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Module admin

The admin API gives you access to several non-standard RPC methods, which will allow you to have a fine grained control over your Geth instance, including but not limited to network peer and RPC endpoint management.

Method admin_addPeer

The addPeer administrative method requests adding a new remote node to the list of tracked static nodes. The node will try to maintain connectivity to these nodes at all times, reconnecting every once in a while if the remote connection goes down.

Parameters:

  • url: string, required, the enode URL of the remote peer to start tracking

Returns:

result: bool, indicating whether the peer was accepted for tracking or some error occurred.

Example:

curl -s -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" ${RPC} -d '{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1001,
  "method": "admin_addPeer",
  "params": [
    "enode://1f5a9bd8bd4abb4ecec8812f0f440fec30dd745c91871ac57ebbadcd23ceafbdf7035f29bf0092feb5087ad72ad208dd12966bfcb88b339884e08cff4d167d87@194.180.176.105:38645"
  ]
}' | jq

Response:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1001,
  "result": true
}

Method admin_addTrustedPeer

The addTrustedPeer method allows a remote node to always connect, even if slots are full.

Parameters:

  • url: string, required

Returns:

result: bool

Example:

curl -s -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" ${RPC} -d '{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1001,
  "method": "admin_addTrustedPeer",
  "params": [
    "enode://1f5a9bd8bd4abb4ecec8812f0f440fec30dd745c91871ac57ebbadcd23ceafbdf7035f29bf0092feb5087ad72ad208dd12966bfcb88b339884e08cff4d167d87@194.180.176.105:38645"
  ]
}' | jq

Response:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1001,
  "result": true
}

Method admin_datadir

The datadir administrative property can be queried for the absolute path the running Geth node currently uses to store all its databases.

Parameters:

None

Returns:

result: string

Example:

curl -s -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" ${RPC} -d '{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1001,
  "method": "admin_datadir"
}' | jq

Response:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1001,
  "result": "/home/node/xdc_chain/mainnet_2"
}

Method admin_exportChain

The exportChain method exports the current blockchain into a local file. It optionally takes a first and last block number, in which case it exports only that range of blocks.

Parameters:

  • fn: string, required, filen name

Returns:

result: bool, indicating whether the operation succeeded

Example:

curl -s -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" ${RPC} -d '{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1001,
  "method": "admin_exportChain",
  "params": [
    "filename"
  ]
}' | jq

Response:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1001,
  "result": true
}

Method admin_importChain

The importChain method imports an exported list of blocks from a local file. Importing involves processing the blocks and inserting them into the canonical chain. The state from the parent block of this range is required. It returns a boolean indicating whether the operation succeeded.

Parameters:

  • file: string, required, filen name

Returns:

result: bool, indicating whether the operation succeeded

Example:

curl -s -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" ${RPC} -d '{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1001,
  "method": "admin_importChain",
  "params": [
    "filename"
  ]
}' | jq

Response:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1001,
  "result": true
}

Method admin_nodeInfo

The nodeInfo administrative property can be queried for all the information known about the running Geth node at the networking granularity. These include general information about the node itself as a participant of the P2P overlay protocol, as well as specialized information added by each of the running application protocols (e.g. eth, les, shh, bzz).

Parameters:

None

Returns:

result: object NodeInfo:

  • id: string, unique node identifier (also the encryption key)
  • name: string, name of the node, including client type, version, OS, custom data
  • enode: string, enode URL for adding this peer from remote peers
  • ip: string, IP address of the node
  • ports: object
  • discovery: int, UDP listening port for discovery protocol
  • listener: int, TCP listening port for RLPx
  • listenAddr: string
  • protocols: object

Example:

curl -s -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" ${RPC} -d '{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1001,
  "method": "admin_nodeInfo"
}' | jq

Response:

See admin_nodeInfo_response.json

Method admin_peerEvents

The peerEvents creates an RPC subscription which receives peer events from the node’s p2p server. The type of events emitted by the server are as follows:

  • add: emitted when a peer is added
  • drop: emitted when a peer is dropped
  • msgsend: emitted when a message is successfully sent to a peer
  • msgrecv: emitted when a message is received from a peer

Parameters:

None

Returns:

result: object Subscription

Example:

curl -s -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" ${RPC} -d '{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1001,
  "method": "admin_peerEvents"
}' | jq

Method admin_peers

The peers administrative property can be queried for all the information known about the connected remote nodes at the networking granularity.

