- Introduction
- Getting Started
- FAQ
- Relations between prune options and rpc methods
- RPC Implementation Status
- Securing the communication between RPC daemon and Erigon instance via TLS and authentication
- Ethstats
- Allowing only specific methods (Allowlist)
- Trace transactions progress
- Clients getting timeout, but server load is low
- Server load too high
- Faster Batch requests
- For Developers
Erigon's rpcdaemon runs in its own seperate process.
This brings many benefits including easier development, the ability to run multiple daemons at once, and the ability to run the daemon remotely. It is possible to run the daemon locally as well (read-only) if both processes have access to the data folder.
The rpcdaemon gets built as part of the main erigon build process, but you can build it directly with this command:
make rpcdaemon
Run rpcdaemon on same computer with Erigon. It's default option because it using Shared Memory access to Erigon's db -
it's much faster than TCP access. Provide both --datadir and --private.api.addr flags:
make erigon
./build/bin/erigon --datadir=<your_data_dir> --private.api.addr=localhost:9090
make rpcdaemon
./build/bin/rpcdaemon --datadir=<your_data_dir> --txpool.api.addr=localhost:9090 --private.api.addr=localhost:9090 --http.api=eth,erigon,web3,net,debug,trace,txpool
Note that we've also specified which RPC namespaces to enable in the above command by --http.api flag.
To start the daemon remotely - just don't set --datadir flag:
make erigon
./build/bin/erigon --datadir=<your_data_dir> --private.api.addr=0.0.0.0:9090
make rpcdaemon
./build/bin/rpcdaemon --private.api.addr=<erigon_ip>:9090 --txpool.api.addr=localhost:9090 --http.api=eth,erigon,web3,net,debug,trace,txpool
The daemon should respond with something like:
INFO [date-time] HTTP endpoint opened url=localhost:8545...
When RPC daemon runs remotely, by default it maintains a state cache, which is updated every time when Erigon imports a
new block. When state cache is reasonably warm, it allows such remote RPC daemon to execute queries related to latest
block (i.e. to current state) with comparable performance to a local RPC daemon
(around 2x slower vs 10x slower without state cache). Since there can be multiple such RPC daemons per one Erigon node,
it may scale well for some workloads that are heavy on the current state queries.
Running the daemon also opens an endpoint /health that provides a basic health check.
If the health check is successful it returns 200 OK.
If the health check fails it returns 500 Internal Server Error.
Configuration of the health check is sent as POST body of the method.
{
"min_peer_count": <minimal number of the node peers>,
"known_block": <number_of_block_that_node_should_know>
}
Not adding a check disables that.
min_peer_count -- checks for mimimum of healthy node peers. Requires
net namespace to be listed in http.api.
known_block -- sets up the block that node has to know about. Requires
eth namespace to be listed in http.api.
Example request
http POST http://localhost:8545/health --raw '{"min_peer_count": 3, "known_block": "0x1F"}'
Example response
{
"check_block": "HEALTHY",
"healthcheck_query": "HEALTHY",
"min_peer_count": "HEALTHY"
}
By default, the rpcdaemon serves data from localhost:8545. You may send curl commands to see if things are
working.
Try eth_blockNumber for example. In a third terminal window enter this command:
curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" --data '{"jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": "eth_blockNumber", "params": [], "id":1}' localhost:8545
This should return something along the lines of this (depending on how far your Erigon node has synced):
{
"jsonrpc": "2.0",
"id": 1,
"result":" 0xa5b9ba"
}
Also, there are extensive instructions for using Postman to test the RPC.
Next options available (by --prune flag):
* h - prune history (ChangeSets, HistoryIndices - used to access historical state, like eth_getStorageAt, eth_getBalanceAt, debug_traceTransaction, trace_block, trace_transaction, etc.)
* r - prune receipts (Receipts, Logs, LogTopicIndex, LogAddressIndex - used by eth_getLogs and similar RPC methods)
* t - prune tx lookup (used to get transaction by hash)
* c - prune call traces (used by trace_filter method)
By default data pruned after 90K blocks, can change it by flags like --prune.history.after=100_000
Some methods, if not found historical data in DB, can fallback to old blocks re-execution - but it require h.
