Explorer says "We encountered an error. Please try again later."

[metacoin]

Environment:
Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS

Steps to reproduce:
Followed README...

$ git clone https://github.com/Blockstream/esplora && cd esplora
$ npm install
$ export API_URL=http://localhost:3000/ # or https://blockstream.info/api/ if you don't have a local API server
# (see more config options below)
$ npm start

Also running from the docker command at the same time:

docker run -p 8080:80 \
           --volume $PWD/data_bitcoin_mainnet:/data \
           --rm -i -t esplora \
           bash -c "/srv/explorer/run.sh bitcoin-mainnet explorer"

The line export API_URL=http://localhost:3000/ is confusing because I'm not sure what is supposed to be running on port 3000. netstat -plunt only shows SSH, the explorer front-end running on port 5000, and the explorer API(?) running on port 8080.

Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address           Foreign Address         State       PID/Program name    
tcp6       0      0 :::22                   :::*                    LISTEN      -                   
tcp6       0      0 :::5000                 :::*                    LISTEN      28567/node          
tcp6       0      0 :::8080                 :::*                    LISTEN      - 

Even with export API_URL=http://localhost:8080/ I am getting the same results.

What is supposed to be running on port 3000?

Attached is a screenshot of the error page, which is what I see when I navigate to port 5000,

[greenaddress]

@metacoin thank you for the report

The first step you quote from the README indeed implies that you are already running on localhost an instance of blockstream/electrs (a modified version of the original electrs) and you can use the blockstream.info live instance if you just want to test out/setup your local config (as per shell comment).

As per the docker run, it will take several hours if not days depending on how powerful is the machine to synchronize. We should improve the README and clarify the above points as well as improve the explorer to inform the status of the synchronization directly from the explorer on a web page and end point.

[metacoin]

How can I check on the synchronization status via command-line or viewing logs? bitocind is fully synced, and checking electrs_mainnet_db/mainnet/mainnet/LOG or logs/electrs-bitcoin.log doesn't seem to have any relevant info on syncronization status from what I can tell

[greenaddress]

@metacoin see #26 (comment) (you can either read them directly, which may need sudo because docker sets the file as readable by root only) or you can enter the docker instance with 'exec' and tail from within.

[metacoin]

Thanks, I was looking for a status update on which block the explorer was up-to-date with, though looking through the logs I don't think it's possible to evaluate that at this time. My strategy was to watch htop and du -s and wait for the sync to finish by comparing CPU and HDD usage.

Also, I am still confused about what might be running on port 3000, as both netstat and ss report nothing running on port 3000. I'm connecting to port 8080 to view the explorer front-end now and it seems up to date with other block explorers on the web. Connecting to port 5000 still results in the error message in my screenshot above, but I think that was a mistaken assumption on my end about which port the GUI is served on. Maybe I have a misunderstanding about which ports are used for what features in the software.

As I posted in my other comment, I fixed this problem on my end, after hunting through logs the issue was not enough HDD space on my device.

#26 (comment)

[greenaddress]

@metacoin 3000 is only if you skip docker and run https://github.com/blockstream/electrs locally manually, we should clarify better in the readme

[greenaddress]

closing

if you encounter a problem against the latest master version please feel free to reopen or raise a new issue. thanks