Receiving different responses targeting a host name locally or remotely

[emclab]

Description

This error happened in React Native 0.64.2 app, with ethersjs 5.4. The app used to use IP address to connect to boot node. After the boot node was assigned a domain name, the domain name is used to connect to the Besu network. Then there is an no response error when trying to read the blockNumber. Here is the code:

import { ContractFactory, ethers } from "ethers"; //<<==ethers 5.4
PROVIDER_URL:"http://mydomain",  //<<== domain name is used for provider. GLOBAL.PROVIDER_URL
..............

let connection = {};
        connection.url = GLOBAL.PROVIDER_URL;
        connection.headers = {
          "Authorization" : `Bearer ${ _tokenBesu }`. //<<==no authorization required as it is not enabled on Besu network
        };
const _provider = new ethers.providers.StaticJsonRpcProvider(connection, 2018); 
        //test connection
        _provider.getBlockNumber().then(res => {
          console.log("blockNumber returned : ", res);
        }).catch(error => console.log("Connection mainchain error ", error));

The error is

LOG Connection mainchain error [Error: missing response (requestBody="{\"method\":\"eth_blockNumber\",\"params\":[],\"id\":42,\"jsonrpc\":\"2.0\"}", requestMethod="POST", serverError={}, url="http://mydomain", code=SERVER_ERROR, version=web/5.4.0)]

If replacing domain name with IP address of boot node in connection url, then it works:

LOG blockNumber returned : 53826

Acceptance Criteria

Shall return block number.

Steps to Reproduce (Bug)

See code in above
2. [Step 2]
3. [Step ...]

Expected behavior: [What you expect to happen]
Shall return block number with domain name in provider
Actual behavior: [What actually happens]
NO response with domain name.
Frequency: [What percentage of the time does it occur?]
every time

Versions (Add all that apply)

• Software version: [besu --version]21.7.2
• Java version: [java -version] openjdk 14
• OS Name & Version: [cat /etc/*release] MacOS
• Kernel Version: [uname -a]
• Virtual Machine software & version: [vmware -v]
• Docker Version: [docker version]
• Cloud VM, type, size: [Amazon Web Services I3-large]

Additional Information

React Native : 0.64.2
ethers: 5.4

[atoulme]

Did you set up besu to allow the host name? What parameters did you use running Besu?

[emclab]

atoulme, here is my config.toml for boot node. I am not aware of setting up for host name.

# Valid TOML config file
data-path="/home/besu_network/node1/data" # Path

p2p-port=30303 
max-peers=25
rpc-http-host=["0.0.0.0"] 
rpc-http-port=8545 
rpc-http-enabled=true 
rpc-http-api=["ETH","NET","WEB3","ADMIN","TXPOOL","IBFT", "EEA","DEBUG"] 

metrics-port=9545 
metrics-push-port=9001 
min-gas-price=0 
logging="DEBUG"
#allow all
host-allowlist=["*"] 
rpc-http-cors-origins=["*"]
# Chain
genesis-file="/home/besu_network/genesis.json" # Path to the custom genesis file
miner-enabled=false 
miner-coinbase="0xfe3b557b8fb62b89f4116b721be55deb828dbd73"

[emclab]

added host-whitelist=["domain.com"] and removed host-allowlist in config.toml above and restart. Still the same error.

[emclab]

Is there workaround about the issue? https is preferred in production environment and, without domain only http can be used.

[atoulme]

Still no idea what the problem is from your steps. Please provide a detailed log. Do you reproduce with a curl command?

[emclab]

Here is a message posted on Besu chat:

