20180619 RNode community testing

What you can expect this week

We have a fix to address the issues experienced last week. We will use this time to test the fix to demonstrate nodes connecting to both bootstrap as well as to other nodes on the network.

Prerequisites

Ability to build and run RNode using one of the following:

• .deb
• .rpm
• .tar.gz

These packages will be available in the #node-testing channel in the RChain Discord.

*Note - We do not yet have a Docker image that supports the fix. We may by the start of the session, however at this time (18 June 19:00 UTC) we do not.

If if you are a Mac user, you will need the following: 

• libsodium
  • Using Homebrew
    • Install brew https://brew.sh/

    • Install Libsodium using brew

      brew install libsodium

  • Using MacPorts
    • Install MacPorts http://www.macports.org/

    • Install Libsodium using MacPorts

      port install libsodium

• Java Development Kit (JDK) or Java Runtime Environment (JRE), version 8

Participants

• Pawel Szulc
• Jeremy Busk
• Joshy Orndorff (deb)
• Glen Braun (deb)
• Dror (Docker)
• Ian Bloom (deb)
• Roland Kofler (deb)
• Jake Gillberg (deb)
• Nuno Lopes (Docker)
• Lee Carter (Docker)
• Chibuike David Asamonye (Docker)
• Medha Parlikar 
• Stoica Daniel (deb)

RNode version

RNode v0.4.1 + fix on Pawel's branch

This version not added yet to RChain/RChain repo

Distribution

Deb and .tgz - 

docker pull rchain/rnode:test

Notes

• Recap of last week's test and work since then to resolve issues
• Support for testers building RNode from binaries and Docker

Deb users

To determine correct version

rnode --help
--default-timeout
—no-upnp

Connect to bootstrap node

rnode -b rnode://98b78571b929158b568764e87227c074a1b9db49@52.119.8.10:30304

Check IP address at http://checkip.amazonaws.com

Docker users

To run RNode

User needs to manually add IP address

docker run -v ~/tempvar:/var/lib/rnode -it --name rnode0 --network rchainnet -p 30304 rchain/rnode:test --host 93.158.233.123 --no-upnp -b rnode://98b78571b929158b568764e87227c074a1b9db49@52.119.8.10:30304

Issues

• Deb users - need to update permissions to access /var/lib/rnode

Solution

sudo -u rnode
sudo chown username: /var/lib/rnode
sudo chmod u+w /var/lib/rnode

• Router is not properly configured...
  • Configuration to learn IP address and manually update using --host
  • You can manually open port on a router 
• RNode guessed Jake's IP address incorrectly
• Exposing your node to the network behind a router or VPN allows you to see nodes, but not send message across the network (RNode v0.5)
• Joshy and Jake were trying to send deploys and did not receive confirmation of send/receive

Action items

• Glen did not get Libsodium installed with deb. Had to manually install. Glen to follow up with Pawel.
• --diagnostics destroys terminal, best to run in a separate window. Bug captured in CORE-666.
• Update documentation to support users. Work captured in Sprint 11.
• Today's testers, if you need configuration support, please contact Pawel (pawel@pyrofex.net) to work through configuration issues.
• Follow up on idea to have repo set up for binaries that works like docker hub. Work captured in CORE-692

Summary

This fix version of RNode does support network connection to bootstrap and connection to other peers on the network. Most participants were able to connect and see 10+ peers. Participants that were not successful experienced either issues building and running RNode, or configuration issues related to opening a port behind a router or VPN.