Parameters:

None

Returns:

result: array of PeerInfo:

  • id: string,unique node identifier (also the encryption key)
  • name: string, name of the node, including client type, version, OS, custom data
  • caps: array of string, sum-protocols advertised by this particular peer
  • network object:
  • localAddress: string, local endpoint of the TCP data connection
  • remoteAddress: string, remote endpoint of the TCP data connection
  • inbound: bool
  • trusted: bool
  • static: bool
  • protocols: object, sub-protocol specific metadata fields

Example:

curl -s -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" ${RPC} -d '{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1001,
  "method": "admin_peers"
}' | jq

Response:

See admin_peers_response.json

Method admin_removePeer

The removePeer method disconnects from a remote node if the connection exists. It returns a boolean indicating validations succeeded. Note a true value doesn’t necessarily mean that there was a connection which was disconnected.

Parameters:

  • url: string, required

Returns:

result: bool, indicating validations succeeded

Example:

curl -s -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" ${RPC} -d '{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1001,
  "method": "admin_removePeer",
  "params": [
    "enode://1f5a9bd8bd4abb4ecec8812f0f440fec30dd745c91871ac57ebbadcd23ceafbdf7035f29bf0092feb5087ad72ad208dd12966bfcb88b339884e08cff4d167d87@194.180.176.105:38645"
  ]
}' | jq

Response:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1001,
  "result": true
}

Method admin_removeTrustedPeer

The removeTrustedPeer method removes a remote node from the trusted peer set, but it does not disconnect it automatically.

Parameters:

  • url: string, required

Returns:

result: bool, indicating validations succeeded

Example:

curl -s -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" ${RPC} -d '{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1001,
  "method": "admin_removeTrustedPeer",
  "params": [
    "enode://1f5a9bd8bd4abb4ecec8812f0f440fec30dd745c91871ac57ebbadcd23ceafbdf7035f29bf0092feb5087ad72ad208dd12966bfcb88b339884e08cff4d167d87@194.180.176.105:38645"
  ]
}' | jq

Response:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1001,
  "result": true
}

Method admin_startHTTP

The startHTTP method starts the HTTP RPC API server.

Parameters:

  • host: string, optional, network interface to open the listener socket on (defaults to “localhost”)
  • port: int, optional, network port to open the listener socket on (defaults to 8545)
  • cors: string, optional, cross-origin resource sharing header to use (defaults to “”)
  • apis: string, optional, API modules to offer over this interface (defaults to “eth,net,web3”)
  • vhosts: string, optional

Returns:

result: bool, indicating whether the operation succeeded

Example:

curl -s -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" ${RPC} -d '{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1001,
  "method": "admin_startHTTP"
}' | jq

Method admin_startRPC

The startRPC method is a deprecated alias of admin_startHTTP.

Parameters:

  • host: string, optional, network interface to open the listener socket on (defaults to “localhost”)
  • port: int, optional, network port to open the listener socket on (defaults to 8545)
  • cors: string, optional, cross-origin resource sharing header to use (defaults to “”)
  • apis: string, optional, API modules to offer over this interface (defaults to “eth,net,web3”)
  • vhosts: string, optional

Returns:

result: bool, indicating whether the operation succeeded

Example:

curl -s -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" ${RPC} -d '{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1001,
  "method": "admin_startRPC"
}' | jq

Method admin_startWS

The startWS administrative method starts an WebSocket based JSON RPC API webserver to handle client requests.

Parameters:

  • host: string, optional, network interface to open the listener socket on (defaults to “localhost”)
  • port: int, optional, network port to open the listener socket on (defaults to 8546)
  • allowedOrigins: string, optional, allowed WebSocket origins (defaults to server configuration)
  • apis: string, optional, API modules to offer over this interface (defaults to “eth,net,web3”)

Returns:

result: bool, indicating whether the operation succeeded

Example:

curl -s -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" ${RPC} -d '{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1001,
  "method": "admin_startWS"
}' | jq

Response:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1001,
  "result": true
}

Method admin_stopHTTP

The stopHTTP method shuts down the HTTP server.

Parameters:

None

Returns:

result: bool, indicating whether the operation succeeded

Example:

curl -s -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" ${RPC} -d '{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1001,
  "method": "admin_stopHTTP"
}' | jq

Method admin_stopRPC

The stopRPC method is a deprecated alias of admin_stopHTTP.

Parameters:

None

Returns:

result: bool, indicating whether the operation succeeded

Example:

curl -s -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" ${RPC} -d '{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1001,
  "method": "admin_stopRPC"
}' | jq

Method admin_stopWS

The stopWS administrative method closes the currently open WebSocket RPC endpoint.

Parameters:

None

Returns:

result: bool, indicating whether the endpoint was closed or not

Example:

curl -s -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" ${RPC} -d '{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1001,
  "method": "admin_stopWS"
}' | jq

Response:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1001,
  "result": true
}
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