Test deployment with full mainnet blockchain

[cameel]

We have only ever tested our Concent deployment with testnet blockchain. Mainnet blochckain is much bigger and we can expect performance problems. E.g. we run testnet on a HDD but SSD is often recommended when setting up a blockchain client. We should check how it behaves before actually deploying it to the mainnet.

• Create a new cluster
• Deploy only the Geth container (without Concent).
• See if there are any problems in logs.
  • Especially if there are any delays when downloading new blocks.
• See how long it takes to download the blockchain.
  • Once you download it, provision a HDD and keep a copy on it - just so you can use it to initialize a persistent disk instead of redownloading it all again.
• Try to make a few transactions and see if it works without errors or extra delay.
• Try to provision an SSD and see if there's any difference.
• Clean up
  • Delete the cluster
  • Delete any provisioned disks except the one with a copy of the blockchain - it might be useful later.

[PaweuB]

Pivotal:
https://www.pivotaltracker.com/story/show/159459217

[bartoszbetka]

I researched on difference between using geth with HDD or SDD disk. It seems that differences are not big. However, SSD is faster with syncing blockchain. The cost of faster synchronization is price and capacity.

The some sources say that HDD is not recommended for full ethereum node. I tested geth with attached hdd disk on the cluster and I see the blockchain was synced all block, but the truly problem is information about accounts that are unable to synchronize. We need to check how the geth will behave when several transactions are sent. I recommend a second link for more information.

Some useful information:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OfC1w2fw_I
• geth --fast stalls before crossing finish line ethereum/go-ethereum#15001 (comment)
• https://hackernoon.com/getting-deep-into-geth-why-syncing-ethereum-node-is-slow-1edb04f9dc5#747f
• https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/6z0jwf/are_you_using_ssd_or_hdd_if_so_why/

I also checked prices for HDD and SSD disk on gcloud. The second disk is four times more expensive( 1GB per month)

Information:

• https://cloud.google.com/compute/pricing#disk