Troubleshooting a Collator or Node

Helpful Logging Options

• -lsync=trace Sync issues
• -lcumulus-collator=trace Collator not collating.

Important things to remember

• The Parachain overview page is just reporting what it knows from your parachain, it is not information from the relay chain.
  • Getting the information from the relay chain? Chain state: paras.heads(paraId)
  • paras.heads(paraId) is always the PARENT hash not the current one. It cannot know that the current hash is the hash until it gets the next one and can confirm it all the way though to the parachain.
• Relay chain events about paraInclusion might not be on the exact block that the parachain submitted on. Looking +/- 5 blocks is good.
  • Usually CandidateBacked is the block before CandidateIncluded
• Relay Chain Events
  • paraInclusion.CandidateBacked: Parachain collator has pushed a candidate to the relay chain
  • paraInclusion.CandidateIncluded: Relay chain has finalized a candidate
• Behind a Proxy? Are you using --public-addr <Multiaddr address>
  • Example IP: /ip4/55.66.77.88/tcp/30333
  • Example DNS: /dns4/0.boot.frequency.xyz/tcp/30333

Collator Things To Try

• Restart the Collator
• Remove the aura key and re-add it
  • When it is trying to form blocks, but not working and everything is in sync.
  • How
    • Stop collator
    • Remove the keystore directory
    • Start collator
    • Re-add key

Setup a New Collator Notes

• Remember it takes up to 6 hours for the new session to begin.
• https://wiki.polkadot.network/docs/maintain-guides-how-to-validate-polkadot#generating-the-session-keys
  • curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"id":1, "jsonrpc":"2.0", "method": "author_rotateKeys", "params":[]}' [RPC_URL]
  • Extrinsic session.setKeys from the Collator Aura Key, with the value from rotateKeys, and an empty proof 0x