Running the Relay and Parachain

In this final page, we will do the following:

• Run two validators for our relay chain testnet.
• Run one parachain collator to supply block data to our relay chain.
• Observe the state changing on both chains, and what they mean.

note

All commands are in the context of the parachain-guide-resources repository

Launching the Relay Chain

Our relay chain needs two validators to build blocks. We can use the alice and bob development presets to launch our testnet validation nodes using the polkadot binary:

Use the symlink!

If you followed the steps to add a symlink, you may replace the preceded: ./target/release/polkadot with just: polkadot

• Launch Alice:

  ./target/debug/polkadot \
      --alice \
      --validator \
      --base-path /tmp/relay/alice \
      --chain ./relaychain/relaychain_spec_raw.json \
      --disable-worker-version-check
• Launch Bob:

  ./target/debug/polkadot \
      --bob \
      --validator \
      --base-path /tmp/relay/bob \
      --chain ./relaychain/relaychain_spec_raw.json \
      --port 30334 \
      --rpc-port 9945 \
      --disable-worker-version-check

Once they are both running, you should see output similar to the following (for bob):

2023-08-11 09:49:07 Parity Polkadot
2023-08-11 09:49:07 ✌️  version 0.9.43-407e158a5dc
2023-08-11 09:49:07 ❤️  by Parity Technologies <admin@parity.io>, 2017-2023
2023-08-11 09:49:07 📋 Chain specification: Rococo Local Testnet
2023-08-11 09:49:07 🏷  Node name: Bob
2023-08-11 09:49:07 👤 Role: AUTHORITY
2023-08-11 09:49:07 💾 Database: RocksDb at /tmp/relay/bob/chains/rococo_local_testnet/db/full
2023-08-11 09:49:10 👶 Creating empty BABE epoch changes on what appears to be first startup.
2023-08-11 09:49:10 🏷  Local node identity is: 12D3KooWHk4Kx5zRpNiWoXb44Vaye1kGbgwENUwHp1AVk9ze9ko8
2023-08-11 09:49:10 🚀 Using prepare-worker binary at: "/Users/bader/Documents/polkadot/polkadot/target/release/polkadot-prepare-worker"
2023-08-11 09:49:10 🚀 Using execute-worker binary at: "/Users/bader/Documents/polkadot/polkadot/target/release/polkadot-execute-worker"
2023-08-11 09:49:10 💻 Operating system: macos
2023-08-11 09:49:10 💻 CPU architecture: aarch64
2023-08-11 09:49:10 📦 Highest known block at #0
2023-08-11 09:49:10 〽️ Prometheus exporter started at 127.0.0.1:9615
2023-08-11 09:49:10 Running JSON-RPC server: addr=127.0.0.1:9944, allowed origins=["http://localhost:*", "http://127.0.0.1:*", "https://localhost:*", "https://127.0.0.1:*", "https://polkadot.js.org"]
2023-08-11 09:49:10 🏁 CPU score: 1000.29 MiBs
2023-08-11 09:49:10 🏁 Memory score: 27.17 GiBs
2023-08-11 09:49:10 🏁 Disk score (seq. writes): 1.27 GiBs
2023-08-11 09:49:10 🏁 Disk score (rand. writes): 344.09 MiBs
2023-08-11 09:49:10 ⚠️  The hardware does not meet the minimal requirements for role 'Authority' find out more at:
https://wiki.polkadot.network/docs/maintain-guides-how-to-validate-polkadot#reference-hardware
2023-08-11 09:49:10 Cannot enable landlock, a Linux kernel security feature. Running validation of malicious PVF code has a higher risk of compromising this machine. Consider running on Linux with landlock support for maximum security.
2023-08-11 09:49:10 Starting with an empty approval vote DB.
2023-08-11 09:49:10 👶 Starting BABE Authorship worker
2023-08-11 09:49:10 🥩 BEEFY gadget waiting for BEEFY pallet to become available...
2023-08-11 09:49:15 💤 Idle (0 peers), best: #0 (0x7389…4422), finalized #0 (0x7389…4422), ⬇ 0 ⬆ 0

Nodes not syncing?

