Node Provider Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting individual Nodes

Node Status on the Dashboard

The dashboard lists each node by the principal of the currently-running OS. Node Providers track privately which server corresponds to each principal. This includes updating their records when a node is redeployed and gets a new principal.

There are four statuses of node:

Active in Subnet - This is a node which is healthy and is currently running a subnet.
Awaiting Subnet - This is a node which is healthy and is currently a spare node. It is not running a subnet but it keeping itself updated so that it is ready at a moment's notice to take part in a subnet
Offline - This is a node which has completely failed. The failure is recent enough that it hasn't been removed from the registry yet. If there is an outage of some sort at the data center, then the node should come back online and be healthy once it's resolved, as long as it doesn't take too long. Make sure that connectivity to the node is properly supplied before doing anything else. If there are no issues with connectivity, then troubleshooting steps should be taken. Note that the node will have to be removed from the registry before it can be redeployed, if redeployment is needed.
Degraded - This node is struggling to keep up with the blockchain. If it's a temporary issue then it should catch back up and become healthy again. If it's a permanent issue, then it will eventually fail and go offline. If it's removed from the registry before it fails completely then it will disappear from the dashboard.
Not listed at all. If a node is not listed at all, then it had an issue and it was already removed from the registry. Troubleshooting steps should be taken.

Changing your Node Provider principal in the NNS

Changing Your Node Provider Principal

Changing a DC principal

If the HSM that was used to deploy your nodes gets lost or corrupted, you can either replace the HSM with a new one, or you can replace the principal using the HSM-less method.

To replace using the HSM-less method, use steps 1, 4, 5, 6, 9, and 10 of the Node Provider Onboarding instructions. Please note:

When the proposal is submitted in step 9, you will need to wait several days for the proposal to pass.
Make sure you explain in your proposal who you are and why you are replacing the principal to help ensure that your proposal is accepted by the community.
You will then create the IC-OS image with the new principal, and it will be used to onboard the nodes using the options in the onboarding directions for using a node_operator_private_key.pem file.

IC Node Providers Matrix/Element channel

There is an open Matrix channel that's intended to bring together all existing, future, and potential future Node Providers: https://app.element.io/#/room/#ic-node-providers:matrix.org

The channel runs on the open and decentralized Matrix network. Among other ways the channel is also accessible from element.io and from the Element desktop app. The Element desktop app is similar in functionality to Slack, and they offer a web UI, a desktop client, and a mobile app.

We recommend that you add an email address in the Element Profile settings and to enable notifications for missed messages.

🔗 How do I set up email notifications?
You can set Element up to email you when you have missed some activity (new messages, new invites…). You can do this in the Notification section of your Settings and turn on the toggle labelled as ‘Enable email notifications’.