0L tools using swarm

October 29, 2021 · View on GitHub

Purpose

The swarm simulates a diem network by running some diem nodes on localhost. The nodes are pre configured to be in a validator set. The configs for up to five diem nodes are well defined and can be accessed by specifying swarm persona Alice, Bob, Carol, Dave and Eve.

Bringing up a swarm

Assumptions

Throughout this documentation the following paths are used, but they can be changed, if the setup is different on your system:

diem source is cloned into $HOME/libra
the temp directory for swarm files is created in $HOME/swarm_temp

Initial compile steps

The following compile steps are mandatory for the swarm to run correctly using the latest source code. All other rust dependencies will get compiled by cargo when needed:

cd $HOME/libra
cargo build -p diem-node -p cli
cd language/move-stdlib
cargo run --release

Starting the swarm

The general syntax to start the swarm is:

cargo run -p diem-swarm -- [diem-node binary path] -c [path for temporary files] -n [number of nodes to simulate]

To start swarm with a client in same terminal, pass the -s and --cli-path to cli binary

Also NODE_ENV="test" is important to use. In this documentation we will set it at each command, but you might also add in .bashrc a line export NODE_ENV="test"

Swarm with 2 nodes without cli:

cd $HOME/libra
NODE_ENV="test" cargo run -p diem-swarm -- --diem-node target/debug/diem-node -c $HOME/swarm_temp -n 2

Swarm with 2 nodes and with cli:

cd $HOME/libra
NODE_ENV="test" cargo run -p diem-swarm -- --diem-node target/debug/diem-node -c $HOME/swarm_temp -n 2 -s --cli-path target/debug/cli

At the cli prompt when asked to "Enter your 0L mnemonic:" you can use the mnemonics of alice (see below in the section about the cli)

Initialize swarm configs

After starting the swarm, the 0L.toml and other configs have to be created by:

cd $HOME/libra
export NODE_ENV="test"
cargo run -p ol -- --swarm-path=$HOME/swarm_temp --swarm-persona=alice init --source-path $HOME/libra
cargo run -p ol -- --swarm-path=$HOME/swarm_temp --swarm-persona=bob init --source-path $HOME/libra

If more than 2 swarm nodes are running, the same commands have to be run also for swarm-persona carol, dave and eve.

0L tools

After the above steps, the 0L tools can be used

cli

If swarm has been started without cli, you can attach the cli like this (with the data that is shown at the end of swarm startup in the console). E.g.:

cargo r -p cli -- -u http://<local-host-and-port> -m <path to mint.key' --waypoint <random waypoint> --chain-id 4

The mnemonics to enter are those in the fixtures dorectory, e.g. for alice in ol/fixtures/mnemonic/alice.mnem

talent sunset lizard pill fame nuclear spy noodle basket okay critic grow sleep legend hurry pitch blanket clerk impose rough degree sock insane purse

if succeed, you can enter help at the cli prompt diem% or for example request the account balance:

diem% query balance 0
Balance is: 4.995072GAS

Tower App

In swarm you can run the tower app for alice by the following command:

NODE_ENV="test" cargo r -p tower -- --swarm-path $HOME/swarm_temp --swarm-persona alice start

Explorer

The explorer to show network activity can be run by the following command. Usually it only makes sense to do this after the tower app is running:

NODE_ENV="test" cargo r -p ol -- --swarm-path=$HOME/swarm_temp --swarm-persona=alice explorer

Pilot

Pilot is also running for swarm and correctly detects, which components are not ok. But is not able to start the missing components, e.g. web monitor or tower app:

NODE_ENV="test" cargo r -p ol -- --swarm-path=$HOME/swarm_temp --swarm-persona=alice pilot

Health

The health check for swarm nodes works basically but does not interpret each status completely correct:

NODE_ENV="test" cargo r -p ol -- --swarm-path=$HOME/swarm_temp --swarm-persona=alice health

Known inaccuracy: Configs exist is always shown as false

Web Monitor (warp server)

To start web monitor for swarm, in one terminal window you have to start the svelte dev server. This updates the HTML and JS bundles as files are changed. You need this for realtime feedback.

cd $HOME/libra/ol/cli/web-monitor
# run `npm install` if this is the first time otherwise:
npm run dev

Then in a second terminal window, you can start the "warp" server, which will serve the web monitor on port 3030:

cd $HOME/libra
cargo r -p ol -- --swarm-path $HOME/swarm_temp/ --swarm-persona alice serve

Now you can visit the web monitor with a browser on http://localhost:3030

Transactions

Demo txs

With the following command you can send a demo transaction as alice

cargo r -p txs -- --swarm-path=$HOME/swarm_temp/ --swarm-persona=alice demo

Validator account creation tx from `alice`, for `eve`

The following command would send an onboarding transaction from alice to eve:

cargo r -p txs -- --swarm-path=$HOME/swarm_temp/ --swarm-persona=alice create-validator -f ./ol/fixtures/onboarding/eve_init_test.json

(the create-validator step for swarm still throws an arror "could not find autopay instructions" in release-v4.3.0, even with https://github.com/OLSF/diem/pull/499)

Relay

This transaction will appear with bob's signature and apply changes to bob account. However alice will be submitting it. The use case is if bob's machine which signs cannot or prefers not to connect (e.g. or bob would like to sign from an offline computer/device, or in onboarding cases).

Save a noop test transaction, by `bob` for `alice` to later send

cd $HOME/libra
cargo r -p txs -- --swarm-path=$HOME/swarm_temp/ --swarm-persona=bob --save-path ./noop_tx.json --no-send demo

submit as `alice`

cd $HOME/libra
cargo r -p txs -- --swarm-path=$HOME/swarm_temp/ --swarm-persona=bob relay --relay-file ./noop_tx.json

swarm and autopay transactions

When you experiment with swarm and the autopay feature, be aware that there is a "fail-safe" built into the validator set election. If we don't get 4 validators who qualify to be in the validator set, then the system does not change the validator set. So often in swarm for dev purposes we will have 4 or fewer nodes, so we don't get an accurate picture of the reconfiguration.

In the "real world", a validator node which has no autopay and operator configs set up will be thrown out of the validator set, but in swarm, as no node has and operator configs set up per default, no node will be thrown out.

We've debated putting a switch to have a different behavior in testnet mode, but even that felt like not "fail safe" behavior.

set autopay for `alice`

cd $HOME/libra
cargo r -p txs -- --swarm-path=$HOME/swarm_temp/ --swarm-persona=alice autopay-batch -f ol/fixtures/autopay/alice.autopay_batch.json

stop autopay for `alice`

cd $HOME/libra
cargo r -p txs -- --swarm-path=$HOME/swarm_temp/ --swarm-persona=alice autopay --disable