Consensus Algorithm Causes Flip-Flopping
I had a relay running on 94.23.214.156. It's an unmetered VPS that is NATed with other VPSes, so everyone ends up with the same IPv4 address, but on different ports with port forwarding. Everyone gets their own IPv6 address, but AFAIK, you can't run a relay without IPv4.
This was fine initially, as my relay just ran on a high-numbered port. Currently, there are two other relays using the same IP. This apparently causes the consensus algorithm to flip-flop, keeping any of the relays from becoming stable.
To mitigate this, I've disabled my relay, but this is a less than ideal situation, especially if someone else starts running a relay.
Relevant IRC discussion:
<Sebastian> well, this situation totally sucks.
<Sebastian> I think it is a Tor bug, too.
<Sebastian> because the dirauths disagree on who they think should go in the consensus
<Sebastian> so there's flopping
<pipeep> Ouch.
<Sebastian> so of the three relays doing potentially useful things, zero are useful atm
<pipeep> Sebastian, well, I can shut down my relay for now, so at least there won't be any flip-flopping.
<pipeep> And I can contact one of the two other relay operators, and we can decide based on who has the beefier box
* galex-713 has quit (Ping timeout: 480 seconds)
<pipeep> The other one didn't appear to put valid contact information
<Sebastian> that would be nice. You can also file a Tor bug with the information so other people can see that this is an issue
...
<pipeep> Sebastian, what's the issue exactly? That the consensus algorithm is unstable?
<Sebastian> that's one of the issues, the other issue is imo the restriction to two relays/IP itself
Trac:
Username: pipeep