Synchronization

StreamingFast Firehose Ethereum synchronization

Ethereum Synchronization

Synchronization is the process of:

  • collecting data from other peer nodes on the network,

  • verifying node integrity through cryptography,

  • and building the working node's blockchain data store.

Ethereum Mainnet Synchronization

Start fireeth

The fireeth command is used to start Firehose and begin synchronization with the desired network. In this case, it's the Ethereum Mainnet.

./fireeth -c eth-mainnet.yaml start

The data being processed by the connected node will be displayed as processing occurs. The data los will be presented in the following format.

2022-03-19T10:28:26.666-0400 (fireeth) starting atomic level switcher {"listen_addr": "localhost:1065"}
2022-03-19T10:28:26.666-0400 (<n/a>) registering development exporters from environment variables
2022-03-19T10:28:26.666-0400 (fireeth) starting with config file 'eth-mainnet.yaml'
2022-03-19T10:28:26.666-0400 (fireeth) launching applications: mindreader-node
2022-03-19T10:28:26.666-0400 (mindreader) adding superviser shutdown to plugins {"plugin_name": "log plug func"}
2022-03-19T10:28:26.666-0400 (mindreader) registered log plugin {"plugin count": 1}
2022-03-19T10:28:26.666-0400 (mindreader) adding superviser shutdown to plugins {"plugin_name": "ToZapLogPlugin"}
2022-03-19T10:28:26.666-0400 (mindreader) registered log plugin {"plugin count": 2}
2022-03-19T10:28:26.666-0400 (mindreader) enforcing peering by dns {"peers": ["localhost:13041"]}
2022-03-19T10:28:26.666-0400 (mindreader) created geth superviser {"superviser": {"binary": "./geth", "arguments": ["--networkid=1", "--datadir=/Users/froch/Development/io.streamingfast/firehose-ethereum-mainnet/eth-data/mindreader/data", "--ipcpath=/Users/froch/Development/io.streamingfast/firehose-ethereum-mainnet/eth-data/mindreader/ipc", "--port=30305", "--http", "--http.api=eth,net,web3", "--http.port=8547", "--http.addr=0.0.0.0", "--http.vhosts=*", "--firehose-deep-mind"], "data_dir": "/Users/froch/Development/io.streamingfast/firehose-ethereum-mainnet/eth-data/mindreader/data", "ipc_file_path": "/Users/froch/Development/io.streamingfast/firehose-ethereum-mainnet/eth-data/mindreader/ipc", "last_block_seen": 0, "enode_str": ""}}
2022-03-19T10:28:26.666-0400 (mindreader) creating operator {"options": {"Bootstrapper":null,"EnableSupervisorMonitoring":true,"ShutdownDelay":0}}
2022-03-19T10:28:26.666-0400 (mindreader) parsing backup configs {"configs": [], "factory_count": 0}
2022-03-19T10:28:26.666-0400 (mindreader) backup config {"config": [], "backup_module_count": 0, "backup_schedule_count": 0}
2022-03-19T10:28:26.666-0400 (mindreader) creating new mindreader plugin
2022-03-19T10:28:26.666-0400 (mindreader) adding superviser shutdown to plugins {"plugin_name": "MindReaderPlugin"}
2022-03-19T10:28:26.666-0400 (mindreader) registered log plugin {"plugin count": 3}
2022-03-19T10:28:26.666-0400 (mindreader) adding superviser shutdown to plugins {"plugin_name": "TrxPoolLogPlugin"}
2022-03-19T10:28:26.666-0400 (mindreader) registered log plugin {"plugin count": 4}
2022-03-19T10:28:26.666-0400 (mindreader) launching nodeos mindreader {"config": {"ManagerAPIAddress":":13009","ConnectionWatchdog":false,"GRPCAddr":":13010"}}
2022-03-19T10:28:26.666-0400 (mindreader) retrieved hostname from os {"hostname": "0xACED"}
