Manage Nodes

This topic contains general information about managing the nodes in your network, such as describing the types of nodes in your blockchain network, how to view your nodes and their topology, how to stop and start them, and how to set logging levels for a node.

What Types of Nodes Are in a Network?

A blockchain network contain console, peer, orderer, certification authority (CA), and REST proxy nodes. The nodes that display in your console depend upon if you're the founder of or a participant in a network.

For example, if you're a participant in a network, your console won’t display an orderer node for that network. If you're a founder, your console displays all node types.

What nodes are included in a new instance?

After you provision your instance and access the Nodes tab for the first time, you’ll see:

• One console node.
• The number of peers you requested during set up. These peers display with the Peer(Member) type. The maximum number of peer nodes that can be included with an instance is 16.
• An orderer node, or ordering service node (OSN), representing an ordering service.
• A Fabric certificate authority (CA) representing the membership service.
• A REST proxy node.

I need more information about the different node types

Use this table to find more information about nodes.

Node Type	What Does This Node Do?	Displays In Founder or Participant Instance	Number of Nodes per Instance	Can I Add Another Node After Provisioning My Instance?
CA	This node provides and manages peer node credentials and member credentials.	Founder Participant	1	No
Console	This node is the console component.	Founder Participant	1	No
Orderer	This node provides communication between nodes. It guarantees the delivery of transactions into blocks and blocks into the blockchain. If you're a participant, then you must import the founder’s ordering service setting into your instance so that all peer nodes can communicate.	Founder Participant	3	Enterprise Edition: Yes Standard Edition: No
Peer	This node contains a copy of the ledger and writes transactions to the ledger. This node can also endorse transactions. Your network can contain member or remote peers.	Founder Participant	2 to 16 The number of peer nodes you can add was specified when your instance was created.	Yes
REST Proxy	This node maps an application identity to a blockchain member, which allows users and applications to call the Oracle Blockchain Platform REST APIs.	Founder Participant	1	No

Find Information About Nodes

This section contains information about where in the console you can find information about the nodes in your instance and network.

View General Information About Nodes

Use the Nodes tab to view general information about all of the nodes in your network. For example, Name, Route, Type, and Status.

You can also use the Nodes tab to drill into details about a specific node. For more information about node types, see What Types of Nodes Are in a Network?

1. Go to the console and select the Nodes tab.
2. In the Nodes tab confirm that the List View (and not the Topology View) is displaying.

   Column	Description
   Route	Oracle Blockchain Platform generated the URLs when you provisioned your instance or when you create new nodes. If you use the Hyperledger Fabric SDK, then you need these URLs to specify which peers you want the SDK to interact with.
   Type	Indicates the node type.
   MSP ID	Membership Service Provider ID.
   Status	Indicates if the node is running or down. Also indicates if there's an unapplied configuration change for the node. Note the following statuses: Up — The node is running and working normally. Down — The node is stopped. N/A — This status displays for remote peers because your instance doesn’t have the permissions required to get the peer’s status.
   IsConfigured	If the node’s configuration was updated you need to restart the node for the updates to take effect. Nodes with the yes status are running (and not stopped).
   More Actions Menu	Your permissions determine the options available from the More Actions menu. If you're an administrator, this button provides links to modify the node’s configuration. Administrators and users can stop, start, and restart nodes.

Access Information About a Specific Node

Use the Nodes tab to access information about a specific. For example, health information or log files.

1. Go to the console and select the Nodes tab.
2. Click a node’s name to go to the Node Information page. The panes that display in the Node Information page depend on the node type you select.

   Pane	Available for Which Node Types?	What can I do in this pane?
   Health	All	View metrics to help you understand how the node is performing on the network. Example of metrics include CPU Utilization and Memory Utilization. For a Peer node, this pane displays information about endorsed and committed transactions.
   Logs	All	View and download log files to discover and troubleshoot issues with a node.
   Channels	Peer	View a list of channels the selected peer node is using for its communications with other nodes. Join the peer node to other existing channels as needed. Go to the Channel page to create a new channel and specify which peer nodes can join it.
   Chaincodes	Peer	View the chaincodes that are installed on the peer node. Go to the Chaincode page to install a new chaincode or upgrade an existing chaincode.
   Transaction Statistics	REST proxy	View the total queries, failed queries, total invocations, and failed invocations handled by the REST proxy.

