Ethereum Deployment Problems

Question

I deployed a private version of Ethereum on my laptop.

I am using this code to deploy:

geth –-identity "blockdb" –-rpc -–rpcport "9040" --rpccorsdomain "*" –-rpcapi "db,eth,net,web3" –-datadir "c:\\blockchain" –-port "30303" –-nodiscover –-networkid 76543 console

and this genesis:

{
"config": {  
    "chainId": 76543, 
    "homesteadBlock": 0,
    "eip155Block": 0,
    "eip158Block": 0
               },
"difficulty": "0x4000",
"gasLimit": "0x8000000",  
"alloc": {}
 }
 }

The blockchain seems to deploy well, since it gives me the same chain ID, i open Mist (without changing an ysettings) and can see the wallets i create. Miner.start() also works. I see the ethers coming in from the mining. I can see the wallets i create andthe minutes since last block. but the status remains always connecting.

My questions are as follows:

1) When i close the console and restart it, to restart the node, i use the above command again. is that correct? Because:

2) when I restart, I can see the wallets previously created but not the ether. the ether is lost. they all restart from 0. why is that?

3) I am trying to interact 'externally' with the blockchain, by using nethereum and ethereum wallet. In both apps I can see the wallets and their balance. but i cannot create new wallets, deploy contracts or transfer ether.

Answer 1

If you gracefully close Geth it should be fine (Ctrl + D). I have a hunch you are forcefully killing it.

Starting with Geth 1.8.0, we don't push everything to disk immediately, rather retain the state in memory for some amount of time (1h of block processing with the latest code). This reduces disk usage enormously. However, it also means that if you kill Geth before it can push the data to disk, you'll need to resync that part.

Now, if you have a single node, that's problematic because there is noone to sync from. Please make sure you always terminate Geth gracefully and not kill it.

Answer 2

Try with geth --datadir ./chaindata -networkid 76543

Answer 3

Once you run the Node, Node now maintain all block information. What happen if you restart the node.

case-1 : when node is deleted, it means you are deleting blockchain info from the node. you delete directory  datadir "c:\\blockchain .   

In this case You will not get any information for sync to latest one. So it start from beginning. After syncing with running node it will regain the latest state of the chain.

case-2 : If you have same node on c:\\blockchain as you left before then the chain gain latest state of the chain where you have left before and continue from there.  

If your node is behind the state of running node in the network then it start to sync with node that is currently available and in latest state.
So this answer your first question.

when I restart, I can see the wallets previously created but not the ether. the ether is lost. they all restart from 0. why is that?

You have created the node and started to mine with miner.start() then,
you must need an account to get incentive . That incentive is accumulates in your account. If you check ether then you will get the actual ether balance in your account, either you check from geth or by wallet or web3js.

Now the case is when you restart the node, all state of the chain will be maintained in node, there is no chance to erase previous state of the account. There may be possible when your chain is not fully synced, Otherwise it works fine. I recommend you to recheck the node whether you have started the same node again?. This may solve your second question.

I am trying to interact 'externally' with the blockchain, by using nethereum and ethereum wallet. In both apps I can see the wallets and their balance. but i cannot create new wallets, deploy contracts or transfer ether.

If you want to interact with the ethereum blockchain node you have to enable rpc flag

--rpc

you have done already. Now another point is you have to specify the endpoint of the node. it will be like this- https://172.31.40.193:30303. This endpoint specify from which node you are interacting with the blockchain. This may be possible that you have not re-syncing your wallet with the node.