2022-03-19T10:28:26.666-0400 (mindreader) starting grpc listener {"listen_addr": ":13010"}
2022-03-19T10:28:27.668-0400 (mindreader) grpc server listener ready
2022-03-19T10:28:27.668-0400 (mindreader) launching metrics and readinessManager
2022-03-19T10:28:27.668-0400 (mindreader) launching operator
2022-03-19T10:28:27.668-0400 (mindreader) launching operator HTTP server {"http_listen_addr": ":13009"}
2022-03-19T10:28:27.668-0400 (mindreader) starting webserver {"http_addr": ":13009"}
2022-03-19T10:28:27.669-0400 (mindreader) operator ready to receive commands
2022-03-19T10:28:27.669-0400 (mindreader) received operator command {"command": "start", "params": null}
2022-03-19T10:28:27.669-0400 (mindreader) preparing for start
2022-03-19T10:28:27.669-0400 (mindreader) preparing to start chain
2022-03-19T10:28:27.669-0400 (mindreader) starting mindreader
2022-03-19T10:28:27.676-0400 (mindreader) creating new command instance and launch read loop {"binary": "./geth", "arguments": ["--networkid=1", "--datadir=/Users/froch/Development/io.streamingfast/firehose-ethereum-mainnet/eth-data/mindreader/data", "--ipcpath=/Users/froch/Development/io.streamingfast/firehose-ethereum-mainnet/eth-data/mindreader/ipc", "--port=30305", "--http", "--http.api=eth,net,web3", "--http.port=8547", "--http.addr=0.0.0.0", "--http.vhosts=*", "--firehose-deep-mind"]}
2022-03-19T10:28:27.676-0400 (mindreader) successfully start service
2022-03-19T10:28:27.676-0400 (mindreader) operator ready to receive commands
2022-03-19T10:28:27.676-0400 (mindreader) starting consume flow
2022-03-19T10:28:28.055-0400 (mindreader.geth) initializing deep mind
2022-03-19T10:28:28.055-0400 (mindreader.geth) deep mind initialized                    enabled=true sync_instrumentation_enabled=true mining_enabled=false block_progress_enabled=false compaction_disabled=false archive_blocks_to_keep=0
2022-03-19T10:28:28.057-0400 (mindreader.geth) maximum peer count                       ETH=50 LES=0 total=50
2022-03-19T10:28:28.058-0400 (mindreader.geth) set global gas cap                       cap=50,000,000
2022-03-19T10:28:28.058-0400 (mindreader.geth) allocated trie memory caches             clean=154.00MiB dirty=256.00MiB
2022-03-19T10:28:28.058-0400 (mindreader.geth) allocated cache and file handles         database=/Users/froch/Development/io.streamingfast/firehose-ethereum-mainnet/eth-data/mindreader/data/geth/chaindata cache=512.00MiB handles=5120
2022-03-19T10:28:28.395-0400 (mindreader.geth) opened ancient database                  database=/Users/froch/Development/io.streamingfast/firehose-ethereum-mainnet/eth-data/mindreader/data/geth/chaindata/ancient readonly=false
2022-03-19T10:28:28.395-0400 (mindreader.geth) writing default main-net genesis block
2022-03-19T10:28:28.610-0400 (mindreader.geth) persisted trie from memory database      nodes=12356 size=1.78MiB time=48.465792ms gcnodes=0 gcsize=0.00B gctime=0s livenodes=1 livesize=0.00B
2022-03-19T10:28:28.610-0400 (mindreader.geth) initialised chain configuration          config="{ChainID: 1 Homestead: 1150000 DAO: 1920000 DAOSupport: true EIP150: 2463000 EIP155: 2675000 EIP158: 2675000 Byzantium: 4370000 Constantinople: 7280000 Petersburg: 7280000 Istanbul: 9069000, Muir Glacier: 9200000, Berlin: 12244000, London: 12965000, Arrow Glacier: 13773000, MergeFork: <nil>, Engine: ethash}"