Label "remote" means: --private.api.addr flag is required.
The following table shows the current implementation status of Erigon's RPC daemon.
| Command | Avail | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| web3_clientVersion | Yes | |
| web3_sha3 | Yes | |
| net_listening | HC | (remote hard coded returns true) |
| net_peerCount | Limited | internal sentries only |
| net_version | Yes | remote. |
| eth_blockNumber | Yes | |
| eth_chainID/eth_chainId | Yes | |
| eth_protocolVersion | Yes | |
| eth_syncing | Yes | |
| eth_gasPrice | Yes | |
| eth_maxPriorityFeePerGas | Yes | |
| eth_feeHistory | Yes | |
| eth_getBlockByHash | Yes | |
| eth_getBlockByNumber | Yes | |
| eth_getBlockTransactionCountByHash | Yes | |
| eth_getBlockTransactionCountByNumber | Yes | |
| eth_getUncleByBlockHashAndIndex | Yes | |
| eth_getUncleByBlockNumberAndIndex | Yes | |
| eth_getUncleCountByBlockHash | Yes | |
| eth_getUncleCountByBlockNumber | Yes | |
| eth_getTransactionByHash | Yes | |
| eth_getRawTransactionByHash | Yes | |
| eth_getTransactionByBlockHashAndIndex | Yes | |
| eth_retRawTransactionByBlockHashAndIndex | Yes | |
| eth_getTransactionByBlockNumberAndIndex | Yes | |
| eth_retRawTransactionByBlockNumberAndIndex | Yes | |
| eth_getTransactionReceipt | Yes | |
| eth_getBlockReceipts | Yes | |
| eth_estimateGas | Yes | |
| eth_getBalance | Yes | |
| eth_getCode | Yes | |
| eth_getTransactionCount | Yes | |
| eth_getStorageAt | Yes | |
| eth_call | Yes | |
| eth_callBundle | Yes | |
| eth_createAccessList | Yes | |
| eth_newFilter | - | not yet implemented |
| eth_newBlockFilter | - | not yet implemented |
| eth_newPendingTransactionFilter | - | not yet implemented |
| eth_getFilterChanges | - | not yet implemented |
| eth_uninstallFilter | - | not yet implemented |
| eth_getLogs | Yes | |
| eth_accounts | No | deprecated |
| eth_sendRawTransaction | Yes | remote. |
| eth_sendTransaction | - | not yet implemented |
| eth_sign | No | deprecated |
| eth_signTransaction | - | not yet implemented |
| eth_signTypedData | - | ???? |
| eth_getProof | - | not yet implemented |
| eth_mining | Yes | returns true if --mine flag provided |
| eth_coinbase | Yes | |
| eth_hashrate | Yes | |
| eth_submitHashrate | Yes | |
| eth_getWork | Yes | |
| eth_submitWork | Yes | |
| eth_subscribe | Limited | Websock Only - newHeads, |
| newPendingTransactions | ||
| eth_unsubscribe | Yes | Websock Only |
| engine_newPayloadV1 | Yes | |
| engine_forkchoiceUpdatedV1 | Yes | |
| engine_getPayloadV1 | Yes | |
| engine_exchangeTransitionConfigurationV1 | Yes | |
| debug_accountRange | Yes | Private Erigon debug module |
| debug_accountAt | Yes | Private Erigon debug module |
| debug_getModifiedAccountsByNumber | Yes | |
| debug_getModifiedAccountsByHash | Yes | |
| debug_storageRangeAt | Yes | |
| debug_traceBlockByHash | Yes | Streaming (can handle huge results) |
| debug_traceBlockByNumber | Yes | Streaming (can handle huge results) |
| debug_traceTransaction | Yes | Streaming (can handle huge results) |
| debug_traceCall | Yes | Streaming (can handle huge results) |
| trace_call | Yes | |
| trace_callMany | Yes | |
| trace_rawTransaction | - | not yet implemented (come help!) |
| trace_replayBlockTransactions | yes | stateDiff only (come help!) |
| trace_replayTransaction | yes | stateDiff only (come help!) |
| trace_block | Yes | |
| trace_filter | Yes | no pagination, but streaming |
| trace_get | Yes | |
| trace_transaction | Yes | |
| txpool_content | Yes | remote |
| txpool_status | Yes | remote |
| eth_getCompilers | No | deprecated |
| eth_compileLLL | No | deprecated |
| eth_compileSolidity | No | deprecated |
| eth_compileSerpent | No | deprecated |
| db_putString | No | deprecated |
| db_getString | No | deprecated |
| db_putHex | No | deprecated |
| db_getHex | No | deprecated |
| erigon_getHeaderByHash | Yes | Erigon only |
| erigon_getHeaderByNumber | Yes | Erigon only |
| erigon_getLogsByHash | Yes | Erigon only |
| erigon_forks | Yes | Erigon only |
| erigon_issuance | Yes | Erigon only |
| erigon_GetBlockByTimestamp | Yes | Erigon only |
| starknet_call | Yes | Starknet only |
