[tor-relays] Relay consensus weight drop

[Scott Bennett]

Scott Bennett <bennett at sdf.org> wrote:

> Georg Koppen <gk at torproject.org> top-posted:
>
> > Georg Koppen:
> > > mikefloyd2:
> > >> Following further decline of my server's consensus weight, I looked around a bit.
> > >> I found some more servers that show similar behavior in the graphs shown on the Metrics website:
> > >> * https://metrics.torproject.org/rs.html#details/01729F10A81DDD8A92D770B2133082EB56C75E26
> > >> * https://metrics.torproject.org/rs.html#details/010B7728454411F485CE29D4C79A14534151C2C4
> > >> * https://metrics.torproject.org/rs.html#details/1E5136DDC52FAE1219208F0A6BADB0BA62587EE6
> > >> * https://metrics.torproject.org/rs.html#details/899D1D12BBF6ED445048CB302C0F14B6D15ADCA2
> > >> * https://metrics.torproject.org/rs.html#details/00DCAEAE3E54C32809E7F7CC4BF2A6FC68FC552F
> > > 
> > > Alright, that's useful, thanks! I've added those links to our ticket[1]
> > > in case we need further data in order to track the problem down and fix it.
> > > 
> > > As a general note: I asked the operator of bastet to switch back to
> > > Torflow as soon as possible, so that Torflow-backed bandwidth
> > > authorities have a majority again in our network. That should mitigate
> > > the immediate problem and get all your relays back to appropriate
> > > consensus weights (unless there are sbws-unrelated bugs preventing
> > > that). Additionally, it gives us time to track down this bug and
> > > properly fix it.
> >
> > We think we found the problem and fixed it. Again, thanks to everyone
> > who reported this problem. After some testing we decided it would be
> > save if bastet's bandwidth authority switched over to sbws again. This
> > happened with the 1600 UTC vote. Please keep your eyes open in case
> > there are more critical bugs lurking and if you find any issue do not
> > hesitate to report it.
> >
>      I also note that once my relay's weighting returned to its previously normal range,
> the HSDir flag returned intermittently for a day or two for the first time since late
> last year and has been present continuously (AFAIK) ever since.  That allows my relay to
> provide a bit more utility to the network once again.
>
     And now I see that I wrote too soon.  A new consensus arrived, and in it my relay is
once again missing the HSDir flag.  So we're back to the SOS again.  Sigh.

					Scott Bennett