2022-03-19T10:28:28.610-0400 (mindreader.geth) disk storage enabled for ethash caches   dir=/Users/froch/Development/io.streamingfast/firehose-ethereum-mainnet/eth-data/mindreader/data/geth/ethash count=3
2022-03-19T10:28:28.610-0400 (mindreader.geth) disk storage enabled for ethash DAGs     dir=/Users/froch/Library/Ethash count=2
2022-03-19T10:28:28.610-0400 (mindreader.geth) initialising Ethereum protocol           network=1 dbversion=<nil>
2022-03-19T10:28:28.611-0400 (mindreader.geth) loaded most recent local header          number=0 hash=d4e567..cb8fa3 td=17,179,869,184 age=52y11mo2w
2022-03-19T10:28:28.611-0400 (mindreader.geth) loaded most recent local full block      number=0 hash=d4e567..cb8fa3 td=17,179,869,184 age=52y11mo2w
2022-03-19T10:28:28.611-0400 (mindreader.geth) loaded most recent local fast block      number=0 hash=d4e567..cb8fa3 td=17,179,869,184 age=52y11mo2w
2022-03-19T10:28:28.611-0400 (mindreader.geth) failed to load snapshot, regenerating    err="missing or corrupted snapshot"
2022-03-19T10:28:28.611-0400 (mindreader.geth) rebuilding state snapshot
2022-03-19T10:28:28.611-0400 (mindreader.geth) resuming state snapshot generation       root=d7f897..0f0544 accounts=0 slots=0 storage=0.00B elapsed="140.25µs"
2022-03-19T10:28:28.611-0400 (mindreader.geth) regenerated local transaction journal    transactions=0 accounts=0
2022-03-19T10:28:28.612-0400 (mindreader.geth) gasprice oracle is ignoring threshold set threshold=2
2022-03-19T10:28:28.612-0400 (mindreader.geth) error reading unclean shutdown markers   error="leveldb: not found"
2022-03-19T10:28:28.612-0400 (mindreader.geth) starting peer-to-peer node               instance=Geth/v1.10.16-dm-stable-21e9fa4c-20220215/darwin-arm64/go1.17.8
2022-03-19T10:28:28.748-0400 (mindreader.geth) generated state snapshot                 accounts=8893 slots=0 storage=409.64KiB elapsed=136.648ms
2022-03-19T10:28:28.771-0400 (mindreader.geth) new local node record                    seq=1,647,700,108,770 id=7d27815dfed825bd ip=127.0.0.1 udp=30305 tcp=30305
2022-03-19T10:28:28.771-0400 (mindreader.geth) started P2P networking                   self=enode://d4136ec7b136025f14760c49f7b51625c44a9cc9e47d24d175995a6db66e4d744fe1a80b5028b2e1c1723006caa25a856541edfd5dd29670868679ed862f1f83@127.0.0.1:30305
2022-03-19T10:28:28.772-0400 (mindreader.geth) iPC endpoint opened                      url=/Users/froch/Development/io.streamingfast/firehose-ethereum-mainnet/eth-data/mindreader/ipc
2022-03-19T10:28:28.772-0400 (mindreader.geth) hTTP server started                      endpoint=[::]:8547 prefix= cors= vhosts=*
2022-03-19T10:28:30.592-0400 (mindreader.geth) new local node record                    seq=1,647,700,108,771 id=7d27815dfed825bd ip=107.190.37.205 udp=30305 tcp=30305
2022-03-19T10:28:36.670-0400 (mindreader) got enode {"hostname": "localhost:13041", "enodes": []}
2022-03-19T10:28:38.957-0400 (mindreader.geth) looking for peers                        peercount=0 tried=11 static=0
2022-03-19T10:28:46.674-0400 (mindreader) got enode {"hostname": "localhost:13041", "enodes": []}
2022-03-19T10:28:49.623-0400 (mindreader.geth) looking for peers                        peercount=0 tried=27 static=0
2022-03-19T10:28:54.187-0400 (mindreader.geth) block synchronisation started
...

