Troubleshooting - Fenine Network Documentation

Quick Diagnostics

Run these checks first:

# Node status
sudo systemctl status fenine

# Recent logs
sudo journalctl -u fenine -n 100

# Sync status
curl -X POST http://localhost:8545 \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"eth_syncing","params":[],"id":1}'

# Peer count
curl -X POST http://localhost:8545 \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"net_peerCount","params":[],"id":1}'

Common Issues

Node Won't Start

Symptoms

● fenine.service - Fenine Full Node
   Loaded: loaded
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code)

Causes & Solutions

1. Permission Issues

# Check ownership
ls -la /var/lib/fenine

# Fix permissions
sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/lib/fenine
sudo chmod 755 /var/lib/fenine

2. Port Already in Use

# Check what's using port 8545
sudo lsof -i :8545

# Kill process or change port in config
sudo nano /var/lib/fenine/config.toml
# Change HTTPPort to 8546

3. Corrupted Database

# Check logs for "database corrupted"
sudo journalctl -u fenine -n 200 | grep -i corrupt

# Remove and re-initialize
sudo systemctl stop fenine
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/fenine/geth
fene-geth init /var/lib/fenine/genesis.json \
  --datadir /var/lib/fenine
sudo systemctl start fenine

4. Missing Genesis File

# Re-download genesis
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fenines-network/genesis/main/mainnet.json \
  -O /var/lib/fenine/genesis.json

# Re-initialize
fene-geth init /var/lib/fenine/genesis.json \
  --datadir /var/lib/fenine

5. Insufficient Disk Space

# Check disk usage
df -h /var/lib/fenine

# Free up space or expand disk
sudo apt autoremove -y
sudo journalctl --vacuum-time=7d

Sync Not Progressing

Symptoms

Block height not increasing
Stuck at specific block number
“Syncing” but no progress

Solutions

1. No Peers Connected

# Check peer count
curl -X POST http://localhost:8545 \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"net_peerCount","params":[],"id":1}'

# If 0x0, add bootnodes
sudo systemctl stop fenine
sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/fenine.service

# Add to ExecStart:
--bootnodes "enode://[BOOTNODE1]@bootnode1.fene.app:30303,enode://[BOOTNODE2]@bootnode2.fene.app:30303"

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl start fenine

2. Firewall Blocking P2P

# Check firewall
sudo ufw status

# Allow P2P port
sudo ufw allow 30303/tcp
sudo ufw allow 30303/udp

# Restart node
sudo systemctl restart fenine

3. Stuck on Bad Block

# Check logs for "bad block"
sudo journalctl -u fenine | grep -i "bad block"

# Rollback and re-sync
fene-geth removedb --datadir /var/lib/fenine
fene-geth init /var/lib/fenine/genesis.json \
  --datadir /var/lib/fenine
sudo systemctl start fenine

4. Clock Skew

# Check system time
timedatectl

# If wrong, sync with NTP
sudo timedatectl set-ntp true

# Restart node
sudo systemctl restart fenine

5. Network Issues

# Test connectivity to bootnode
nc -zv bootnode1.fene.app 30303

# Check DNS resolution
nslookup bootnode1.fene.app

# Try different network (if behind NAT/proxy)

High Memory Usage

Symptoms

Node using >90% RAM
OOM killer stopping process
Swap usage high

Solutions

1. Reduce Cache Size

sudo systemctl stop fenine
sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/fenine.service

# Change --cache 4096 to lower value:
--cache 2048  # For 16GB RAM
--cache 1024  # For 8GB RAM

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl start fenine

2. Enable Swap

# Check swap
free -h

# Create 8GB swap file
sudo fallocate -l 8G /swapfile
sudo chmod 600 /swapfile
sudo mkswap /swapfile
sudo swapon /swapfile

