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Version: testnet (v0.73)

Set up a blockexplorer

A Vega block explorer is a powerful tool for navigating and understanding the blockchain. It is an essential component for anyone looking to interact with a blockchain network, especially if you want to explore transaction history, monitor network activity, or verify the integrity of the blockchain data. The Vega source code for the block explorer is part of the vega binary, and it is available at vegaprotocol/vega Github. The above application provides users a comprehensive view of the Vega network through a REST and GRPC API.

A vega block explorer offers Transaction Tracking - You can search for specific transactions by providing transaction IDs, wallet addresses, or other relevant criteria. However, by combining the blockexplorer API with the Tendermint API, you can get much more information about the vega network(see web server config and examples below).

The design of the block explorer​

The vega blockexplorer is strictly related to the tendermint, and the blockexplorer source all the data from the tendermint database.

Tendermint have two backends for indexing the transactions:

  • KV (default) - the simplest possible indexer, backed by key-value storage (defaults to levelDB)
  • psql - The psql indexer type allows an operator to enable block and transaction event indexing by proxying it to an external PostgreSQL instance allowing for the events to be stored in relational models. Since the events are stored in a RDBMS, operators can leverage SQL to perform a series of rich and complex queries that are not supported by the kv indexer type. Since operators can leverage SQL directly, searching is not enabled for the psql indexer type via Tendermint's RPC -- any such query will fail.

The Vega blockexplorer requires a psql indexer in the Tendermint, so you have to change the default value in the tendermint configuration.

Requirements​

  • A non-validator vega node setup
  • PostgreSQL database running
  • (Optional) Webserver for proxing requests like Nginx or Caddy

Limitations​

You must replay entire chain from block 0 to have the full-history about the Vega network transactions. We do not recommend to modify config of already running nodes.

If you do not want to have a full network history, you can start your non-validator node from the last remote snapshot.

We are not going to cover the PostgreSQL installation here. Please see:

note

You may start postgresql with docker. To do it, use the following command:

docker volume create block-explorer-postgres-volume

docker run \
    --name block-explorer-postgres \
    -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=vega \
    -e PGDATA=/var/lib/postgresql/data/pgdata \
    -e POSTGRES_DB=tendermint_db \
    -v block-explorer-postgres-volume:/var/lib/postgresql/data \
    -p 5432:5432 \
    -d postgres

You should be able to use the following credentials in your configs below:

  • Host: 127.0.0.1
  • Post: 5432
  • Username: postgres
  • Password: vega
  • Database name: tendermint_db

Full history vs specific history span​

Your node must replay from block 0 to get the full-history in your vega block explorer. The replay process for entire network history may take up to several days. You can start your node from a specific snapshot(height) if you do not need a full-history for the transactions. Each vega node creates snapshots on exactly every few hundred blocks(defined by the network-parameter). You need access to the vega node, which have a specific snapshot you want to use. Example nodes/endpoints you may use to find snapshots are:

note

You may find more publicly available nodes on the GitHub repository.

danger

Due to limitations of the Tendermint, you can restart the network from block 0 or the ten last snapshots. We recommend selecting the latest possible snapshots for restart. If the setup process takes too long and the snapshot is not in the pool of the last ten snapshots, you need to choose a newer snapshot again.

Setup a block explorer​

1. Download vega and visor binary​

Download the vega binary from the Vega release page.

You have to download the binary for version, network has been started from block 0. For mainnet the binary version is v0.71.4

wget https://github.com/vegaprotocol/vega/releases/download/v0.71.4/vega-linux-amd64.zip
wget https://github.com/vegaprotocol/vega/releases/download/v0.71.4/visor-linux-amd64.zip

Then unzip it and check the version

unzip vega-linux-amd64.zip
unzip visor-linux-amd64.zip 

./vega version
Vega CLI v0.71.4 (61d1f77ee360bf1679d5eb0e0efdb1cce977c9db)

./visor version
Vega Visor CLI v0.71.4 (61d1f77ee360bf1679d5eb0e0efdb1cce977c9db)

2. Init non validator vega-node​

We want to have the non-validator node, so We do not have to init all of the wallet. We also do not need the ethereum node for it.

mkdir vega_home tendermint_home blockexplorer_home

./visor init --home ./vegavisor_home
./vega init --home ./vega_home full
./vega tm init --home ./tendermint_home 
./vega blockexplorer init --home ./blockexplorer_home

3. Download the genesis file​

We need to download the genesis.json file and put it in the tendermint home.

