New Server Node not uploading (max 23 connections)

[LondonLook]

Hi guys,

I am training into Linux and decided to make a full node on Ubuntu (13.1) as a learning project and to help the cause.

I started by following this guide: http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1se3zd/how_to_create_a_full_bitcoin_node_in_a_5_ubuntu/
(if you dont want to click the link its basically a scrypt that installs bitcoind and its dependencies and then configures iptables to open port 8333)

I let it download the whole blockchain but now it only has 21 connections (see below) and does not appear to be uploading.

Code:

root@btcnode:/# bitcoind getinfo
{
    "version" : 90100,
    "protocolversion" : 70002,
    "walletversion" : 60000,
    "balance" : 0.00000000,
    "blocks" : 300052,
    "timeoffset" : -1,
    "connections" : 21,
    "proxy" : "",
    "difficulty" : 8000872135.96816349,
    "testnet" : false,
    "keypoololdest" : 1399644917,
    "keypoolsize" : 101,
    "paytxfee" : 0.00000000,
    "errors" : ""
}

I read that alot of these problems are solved by opening port:8333 but I know its open

Code:

root@btcnode:/# iptables -L

*snip*

Chain ufw-user-input (1 references)
target     prot opt source               destination
ACCEPT     tcp  --  anywhere             anywhere             tcp dpt:ssh
ACCEPT     tcp  --  anywhere             anywhere             tcp dpt:8333

I changed bitcoin.conf to allow upto 200 connections which didn't help.

I have installed vnstat to check my bandwith and its using almost none. The server is a VPS with 240Mb/s bandwith (upload is capped at 120Mb/s) so it should be uploading far more than 9Mb per hour.

Code:

root@btcnode:/# vnstat -h
 eth0                                                                     13:04
  ^                                                                 r
  |                                                                 r
  |                                                                 r
  |                                                                 r
  |                                                                 r
  |                                                                 r
  |                                                                 r  r
  |                                                                 r  r
  |                                                                 r  rt
  |                                                                 rt rt
 -+--------------------------------------------------------------------------->
  |  14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13

 h  rx (KiB)   tx (KiB)      h  rx (KiB)   tx (KiB)      h  rx (KiB)   tx (KiB)
14          0          0    22          0          0    06          0          0
15          0          0    23          0          0    07          0          0
16          0          0    00          0          0    08          0          0
17          0          0    01          0          0    09          0          0
18          0          0    02          0          0    10          0          0
19          0          0    03          0          0    11      33903       5939
20          0          0    04          0          0    12      15457       9238
21          0          0    05          0          0    13        315        576

Anyone got any ideas of what to try next?

There is no firewall infront of the server, only iptables.

[1713874938]

1713874938

[1713874938]

1713874938

[shorena]

-snip-
There is no firewall infront of the server, only iptables.

No router or NAT device just "pure" internet?

[LondonLook]

-snip-
There is no firewall infront of the server, only iptables.

No router or NAT device just "pure" internet?

I have not purchased a router but ofc there is a router somewhere between me and the internet, do you think the hosting provider might throttle the traffic or something?

There is nothing to NAT that I have purchased, again I'm sure there is some-ware between my VM and the internet. It is uploading constantly at roughly 20 kbit/s but that might be my SSH sessions, there is nothing else on this server apart from bitcoind

[shorena]

-snip-
I have not purchased a router but ofc there is a router somewhere between me and the internet, do you think the hosting provider might throttle the traffic or something?

There is nothing to NAT that I have purchased, again I'm sure there is some-ware between my VM and the internet. It is uploading constantly at roughly 20 kbit/s but that might be my SSH sessions, there is nothing else on this server apart from bitcoind

Ok, just checking. ~2,5kb/s sounds indeed like ssh. I assume you tested the port with nmap or something like that.

Code:

netstat -anp 

or

Code:

ss -atp

shows the 21 connections?