View a Diagram of the Peers and Channels in the Network

Use the Topology view to access an interactive diagram that shows which network peers are using which channels.

1. Go to the console and select the Nodes tab.
2. In the Nodes tab, click Topology View to see a diagram showing the peer nodes in your network and which channels they’re using.
3. Hover over a peer to highlight it and the channels it’s using.

Find Node Configuration Settings

Use the Nodes tab to find a specific node’s configuration settings. If you’re an administrator, then you can update a node’s configuration settings. If you’re a user, then you can view a node’s configuration settings.

1. Go to the console and select the Nodes tab.
2. Go to the Nodes table, locate the node that you want configuration setting information for, and click the node’s More Actions button.
3. The configuration option is determined by your permissions. If you're an administrator, locate and click Edit Configuration. If you're a user, locate and click View.
   The Configure dialog is displayed, showing the attributes specific to the node type you selected. See Node Configuration.

Start and Stop Nodes

You can start or stop CA, orderer, peer, and the REST proxy nodes in your network. You can’t start or stop the console node or remote peer nodes.

You can start and stop nodes depending upon the traffic in your network. For example, if network traffic is light, then you can stop unneeded peer nodes and orderer nodes.

You can also restart a node. See Restart a Node.

When you stop a peer node, Oracle Blockchain Platform removes the peer’s listing on the Channel tab and Chaincodes tab. If you stop all peers that have the chaincode installed, then the Chaincodes tab doesn’t list the chaincode. If you stop all peers joined to a channel, then the Channels tab lists the channel, but its information isn't available to view.

Before stopping a node for an extended period of time, you should transfer all this peer's responsibilities to other running peers, and then remove all the responsibilities this peer has.

• Check all other peers' gossip bootstrap address lists, remove the peer address, and add another running peer's address if needed. After peer configuration change, restart the peer.
• Check all channels' anchor peer lists, remove the peer from the anchor peer lists, and add another running peer to the anchor peer list if needed.
• If a channel is joined only to this peer, or if chaincode is deployed only on this peer, you should consider using another running peer to join the same channel and deploy the same chaincode.

You must be an administrator to perform this task.

1. Go to the console and select the Nodes tab.
2. In the Nodes tab, go to the Nodes table, locate the node that you want to start or stop, and click the node’s More Actions button.
3. Click either the Start or Stop option. The node’s status changes to either up or down and information is written to the node’s log file.

Restart a Node

You can restart the CA, orderer, peer, and REST proxy nodes in your network. You can’t restart the console node or remote peer nodes.

You should restart a node if it's not responding or running properly, or if you’ve updated a node’s configuration. You can also start or stop a node. See Start and Stop Nodes.

You must be an administrator to perform this task.

1. Go to the console and select the Nodes tab.
2. In the Nodes tab, go to the Nodes table, locate the node that you want to restart, and click the node’s More Actions button.
3. Click Restart.
   The node’s status changes to restarting and information is written to the log file.

Set the Log Level for a Node

If you’re an administrator, then you can specify the type of information you want to include in a node’s log files. For example, ERROR, WARNING, INFO, or DEBUG.

By default, every node’s log level is set to INFO. When developing and testing your network, Oracle suggests that you set the logging level to DEBUG. If you're working in a production environment, then use ERROR.

Only an administrator can change a node’s log level setting. If you're a user, then you can view a node’s log level settings.

1. Go to the console and select the Nodes tab.
2. In the Nodes tab, go to the nodes table, locate the node you want to update, click its More Actions menu, and click Edit Configuration.
   If you have user permissions, then your console will have the View option that you click to see the node’s log level setting and other configuration settings.
   The Configure dialog is displayed.
3. In the Log Level field, select the log level you want to use.
4. Click Submit.