So I missed an endorsement and went to check and everything seems fine - node operating, endorser injected. Strange...then I click on the level https://tzscan.io/342587 and it shows only two endorsements on the grid on the lower right. Normally, the number is much higher. I am thinking this was a network hick-up rather than my setup. What could possibly have caused this?
3 Answers
This question was originally asked on r/Tezos where I replied with the following:
Unfortunately this is a fact of life for bakers (endorsers) from time to time. In general, there are a number of possible causes for something like this happening, including, but not limited to:
- Your node's clock is wrong so even though it thinks it endorsed at the correct time, it was too late or too early.
- Your connection to the Tezos network had a hiccup or wasn't well connected, geographically speaking, and as a result you didn't receive the previous block soon enough to verify and endorse it, and then also propagate your endorsement across the network to the baker who would have included it in their block.
- Your node is using a hard drive instead of SSD, and was maxed out with disk IO and couldn't receive, verify, and endorse the block fast enough. This is especially more likely to happen at the beginning of a new cycle.
Note that these same issues could be on the end of the baker. In other words, you could have done everything right on your end, but for reasons beyond your control the baker didn't receive your endorsement in time to include it in the block they baked.
In this specific case, I would guess that the issue is on the baker's end.
Posting the reddit answer by BakeTzForMe:
Unfortunately this is a fact of life for bakers (endorsers) from time to time. In general, there are a number of possible causes for something like this happening, including, but not limited to:
Your node's clock is wrong so even though it thinks it endorsed at the correct time, it was too late or too early.
Your connection to the Tezos network had a hiccup or wasn't well connected, geographically speaking, and as a result you didn't receive the previous block soon enough to verify and endorse it, and then also propagate your endorsement across the network to the baker who would have included it in their block.
Your node is using a hard drive instead of SSD, and was maxed out with disk IO and couldn't receive, verify, and endorse the block fast enough. This is especially more likely to happen at the beginning of a new cycle.
Note that these same issues could be on the end of the baker. In other words, you could have done everything right on your end, but for reasons beyond your control the baker didn't receive your endorsement in time to include it in the block they baked.
In this specific case, I would guess that the issue is on the baker's end.
In principle, this is a normal situation when from time to time the Baker can miss 1 block . If you miss a few in a row it means that you have a problem. 1 block can be skipped due to a number of reasons, such as a short-term Internet speed failure