[LondonLook]

Yep, netstat shows all the connections

upto 26 connections now:

Code:

root@btcnode:/# bitcoind getinfo
{
    "version" : 90100,
    "protocolversion" : 70002,
    "walletversion" : 60000,
    "balance" : 0.00000000,
    "blocks" : 300065,
    "timeoffset" : -1,
    "connections" : 26,
    "proxy" : "",
    "difficulty" : 8000872135.96816349,
    "testnet" : false,
    "keypoololdest" : 1399644917,
    "keypoolsize" : 101,
    "paytxfee" : 0.00000000,
    "errors" : ""
}

The amount of bandwidth it is using is increasing over time, maybe it takes the network some time to trust a new node and give its IP out?

Code:

root@btcnode:/# vnstat -h
 eth0                                                                     15:14
  ^                                                           r
  |                                                           r
  |                                                           r
  |                                                           r
  |                                                           r
  |                                                           r
  |                                                           r  r      t
  |                                                           r  r      t
  |                                                           r  rt  t rt
  |                                                           rt rt rt rt
 -+--------------------------------------------------------------------------->
  |  16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15

 h  rx (KiB)   tx (KiB)      h  rx (KiB)   tx (KiB)      h  rx (KiB)   tx (KiB)
16          0          0    00          0          0    08          0          0
17          0          0    01          0          0    09          0          0
18          0          0    02          0          0    10          0          0
19          0          0    03          0          0    11      33903       5939
20          0          0    04          0          0    12      15457       9238
21          0          0    05          0          0    13       6732       9330
22          0          0    06          0          0    14       7968      15694
23          0          0    07          0          0    15       1543       3098

[shorena]

-snip-
The amount of bandwidth it is using is increasing over time, maybe it takes the network some time to trust a new node and give its IP out?
-snip-

Either that or the nodes are allready up to date. Since the connections are fine, Id let it run for a day or two and see how the traffic is.

Edit: if you want, send me the IP via PM or post it here. Im currently at work, but when Im home and start bitcoin core it will need to update at least 10 hours worth of blocks. I can set it up so that its only using your IP, which would result in a traffic spike on your end and I can leave you a msg if the dl worked.

[LondonLook]

For anyone who is interested my upload amounts have massively increased, I assume the IP addresses gains a reputation as a good node and the protocol serves it more connections over time.

These are the current stats for anyone interested:

Code:

root@btcnode:~# vnstat -h
 eth0                                                                     13:14
  ^                                                   t
  |                                                   t
  |                                                t  t     t
  |                                                t  t     t
  |            t                                   t  t  t  t     t  t
  |            t                          t        t  t  t  t  t  t  t
  |            t                          t        t  t  t  t  t  t  t
  |            t                          t  t  t  t  t  t  t  t  t  t
  |         t  t                          t  t  t  t  t  t  t  t  t  t  t
  |         t  t                r         t  t  t  t  t  t  t  t  t  t  t  t
 -+--------------------------------------------------------------------------->
  |  14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13

 h  rx (KiB)   tx (KiB)      h  rx (KiB)   tx (KiB)      h  rx (KiB)   tx (KiB)
14       7968      15694    22       8512      22606    06      19435     498951
15       8683      13688    23      89456      43827    07      13472     336757
16      10062     137883    00       7432      16021    08      14213     428204
17      11968     303807    01       7980      31258    09      12090     256357
18       6549      11932    02      11989     264350    10      14869     311772
19       5007       8515    03      10682     182528    11      12766     306713
20       8081      14640    04      11938     197102    12      10402     141007
21       7570      19207    05      16144     432352    13       3544      69874
root@btcnode:~# vnstat -d

 eth0  /  daily

         day         rx      |     tx      |    total    |   avg. rate
     ------------------------+-------------+-------------+---------------
      05/10/14    214.79 MiB |  601.86 MiB |  816.65 MiB |   77.43 kbit/s
      05/11/14    164.35 MiB |    3.34 GiB |    3.51 GiB |  613.12 kbit/s
     ------------------------+-------------+-------------+---------------
     estimated       295 MiB |    6.03 GiB |    6.31 GiB |
root@btcnode:~# bitcoind getinfo
{
    "version" : 90100,
    "protocolversion" : 70002,
    "walletversion" : 60000,
    "balance" : 0.00000000,
    "blocks" : 300225,
    "timeoffset" : -2,
    "connections" : 33,
    "proxy" : "",
    "difficulty" : 8000872135.96816349,
    "testnet" : false,
    "keypoololdest" : 1399644917,
    "keypoolsize" : 101,
    "paytxfee" : 0.00000000,
    "errors" : ""
}

[grue]

For anyone who is interested my upload amounts have massively increased, I assume the IP addresses gains a reputation as a good node and the protocol serves it more connections over time.

false. you only experience high upload if another client is receiving blocks from you. otherwise the only traffic is transactions, which is negligible. also, on a dynamic ip, i regularly (but not always) max out my upload shortly after i finished syncing with the network.