# Make permanent
echo '/swapfile none swap sw 0 0' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab

3. Memory Leak (Node Bug)

# Check if memory grows indefinitely
watch -n 5 'free -h'

# If leak, upgrade to latest version
# See upgrade guide

4. Reduce Max Peers

sudo nano /var/lib/fenine/config.toml

# Change:
[Node.P2P]
MaxPeers = 25  # Reduce from 50

sudo systemctl restart fenine

High CPU Usage

Symptoms

CPU constantly >90%
System becomes unresponsive
High temperature

Solutions

1. Sync in Progress

# Check if syncing
curl -X POST http://localhost:8545 \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"eth_syncing","params":[],"id":1}'

# If syncing, high CPU is normal
# Wait for sync to complete

2. Too Many RPC Requests

# Check RPC request rate
sudo journalctl -u fenine | grep "rpc" | tail -100

# Add rate limiting (nginx example)
limit_req_zone $binary_remote_addr zone=rpc:10m rate=10r/s;

location / {
  limit_req zone=rpc burst=20;
  proxy_pass http://localhost:8545;
}

3. Mining/Validator Process

# Check if accidentally mining
fene-geth attach /var/lib/fenine/geth.ipc
> eth.mining
# Should return false for non-validators

> miner.stop()  # If true
> exit

4. CPU Affinity

# Limit to specific CPU cores
sudo systemctl stop fenine
sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/fenine.service

# Add after [Service]
CPUAffinity=0 1 2 3  # Use only cores 0-3

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl start fenine

RPC Not Responding

Symptoms

Connection refused on port 8545
Timeout errors
“Failed to connect” messages

Solutions

1. RPC Not Enabled

# Check config
cat /var/lib/fenine/config.toml | grep HTTPHost

# Should be:
[Node]
HTTPHost = "0.0.0.0"
HTTPPort = 8545

# If missing, add and restart

2. Firewall Blocking

# Check if port open
sudo netstat -tlnp | grep 8545

# Allow through firewall
sudo ufw allow 8545/tcp

# Test locally
curl http://localhost:8545

3. Binding to Localhost Only

# Check HTTPHost
cat /var/lib/fenine/config.toml | grep HTTPHost

# Change from 127.0.0.1 to 0.0.0.0
HTTPHost = "0.0.0.0"

sudo systemctl restart fenine

4. RPC Methods Disabled

# Check enabled modules
curl -X POST http://localhost:8545 \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"rpc_modules","params":[],"id":1}'

# Enable missing modules
sudo nano /var/lib/fenine/config.toml

HTTPModules = ["eth", "net", "web3", "fenine"]

sudo systemctl restart fenine

Disk Full

Symptoms

Node crashes with “no space left”
Writes fail
Database corruption

Solutions

1. Clear Journal Logs

# Check log size
sudo journalctl --disk-usage

# Clear old logs
sudo journalctl --vacuum-time=7d
sudo journalctl --vacuum-size=1G

2. Enable Pruning

# Stop node
sudo systemctl stop fenine

# Enable pruning in config
sudo nano /var/lib/fenine/config.toml

[Eth]
NoPruning = false  # Enable pruning

# Re-sync (pruning only works from genesis)
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/fenine/geth
fene-geth init /var/lib/fenine/genesis.json \
  --datadir /var/lib/fenine
sudo systemctl start fenine

3. Move Data to Larger Disk

# Stop node
sudo systemctl stop fenine

# Copy to new disk
sudo rsync -av /var/lib/fenine/ /mnt/new-disk/fenine/

# Update mount point
sudo mv /var/lib/fenine /var/lib/fenine.old
sudo ln -s /mnt/new-disk/fenine /var/lib/fenine

# Start node
sudo systemctl start fenine

# After verification, remove old data
# sudo rm -rf /var/lib/fenine.old

4. Clean Docker (if using Docker)

docker system prune -a
docker volume prune

Peer Connection Issues

Symptoms

Peer count stays at 0 or very low
Can’t find peers
Connections drop frequently

Solutions

1. NAT/Router Issues

# Enable UPnP in config
sudo nano /var/lib/fenine/config.toml

[Node.P2P]
NAT = "upnp"

