Manage Nodes
This topic contains general information about managing the nodes in your network.
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 14.
- If you're a founder, then you’ll see two orderer nodes representing an ordering service. If you're a participant then your instance won’t have an orderer node.
- A Fabric certificate authority (CA) representing the membership service.
- A REST proxy node.
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 | Replicas | Can I Change the Number of Nodes After Provisioning My Instance? |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
CA |
This node provides and manages peer node credentials and member credentials. |
Founder Participant |
1 |
2 | You can add new replicas by scaling your instance out using Blockchain Platform Manager |
Console |
This node is the console component. |
Founder Participant |
1 |
2 | You can add new replicas by scaling your instance out using Blockchain Platform Manager |
Orderer |
These nodes provides communication between nodes. They 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 |
2 |
1 | You can add new replicas by scaling your instance out using Blockchain Platform Manager |
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 |
1 to 14
The number of peer nodes you can add was specified when your instance was created. |
1 | You can add or remove peers by scaling your instance in or out using Blockchain Platform Manager |
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 | 2 | You can add new replicas by scaling your instance out using Blockchain Platform Manager |
Find Information About Nodes
This topic 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.
Access Information About a Specific Node
Use the Nodes tab to access information about a specific. For example, health information or log files.
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.
- Go to the console and select the Nodes tab.
- In the Nodes tab, click Topology View to see a diagram showing the peer nodes in your network and which channels they’re using.
- Hover over a peer to highlight it and the channels it’s using.
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.
- 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 or chaincode is only joined or instantiated in this peer, you should consider using another running peer to join the same channel and instantiate the same chaincode.
- Go to the console and select the Nodes tab.
- 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.
- 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.
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.