Add Vote Account Management Doc (#11278)

* Add vote account management doc

* Add links to new doc

* Whitespace

* Fixup language

* Cleaner title

* Apply review feedback

* Apply further feedback

* Fix usage page header

Co-authored-by: publish-docs.sh <maintainers@solana.com>

docs/sidebars.js

@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@ module.exports = {
       "cli/manage-stake-accounts",
       "offline-signing",
       "offline-signing/durable-nonce",
+      "cli/usage",
     ],
     "Solana Clusters": ["clusters"],
     "Develop Applications": [
@@ -61,6 +62,7 @@ module.exports = {
       "running-validator",
       "running-validator/validator-reqs",
       "running-validator/validator-start",
+      "running-validator/vote-accounts",
       "running-validator/validator-stake",
       "running-validator/validator-monitor",
       "running-validator/validator-info",

docs/src/cli/.usage.md.header

@@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
-# solana CLI
+---
+title: CLI Usage Reference
+---
 
 The [solana-cli crate](https://crates.io/crates/solana-cli) provides a command-line interface tool for Solana
 

docs/src/running-validator/validator-start.md

@@ -168,12 +168,15 @@ vote account on the network. If you have completed this step, you should see the
 solana-keygen new -o ~/vote-account-keypair.json
 ```
 
-Create your vote account on the blockchain:
+The following command can be used to create your vote account on the blockchain
+with all the default options:
 