# Or manually forward port 30303 on router

2. ISP Blocking P2P

# Change P2P port
sudo nano /var/lib/fenine/config.toml

[Node.P2P]
ListenAddr = ":40404"  # Different port

sudo systemctl restart fenine

3. Static Peers

# Add trusted peers
sudo nano /var/lib/fenine/geth/static-nodes.json

[
  "enode://[PEER1]@ip1:30303",
  "enode://[PEER2]@ip2:30303"
]

sudo systemctl restart fenine

4. Discovery Issues

# Enable verbose P2P logging
sudo systemctl stop fenine

# Add to service file:
--verbosity 4 --vmodule p2p=5

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl start fenine

# Check logs
sudo journalctl -u fenine -f | grep p2p

Database Corruption

Symptoms

Fatal: Failed to open database
Error: corrupted block
Panic: leveldb: corruption

Solutions

1. Try Repair

sudo systemctl stop fenine

# Attempt repair
fene-geth db inspect \
  --datadir /var/lib/fenine

# If repair succeeds
sudo systemctl start fenine

2. Restore from Backup

sudo systemctl stop fenine

# Restore
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/fenine/geth
sudo tar -xzf /backup/fenine-YYYYMMDD.tar.gz \
  -C /var/lib/fenine

sudo systemctl start fenine

3. Full Re-sync

sudo systemctl stop fenine

# Remove corrupted data
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/fenine/geth

# Re-initialize
fene-geth init /var/lib/fenine/genesis.json \
  --datadir /var/lib/fenine

sudo systemctl start fenine

Node Falls Behind Network

Symptoms

Always 10-100 blocks behind
Catches up then falls behind again
Slow block processing

Solutions

1. Insufficient Resources

# Check system resources
htop

# Upgrade hardware or reduce load
# See hardware requirements

2. Slow Disk I/O

# Test disk speed
sudo hdparm -Tt /dev/sda

# Should be &gt;100 MB/s
# If slow, upgrade to NVMe SSD

3. Network Latency

# Test latency to peers
fene-geth attach /var/lib/fenine/geth.ipc
> admin.peers.forEach(function(p) {
    console.log(p.network.inbound, p.network.localAddress)
  })

# High latency (&gt;200ms)? Add closer peers

4. Increase Cache

# If you have RAM available
sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/fenine.service

# Increase --cache
--cache 8192  # For 32GB+ RAM

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl restart fenine

Error Messages

Common error messages and what they mean:

Error	Meaning	Solution
`Fatal: Failed to register`	Port in use	Change port or kill process
`Error: genesis mismatch`	Wrong network	Re-download correct genesis.json
`Unclean shutdown detected`	Node crashed last time	Check logs, may need db repair
`Out of memory`	Insufficient RAM	Reduce cache or add swap
`Peer handshake failed`	Network/version mismatch	Update to latest version
`Database compaction needed`	DB fragmentation	Stop node, compact, restart
`Insufficient funds`	(From dApp) Not an error	User needs more FEN
`Transaction underpriced`	Gas price too low	Increase gas price

Performance Issues

Slow RPC Response
High Latency
Memory Leaks

Symptoms

RPC calls take >1 second
Timeouts on complex queries
High latency

Solutions

# 1. Increase cache
--cache 4096

# 2. Add more RAM
# See hardware requirements

# 3. Use nginx caching
proxy_cache_path /tmp/nginx-cache levels=1:2 keys_zone=rpc_cache:10m;

location / {
  proxy_cache rpc_cache;
  proxy_cache_valid 200 1s;
  proxy_pass http://localhost:8545;
}

# 4. Rate limit expensive calls
# Block eth_getLogs with large block ranges

Causes

Overloaded node
Slow disk I/O
Network congestion
Too many concurrent requests

Solutions

# Monitor with metrics
curl http://localhost:6060/debug/metrics/prometheus

# Look for:
# - High disk wait time
# - High CPU usage
# - Memory pressure

# Scale horizontally (multiple nodes + load balancer)

Detection

# Monitor memory over time
watch -n 10 'free -h'

# If steadily increasing, likely leak

Solutions

# 1. Restart node daily (temporary)
crontab -e
0 3 * * * systemctl restart fenine

# 2. Upgrade to latest version
# Leaks often fixed in updates

# 3. Report bug with diagnostics
sudo journalctl -u fenine &gt; fenine.log
# Submit to GitHub issues

Diagnostic Tools

Health Check Script

#!/bin/bash

echo "=== Fenine Node Diagnostics ==="

