignite, just run the localnet by using

ignite chain serve 

Detailed instructions can be found in the Ignite CLI documentation.

Automated Localnet with Docker

Build & Start

To build start a 4 node testnet run:

make localnet-start

This command creates a 4-node network using the blockxdnode Docker image. The ports for each node are found in this table:

Node ID	P2P Port	Tendermint RPC Port	REST/ Ethereum JSON-RPC Port	WebSocket Port
blockxnode0	26656	26657	8545	8546
blockxnode1	26659	26660	8547	8548
blockxnode2	26661	26662	8549	8550
node3	26663	26664	8551	8552

To update the binary, just rebuild it and restart the nodes:

make localnet-start

The command above command will run containers in the background using Docker compose. You will see the network being created:

...
Creating network "blockx_localnet" with driver "bridge"
Creating blockxdnode0 ... done
Creating blockxdnode2 ... done
Creating blockxdnode1 ... done
Creating blockxdnode3 ... done

Stop Localnet

Once you are done, execute:

make localnet-stop

Configuration

The make localnet-start creates files for a 4-node testnet in ./build by calling the blockxd testnet command. This outputs a handful of files in the ./build directory:

tree -L 3 build/

build/
├── blockxd
├── blockxd
├── gentxs
│   ├── node0.json
│   ├── node1.json
│   ├── node2.json
│   └── node3.json
├── node0
│   ├── blockxd
│   │   ├── key_seed.json
│   │   └── keyring-test-cosmos
│   └── blockxd
│       ├── config
│       ├── data
│       └── blockxd.log
├── node1
│   ├── blockxd
│   │   ├── key_seed.json
│   │   └── keyring-test-cosmos
│   └── blockxd
│       ├── config
│       ├── data
│       └── blockxd.log
├── node2
│   ├── blockxd
│   │   ├── key_seed.json
│   │   └── keyring-test-cosmos
│   └── blockxd
│       ├── config
│       ├── data
│       └── blockxd.log
└── node3
    ├── blockxd
    │   ├── key_seed.json
    │   └── keyring-test-cosmos
    └── blockxd
        ├── config
        ├── data
        └── blockxd.log

Each ./build/nodeN directory is mounted to the /blockxd directory in each container.

Logging

In order to see the logs of a particular node you can use the following command:

# node 0: daemon logs
docker exec blockxdnode0 tail blockxd.log

# node 0: REST & RPC logs
docker exec blockxdnode0 tail blockxd.log

The logs for the daemon will look like:

I[2020-07-29|17:33:52.452] starting ABCI with Tendermint                module=main
E[2020-07-29|17:33:53.394] Can't add peer's address to addrbook         module=p2p err="Cannot add non-routable address 272a247b837653cf068d39efd4c407ffbd9a0e6f@192.168.10.5:26656"
E[2020-07-29|17:33:53.394] Can't add peer's address to addrbook         module=p2p err="Cannot add non-routable address 3e05d3637b7ebf4fc0948bbef01b54d670aa810a@192.168.10.4:26656"
E[2020-07-29|17:33:53.394] Can't add peer's address to addrbook         module=p2p err="Cannot add non-routable address 689f8606ede0b26ad5b79ae244c14cc67ab4efe7@192.168.10.3:26656"
I[2020-07-29|17:33:58.828] Executed block                               module=state height=88 validTxs=0 invalidTxs=0
I[2020-07-29|17:33:58.830] Committed state                              module=state height=88 txs=0 appHash=90CC5FA53CF8B5EC49653A14DA20888AD81C92FCF646F04D501453FD89FCC791
I[2020-07-29|17:34:04.032] Executed block                               module=state height=89 validTxs=0 invalidTxs=0
I[2020-07-29|17:34:04.034] Committed state                              module=state height=89 txs=0 appHash=0B54C4DB1A0DACB1EEDCD662B221C048C826D309FD2A2F31FF26BAE8D2D7D8D7
I[2020-07-29|17:34:09.381] Executed block                               module=state height=90 validTxs=0 invalidTxs=0
I[2020-07-29|17:34:09.383] Committed state                              module=state height=90 txs=0 appHash=75FD1EE834F0669D5E717C812F36B21D5F20B3CCBB45E8B8D415CB9C4513DE51
I[2020-07-29|17:34:14.700] Executed block                               module=state height=91 validTxs=0 invalidTxs=0

You can disregard the Can't add peer's address to addrbook warning. As long as the blocks are being produced and the app hashes are the same for each node, there should not be any issues.

Whereas the logs for the REST & RPC server would look like:

I[2020-07-30|09:39:17.488] Starting application REST service (chain-id: "7305661614933169792")... module=rest-server
I[2020-07-30|09:39:17.488] Starting RPC HTTP server on 127.0.0.1:8545   module=rest-server
...

Follow Logs

You can also watch logs as they are produced via Docker with the --follow (-f) flag, for example:

docker logs -f blockxdnode0

Interact with the Localnet

Ethereum JSON-RPC & Websocket Ports

To interact with the testnet via WebSockets or RPC/API, you will send your request to the corresponding ports:

EVM JSON-RPC	Eth Websocket
8545	8546

You can send a curl command such as:

curl -X POST --data '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"eth_accounts","params":[],"id":1}' -H "Content-Type: application/json" 192.162.10.1:8545

The IP address will be the public IP of the docker container.

Keys & Accounts

To interact with blockxd and start querying state or creating txs, you use the blockxd directory of any given node as your home, for example:

blockxd keys list --home ./build/node0/blockxd

Now that accounts exists, you may create new accounts and send those accounts funds!

Each node's seed is located at ./build/nodeN/blockxd/key_seed.json and can be restored to the CLI using the blockxd keys add --restore command

Special Binaries

If you have multiple binaries with different names, you can specify which one to run with the BINARY environment variable. The path of the binary is relative to the attached volume. For example:

# Run with custom binary
BINARY=blockx make localnet-start