If Bob and Alice are not syncing, you may run bob with this command:

--bootnodes /ip4/127.0.0.1/tcp/30333/p2p/<local-node-identity-here>

If both nodes are syncing, you should be seeing the block count increase and new consensus sessions being started:

2023-08-11 10:58:18 🙌 Starting consensus session on top of parent 0x7389b78dbb3a94bf09aa53802c338131e242b78678f5959f170e4902ccf24422
2023-08-11 10:58:20 ParentBlockRandomness did not provide entropy
2023-08-11 10:58:20 ParentBlockRandomness did not provide entropy
2023-08-11 10:58:20 🎁 Prepared block for proposing at 1 (3 ms) [hash: 0xcc797177284f6f7c6e1bc544b0f73624007909c0f94cb6079d1d4dd18fbb6056; parent_hash: 0x7389…4422; extrinsics (2): [0xdf06…3c14, 0x2cde…129c]
2023-08-11 10:58:20 🔖 Pre-sealed block for proposal at 1. Hash now 0x8934f6a5aa897e16fa3ba97e4be1ebb67372d6729737871b235b4208bf08dc5b, previously 0xcc797177284f6f7c6e1bc544b0f73624007909c0f94cb6079d1d4dd18fbb6056.
2023-08-11 10:58:20 👶 New epoch 0 launching at block 0x8934…dc5b (block slot 281960983 >= start slot 281960983).
2023-08-11 10:58:20 👶 Next epoch starts at slot 281960993
2023-08-11 10:58:20 ✨ Imported #1 (0x8934…dc5b)

Congratulations, your relay chain is up and running!

Launching the Parachain

With the relay chain actively producing blocks, we now need to launch a collator for our parachain:

• Launch a collator

  ./substrate-parachain-template/target/release/parachain-template-node \
    --alice \
    --collator \
    --force-authoring \
    --chain ./parachain/parachain_chain_spec_raw.json \
    --base-path /tmp/parachain/alice \
    --port 40333 \
    --rpc-port 8844 \

With the output looking like:

2023-08-11 10:52:44 Parachain Collator Template
2023-08-11 10:52:44 ✌️  version 0.1.0-38c8589a9f8
2023-08-11 10:52:44 ❤️  by Anonymous, 2020-2023
2023-08-11 10:52:44 📋 Chain specification: Local Testnet
2023-08-11 10:52:44 🏷  Node name: Alice
2023-08-11 10:52:44 👤 Role: AUTHORITY
2023-08-11 10:52:44 💾 Database: RocksDb at /tmp/parachain/alice/chains/local_testnet/db/full
2023-08-11 10:52:45 Parachain Account: 5Ec4AhPZk8STuex8Wsi9TwDtJQxKqzPJRCH7348Xtcs9vZLJ
2023-08-11 10:52:45 Is collating: yes
2023-08-11 10:52:46 [Parachain] 🔨 Initializing Genesis block/state (state: 0xde8e…66b5, header-hash: 0x2717…55b5)
2023-08-11 10:52:47 [Relaychain] 🔨 Initializing Genesis block/state (state: 0x98e3…789f, header-hash: 0x7389…4422)
2023-08-11 10:52:47 [Relaychain] 👴 Loading GRANDPA authority set from genesis on what appears to be first startup.
2023-08-11 10:52:48 [Relaychain] 👶 Creating empty BABE epoch changes on what appears to be first startup.
2023-08-11 10:52:48 [Relaychain] 🏷  Local node identity is: 12D3KooWKdqvh5Lzt1p8Rm54QNC1UwWtBabyBPUYtkdAt1SKkYpG

Your parachain should be syncing with the relay chain, and will look similar to the below. Notice the blocks being imported and matching the height of the relay chain:

2023-08-11 11:22:04 [Relaychain] 💤 Idle (2 peers), best: #237 (0x3069…400d), finalized #235 (0xa85b…c64c), ⬇ 48.2kiB/s ⬆ 1.9kiB/s
2023-08-11 11:22:05 [Parachain] 💤 Idle (0 peers), best: #0 (0x2717…55b5), finalized #0 (0x2717…55b5), ⬇ 0 ⬆ 0
2023-08-11 11:22:06 [Relaychain] ✨ Imported #238 (0x5a36…447c)
2023-08-11 11:22:09 [Relaychain] 💤 Idle (2 peers), best: #238 (0x5a36…447c), finalized #235 (0xa85b…c64c), ⬇ 1.7kiB/s ⬆ 1.2kiB/s
2023-08-11 11:22:10 [Parachain] 💤 Idle (0 peers), best: #0 (0x2717…55b5), finalized #0 (0x2717…55b5), ⬇ 0 ⬆ 0
2023-08-11 11:22:12 [Relaychain] ✨ Imported #239 (0x546a…53eb)
2023-08-11 11:22:14 [Relaychain] 💤 Idle (2 peers), best: #239 (0x546a…53eb), finalized #236 (0x6b32…4ead), ⬇ 1.0kiB/s ⬆ 0.5kiB/s
2023-08-11 11:22:15 [Parachain] 💤 Idle (0 peers), best: #0 (0x2717…55b5), finalized #0 (0x2717…55b5), ⬇ 0 ⬆ 0
2023-08-11 11:22:04 [Relaychain] 💤 Idle (2 peers), best: #237 (0x3069…400d), finalized #235 (0xa85b…c64c), ⬇ 48.2kiB/s ⬆ 1.9kiB/s
2023-08-11 11:22:05 [Parachain] 💤 Idle (0 peers), best: #0 (0x2717…55b5), finalized #0 (0x2717…55b5), ⬇ 0 ⬆ 0
2023-08-11 11:22:06 [Relaychain] ✨ Imported #238 (0x5a36…447c)
2023-08-11 11:22:09 [Relaychain] 💤 Idle (2 peers), best: #238 (0x5a36…447c), finalized #235 (0xa85b…c64c), ⬇ 1.7kiB/s ⬆ 1.2kiB/s
2023-08-11 11:22:10 [Parachain] 💤 Idle (0 peers), best: #0 (0x2717…55b5), finalized #0 (0x2717…55b5), ⬇ 0 ⬆ 0
2023-08-11 11:22:12 [Relaychain] ✨ Imported #239 (0x546a…53eb)2023-08-11 11:22:18 [Relaychain] 👶 New epoch 24 launching at block 0xf339…e676 (block slot 281961223 >= start slot 281961223).
2023-08-11 11:22:18 [Relaychain] 👶 Next epoch starts at slot 281961233
2023-08-11 11:22:18 [Relaychain] ✨ Imported #240 (0xf339…e676)
2023-08-11 11:22:19 [Relaychain] 💤 Idle (2 peers), best: #240 (0xf339…e676), finalized #237 (0x3069…400d), ⬇ 1.4kiB/s ⬆ 0.7kiB/s
2023-08-11 11:22:20 [Parachain] 💤 Idle (0 peers), best: #0 (0x2717…55b5), finalized #0 (0x2717…55b5), ⬇ 0 ⬆ 0

It's possible you may also need to specify a bootnode for the parachain as well, such as alice.

Our parachain is not making any blocks; and that is normal, as we still need to register it onto the relay chain.

Observing State & Verifying Orchestration

The most user-friendly way to verify and validate the state of both the relay chain and parachain is Polkadot.js, and by visiting the relay chain and parachain respectively. The relay chain should be making blocks, whereas the parachain shouldn't be. This is a great way to ensure your configuration is working so far:

• Polkadot.js - Relay Chain
• Polkadot.js - Parachain