# Service status
echo -e "\n[Service Status]"
systemctl is-active fenine && echo "✓ Running" || echo "✗ Stopped"

# Disk space
echo -e "\n[Disk Space]"
df -h /var/lib/fenine | tail -1

# Memory
echo -e "\n[Memory]"
free -h | grep Mem

# Peers
echo -e "\n[Peer Count]"
PEERS=$(curl -s -X POST http://localhost:8545 \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"net_peerCount","params":[],"id":1}' | \
  jq -r '.result')
echo "Peers: $((16#${PEERS:2}))"

# Sync status
echo -e "\n[Sync Status]"
SYNC=$(curl -s -X POST http://localhost:8545 \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"eth_syncing","params":[],"id":1}' | \
  jq -r '.result')
if [ "$SYNC" = "false" ]; then
  echo "✓ Synced"
else
  echo "Syncing..."
fi

# Recent errors
echo -e "\n[Recent Errors]"
sudo journalctl -u fenine -p err -n 5 --no-pager

echo -e "\n======================="

Log Analysis

# Find errors
sudo journalctl -u fenine -p err --since today

# Find warnings
sudo journalctl -u fenine -p warning --since "1 hour ago"

# Find specific pattern
sudo journalctl -u fenine | grep -i "peer"

# Follow logs in real-time
sudo journalctl -u fenine -f

Getting Help

If issue persists:

Gather Information

# System info
uname -a
cat /etc/os-release

# Node version
fene-geth version

# Logs (last 500 lines)
sudo journalctl -u fenine -n 500 &gt; fenine.log

# Config (remove sensitive data!)
cat /var/lib/fenine/config.toml

Check Documentation

Review this troubleshooting guide
Check GitHub Issues
Search Discord #node-operators

Ask Community

Discord: #node-operators
Include: OS, version, error logs, steps tried
Be specific: “X happens when I do Y”

Report Bug

If you found a bug:

Open GitHub Issue
Use template
Include diagnostics
Steps to reproduce

Prevention

Regular Maintenance

Update node monthly
Check logs weekly
Monitor disk space
Test backups

Monitoring

Set up alerts
Track metrics
Automated health checks

Backups

Daily config backups
Weekly full backups
Test recovery

Documentation

Document changes
Keep runbooks
Record incidents

Still stuck?Email: operators@fene.network
Discord: #node-operators
Office Hours: Thursdays 3PM UTCInclude your node version, OS, and error logs for fastest help.

Getting Started

Maintenance

​Quick Diagnostics

​Common Issues

​Symptoms

​Causes & Solutions

​Symptoms

​Solutions

​Symptoms

​Solutions

​Symptoms

​Solutions

​Symptoms

​Solutions

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​Solutions

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​Solutions

​Symptoms

​Solutions

​Symptoms

​Solutions

​Error Messages

​Performance Issues

​Symptoms

​Solutions

​Causes

​Solutions

​Detection

​Solutions

​Diagnostic Tools

​Health Check Script

​Log Analysis

​Getting Help

​Prevention

Regular Maintenance

Monitoring

Backups

Documentation

Quick Diagnostics

Common Issues

Symptoms

Causes & Solutions

Symptoms

Solutions

Symptoms

Solutions

Symptoms

Solutions

Symptoms

Solutions

Symptoms

Solutions

Symptoms

Solutions

Symptoms

Solutions

Symptoms

Solutions

Error Messages

Performance Issues

Symptoms

Solutions

Causes

Solutions

Detection

Solutions

Diagnostic Tools

Health Check Script

Log Analysis

Getting Help

Prevention