UPDATE:
The new 64GB server is online and @ats-witness is signing blocks once again. Everything appears to be running flawlessly, as usual. Thank you for your patience and support!
End update.
[Original post]
The @ats-witness server was taken offline tonight and is currently in the process of a 64GB upgrade. I thought I would have another week or so to get the upgrade done, but there was an unexpected spike in RAM usage which unfortunately caused a few missed blocks this evening.
The Steem blockchain is growing rapidly for a variety of reasons, so this increased usage is to be expected. Hopefully we will be able to find new ways to reduce memory and storage needs so that scaling for witness and full nodes can be more manageable and less costly. At the current rate of growth, we may see a lot of issues with witnesses unable to afford the costs of servers or there may just be a lack of available servers that can offer the needed specs/capacities from exponential transaction growth on Steem.
In any case, once the new server is up and running, it will be brought back online and @ats-witness will be back to business as usual. You may see my node intermittently online and offline over the next 24-48 hours, but don't fret...everything is going great!
Thanks to everyone who's supporting me! Please stay tuned for the update about the upgrade and for some very exciting news about sports on the blockchain!
Yes, the ongoing RAM greed of steemd is crazy.
Fun Fact: I could change my complete server between block producing.
No downtime needed:)
Ok, I make a block every 27h, that helps, too
:))
Yeah thats why i'm thinking of buying a 1gb upgradable to 2gb witnes servers and or put it at home with a business internet provider 500down 50 up lateron co location. I foresee a great spike in users and usage with the new blockchain update. Im currently at 324 with 2 50gb witness servers using 29gb im just getting zram ready to ride the wave till I can afford the servers im happy that im at 324 now so i have more time to get the servers ready without glitches. I have 10 cores so i can do the processing power and squieze 100gb out of a 50gb machine. But the old zram tuturals let me crash the witness server Im working on.
I didn't touch zram yet, but will have to in thenear future, I guess.
50GB will be filled within the next quarter, I assume.
HF 20 will change nothing in that regard.
And there is no roadmap out for HF 21
Just follow https://steemit.com/witness-category/@deltik/make-your-steem-server-last-longer-with-memory-compression
sudo apt install zram-config sudo sed -i 's|/ 2 /|/ 1 /|g' /usr/bin/init-zram-swapping mount -o remount,size=86352M /dev/shmset
shared-file-size = 80Gin your config.iniand replay steemd
(this is for 50GB RAM node)
I just did it and it seems to be working:)
Yeah well i am reinstalling the vps because of some errors after a reboot the docker wouldnt start so im going back from scratch happily i have two witness servers running 😁 im getting the hang of this. 😂😄 i followed some manual on steem ending up with errors tutural after tutural breaking more then i should. So i will start over. This goes from the time i should writing manuals.
My finance minister would never approve a second witness node!
:)
It was a hard enough battle for the first one;)
😂 well I allready have a miningrig 5x 1060 2xrx550 thats how I pay for these servers and it costs like 50 euri a month so if you know that i had 10 eve online accounts running then this would cost 50 euro less to startup. 😊and... im all alone dont have a financial minister. 😊
First after the zram update during the replay it stopped at 11% and there it began🙈a few days later. Begin from scratch.
Glad to hear you’re upgrading to match the RAM usage. I’ve actually been trying to learn more and more about witness so when people ask “why do I vote for that witness” !!
Keep up the work and hopefully everyone can help push you in the top 50!
Thanks! I'm almost there! Currently sitting at 53, so I hope I can break through into the top-50 sometime in March.
Some big things are coming, so I'm hoping that'll help!
Our competition (well not mine) but I’m trying to help it grow is growing like crazy...mostly because the rewards are really growing thank so to you!! So hopefully that means more votes coming your way. Thanks David and see you on the poker table tomorrow night!
Thanks for the update.
Correct me if I am wrong, but it seems quite binary at the moment to be a witness. It's not easy to break into the top 20 and if your not there being a witness isn't that profitable. Would you say this is a concern for scalability?
It isn't even easy to break into the Top 100 witnesses :(
The Top 50 make enough for a nice living.
With the right provider, a red 0 is manageable in the TOP 100
If this continues, STEEM will get more and more centralised.
And to rant a bit:
It is not helping for every big SP holder, to vote for the TOP20 witnesses.
Why not support new ones with different ideas?
I am putting in some effort at the moment to update my votes. I think it will benefit Steem to have a diverse array of talents in the witness pool so I would like to see more witnesses and more competition.
In terms of witness voting, each round of votes chooses from the top 20 and one backup witness. Does it matter where you rank outside the to 20 in terms of your chance of being picked to produce a block as a backup witness?
One has 30 votes, so why not split them:
I am not doing it that way, I may be a bit greedy, but every vote that goes to another witness, would hurt me;)
Once I am in the TOP 100 I may change my view.
Yes, it matters how many votes you have.
The more votes, the higher the change, you will get selected.
It is randomly, but more votes means more tickets for you in the random draw.
https://steemian.info/witnesses
#21 is every 30-60 Minutes
#124 every 27 hours (my spot)
I like this idea of spreading your vote.
Witness nodes are a secret.
They are a bit more secured by that obscurity, that witnesses should never tell the nodes IP:)
I think you have to follow the hard path and ask the witnesses themself.
Mine is in Germany;)
Hell ya! That’s exciting news!! It’s always fun to get upgrade the server! I do think you’ll be in the top 50 soon. It bothers me when there are witnesses above you that aren’t even active anymore. Once you get in the top 50, you become so much more visible!
Hi @ats-witness but do you always like flowers ????? I have a proposal for you, in a few days!
Well that's good news! Thats the progress that earned my vote. I appreciate it!
extraordinary & congenial!
Writing very beautiful,witness update about....thanks.
Ah, you are back.. And I dropped from #124 to #125, because you want online again :)
Did you setup zram?
Nope. Just upgraded to 64 for now. If better solutions for memory/storage aren't found before we start hitting 50-60 GB, then I'll consider zram. Maybe by then the price of STEEM will be back over $5 - $6.
great post guys.