slow syncing Ethereum blockchain

Question

I used

• VM in Azure(1TB SSD, 16GB RAM,Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2673 v3 @ 2.40GHz).
• Install geth.exe
• Run geth --fast --datadir F:\Ethereum in cmd

blockchain still downloading it's almost more than 5 days. Its only downloaded 105GB out of 667GB(https://bitinfocharts.com/ethereum/).

Please tell me...

Is there any way to sync fast? what will happen if I stop(Ctrl + c) sync process and restart again same cmd line?

Answer 1

Is there any way to sync fast?

There is plenty of advice here on Stackexchange recommending use of SSD hard drives instead of HDD hard drives, but I have not found this to be the key determinant of whether your node syncs. HDD has worked fine for me.

Instead, I have found the important step is to make sure your local network/firewall has port 30303 open to the "outside world" (i.e. Internet). Ethereum clients use 30303 as a discovery (UDP) port, and if it is not open your node cannot not be found by other nodes, and so won't correctly become part of the extended network, and so won't sync properly.

You also need to ensure your local time is correct. An accurate clock is required to participate in the Ethereum network.

what will happen if I stop(Ctrl + c) sync process and restart again same cmd line?

The sync will more or less pick up from where it left off when you stopped it.