Well it happened, I missed my first block. 18 days witnessing, and the internet my server is on had a hiccup yesterday. Routing across the network was down for around 30 minutes and missed a block during that time. Was not a power outage, just something with the ISP it would seem.
If I had all my ducks in a row I could have broadcasted the STM1111111111111111111111111111111114T1Anm signing key to disable my witness. But something to think about in the future.. And if the internet ever dropped out while I was sleeping or not in my office then that would not even help. Maybe I need something automated to resolve this.
So since I did not disable my witness during the short outage I missed my first block. Not much I can do about that now, just next time maybe have a contingency plan in place. Maybe a bot could be made that runs on a small VPS somewhere else the witness is not at that just pings my witness. And if it stops responding it broadcasts the STM1111111111111111111111111111111114T1Anm key disabling the witness until I can solve the issue.
So in the future having a bot for this could help, or if I catch it while its happening have a way to broadcast the disabling signing key.
Thanks for everyone's support in the last 2 and a half weeks I have been running my witness. All of the kind words and votes for witness... Just wanted to give an update on what is going on and again. I am now back up and running, strong.. just got tripped up for a short time yesterday.
https://github.com/therealwolf42/hive-witness-essentials/tree/master/essentials/watcher
^ I use this on a VPS outside my network to disable my witness if it misses a block, so that I don't get a string of missed blocks at the very least.
Sorry that you lost your virginity :)
Happens to almost all witnesses.
The next ones will hurt less and less!
I have 393 missed blocks. (of which ~370 happened at once)
below triple digits, you are still green :P
😂
It gets really frustrating when network bails on yah... Like it did when I'm writing this comment 😂.. Sorry about the experience, better luck next time.
Oh no, what a pain when the internet service doesn't work. I can imagine how frustrating the situation is, the good thing is that you have a plan for what to do in the future, dear friend @solominer
For those of us who aren't experts on witnessing, what's the advantage of disabling your witness vs. missing a block or few?
Unfortunately, unless you are sitting in a data center or have a very robust network with lots of redundancy, I don't think you can really avoid things like that. You are basically at the mercy of your ISP. You still got my vote either way!
It is called School fees over here, and I am sure that you will work things out to prevent future occurrences.
I am not a technical person but can I become a witness?
Ohh wow so you've got everything running for 18 days now without nothing going off its amazing, at least nothing serious happends when u miss a block right? Netwk can be annoying sometimes
mobile phone as 5g backup connection to the internet, assuming you are using a optical fiber landline now as main ?
Hey man don't worry about missing a block, I guess it was only a matter of time. I still think your whole approach to running a witness is a solid one and we know you are here doing good things for the community. The stats overall on your current witness performance look pretty damn good to me.
I am not a coder or developer but this post helped me appreciate what kind of demands are placed on you to maintain a solid and smooth operation when it comes to running your witness server.
I think the idea of an automated script or bot that will immediately detect an outage and broadcasts the disabling key straight away so your witness server is taken offline to prevent missed blocks sounds like an effective resolution, if you can get that set up.