[zvs]

Code:

[quote author=LondonLook link=topic=603318.msg6653848#msg6653848 date=1399734965]
 h  rx (KiB)   tx (KiB)      h  rx (KiB)   tx (KiB)      h  rx (KiB)   tx (KiB)
16          0          0    00          0          0    08          0          0
17          0          0    01          0          0    09          0          0
18          0          0    02          0          0    10          0          0
19          0          0    03          0          0    11      33903       5939
20          0          0    04          0          0    12      15457       9238
21          0          0    05          0          0    13       6732       9330
22          0          0    06          0          0    14       7968      15694
23          0          0    07          0          0    15       1543       3098

Traffic is fine w/ that few connections.  Like the other person said, it'll only shoot up if someone starts downloading the blockchain from you...

I rebooted my system to install 14.04 and it has been up for 4 days + 2 hours (98 hours) so far.  It has 206.9GB total uploaded, but some of that is dogecoin related.  Probably about 175GB from bitcoin, that's with 550-700 connections.  It'll hit up to 105MB/s upstream when a new block hits the network (which in that case means I had too many peers downloading it from me, but that's happened very few times, normally it maxes at around 50-70MB/s).

If nobody is downloading the blockchain from me it's usually around 500KB/s or less (transactions).

(ed: after watching dstat for a bit, it averages out to around 1MB/s except for when there is a new block... I suspect there are at least a few people downloading the blockchain at nearly every point, though... just maybe at 100kb/s or so..)

[LondonLook]

Thanks for the replies, I'm still only upto 48 connections (max set at 200)

Code:

root@btcnode:~# bitcoind getinfo
{
    "version" : 90100,
    "protocolversion" : 70002,
    "walletversion" : 60000,
    "balance" : 0.00000000,
    "blocks" : 300568,
    "timeoffset" : -2,
    "connections" : 48,
    "proxy" : "",
    "difficulty" : 8853416309.12779999,
    "testnet" : false,
    "keypoololdest" : 1399644917,
    "keypoolsize" : 101,
    "paytxfee" : 0.00000000,
    "errors" : ""
}

Upload speed is increasing over time, not really sure why its so slow compared to other nodes, it has 120Mb/s upstream bandwidth and is in Dallas Texas

Code:

root@btcnode:~# vnstat -d

 eth0  /  daily

         day         rx      |     tx      |    total    |   avg. rate
     ------------------------+-------------+-------------+---------------
      05/10/14    214.79 MiB |  601.86 MiB |  816.65 MiB |   77.43 kbit/s
      05/11/14    330.16 MiB |    6.16 GiB |    6.49 GiB |  629.77 kbit/s
      05/12/14    526.99 MiB |    7.48 GiB |    7.99 GiB |  776.06 kbit/s
      05/13/14    337.15 MiB |    7.08 GiB |    7.40 GiB |    1.03 Mbit/s
     ------------------------+-------------+-------------+---------------
     estimated       480 MiB |   10.10 GiB |   10.57 GiB |

[grue]

Upload speed is increasing over time, not really sure why its so slow compared to other nodes, it has 120Mb/s upstream bandwidth and is in Dallas Texas

like i said, you only upload when other peers are requesting blocks. so your upload is capped by your other peer's download speed.

[DeathAndTaxes]

Thanks for the replies, I'm still only upto 48 connections (max set at 200)

There is no guarantee you will get to 200.  Nodes making outbound connections will only make eight connections to the network.  They will favor peers with better uptime.  So depending on how large the pool of available inbound connections is relative to the number of outbound connections and your uptime relative to other peers will determine how connected your node is.