Troubleshooting

SSV Node health endpoint

In order to troubleshoot any issues with the SSV Node, it's a good start to use the /health endpoint.

First and foremost, the SSV_API port environment variable, or configuration parameter must be set. For that, refer to the Node Configuration Reference page.

Assuming that the SSV node is running on the local machine, and that the SSV_API port is set to 16000, the health check endpoint can be reached using the curl command, for example, just as shown below:

curl http://localhost:16000/v1/node/health

This request will provide a JSON response, here is an example of a response from a node in good state:

{
  "p2p": "good",
  "beacon_node": "good",
  "execution_node": "good",
  "event_syncer": "good",
  "advanced": {
    "peers": 89,
    "inbound_conns": 67,
    "outbound_conns": 22,
    "p2p_listen_addresses": [
      "tcp://<X.Y.W.Z>:13001",
      "udp://<X.Y.W.Z>:12001"
    ]
  }
}

This "self-diagnose" report of the node can be useful to make sure that some essential indicators have the correct values:

p2p_listen_addresses should show the correct public IP & port and the TCP port should be open when checking this IP with a port checker (they have been rendered anonymous for the purpose of this page)
peers should be at least 60 for operators with more than 100 validators
inbound_conns should be at least 20% of the peers (though not an exact number, this is a good indication of healthy connections from the node)

Below, an example of the same report, from a node in bad state:

{
  "p2p": "bad: not enough connected peers",
  "beacon_node": "good",
  "execution_node": "good",
  "event_syncer": "good",
  "advanced": {
    "peers": 5,
    "inbound_conns": 1,
    "outbound_conns": 4,
    "p2p_listen_addresses": [
      "tcp://<X.Y.W.Z>:13004",
      "udp://<X.Y.W.Z>:12004"
    ]
  }
}

SSV-Pulse benchmarking tool

Our team developed a tool to ease your troubleshooting process, as it analyses SSV Node, Consensus Node, and Execution Node at the same time. You can find more details on ssv-pulse GitHub page.

To use this tool you can use docker compose or a docker command below:

If you used docker compose to run your SSV node — add the following part after the services: to your docker-compose.yml file:

  ssv-pulse:
    container_name: ssv-pulse
    image: ghcr.io/ssvlabs/ssv-pulse:latest
    command: 
      - 'benchmark'
      - '--consensus-addr=<YOUR_ADDRESS_HERE>' # Change to your Consensus Node's address, e.g. http://lighthouse:5052
      - '--execution-addr=<YOUR_ADDRESS_HERE>' # Change to your Execution Node's address, e.g. http://geth:8545
      - '--ssv-addr=http://ssv_node:16000' #Or Change to your SSV Node's address with SSVAPIPort
      - '--duration=60m'
      # - '--network=holesky' # Add this if you run a Holesky Node
      # - '--platform linux/arm64' # Add this if you run on an arm64 machine
    networks:
      - ssv
    pull_policy: always

Then run docker compose up ssv-pulse to run the benchmark tool.

Use the following command to run the benchmark tool:

docker run --rm --pull=always --name ssv-pulse \
ghcr.io/ssvlabs/ssv-pulse:latest benchmark \
--consensus-addr=REPLACE_WITH_ADDR \
--execution-addr=REPLACE_WITH_ADDR \
--ssv-addr=REPLACE_WITH_ADDR \
--duration=60m

Replace the various addresses with the respective endpoints, e.g. http://lighthouse:5052, http://geth:8545, and SSV http://ssv_node:16000 (or your other SSVAPIPort).

If you run a Holesky Node you should add --network=holesky to the command.

If you run this on a arm64 machine you should add --platform linux/arm64 to the command.

