explorer-monorepo/docs/RPC_FUNCTIONALITY_AND_BLOCKSCOUT_TRACE.md

RPC Functionality and Blockscout Trace

Summary

• Routing: VMID 5000 (Blockscout) → public RPC 192.168.11.221:8545 (VMID 2201) is correct; same LAN (192.168.11.0/24), no routing issues.
• Basic RPC: eth_blockNumber, eth_chainId, and standard ETH/NET/WEB3 methods work on the public RPC.
• Internal transactions / block rewards: Blockscout requires the TRACE API. The public RPC node was configured with rpc-http-api=["ETH","NET","WEB3"] only, so trace_block and trace_replayBlockTransactions returned "Method not enabled" (-32604). Fix applied: TRACE was added to /etc/besu/config-rpc-public.toml on VMID 2201 and Besu restarted; trace_block now returns a result.

Checks performed

Check	Result
eth_blockNumber from host to 192.168.11.221:8545	OK
eth_blockNumber from VMID 5000 to 192.168.11.221:8545	OK (routing fine)
eth_chainId on public RPC	OK (0x8a = 138)
trace_block on public RPC	Method not enabled (TRACE not in rpc-http-api)
debug_traceBlockByNumber on public RPC	Method not enabled

Routing

• Blockscout (VMID 5000): IP 192.168.11.140, host r630-02 (192.168.11.12).
• Public RPC (VMID 2201): IP 192.168.11.221, host r630-02 (192.168.11.12). Same host as VMID 5000.
• Traffic is host-to-host on 192.168.11.0/24; no firewall or NAT between them in normal setup.

Fix: Enable TRACE on the public RPC node (VMID 2201)

Blockscout uses trace_block and trace_replayBlockTransactions for internal transactions and block rewards. Besu exposes these when the TRACE API is enabled.

1. Config templates (already updated in repo)

• smom-dbis-138-proxmox/templates/besu-configs/config-rpc.toml: rpc-http-api and rpc-ws-api now include "TRACE".
• smom-dbis-138/config/config-rpc-public.toml: rpc-http-api now includes "TRACE".

Use these for new or redeployed nodes.

2. Live node (VMID 2201)

On the Proxmox host that runs VMID 2201 (r630-02 / 192.168.11.12):

1. Locate Besu config inside the container. The besu-rpc.service on VMID 2201 uses /etc/besu/config-rpc-public.toml (see ExecStart in the unit). Other nodes may use config-rpc.toml or config.toml.

2. Add TRACE to the RPC APIs. In the config file, change:

   • rpc-http-api=["ETH","NET","WEB3"] → rpc-http-api=["ETH","NET","WEB3","TRACE"]
   • If present: rpc-ws-api=["ETH","NET","WEB3"] → rpc-ws-api=["ETH","NET","WEB3","TRACE"]

3. Restart Besu in the container:

   pct exec 2201 -- systemctl restart besu-rpc
   # or whatever the Besu service name is, e.g. besu
   

4. Verify (from any host that can reach 192.168.11.221):

   curl -sS -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     --data '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"trace_block","params":["0x1"],"id":1}' \
     http://192.168.11.221:8545
   

   You should get a JSON result (or an empty array for block 1), not "Method not enabled".

3. Script (recommended)

From repo root (VMID 2201 is on r630-02; script uses RPC_VM_2201_HOST=root@192.168.11.12 by default):

bash scripts/besu/enable-trace-api-vmid2201.sh

The script finds the Besu config in the container, adds TRACE to rpc-http-api and rpc-ws-api, restarts Besu, and verifies trace_block. Or follow the manual steps in §2 and verify with the curl in §2 step 4.

After enabling TRACE

• Blockscout will stop logging "Method not enabled" for internal transaction and block-reward fetchers (after it retries).
• Internal transactions and block rewards will index over time.
• No change to Blockscout env: it already points at ETHEREUM_JSONRPC_HTTP_URL=http://192.168.11.221:8545.

References

• Blockscout: Node tracing / JSON RPC requirements
• Besu TRACE API
• config/ip-addresses.conf: RPC_PUBLIC_1, RPC_URL_138_PUBLIC
• docs/04-configuration/RPC_ENDPOINTS_MASTER.md