 ```bash
 solana create-vote-account ~/vote-account-keypair.json ~/validator-keypair.json
 ```
 
+Read more about [creating and managing a vote account](vote-accounts.md).
+
 ## Trusted validators
 
 If you know and trust other validator nodes, you can specify this on the command line with the `--trusted-validator <PUBKEY>`

docs/src/running-validator/vote-accounts.md

@@ -0,0 +1,146 @@
+---
+title: Vote Account Management
+---
+
+This page describes how to set up an on-chain _vote account_.  Creating a vote
+account is needed if you plan to run a validator node on Solana.
+
+## Create a Vote Account
+A vote account can be created with the
+[create-vote-account](../cli/usage.md#solana-create-vote-account) command.
+The vote account can be configured when first created or after the validator is
+running.  All aspects of the vote account can be changed except for the
+[vote account address](#vote-account-address), which is fixed for the lifetime
+of the account.
+
+### Configure an Existing Vote Account
+ - To change the [validator identity](#validator-identity), use
+[vote-update-validator](../cli/usage.md#solana-vote-update-validator).
+ - To change the [vote authority](#vote-authority), use
+[vote-authorize-voter](../cli/usage.md#solana-vote-authorize-voter).
+ - To change the [withdraw authority](#withdraw-authority), use
+[vote-authorize-withdrawer](../cli/usage.md#solana-vote-authorize-withdrawer).
+ - To change the [commission](#commission), use
+ [vote-update-commission](../cli/usage.md#solana-vote-update-commission).
+
+## Vote Account Structure
+
+### Vote Account Address
+A vote account is created at an address that is either the public key of a
+keypair file, or at a derived address based on a keypair file's public key and
+a seed string.
+
+The address of a vote account is never needed to sign any transactions,
+but is just used to look up the account information.
+
+When someone wants to [delegate tokens in a stake account](../staking.md),
+the delegation command is pointed at the vote account address of the validator
+to whom the token-holder wants to delegate.
+
+### Validator Identity
+
+The _validator identity_ is a system account that is used to pay for all the
+vote transaction fees submitted to the vote account.
+Because the validator is expected to vote on most valid blocks it receives,
+the validator identity account is frequently
+(potentially multiple times per second) signing transactions and
+paying fees.  For this reason the validator identity keypair must be
+stored as a "hot wallet" in a keypair file on the same system the validator
+process is running.
+
+Because a hot wallet is generally less secure than an offline or "cold" wallet,
+the validator operator may choose to store only enough SOL on the identity
+account to cover voting fees for a limited amount of time, such as a few weeks
+or months.  The validator identity account could be periodically topped off
+from a more secure wallet.
+
+This practice can reduce the risk of loss of funds if the validator node's
+disk or file system becomes compromised or corrupted.
+
+The validator identity is required to be provided when a vote account is created.
+The validator identity can also be changed after an account is created by using
+the [vote-update-validator](../cli/usage.md#solana-vote-update-validator) command.
+
+### Vote Authority
+
+The _vote authority_ keypair is used to sign each vote transaction the validator
+node wants to submit to the cluster.  This doesn't necessarily have to be unique
+from the validator identity, as you will see later in this document.  Because
+the vote authority, like the validator identity, is signing transactions
+frequently, this also must be a hot keypair on the same file system as the
+validator process.
+
+The vote authority can be set to the same address as the validator identity.
+If the validator identity is also the vote authority, only one
+signature per vote transaction is needed in order to both sign the vote and pay
+the transaction fee.  Because transaction fees on Solana are assessed
+per-signature, having one signer instead of two will result in half the transaction
+fee paid compared to setting the vote authority and validator identity to two
+different accounts.
+
+The vote authority can be set when the vote account is created.  If it is not
+provided, the default behavior is to assign it the same as the validator identity.
+The vote authority can be changed later with the
+[vote-authorize-voter](../cli/usage.md#solana-vote-authorize-voter) command.
+
+The vote authority can be changed at most once per epoch.  If the authority is
+changed with [vote-authorize-voter](../cli/usage.md#solana-vote-authorize-voter),
+this will not take effect until the beginning of the next epoch.
+To support a smooth transition of the vote signing,
+`solana-validator` allows the `--authorized-voter` argument to be specified
+multiple times.  This allows the validator process to keep voting successfully
+when the network reaches an epoch boundary at which the validator's vote
+authority account changes.
+
+### Withdraw Authority
+
+The _withdraw authority_ keypair is used to withdraw funds from a vote account
+using the [withdraw-from-vote-account](../cli/usage.md#solana-withdraw-from-vote-account)
+command.  Any network rewards a validator earns are deposited into the vote
+account and are only retrievable by signing with the withdraw authority keypair.
+
+The withdraw authority is also required to sign any transaction to change
+a vote account's [commission](#commission), and to change the validator
+identity on a vote account.
+
+Because the vote account could accrue a significant balance, consider keeping
+the withdraw authority keypair in an offline/cold wallet, as it is
+not needed to sign frequent transactions.
+
+The withdraw authority can be set at vote account creation with the
+`--authorized-withdrawer` option.  If this is not provided, the validator
+identity will be set as the withdraw authority by default.
+
+The withdraw authority can be changed later with the
+[vote-authorize-withdrawer](../cli/usage.md#solana-vote-authorize-withdrawer)
+command.
+
+### Commission
+
+_Commission_ is the percent of network rewards earned by a validator that are
+deposited into the validator's vote account.  The remainder of the rewards
+are distributed to all of the stake accounts delegated to that vote account,
+proportional to the active stake weight of each stake account.
+
+For example, if a vote account has a commission of 10%, for all rewards earned
+by that validator in a given epoch, 10% of these rewards will be deposited into
+the vote account in the first block of the following epoch. The remaining 90%
+will be deposited into delegated stake accounts as immediately active stake.
+
+A validator may choose to set a low commission to try to attract more stake
+delegations as a lower commission results in a larger percentage of rewards
+passed along to the delegator.  As there are costs associated with setting up
+and operating a validator node, a validator would ideally set a high enough
+commission to at least cover their expenses.
+
+Commission can be set upon vote account creation with the `--commission` option.
+If it is not provided, it will default to 100%, which will result in all
+rewards deposited in the vote account, and none passed on to any delegated
+stake accounts.
+
+Commission can also be changed later with the
+[vote-update-commission](../cli/usage.md#solana-vote-update-commission) command.
+
+When setting the commission, only integer values in the set [0-100] are accepted.
+The integer represents the number of percentage points for the commission, so
+creating an account with `--commission 10` will set a 10% commission.