| bor_getSnapshot | Yes | Bor only |
| bor_getAuthor | Yes | Bor only |
| bor_getSnapshotAtHash | Yes | Bor only |
| bor_getSigners | Yes | Bor only |
| bor_getSignersAtHash | Yes | Bor only |
| bor_getCurrentProposer | Yes | Bor only |
| bor_getCurrentValidators | Yes | Bor only |
| bor_getRootHash | Yes | Bor only |
This table is constantly updated. Please visit again.
In some cases, it is useful to run Erigon nodes in a different network (for example, in a Public cloud), but RPC daemon locally. To ensure the integrity of communication and access control to the Erigon node, TLS authentication can be enabled. On the high level, the process consists of these steps (this process needs to be done for any "cluster" of Erigon and RPC daemon nodes that are supposed to work together):
- Generate key pair for the Certificate Authority (CA). The private key of CA will be used to authorise new Erigon instances as well as new RPC daemon instances, so that they can mutually authenticate.
- Create CA certificate file that needs to be deployed on any Erigon instance and any RPC daemon. This CA cerf file is used as a "root of trust", whatever is in it, will be trusted by the participants when they authenticate their counterparts.
- For each Erigon instance and each RPC daemon instance, generate a key pair. If you are lazy, you can generate one pair for all Erigon nodes, and one pair for all RPC daemons, and copy these keys around.
- Using the CA private key, create cerificate file for each public key generated on the previous step. This effectively "inducts" these keys into the "cluster of trust".
- On each instance, deploy 3 files - CA certificate, instance key, and certificate signed by CA for this instance key.
Following is the detailed description of how it can be done using openssl suite of tools.
Generate CA key pair using Elliptic Curve (as opposed to RSA). The generated CA key will be in the file CA-key.pem.
Access to this file will allow anyone to later include any new instance key pair into the "cluster of trust", so keep it
secure.
openssl ecparam -name prime256v1 -genkey -noout -out CA-key.pem
Create CA self-signed certificate (this command will ask questions, answers aren't important for now). The file created
by this command is CA-cert.pem
openssl req -x509 -new -nodes -key CA-key.pem -sha256 -days 3650 -out CA-cert.pem
For Erigon node, generate a key pair:
openssl ecparam -name prime256v1 -genkey -noout -out erigon-key.pem
Also, generate one for the RPC daemon:
openssl ecparam -name prime256v1 -genkey -noout -out RPC-key.pem
Now create certificate signing request for Erigon key pair:
openssl req -new -key erigon-key.pem -out erigon.csr
And from this request, produce the certificate (signed by CA), proving that this key is now part of the "cluster of trust"
openssl x509 -req -in erigon.csr -CA CA-cert.pem -CAkey CA-key.pem -CAcreateserial -out erigon.crt -days 3650 -sha256
Then, produce the certificate signing request for RPC daemon key pair:
openssl req -new -key RPC-key.pem -out RPC.csr
And from this request, produce the certificate (signed by CA), proving that this key is now part of the "cluster of trust"
openssl x509 -req -in RPC.csr -CA CA-cert.pem -CAkey CA-key.pem -CAcreateserial -out RPC.crt -days 3650 -sha256
When this is all done, these three files need to be placed on the machine where Erigon is running: CA-cert.pem
, erigon-key.pem, erigon.crt. And Erigon needs to be run with these extra options:
--tls --tls.cacert CA-cert.pem --tls.key erigon-key.pem --tls.cert erigon.crt
On the RPC daemon machine, these three files need to be placed: CA-cert.pem, RPC-key.pem, and RPC.crt. And RPC
daemon needs to be started with these extra options:
--tls.key RPC-key.pem --tls.cacert CA-cert.pem --tls.cert RPC.crt
WARNING Normally, the "client side" (which in our case is RPC daemon), verifies that the host name of the server matches the "Common Name" attribute of the "server" cerificate. At this stage, this verification is turned off, and it will be turned on again once we have updated the instruction above on how to properly generate cerificates with "Common Name".
