Https://blockexplorer.nu/ is down

[Nagalim]

@JetJet13

[Cybnate]

Works for me again. Thanks for fixing.

[willy]

needs another kick @JetJet13

[JetJet13]

Hey guys,
I just wanted to let you guys know the current reasons as to why the explorer is either

1. falling behind
2. not responding.

---

1. The explorer is falling behind because after some time of having the nu client running, it becomes unresponsive and so the parser script doesn’t run and the explorer falls behind. The current solution is to restart the nu client and wait for it to catch up so I can insert the missing blocks.

2. The explorer becomes unresponsive (as in you can’t load the site) because there is some function/api that runs and some parameter causes it to not return a value making the server wait ‘forever’ for a response and causes all other requests to hang. The current solution is to simply restart the node server.

[masterOfDisaster]

@Ben, @JetJet13 http://blockexplorer.nu/ is down and doesn’t repond at all.

[masterOfDisaster]

@Ben, @JetJet13 http://blockexplorer.nu/ is down and doesn’t repond at all.

[masterOfDisaster]

@Ben, @JetJet13 http://blockexplorer.nu/ is down and doesn’t repond at all.
“Error 524: host error”

[henry]

Seems down again. A gentle reboot would be appreciated.

[cryptog]

I think we should really fund the improvement of the block explorer.

[Cybnate]

I think we should really fund the improvement of the block explorer.

I would seriously consider such a proposal. The Blockexplorer is a key tool in the ecosystem, but the blockexplorer downtime is unacceptable imo. I believe this can be fixed with more robust code (preferred) or just some clever monitoring of processes and when they fail just trigger an automatic restart of those. The latter is not elegant, but at least it decreases the downtime if we can’t afford to improve the code.

[cryptog]

If someone can write a job description, I can try to find someone.

[willy]

Coinerella would be interested, but projects like this are very time consuming and thus costly.

I would suggest a HTML/JS/CSS frontend with a PHP backend and Couchdb as Database.

Blockexplorer.nu is currently using Node.js.
I tried to install it on one of our servers, but I couldn’t do it.

[Cybnate]

I would suggest a HTML/JS/CSS frontend with a PHP backend and Couchdb as Database.

Not a fan of rewriting it due to the cost. We just need someone to look after it in the first place. Just monitoring it and put some auto notifications in place to be alerted when it doesn’t work.

Only when the maintenance costs prove to be very high due to the chosen products to develop this, I would consider a rebuild.

[willy]

I have presented this opportunity to @TheCrema who is familiar with node.js and bug hunting.

[backpacker]

its down again, while bug hunting takes place, can we automate restart of the application every 4 hours for example using simple cron script?

[mhps]

#!/bin/sh
#This script will check the explorer every 10 minutes using its API.
#If getting no response or the block height doesn't change compared 
#with 10 min ago, the script will restart the explorer. mhps

while true; do 
  block=`curl -s http://blockexplorer.nu/api/statusInfo  | awk 'BEGIN{RS=",\"";FS=":"}{print $1,$2}' | grep heightInt | awk '{print $2}'`;
  d=`date --utc`;
  if [[ $block == "" ]]; then 
     echo $d Explorer not responding;
     restart=1;
  else
     if [[ $block == $lastBlock ]]; then 
        echo $d Blockchain height not changing for 10 min;
        restart=1;
     else
        echo $d Block $block;
        lastBlock=$block;
        restart=0;
     fi;
  fi;
  if [[ $restart == "1" ]]; then 
     echo Restarting explorer;
# add code to restart the explorer
  fi;
  sleep 600;
done

---

Possible problem: when the network really couldn’t find a new block somehow in 10min the explorer will get restarted. (It’s possible to compare the explorer with alix.)

More possible problem: if this script runs on the same server where the explorer runs, it might happen that the explorer looks fine from the same server but couldn’t be accessed from outside.

[masterOfDisaster]

@Ben, @JetJet13, blockexplorer.nu is stuck at block 868,528.
Current height is 871,597:

nud getinfo | grep -v ip
{
    "version" : "v2.1.1-RC1-15-gcf6a10f-beta",
    "protocolversion" : 2000000,
    "walletversion" : 1,
    "walletunit" : "S",
    "balance" : 0.0,
    "newmint" : 0.0,
    "stake" : 0.0,
    "parked" : 0.0,
    "blocks" : 871597,
    "moneysupply" : 821484289.10570002,
    "timeoffset" : -1,
    "connections" : 8,
    "proxy" : "",
    "difficulty" : 0.00019672,
    "testnet" : false,
    "keypoololdest" : 1461141499,
    "keypoolsize" : 101,
    "paytxfee" : 1.0,
    "unlocked_until" : 0,
    "errors" : "Info: Minting suspended due to locked NuShares wallet."
}

[JetJet13]

Hey @masterOfDisaster, the explorer is back up and caught up. I switched out supervisor for pm2.

Cheers.

[masterOfDisaster]

Thank you for your support!
I was made aware that your contract ended - so welcome to the army of those who just try to help

[Cybnate]

@JetJet13 B&C Blockexplorer is stuck since 4 days. Can you please give it a kick? Thanks.