Updating the Client

Note: As of October 27, 2021, all EWC nodes should run a London-compatible client: OpenEthereum (v3.3.0-rc.11 or later) or Nethermind (v1.11.3 or later)

What	Description
Purpose	Documentation to update Validator Node client in preparation for London Upgrade: For nodes running OpenEthereum client(v3.2.5) or earlier, the update is to OpenEthereum (v3.3.0-rc.11) or later version For nodes running Nethermind client (v1.10.72) or earlier, the update is to Nethermind (v1.11.3)

The update schedule

OpenEthereum and Nethermind clients compatible with AuRa are released in a regular rhythm. The process for implementing regular updates is described below. Emergency updates (i.e. in the event of a known security vulnerability with a specific client version) will be accelerated.

All EWC client updates are tested by the Energy Web Chain Technical Committee to ensure compatibility with the EW Chain AuRa consensus mechanism. The Technical Committee strongly recommends validators and other node (e.g. RPC) operators refrain from updating their clients until compatibility with the current version is confirmed on this page. Once an update is tested, the Technical Committee will communicate to validators and the broader community via Slack and Telegram that it is safe to install the new version; this page will also be updated regularly. For security/stability reasons, we recommend rolling out the update in waves, first on Volta and then the production EW Chain.

Updating the client

Good to know! Client updates don’t change any of the following:

• Node Address

• Node key

• Private key

• Secret

Before applying the upgrade, ensure the validator node instance has the following requirements:

CPU	Memory(GiB)	Network Capacity(GiB)	Storage(GB) and Type
4 (Minimum) 8 (Recommended)	8 (Minimum) 16 (Recommended)	Up to 5 (Minimum) Up to 10 (Recommended)	Minimum 300, SSD

Manual Upgrade

As the upgrade to OpenEthereum v3.3.0-rc.11 does not involve any config changes or require db resync, it should be relatively simple.

1. Download and verify the new image:

Download the node software (Openethereum v3.3.0-rc.11 or later)

docker pull openethereum/openethereum:v3.3.0-rc.11

Verify the downloaded software to make sure no one has changed something during data transfer

docker image inspect openethereum/openethereum:v3.3.0-rc.11 | jq -r '.[0].Id'

The result should be:

sha256:58ef9c2b1c475fe875fed8d291978bbaac6b19951aa9e8a4686342bbed086fab

If that's the case, proceed to the next step. If not, repeat the process above to download and verify the new image.

2. Make a backups & update image version

• Stop the containers:

cd $HOME/docker-stack
docker-compose stop

• Make a backup of docker-compose.yml:

cp $HOME/docker-stack/docker-compose.yml $HOME/docker-stack/docker-compose.yml_backup

• Make a backup of .env file:

cp $HOME/docker-stack/.env $HOME/docker-stack/.env_backup

• Make a backup of DB [Optional]:

change the text $CHAIN_NAME toVolta or EnergyWebChain

cp -r chain-data/chains/$CHAIN_NAME/ ./$CHAIN_NAME_backup

• Modify and save .env file (lines 3 & 9):

DO NOT override other existing variables!

vim $HOME/docker-stack/.env

new .env

VALIDATOR_ADDRESS=$YOUR_VALIDATOR_ADDRESS
EXTERNAL_IP=$YOUR_VALIDATOR_IP_ADDRESS
PARITY_VERSION=openethereum/openethereum:v3.3.0-rc.11
PARITYTELEMETRY_VERSION=1.1.0
IS_SIGNING=signing
PARITY_KEY_FILE=./chain-data/keys/EnergyWebChain/UTC--XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
CHAINSPEC_CHKSUM=
CHAINSPEC_URL=https://example.com
PARITY_CHKSUM=sha256:58ef9c2b1c475fe875fed8d291978bbaac6b19951aa9e8a4686342bbed086fab

Modify and save docker-compose.yml file (line no.4):

vi $HOME/docker-stack/docker-compose.yml

New docker-compose.yml

version: '2.0'
services:
  parity:
    image: openethereum/openethereum:v3.3.0-rc.11
    restart: always
    command:
      --config /parity/config/parity-signing.toml
      --nat extip:${EXTERNAL_IP}
    volumes:
      - ./config:/parity/config:ro
      - ./chain-data:/home/openethereum/.local/share/io.parity.ethereum/
      - ./.secret:/parity/authority.pwd:ro
    ports:
      - 30303:30303 
      - 30303:30303/udp
      - 127.0.0.1:8545:8545

  parity-telemetry:
    image: energyweb/parity-telemetry:1.1.0
    restart: always
    environment:
      - WSURL=ws://parity:8546
      - HTTPURL=http://parity:8545
      - PIPENAME=/var/spool/parity.sock
    volumes:
      - /var/spool/parity.sock:/var/spool/parity.sock

Restart the containers

cd $HOME/docker-stack
docker-compose up -d --force-recreate

Check whether the node is running & syncing

cd $HOME/docker-stack

# Check openetherereum logs
docker-compose logs -f --tail 100 parity

# Check telemetry logs
docker-compose logs -f --tail 100 parity-telemetry