Hi, when host-whitelist and host-allowlist enabled at the same time in config.toml for boot node, there is an error. It is on ubuntu 20.04 and Besu 21.7.2:
picocli.CommandLine$ParameterException: Values '*' or 'all' can't be used with other hostnames
at org.hyperledger.besu.cli.BesuCommand.run(BesuCommand.java:1223)
at picocli.CommandLine.executeUserObject(CommandLine.java:1939)
at picocli.CommandLine.access$1300(CommandLine.java:145)
at picocli.CommandLine$RunLast.executeUserObjectOfLastSubcommandWithSameParent(CommandLine.java:2352)
at picocli.CommandLine$RunLast.handle(CommandLine.java:2346)
at picocli.CommandLine$RunLast.handle(CommandLine.java:2311)
at picocli.CommandLine$AbstractParseResultHandler.handleParseResult(CommandLine.java:2172)
at picocli.CommandLine.parseWithHandlers(CommandLine.java:2550)
at org.hyperledger.besu.cli.util.ConfigOptionSearchAndRunHandler.handle(ConfigOptionSearchAndRunHandler.java:56)
at org.hyperledger.besu.cli.util.ConfigOptionSearchAndRunHandler.handle(ConfigOptionSearchAndRunHandler.java:31)
at picocli.CommandLine$AbstractParseResultHandler.handleParseResult(CommandLine.java:2172)
at picocli.CommandLine.parseWithHandlers(CommandLine.java:2550)
at org.hyperledger.besu.cli.BesuCommand.parse(BesuCommand.java:1367)
at org.hyperledger.besu.cli.BesuCommand.parse(BesuCommand.java:1190)
at org.hyperledger.besu.Besu.main(Besu.java:50)
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Values '*' or 'all' can't be used with other hostnames
at org.hyperledger.besu.cli.custom.JsonRPCAllowlistHostsProperty.addAll(JsonRPCAllowlistHostsProperty.java:81)
at org.hyperledger.besu.cli.BesuCommand.configure(BesuCommand.java:1607)
at org.hyperledger.besu.cli.BesuCommand.run(BesuCommand.java:1216)
... 14 more

To display full help:
besu [COMMAND] --help



The config.toml code is:
host-whitelist=["my domain"]
host-allowlist=["*"]
If I would like to use domain name in provider, how shall host-whitelist and host-allowlist be configured? What I find is that if host-allowlist is removed, then using IP address in provider does not work.

[emclab]

Here is the link of discussion on ethers GitHub about domain name vs IP address in provider. No error in bootnode log was found when submitting with a domain name.

[emclab]

ssh into the boot node to run the curl works:

curl -X POST --data '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"eth_blockNumber","params":[],"id":51}' http://domain.top
{
  "jsonrpc" : "2.0",
  "id" : 51,
  "result" : "0x7a558"

However if do a curl on a remote PC, then there is an error. Is that related to configuration below?

curl -X POST --data '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"eth_blockNumber","params":[],"id":51}' http://mydomain.top    
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="textml;charset=UTF-8" />
   <style>body{background-color:#FFFFFF}</style> 
<title>TestPage184</title>
  <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
         window.onload = function () { 
           document.getElementById("mainFrame").src= "http://batit.aliyun.com/alww.html"; 
            }
</script>   
</head>
  <body>
    <iframe style="width:860px; height:500px;position:absolute;margin-left:-430px;margin-top:-250px;top:50%;left:50%;" id="mainFrame" src="" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>
    </body>
      </html>

Here is the config.toml on boot node:

data-path="/home/besu_network/node1/data" # Path
p2p-port=30303
max-peers=25

rpc-http-host=["0.0.0.0"]
rpc-http-port=8545
rpc-http-enabled=true
rpc-http-api=["ETH","NET","WEB3","ADMIN","TXPOOL","IBFT", "EEA","DEBUG"]

metrics-port=9545
metrics-push-port=9001
min-gas-price=0
logging="DEBUG"
#allow all
#host-whitelist=["mydomain.top"]
host-allowlist=["*"]
rpc-http-cors-origins=["*"]
# Chain
genesis-file="/home/besu_network/genesis.json" # Path to the custom genesis file
miner-enabled=false
miner-coinbase="0xfe3b557e8fb62b89f4916b721be55ceb828dbd73"

[atoulme]

So you’re not receiving nothing. You’re receiving a html page.

please do this for me: compare the output of host domain.top on the mode and remotely.

[emclab]

remote:

host mydomain.top
mydomain.top has address xxx.xxx.21.141
;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached
;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached

on boot node:
host mydomain.top
mydomain.top has address xxx.xxx.21.141

[emclab]

The boot node is behind nginx reverse proxy server on port 80. Any http request to http://mydomain.top or http://IP address will be forwarded by proxy to port 8485,