The tool will run for 1 hour and provide you with results as a table. An example of output is below:

┌────────────────┬─────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│   Group Name   │ Metric Name │                            Value                             │   Health   │                         Severity                          │
├────────────────┼─────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Infrastructure │     CPU     │     user_P50=13.54%, system_P50=1.80%, total=87903220930     │ Healthy✅  │                 System: None, User: None                  │
├────────────────┼─────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Infrastructure │   Memory    │         total_P50=128580.05MB, used_P50=54250.51MB,          │ Healthy✅  │     Cached: None, Used: None, Free: None, Total: None     │
│                │             │          cached_P50=66262.48MB, free_P50=4250.07MB           │            │                                                           │
├────────────────┼─────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│   Consensus    │   Client    │ teku/v24.10.0/linux-x86_64/-eclipseadoptium-openjdk64bitser- │ Healthy✅  │                       Version: None                       │
│                │             │                        vervm-java-21                         │            │                                                           │
├────────────────┼─────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│   Consensus    │   Latency   │        min=415.643µs, p10=720.518µs, p50=2.856258ms,         │ Healthy✅  │                      Duration: None                       │
│                │             │               p90=3.519113ms, max=595.473628ms               │            │                                                           │
├────────────────┼─────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│   Consensus    │    Peers    │         min=276, p10=287, p50=299, p90=300, max=300          │ Healthy✅  │                        Count: None                        │
├────────────────┼─────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│   Consensus    │ Attestation │       missed_attestations=0, unready_blocks_200_ms=0,        │ Healthy✅  │ Correctness: None, ReceivedBlock: None, FreshAttestation: │
│                │             │                       missed_blocks=1                        │            │                  None, MissedBlock: None                  │
│                │             │         fresh_attestations=296 received_blocks=297,          │            │                                                           │
│                │             │                     correctness=99.66 %                      │            │                                                           │
├────────────────┼─────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│   Execution    │    Peers    │         min=232, p10=238, p50=245, p90=250, max=253          │ Healthy✅  │                        Count: None                        │
├────────────────┼─────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│      SSV       │    Peers    │            min=0, p10=0, p50=0, p90=0, max=0                 │ Unhealthy⚠️ │                        Count: High                        │
├────────────────┼─────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│      SSV       │ Connections │        inbound_min=0, inbound_P50=0, outbound_min=0,         │ Unhealthy⚠️ │    OutboundConnections: High, InboundConnections: High    │
│                │             │                       outbound_P50=60                        │            │                                                           │
└────────────────┴─────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

The results signalize low Peer connection on SSV Node, this most probably caused by closed ports.

FAQ

My node is not participating in cluster consensus

If your node is not participating in cluster consensus, please verify that the Network has the correct value for the blockchain you are trying to operate on.

Next, verify in the SSV node logs that the connection to execution and beacon node has been established.

If the SSV node logs don't report any errors, please verify the clients logs themselves. If the disk they are running on does not support fast IOPS, they might struggle to stay in sync with the blockchain

It is finally possible that the clients don't report any errors, but the issue persists. In this cases, try and re-sync execution and/or beacon client(s), to fix potential initialization issues.

What happens if my machine restarts?

If you look at the Docker command you ran to start the node you'll see the part that says:

--restart unless-stopped

This means that the Docker container running your node will always try to restart if it crashes, or if the whole machine turns off and then restarts.

How do I stop the node?

In the command above, you named your node:

--name=ssv_node

This is how you will reference your node with other docker commands.

To stop the node run:

docker stop ssv_node

How do I start the node?

If for some reason your node has stopped (maybe you manually stopped it 🤔) you don't need to run the full creation command again, as that will actually throw an error saying that the Docker container already exists.

In the command above, you named your node:

--name=ssv_node

This is how you will reference your node with other docker commands.

To start a container, run the command:

docker start ssv_node

How do I view the logs again?

In the command above, you named your node:

--name=ssv_node

This is how you will reference your node with other docker commands.

To view the logs when your node is running, use the command:

docker logs ssv_node

How do I update my node?

Docker compose:

Run the following commands to update your node to the latest version:

docker compose down
docker pull ssvlabs/ssv-node:latest
docker compose up -d

Alternatively, you can set the exact version in your docker-compose.yaml configuration file with image: ssvlabs/ssv-node:v1.2.3. But in that case you will have to change the version in your file with each new update posted on SSV Docker Hub.

Docker run:

If you followed our documentation, you named your node with the --name=ssv_node docker flag. This is how you will reference your node with other docker commands.

