Blockchain Staging Environment Setup via State Extraction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for creating a staging environment for blockchain systems are inefficient due to the need for copying large volumes of data from the production environment, which can be time-consuming and require significant storage, especially when adding new nodes, as they must read through all transactions to determine the current state, leading to validation failures with dummy cryptographic materials.
Innovation Solution
The solution involves recreating system configurations and state databases in the staging environment by obtaining data from the production environment, replacing root certificates with dummy ones, and extracting and loading state data without block data, allowing for the creation of a functional staging environment for testing purposes without the need for actual block data.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If all transaction data is copied from production to staging environment, then the staging environment can perform complete validation tests, but the data copying time and storage requirements become excessively large
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential state data from the production environment, specifically the current state of ledger elements, while excluding the complete transaction history. This extraction approach allows the staging environment to perform validation tests using representative state data without the overhead of copying all transactions, thus reducing data copying time while maintaining sufficient validation capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the data copying process into two distinct parts: (1) copying only the current state data of ledger elements, and (2) excluding the complete transaction history. This segmentation allows the staging environment to obtain sufficient data for validation testing without the excessive time and storage requirements of copying all transactions from the production environment.
2Reliability
If all transaction data is copied from production to staging environment, then the staging environment can perform complete validation tests, but the storage requirements become excessively large
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential state data from the production environment, specifically the current state of ledger elements, while excluding the complete transaction history. This extraction approach allows the staging environment to perform validation tests using representative state data without the excessive storage requirements of copying all transactions, thus reducing storage space while maintaining sufficient validation capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the data copying process into two distinct parts: (1) copying only the current state data of ledger elements, and (2) excluding the complete transaction history. This segmentation allows the staging environment to obtain sufficient data for validation testing without the excessive storage requirements of copying all transactions from the production environment.
3Ease of manufacture
If dummy cryptographic materials are used in the staging environment, then the environment can be set up independently, but validation failures occur due to certificate mismatches
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the cryptographic parameters by replacing the production environment's root certificates with dummy root certificates in the staging environment. This parameter change allows the staging environment to operate independently with its own cryptographic materials, while the system adapts by using these dummy certificates for validation, thus maintaining both setup independence and validation reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies different cryptographic qualities to different environments: production environment uses real root certificates for security, while staging environment uses dummy root certificates for independence. This local quality differentiation allows each environment to have the appropriate cryptographic characteristics for its purpose, resolving the conflict between independence and validation reliability.
Data Source
AI summary
Method and apparatus creating test environments for blockchain systems involving recreating system configurations and state database without block data to set up staging environments for blockchain systems. The example implementations involve a function getting the latest config block and database files of state database from a production environment. Further, there is a function extracting system configurations from the received latest config block, replacing root certifying authority certificate(s) in the system configurations with the certificate(s) for the staging environment, creating a system configuration transaction and sending the system configuration transaction to the staging environment to reflect the system configurations. Further, there is a function extracting a list of states from database files, creating a transaction request message having the list of states and sending a transaction to the staging environment to load the states into the state database.