Tough problems during running a Full node

[DaveF]

How is your cooling? Thermal throttle can be a big issue with RPis at times.

The case I have covers the cooling part.

So long as you are sure. Is the case a big heatsink or is there a fan?

What type of USB drive are you using?

A 1TB external one with USB 3.0. Specifically, this one. (Yes, I plugged it on the 3.0 port)

That is more then fine. It's actually newer then the one I had on my old node in a box setup.

Are you downloading over clearnet or TOR?

I'm downloading over Tor, but I don't think that's the issue. I believe that what's taking so long is the verification of those blocks.

Actually TOR might be the issue, I am re-syncing 2 nodes on the exact same hardware one TOR on clearnet and as of now the clearnet is at 55% and the TOR is below 40% done.

Have you ever experienced a hard drive issue from a power surge?

I did! And it needed to re-verify the whoooole damn thing. I don't keep a backup of the blockchain though, since verification takes much longer than the actual downloading part, no matter the setup, so I don't see the need.

It saves the bandwidth and a bit of time. And you don't have to have it online so you can do it anywhere with any device and just come back later.
If you want to say put up 3 more nodes to play with, you don't have to download the entire blockchain 3 more times, its just copy - paste - wait.

-Dave

[Trojane]

Looks as if my internet connections were too poor .
Since am trying this action for the first time,
Downloading the block chain took almost 4 hrs and after this ,the connections crumbled.
After much stress and heat radiation
I had to search for the current block chain size
And it is https://ibb.co/z6qxPhN

I need to get strong internet connections and prolly a new flash drive,bigger memory space too

How about exothermic reactions?
Is it normal ?
Thanks for support fam

[BlackHatCoiner]

So long as you are sure. Is the case a big heatsink or is there a fan?

There's a fan.

Actually TOR might be the issue, I am re-syncing 2 nodes on the exact same hardware one TOR on clearnet and as of now the clearnet is at 55% and the TOR is below 40% done.

You should have told me this before I waited over three weeks to finish.  

Anyway, now that I know what is probably the issue, I'll change the configuration file if I ever need to resync it again. I need Tor to connect with my node outside home. I don't know if it's possible to run both on clearnet and connect with Tor.

How did my testnet node finish syncing within hours, though? It runs over Tor too.

[n0nce]

How did my testnet node finish syncing within hours, though? It runs over Tor too.

Sorry for answering your question towards Dave, but maybe just the much smaller size

~

BTC blockchain is around 380GB, yes, it needs some time, even on a good connection. 4 hours is nothing, most of us need at least a day to sync the blockchain, if not days or weeks depending on the hardware and internet connection. Just get a 500 or 1TB SSD and let it run. It's normal that your device gets a bit hot, it needs to perform lots of computations (verification), it's not a plain download. Every block is verified.

This is where 'verify' in our mantra 'don't trust, verify' comes from.

For more info about the IBD (initial block download), refer to this good page:

Downloader Behavior
    When receiving an inv (Inventory Message)
        For each block
            If already have as orphan, send getblocks(locator(chainHead), orphanRoot(block))
            If not already have
                send getdata(block)
            If already have and this is last block in message (NOTE: this triggers specific behavior in peer getdata)
                send getdata(block)

    When receiving a block
        If already have, ignore
        Else if have parent not in main chain
            store as orphan
            getblocks(locator(chainHead), orphanRoot(block))
        Else
            Accept block
            Accept orphan blocks that depend on this one

    When starting download from a peer
        getblocks(locator(chainHead), 0)

[DaveF]

So long as you are sure. Is the case a big heatsink or is there a fan?

There's a fan.

Actually TOR might be the issue, I am re-syncing 2 nodes on the exact same hardware one TOR on clearnet and as of now the clearnet is at 55% and the TOR is below 40% done.

You should have told me this before I waited over three weeks to finish.  

Anyway, now that I know what is probably the issue, I'll change the configuration file if I ever need to resync it again. I need Tor to connect with my node outside home. I don't know if it's possible to run both on clearnet and connect with Tor.

How did my testnet node finish syncing within hours, though? It runs over Tor too.

So. The umbrel setup that I mentioned here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5158920.msg58008085#msg58008085 just finished it's sync on TOR
Took from about 2 hours before I made the post till about 10 minutes ago. So about 6 days and a few hours.

During that same amount of time, not using umbrel but raspiblitz with the same hardware setup 2 complete syncs on clearnet (noticed I had the wrong drive installed after I finished the 1st sync)

So, yes there seems to be a real performance penalty for syncing with TOR. Have not seen much of a discussion about it, but it is there.
Now, as to why it took you a month. No idea.

As a test, I am going to wipe the raspiblitz and resync on TOR to see how long that takes. Don't know if different configurations may act differently.
*All behind the same firewall so it's not a bandwidth issue.

-Dave

[BlackHatCoiner]

So, yes there seems to be a real performance penalty for syncing with TOR.

My experience with Umbrel was another story. For some strange reason I sometimes had 0 connections. Thus, it stopped syncing often. I'm sure that if I was still running Umbrel, it wouldn't have finished; it'd be around 70%. I also created a thread in their community page. No one responded so I got rid of it.

Now, as to why it took you a month. No idea.

As I said, not exactly one month, but around 3 weeks. Well, I won't use Tor again if I'll have to reset it.

[DaveF]

So, yes there seems to be a real performance penalty for syncing with TOR.

My experience with Umbrel was another story. For some strange reason I sometimes had 0 connections. Thus, it stopped syncing often. I'm sure that if I was still running Umbrel, it wouldn't have finished; it'd be around 70%. I also created a thread in their community page. No one responded so I got rid of it.

Now, as to why it took you a month. No idea.

As I said, not exactly one month, but around 3 weeks. Well, I won't use Tor again if I'll have to reset it.

If you don't mind me asking where in the world are you? And who are you using for internet connectivity?
Just wondering if it's an issue with something upstream of you throttling something.

-Dave

[BlackHatCoiner]

If you don't mind me asking where in the world are you? And who are you using for internet connectivity?

I live in Greece and my internet provider is Vodafone, but I doubt that's the problem. My internet speed is quite impressive in contrast with my previous ones:

Just wondering if it's an issue with something upstream of you throttling something.

I think it's solely a Pi thing or something related with Pi. On my main computer, which has obviously better CPU than Pi, it was syncing the block chain must faster than that, but with an SSD. Could the fault be the HDD drive?

[DaveF]

I think it's solely a Pi thing or something related with Pi. On my main computer, which has obviously better CPU than Pi, it was syncing the block chain must faster than that, but with an SSD. Could the fault be the HDD drive?

Tough to say. If you were taking two weeks to sync instead of one then I might lean towards it being the issue, or part of one.
But, three weeks I don't think so. Yes, an SSD gives a big boost, but it should not be that much.

Honestly, I am out of ideas of what could be causing it.

-Dave