After a short delay, the blocks begin syncing.

...
2022-03-19T10:28:57.497-0400 (merger) downloading one block file {"canonical_name": "0000000038-20150730T153109.0-b624ded0-d3f13e32-1"}
2022-03-19T10:28:57.498-0400 (merger) downloading one block file {"canonical_name": "0000000039-20150730T153112.0-5c99c0f7-b624ded0-1"}
2022-03-19T10:28:57.499-0400 (merger) downloading one block file {"canonical_name": "0000000040-20150730T153113.0-a852d084-5c99c0f7-1"}
...

Tip: To terminate the Firehose processing and connection to the Ethereum network press the Control + C keys.

The Firehose sync process will shut down gracefully and continue where it left off upon the next restart.

Synchronization Processes

Data Extraction in Detail

The mindreader-node is a process that runs and manages the Geth blockchain node. The mindreader-node also consumes the blockchain data that is extracted from the instrumented Geth node and outputs individual block data.

The mindreader-node process will either write individual block data into separate files called one-block files, or merge one hundred blocks of data together creating a 100-blocks file.

Merged Mode

This behavior is configurable with the mindreader-node-merge-and-store-directly flag.

When running the mindreader-node process with the mindreader-node-merge-and-store-directly flag enabled, the mindreader is running in merged mode. When the flag is disabled it's running in normal mode.

Block Mergers

In the scenario where the mindreader-node process stores one-block files the merger process can be run on the side. When the merger process is running in this fashion one-block files are merged into 100-block files.

The mindreader-node process is run in merged mode during chain synchronization. After the synchronization process has completed the mindreader-node will store one-block files running in its regular mode of operation.

Block File Data Storage

The one-block files and 100-block files will be stored in the data-dir/storage/merged-blocks and data-dir/storage/one-blocks directories, respectively. The naming convention of the block files uses the number of the first block in the file.

Data Introspection Tools

Data Introspection in Detail

The Firehose data introspection tools allow you to introspect one-blocks and merged blocks files.

Data inspection becomes possible through special sfeth tooling.

The tools print block can be used to introspect the synchronized block data.

Note: Data inspection can be run after 10,000 blocks have been synced.

./fireeth tools print blocks --store ./eth-data/storage/merged-blocks 100000

Block data will be displayed in the following format.

...
Block #10000 (dc2d938) (prev: b9ecd2d): 0 transactions, 1 balance changes
Block #10001 (7e86236) (prev: dc2d938): 0 transactions, 1 balance changes
Block #10002 (d2be089) (prev: 7e86236): 0 transactions, 1 balance changes
Block #10003 (666b0b3) (prev: d2be089): 0 transactions, 2 balance changes
Block #10004 (c191297) (prev: 666b0b3): 0 transactions, 1 balance changes
Block #10005 (7cd875c) (prev: c191297): 0 transactions, 1 balance changes
Block #10006 (dffaa95) (prev: 7cd875c): 0 transactions, 2 balance changes
...

In addition, one-block files can be inspected using the tools print one-block command.

./fireeth tools print one-block --store ./eth-data/storage/one-blocks 0000000000

Running Firehose

Data Analyzation & Streaming

After the Ethereum network has finished synchronization the data collected can be analyzed and streamed through the mindreader process.

./fireeth -c eth-mainnet.yaml start mindreader-node

Firehose, fireeth, is now running a mindreader-node process that is extracting and merging the 100-blocks of data at a time.

Firehose & Relayer

The fireeth command launches both the Relayer and Firehose.

The two processes work together to provide the Firehose data stream. The Firehose process is running and listening on port 13042.

./fireeth -c eth-mainnet.yaml start relayer firehose

The following message will be printed to the terminal window after launching Firehose.

