Anarcho-Andrei Witness Update: 6 December 2017
Boy, it has been quite some time since I put out an update, and I think the last 48 hours definitely deserve some explanation!
Well, despite knocking on wood every time I brought up the fact that my 32Gb server was working well, it finally gave me my first stumbling block. I missed two blocks in a row, but couldn't figure out why. The steem container, the one responsible for running the blockchain, stopped every time I received a block. I checked my memory and it was had been doing fine at around 16Gb used out of the 30 I had allocated in /dev/shm.
This was my first major troubleshoot. I'll admit, I don't have much experience with linux in general, and even less with ubuntu, but I will say this: @drakos and @themarkymark are two of the best guys to go to if you have problems. We went through my node, one step at a time, checking to see what was going on. I disabled my node once my second attempt at a replay failed. First thing I did was deleted my old block_log and download a new one (special thanks to @gtg for having his block_log available for download).
Once that didn't solve the problem after another replay, @drakos asked me to check fstab. The thought hadn't crossed my mind; after all, my previous VPSs didn't have any system configuration setting below the maximum total RAM. Turns out, that's exactly what the issue was. Once I set it to utilize 30Gb of available RAM, I ran another replay, and I've been up and running now for almost 24 hours.
I apologize to everyone who voted for me for being down for so long. However, I thank you for your continued support. Once again, thank you to @drakos and @themarkymark. You guys are a wealth of information, and you've yet to turn me away when I've had a problem. :D
If you want to vote for me as a witness, cast your vote here! Scroll down until you see this text box and type in my name.
Like what you read? Follow me, @anarcho-andrei! You can also find me on PALnet and the Fiction Workshop on Writer's Block:
Live and learn man. Keep doing what you're doing
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I few hiccups along the way are not going to change that I vote for you. That you're open about your challenges and work hard to fix them means a heck of a lot more than never having them.
I've never worked with Ubuntu but fstab is always a pain.
I'm sure a lot of people never even noticed you had issues. If anyone does in the future--I can recommend wandering by The Writers' Block and asking, if he isn't already posting in the Witness channel about his debug work.