wget --output-document ./tendermint_home/config/genesis.json https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vegaprotocol/networks/master/mainnet1/
genesis.json

4. Update the visor config file​

The config file is located at: YOUR_VEGAVISOR_HOME/config.toml.

maxNumberOfFirstConnectionRetries = 43200

5. Update the visor run-config for genesis binary​

The config file is located at: YOUR_VEGAVISOR_HOME/genesis/run-config.toml. Replace the entire content of the file with:

YOUR_VEGAVISOR_HOME/genesis/run-config.toml
name = "genesis"

[vega]
  [vega.binary]
    path = "vega"
    args = [
      "start",
      "--home", "ABSOLUTE_PATH_TO_YOUR_VEGA_HOME",
      "--tendermint-home", "ABSOLUTE_PATH_TO_YOUR_TENDERMINT_HOME",
          ]
  [vega.rpc]
    socketPath = "/tmp/vega.sock"
    httpPath = "/rpc"

Link the genesis folder YOUR_VEGAVISOR_HOME/current

ln -s YOUR_VEGAVISOR_HOME/genesis YOUR_VEGAVISOR_HOME/current

6. Copy vega binary to the current config directory for the visor​

cp ./vega YOUR_VEGAVISOR_HOME/current/vega

Make sure version is correct:

./vegavisor_home/current/vega version
Vega CLI v0.71.4 (61d1f77ee360bf1679d5eb0e0efdb1cce977c9db)

7. Update the blockexplorer config​

Update the following parameters in the block explorer config file located at: PATH_TO_YOUR_BLOCK_EXPLORER_HOME/config/blockexplorer/config.toml

PATH_TO_YOUR_BLOCK_EXPLORER_HOME/config/blockexplorer/config.tom
[Store]
  [Store.Postgres]
    Host = "SQL_SERVER_HOST"
    Port = 5432
    Username = "PSQL_DATABASE_USERNAME"
    Password = "PSQL_USER_PASSWORD"
    Database = "PSQL_DATABASE_NAME"
    SocketDir = ""

8. Update the tendermint config​

Update the following parameters in the tendermint config file located at PATH_TO_YOUR_TENDERMINT_HOME/config/config.toml:

PATH_TO_YOUR_TENDERMINT_HOME/config/config.toml
[rpc]
cors_allowed_origins = ["*"]

[p2p]
max_incoming_connection_attempts = 100
seeds = "b0db58f5651c85385f588bd5238b42bedbe57073@13.125.55.240:26656,da2c4771f2aec1749cbc8db545b2af89099cdcb7@168.119.147.148:40656,13ce7373381072bc575566e702fabef0db64ffdb@20.82.255.140:26656,5d02699874ea6a1e14df948b2e9f1198d23b95a7@51.222.80.128:26656,abe207dae9367995526812d42207aeab73fd6418@18.158.4.175:26656,198ecd046ebb9da0fc5a3270ee9a1aeef57a76ff@144.76.105.240:26656,80fda55eeaa6036e5b61c11b423b073681a2b6b4@3.25.100.39:26656,211e435c2162aedb6d687409d5d7f67399d198a9@65.21.60.252:26656,c5b11e1d819115c4f3974d14f76269e802f3417b@34.88.191.54:26656,e2379bca600a528de55e845b77de5ff480c9631c@185.146.148.107:26656,0a972d61a57532ea8b521b01238bdf125fcd52b1@141.94.162.118:26656,9bcebff7664a3310bf4b31a76e5547f44ffb94cc@80.190.132.234:26656,61051c21f083ee30c835a34a0c17c5d1ceef3c62@51.178.75.45:26656"
persistent_peers = ""
unconditional_peer_ids = ""
max_packet_msg_payload_size = 16384
send_rate = 20000000
recv_rate = 20000000
pex = true
private_peer_ids = ""
allow_duplicate_ip = false

[mempool]
version = "v1"
size = 10000
cache_size = 20000
max_batch_bytes = 10485760

[statesync]
rpc_servers = "api0.vega.community:26657,api1.vega.community:26657,api2.vega.community:26657,api3.vega.community:26657"
trust_period = "744h0m0s"
discovery_time = "30s"
chunk_request_timeout = "30s"

[consensus]
timeout_prevote = "1s"
timeout_precommit = "1s"
timeout_commit = "0s"
skip_timeout_commit = true
create_empty_blocks = true
create_empty_blocks_interval = "1s"