2022-08-17T09:51:26.807-0700 (<n/a>) registering development exporters from environment variables
2022-08-17T09:51:26.807-0700 (fireeth) starting atomic level switcher {"listen_addr": "localhost:1065"}
2022-08-17T09:51:26.807-0700 (fireeth) ulimit max open files before adjustment {"current_value": 256}
2022-08-17T09:51:26.807-0700 (fireeth) ulimit max open files after adjustment {"current_value": 1000000}
2022-08-17T09:51:26.807-0700 (fireeth) sfeth binary started {"data_dir": "eth-data"}
2022-08-17T09:51:26.807-0700 (fireeth) starting with config file 'eth-mainnet.yaml'
2022-08-17T09:51:26.807-0700 (fireeth) launcher created
2022-08-17T09:51:26.807-0700 (fireeth) launching applications: firehose,relayer
2022-08-17T09:51:26.807-0700 (fireeth) creating application {"app": "firehose"}
2022-08-17T09:51:26.807-0700 (dmetrics) can't listen on the metrics endpoint
2022-08-17T09:51:26.807-0700 (fireeth) creating application {"app": "relayer"}
2022-08-17T09:51:26.808-0700 (fireeth) launching app {"app": "firehose"}
2022-08-17T09:51:26.808-0700 (fireeth) launching app {"app": "relayer"}
2022-08-17T09:51:26.808-0700 (fireeth) unable to start profiling server {"error": "listen tcp 127.0.0.1:6060: bind: address already in use", "listen_addr": "localhost:6060"}
2022-08-17T09:51:26.808-0700 (relayer) starting relayer {"sources_addr": [":13010"], "grpc_listen_addr": ":13011", "merger_addr": ":13012", "buffer_size": 300, "source_request_burst": 0, "max_source_latency": "10m0s", "min_start_offset": 120, "source_store_url": "file:///Users/<user>/Desktop/streamingfast/Firehose-Setup/sf-firehose/eth-data/storage/merged-blocks"}
2022-08-17T09:51:26.808-0700 (fireeth) app status switching to warning {"app_id": "relayer"}
2022-08-17T09:51:26.808-0700 (firehose) running firehose {"config": {"BlockStoreURLs":["file:///Users/<user>/Desktop/streamingfast/Firehose-Setup/sf-firehose/eth-data/storage/merged-blocks"],"IrreversibleBlocksIndexStoreURL":"","IrreversibleBlocksBundleSizes":[100000,10000,1000,100],"BlockStreamAddr":"","GRPCListenAddr":":13042","GRPCShutdownGracePeriod":1000000000,"RealtimeTolerance":120000000000}}
2022-08-17T09:51:26.808-0700 (fireeth) failed starting atomic level switcher {"error": "listen tcp 127.0.0.1:1065: bind: address already in use", "listen_addr": "localhost:1065"}
2022-08-17T09:51:26.808-0700 (dstore) sanitized base path {"original_base_path": "/Users/<user>/Desktop/streamingfast/Firehose-Setup/sf-firehose/eth-data/storage/merged-blocks", "sanitized_base_path": "/Users/<user>/Desktop/streamingfast/Firehose-Setup/sf-firehose/eth-data/storage/merged-blocks"}
2022-08-17T09:51:26.808-0700 (relayer) tcp listener created
2022-08-17T09:51:26.808-0700 (firehose) creating gRPC server {"live_support": false}
2022-08-17T09:51:26.808-0700 (dstore) sanitized base path {"original_base_path": "/Users/<user>/Desktop/streamingfast/Firehose-Setup/sf-firehose/eth-data/storage/merged-blocks", "sanitized_base_path": "/Users/<user>/Desktop/streamingfast/Firehose-Setup/sf-firehose/eth-data/storage/merged-blocks"}
2022-08-17T09:51:26.808-0700 (firehose) registering grpc services
2022-08-17T09:51:26.808-0700 (relayer) listening & serving grpc content {"grpc_listen_addr": ":13011"}
2022-08-17T09:51:26.808-0700 (firehose) firehose is now ready to accept request
2022-08-17T09:51:26.808-0700 (firehose) launching gRPC server {"listen_addr": ":13042"}
2022-08-17T09:51:26.808-0700 (firehose) serving gRPC (over HTTP router) (plain-text) {"listen_addr": ":13042"}
2022-08-17T09:51:26.810-0700 (relayer) source head latency too high {"sources_addr": [":13010"], "max_source_latency": "10m0s", "observed_latency": "61798h38m5.810142s"}
2022-08-17T09:51:27.312-0700 (relayer) source head latency too high {"sources_addr": [":13010"], "max_source_latency": "10m0s", "observed_latency": "61798h32m45.312764s"}
2022-08-17T09:51:27.808-0700 (fireeth) app status switching to running {"app_id": "relayer"}
2022-08-17T09:51:27.814-0700 (relayer) source head latency too high {"sources_addr": [":13010"], "max_source_latency": "10m0s", "observed_latency": "61798h29m12.814542s"}
...