When running Erigon instance in the Google Cloud, for example, you need to specify the Internal IP in
the --private.api.addr option. And, you will need to open the firewall on the port you are using, to that connection
to the Erigon instances can be made.
This version of the RPC daemon is compatible with ethstats-client.
To run ethstats, run the RPC daemon remotely and open some of the APIs.
./build/bin/rpcdaemon --private.api.addr=localhost:9090 --http.api=net,eth,web3
Then update your app.json for ethstats-client like that:
[
{
"name": "ethstats",
"script": "app.js",
"log_date_format": "YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm Z",
"merge_logs": false,
"watch": false,
"max_restarts": 10,
"exec_interpreter": "node",
"exec_mode": "fork_mode",
"env": {
"NODE_ENV": "production",
"RPC_HOST": "localhost",
"RPC_PORT": "8545",
"LISTENING_PORT": "30303",
"INSTANCE_NAME": "Erigon node",
"CONTACT_DETAILS": <your twitter handle>,
"WS_SERVER": "wss://ethstats.net/api",
"WS_SECRET": <put your secret key here>,
"VERBOSITY": 2
}
}
]Run ethstats-client through pm2 as usual.
You will see these warnings in the RPC daemon output, but they are expected
WARN [11-05|09:03:47.911] Served conn=127.0.0.1:59753 method=eth_newBlockFilter reqid=5 t="21.194µs" err="the method eth_newBlockFilter does not exist/is not available"
WARN [11-05|09:03:47.911] Served conn=127.0.0.1:59754 method=eth_newPendingTransactionFilter reqid=6 t="9.053µs" err="the method eth_newPendingTransactionFilter does not exist/is not available"
In some cases you might want to only allow certain methods in the namespaces and hide others. That is possible
with rpc.accessList flag.
-
Create a file, say,
rules.json -
Add the following content
{
"allow": [
"net_version",
"web3_eth_getBlockByHash"
]
}- Provide this file to the rpcdaemon using
--rpc.accessListflag
> rpcdaemon --private.api.addr=localhost:9090 --http.api=eth,debug,net,web3 --rpc.accessList=rules.json
Now only these two methods are available.
In this case: increase default rate-limit - amount of requests server handle simultaneously - requests over this limit will wait. Increase it - if your 'hot data' is small or have much RAM or see "request timeout" while server load is low.
./build/bin/erigon --private.api.addr=localhost:9090 --private.api.ratelimit=1024
Reduce --private.api.ratelimit
./../../docs/programmers_guide/db_faq.md
Currently batch requests are spawn multiple goroutines and process all sub-requests in parallel. To limit impact of 1
huge batch to other users - added flag --rpc.batch.concurrency (default: 2). Increase it to process large batches
faster.
Known Issue: if at least 1 request is "stremable" (has parameter of type *jsoniter.Stream) - then whole batch will processed sequentially (on 1 goroutine).
go.mod stores right version of generators, use make grpc to install it and generate code (it also installs protoc
into ./build/bin folder).