[storage]
discard_abci_responses = true

[tx_index]
indexer = "psql"
psql-conn = "postgresql://PSQL_DATABASE_USERNAME:PSQL_USER_PASSWORD@SQL_SERVER_HOST:5432/PSQL_DATABASE_NAME?sslmode=disable"
index_all_keys = false
Snapshot restart

When you reastart from the remote snapshot at specific block, put also the following values:

PATH_TO_YOUR_TENDERMINT_HOME/config/config.toml
[statesync]
enable = true
trust_hash = "BLOCK_HASH_FOR_SELECTED_SNAPSHOT"
trust_height = BLOCK_HEIGHT_FOR_SELECTED_SNAPSHOT

In the step 1. of this tutorial We selected the following values:

PATH_TO_YOUR_TENDERMINT_HOME/config/config.toml
[statesync]
enable = true
trust_hash = "11a12f24de801d8c21dae5372e3914a05d15fe15a1316276d7af27896127d246"
trust_height = 18591101
Other parameters

Leave all other parameters with default values.

9. Update vega config​

You do not need to modify this config file if you start from block 0.

10. Init the blockexplorer database​

The vega blockexplorer init-db command create database schema and prepares all indexes to optimize the database for the blockexplorer API.

./vega blockexplorer init-db --home ./blockexplorer_home

11. Start vega node with the vegavisor command​

./visor run --home ./vegavisor_home

Wait a coupe of minutes untill your node start processing blocks, before you move to the next step.

note

See code snippets below to setup systemd for your vega-node

danger

It will take at least several hours to replay entire network

12. Start the block explorer service​

./vega blockexplorer start --home ./blockexplorer_home

13. Verify the block explorer works well​

curl -s localhost:1515/rest/transactions | jq

You should get non-empty response for the above command.

14. Restore config changes to default value​

You do not need to execute this step for replaying from block 0

Useful code snippets​

Systemd for vegavisor​

The config file usually should be located at: /lib/systemd/system/vegavisor.service

/lib/systemd/system/vegavisor.service
[Unit]
Description=vegavisor
Documentation=https://github.com/vegaprotocol/vega
After=network.target network-online.target
Requires=network-online.target

[Service]
User=vega
Group=vega
ExecStart="ABSOLUTE_PATH_TO_VEGA_BINARY" run --home "ABSOLUTE_PATH_TO_YOUR_VEGA_HOME"
TimeoutStopSec=10s
LimitNOFILE=1048576
LimitNPROC=512
PrivateTmp=false
ProtectSystem=full
AmbientCapabilities=CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Systemd for blockexplorer​

The config file usually should be located at: /lib/systemd/system/blockexplorer.service

/lib/systemd/system/blockexplorer.service
[Unit]
Description=blockexplorer
Documentation=https://github.com/vegaprotocol/vega
After=network.target network-online.target
Requires=network-online.target

[Service]
User=vega
Group=vega
ExecStart="ABSOLUTE_PATH_TO_VEGA_BINARY" blockexplorer start --home "ABSOLUTE_PATH_TO_YOUR_BLOCK_EXPLORER_HOME"
TimeoutStopSec=10s
LimitNOFILE=1048576
LimitNPROC=512
PrivateTmp=false
ProtectSystem=full
AmbientCapabilities=CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Caddy config​

Caddy file provide TLS termination for the tendermint and blockexplorer API.

Caddyfile"
{
    email admin@yourdomain.com
    order replace after encode

    servers {
        metrics
    }
}



your-block-explorer-domain.com:443 {
    # (gRPC is direct to 3002)

    # REST core
    route / {
        reverse_proxy http://localhost:3003
    }
    route /* {
        reverse_proxy http://localhost:3003
    }

    # Block Explorer
    route /grpc* {
        reverse_proxy http://localhost:1515
    }

    route /rest* {
        reverse_proxy http://localhost:1515
    }

    # Tendermint
    route /status {
        reverse_proxy http://localhost:26657
    }

    route /genesis {
        reverse_proxy http://localhost:26657
    }

    route /blockchain {
        reverse_proxy http://localhost:26657
    }

    route /validators {
        reverse_proxy http://localhost:26657
    }

    route /block {
        reverse_proxy http://localhost:26657
    }

    route /tx_search {
        reverse_proxy http://localhost:26657
    }

    route /unconfirmed_txs {
        reverse_proxy http://localhost:26657
    }

    route /websocket {
        @websockets {
            header Connection *Upgrade*
            header Upgrade websocket
        }
        reverse_proxy @websockets localhost:26657
    }

    route /* {
        reverse_proxy http://localhost:3003
    }
}