At its core, Firehose is a gRPC stream. The available gRPC services can be displayed using grpcurl.

Note: Installation instructions for grpcurl can be found in its official GitHub repository.

grpcurl -plaintext localhost:13042 list

The available gRPC services will print the following message to the terminal window.

grpc.health.v1.Health
grpc.reflection.v1alpha.ServerReflection
sf.firehose.v1.Stream
sf.firehose.v2.Stream
sf.substreams.v1.Stream

Block streaming can be accomplished through the sf.firehose.v1.Stream service.

The following command will begin the Firehose block streaming capability.

grpcurl -plaintext -d '{"start_block_num": 10}' localhost:13042 sf.firehose.v1.Stream.Blocks

Block data formed into a JSON representation resembling the following.

{
  "block": {
    "@type": "type.googleapis.com/sf.ethereum.codec.v1.Block",
    "balanceChanges": [
      {
        "address": "KJIeTiydhPTA8MDOuZH0V1Gg/pM=",
        "oldValue": {
          "bytes": "M//VkvdcOeAA"
        },
        "newValue": {
          "bytes": "NEU5JHmhLeAA"
        },
        "reason": "REASON_REWARD_MINE_BLOCK"
      }
    ],
    "hash": "rWCqFYquYxvCh1Iy3w4OPNjtdRWloidwH+aAy7Cp6I8=",
    "header": {
      "parentHash": "2UDI+9iNUQ6fR13LTotFhgw9tYW3AP7gIjSNAIo/MWg=",
      "uncleHash": "HcxN6N7HXXqrhbVntszUGtMSRRuUinQT8KFC/UDUk0c=",
      "coinbase": "KJIeTiydhPTA8MDOuZH0V1Gg/pM=",
      "stateRoot": "RSVmg4SxOM9mawD5Z4isp+mRTPmb+gxfAmNu00UBEog=",
      "transactionsRoot": "VugfFxvMVab/g0XmksD4bltI4BuZbK3AAWIvteNjtCE=",
      "receiptRoot": "VugfFxvMVab/g0XmksD4bltI4BuZbK3AAWIvteNjtCE=",
      "logsBloom": "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==",
      "difficulty": {
        "bytes": "CDbKnao="
      },
      "number": "1488",
      "gasLimit": "5000",
      "timestamp": "2015-07-30T16:20:30Z",
      "extraData": "R2V0aC92MS4wLjAvbGludXgvZ28xLjQuMg==",
      "mixHash": "zMVn27pvcFYbAQsBJNFNjsQCIOV03Wv5s2z6QBuIV5c=",
      "nonce": "8306990282153570439",
      "hash": "rWCqFYquYxvCh1Iy3w4OPNjtdRWloidwH+aAy7Cp6I8="
    },
    "number": "1488",
    "size": "539",
    "ver": 1
  },
  "step": "STEP_NEW",
  "cursor": "CFAZVtrTEjPGpZJWNJE2h6WwLpcyB15nXQG0fhdB1Nr39XqUjMigA2AnOx_Yl6zy3he_HVr53orORypzp5RXudDvkr017yM_QXstxdzo87S8KqHyaANOebM0VeuMat_RXT_eZw3_frMD5tSzMqWPbkI1NsEgL2exiWwBotRdc6ESu3E0xD71c8aE0amR8oJA-LNxRbepkymgBzZ8fx0Maw=="
}

Full searchability and discoverability of Ethereum and ERC20 networks are now possible and the underlying blockchain data can be sliced and diced into a myriad of different solutions.

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