To update your SSV node, you will need to stop your current node:

docker stop ssv_node

Then remove it (this only removes the old Docker image, not all of your data!):

docker rm -f ssv_node

Then pull the latest image from SSV:

docker pull ssvlabs/ssv-node:latest

And finally... run the creation command again to create a new Docker container with the latest SSV image.

How do I migrate raw (deprecated) Operator Keys

If you are already in possession of raw (unencrypted) Operator Keys, please copy the private key into a text file and make sure the file only contains the key in a single line. For this mini-guide, we are going to call this file: private-key.

Password file

You will need to create a file (named password in this example) containing the password you chose for your Secret Key:

echo "<MY_OPERATOR_PASSWORD>" >> password

Secret Key encryption

Then, you can generate a KeyStore using this command:

docker run --name ssv-node-key-generation \
-v "$(pwd)/password":/password \
-v "$(pwd)/private-key":/private-key \
-it ssvlabs/ssv-node:latest /go/bin/ssvnode generate-operator-keys \
--password-file=/password  --operator-key-file=/private-key && \
docker cp ssv-node-key-generation:/encrypted_private_key.json \
./encrypted_private_key.json && \
docker rm ssv-node-key-generation

Configuration update

At this point the node configuration needs to be changed, please edit the config.yaml file for your node, find the line with OperatorPrivateKey and delete it entirely. Replace it with this section:

KeyStore:
  PrivateKeyFile: <ENCRYPTED_PRIVATE_KEY_JSON> # e.g. ./encrypted_private_key.json
  PasswordFile: <PASSWORD_FILE> # e.g. ./password

And make sure to replace ENCRYPTED_PRIVATE_KEY_JSON with the operator encrypted private key file just generated (e.g. encrypted_private_key.json) and PASSWORD_FILE with the file containing the password used to generate the encrypted key itself (e.g. password).

Restart node and apply new configuration

The node needs to be restarted, in order for the new configuration to be applied. Please connect to the machine running the node via terminal and execute the command:

docker stop ssv_node && docker rm ssv_node && docker run -d --restart unless-stopped --name ssv_node -e \
CONFIG_PATH=/config.yaml -p 13001:13001 -p 12001:12001/udp -p 15000:15000 \
-v "$(pwd)/config.yaml":/config.yaml \
-v "$(pwd)":/data \
-v "$(pwd)/password":/password \
-v "$(pwd)/encrypted_private_key.json":/encrypted_private_key.json \
-it "ssvlabs/ssv-node:latest" make BUILD_PATH="/go/bin/ssvnode" start-node && \ 
docker logs ssv_node --follow

Common error/warning messages

This section is a collection of common warnings, error messages, statuses and other unexpected behaviours you might encounter and the possible related known causes.

`failed to create beacon go-client`

FATAL	failed to create beacon go-client	{"error": "failed to create http client: failed to confirm node connection: failed to fetch genesis: failed to request genesis: failed to call GET endpoint: Get \"http://5.104.175.133:5057/eth/v1/beacon/genesis\": context deadline exceeded", "errorVerbose":…………….\nfailed to create http client", "address": "http://5.104.175.133:5057"}

This is likely due to issues with the Beacon layer Node. Verify that BeaconNodeAddr has the correct address and port in config.yaml configuration file.

`could not connect to execution client`

FATAL	could not connect to execution client	{"error": "failed to connect to execution client: dial tcp 5.104.175.133:8541: i/o timeout"}

This is likely due to issues with the Execution layer Node. Verify that ETH1Addr has the correct address and port in config.yaml configuration file.

Finally, make sure that your ETH1 endpoint is running using Websocket. This is required in order to stream events from the network contracts.

`could not setup operator private key`

FATAL	could not setup operator private key	{"error": "Operator private key is not matching the one encrypted the storage", "errorVerbose": ...{

Verify that the Operator Private Key is correctly set in config.yaml configuration file. In particular, if using unencrypted (raw) keys, that the private (secret) key was copied in the configuration file and that it contains all characters (sometimes it contains a = character that can easily be left out).

If the node has been stopped and restart, verify that the same configuration has been applied, that the private key has not been changed, and that the db.Path configuration points to the same directory as before.

`could not setup network`

FATAL	could not setup network	{"error": "network not supported: jatov2"}

In the example above, the Network in config.yaml configuration file was wrongly set to jatov2 instead of jato-v2, so be sure to look for thinks like spelling mistakes.

`could not create loggerlogging.SetGlobalLogger`

could not create loggerlogging.SetGlobalLogger: unrecognized level: "infor"
make: *** [Makefile:97: start-node] Error 1

In the example above, the LogLevel variable in config.yaml configuration file was wrongly set to infor instead of info, so be sure to look for thinks like spelling mistakes.

`failed to get attestation data`

"error":"could not start committee duty: failed to get attestation data: failed to get attestation data: failed to call GET endpoint\nGet

This error could be caused by using multiple SSV nodes within one Nimbus setup. It is advised to only run one SSV node per Nimbus instance.

`ERROR P2PNetwork`

ERROR P2PNetwork unable to create external multiaddress {"error": "invalid ip address provided: ...

This error signalizes the node could not figure the public IP address of your node on a startup. You need to provide your SSV Node's address in p2p: HostAddress: variable in your config.yaml file.

Node Metrics not showing up in Prometheus/Grafana

Please verify that the MetricsAPIPort variable is correctly set in config.yaml configuration file.

For a more in-depth guide on how to set up Node monitoring, refer to the dedicated page in this section.

Node does not generate a log file

Please verify that the LogFilePath variable is correctly set in config.yaml configuration file. Be sure to look for thinks like spelling mistakes.

Node takes a long time to become active

Please verify that the Path under the db section is correctly set in config.yaml configuration file. Be sure to look for thinks like spelling mistakes.

If the Node was working correctly and becomes inactive after a configuration change, make sure that Path wasn't accidentally changed. This will cause the database to be recostructed and will lead to a slower startup.

`“port 13000 already running”`

This could happen if you run both consensus node and SSV node on the same machine - please make sure to change your SSV node port to any other port. Refer to the p2p section of the installation guide for details.

After updating your port, please restart the SSV node and confirm the error does not appear.

`failed to check address`

{"level":"debug","time":"2021-12-13T06:45:24.529069Z","caller":"p2p/discovery.go:56","message":"","app":"SSV-Node:v0.1.7","component":"p2p","id":"16Uiu2HAmQYHdvGW2rtCejsz3BCNJsoBWpD9Kd2NuZWRgGggkKg4h","addr":"220.158.208.20:13001","err":"IP address is not accessible: dial tcp 220.158.208.20:13000: i/o timeout"}

Port 13000 is closed - please make sure it is open (on both docker and machine level) and restart your node.

For confirmation, you should see "Address was checked successfully" message.

`"no indices, duties won’t be fetched"` message

This could be due to one of the following causes:

No validator has chosen your operator as one of its operators (for testing purposes you can always open one and select yourself as one of its managing operators).
Your node uses a different operator public key than the one you have registered to the network (using the SSV webapp).

Steps to confirm you use the same key:

Find the operator key that you have registered to the network in the ssv explorer.
Find the operator public key you have generated in your node during setup.
Compare between the keys - if they do not match you must update your private key in the node config.yaml file, according to the key generated during your node installation.

{"level":"info","time":"2021-12-13T06:45:14.466457Z","caller":"operator/storage.go:122","message":"setup operator privateKey is DONE!","app":"SSV-Node:v0.1.7","who":"operatorKeys","public-key":"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"}

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SSV Node health endpoint

SSV-Pulse benchmarking tool

FAQ

Common error/warning messages

failed to create beacon go-client

could not connect to execution client

could not setup operator private key

could not setup network

could not create loggerlogging.SetGlobalLogger

failed to get attestation data

ERROR P2PNetwork

Node Metrics not showing up in Prometheus/Grafana

Node does not generate a log file

Node takes a long time to become active

“port 13000 already running”

failed to check address

"no indices, duties won’t be fetched" message

`failed to create beacon go-client`

`could not connect to execution client`

`could not setup operator private key`

`could not setup network`

`could not create loggerlogging.SetGlobalLogger`

`failed to get attestation data`

`ERROR P2PNetwork`

`“port 13000 already running”`

`failed to check address`

`"no indices, duties won’t be fetched"` message