book: add section about private testnet testing (#8937)

* book: add section about private testnet testing

* Apply suggestions from code review

Co-authored-by: Pili Guerra <[email protected]>

* Apply suggestions from code review

Co-authored-by: Arya <[email protected]>

---------

Co-authored-by: Pili Guerra <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: Arya <[email protected]>

book/src/SUMMARY.md

@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@
   - [Generating Zebra Checkpoints](dev/zebra-checkpoints.md)
   - [Doing Mass Renames](dev/mass-renames.md)
   - [Updating the ECC dependencies](dev/ecc-updates.md)
+  - [Running a Private Testnet Test](dev/private-testnet.md)
   - [Zebra RFCs](dev/rfcs.md)
     - [Pipelinable Block Lookup](dev/rfcs/0001-pipelinable-block-lookup.md)
     - [Parallel Verification](dev/rfcs/0002-parallel-verification.md)

book/src/dev/private-testnet.md

@@ -0,0 +1,181 @@
+# Private Testnet Test
+
+The objective of a private Testnet test is to test Testnet activation of an upcoming
+network upgrade in an isolated fashion, before the actual Testnet activation. 
+It is usually done using the current state of the existing Testnet. For NU6, it was done
+by ZF and ECC engineers over a call.
+
+## Steps
+
+### Make Backup
+
+Make a backup of your current Testnet state. Rename/copy the `testnet` folder in
+Zebra's state cache directory to the lowercase version of the configured network name,
+or the default `unknowntestnet` if no network name is explicitly configured.
+
+### Set Protocol Version
+
+Double check that Zebra has bumped its protocol version.
+
+### Set Up Lightwalletd Server
+
+It's a good idea to set up a lightwalletd server connected to your node, and
+have a (Testnet) wallet connected to your lightwalletd server.
+
+### Connect to Peers
+
+Make sure everyone can connect to each other. You can **use Tailscale** to do
+that. Everyone needs to send invites to everyone else. Note that being able to
+access someone's node does not imply that they can access yours, it needs to be
+enabled both ways.
+
+### Choose an Activation Height
+
+Choose an activation height with the other participants. It should be in
+the near future, but with enough time for people to set things up; something
+like 30 minutes in the future?
+
+### Ensure the Activation Height is Set in Code
+
+While Zebra allows creating a private Testnet in the config file, the height is
+also set in some librustzcash crates. For this reason, someone will need to
+**create a branch of librustzcash** with the chosen height set and you will need
+to **change Zebra to use that**. However, double check if that's still
+necessary.
+
+### Configure Zebra to use a custom testnet
+
+See sample config file below. The critical part is setting the activation
+height. It is good to enable verbose logging to help debug things. Some of the
+participants must enable mining also. It's not a huge deal to keep the DNS
+seeders; the blockchain will fork when the activation happens and only the
+participants will stay connected. On the other hand, if you want to ensure you
+won't connect to anyone else, set `cache_dir = false` in the `[network]` section
+and delete the peers file (`~/.cache/zebra/network/unknowntestnet.peers`).
+
+### Run Nodes
+
+Everyone runs their nodes, and checks if they connect to other nodes. You can use
+e.g. `curl --data-binary '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id":"curltest", "method":
+"getpeerinfo", "params": [] }' -H 'Content-Type: application/json'
+http://127.0.0.1:8232` to check that. See "Getting Peers" section below.
+
+### Wait Until Activation Happens
+
+And monitor logs for behaviour.
+
+### Do Tests
+
+Do tests, including sending transactions if possible (which will require the
+lightwalletd server). Check if whatever activated in the upgrade works.
+
+
+## Zebra
+
+Relevant information about Zebra for the testing process.
+
+### Getting peers
+
+It seems Zebra is not very reliable at returning its currently connected peers;
+you can use `getpeerinfo` RPC as above or check the peers file
+(`~/.cache/zebra/network/unknowntestnet.peers`) if `cache_dir = true` in the
+`[network]` section. You might want to sort this out before the next private
+testnet test.
+
+### Unredact IPs
+
+Zebra redacts IPs when logging for privacy reasons. However, for a test like
+this it can be annoying. You can disable that by editing `peer_addr.rs`
+with something like
+
+
+```diff
+--- a/zebra-network/src/meta_addr/peer_addr.rs
++++ b/zebra-network/src/meta_addr/peer_addr.rs
+@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ impl fmt::Display for PeerSocketAddr {
+         let ip_version = if self.is_ipv4() { "v4" } else { "v6" };
+
+         // The port is usually not sensitive, and it's useful for debugging.
+-        f.pad(&format!("{}redacted:{}", ip_version, self.port()))
++        f.pad(&format!("{}:{}", self.ip(), self.port()))
+     }
+ }
+```
+
+### Sample config file
+
+Note: Zebra's db path will end in "unknowntestnet" instead of "testnet" with
+this configuration.
+
+```
+[consensus]
+checkpoint_sync = true
+
+[mempool]
+eviction_memory_time = "1h"
+tx_cost_limit = 80000000
+
+[metrics]
+
+[mining]
+debug_like_zcashd = true
+miner_address = "t27eWDgjFYJGVXmzrXeVjnb5J3uXDM9xH9v"
+# if you want to enable mining, which also requires selecting the `internal-miner` compilation feature
+internal_miner = true
+
+[network]
+# This will save peers to a file. Take care that it also reads peers from it;
+# if you want to be truly isolated and only connect to the other participants,
+# either disable this or delete the peers file before starting.
+cache_dir = true
+crawl_new_peer_interval = "1m 1s"
+
+initial_mainnet_peers = []
+
+initial_testnet_peers = [
+    # List the other participant's Tailscale IPs here.
+    # You can also keep the default DNS seeders if you wish.
+    "100.10.0.1:18233",
+]
+
+listen_addr = "0.0.0.0:18233"
+max_connections_per_ip = 1
+network = "Testnet"
+peerset_initial_target_size = 25
+
+[network.testnet_parameters]
+
+[network.testnet_parameters.activation_heights]
+BeforeOverwinter = 1
+Overwinter = 207_500
+Sapling = 280_000
+Blossom = 584_000
+Heartwood = 903_800
+Canopy = 1_028_500
+NU5 = 1_842_420
+NU6 = 2_969_920
+
+[rpc]
+debug_force_finished_sync = false
+parallel_cpu_threads = 0
+listen_addr = "127.0.0.1:8232"
+indexer_listen_addr = "127.0.0.1:8231"
+
+[state]
+delete_old_database = true
+ephemeral = false
+
+[sync]
+checkpoint_verify_concurrency_limit = 1000
+download_concurrency_limit = 50
+full_verify_concurrency_limit = 20
+parallel_cpu_threads = 0
+
+[tracing]
+buffer_limit = 128000
+force_use_color = false
+use_color = true
+use_journald = false
+# This enables debug network logging. It can be useful but it's very verbose!
+filter = 'info,zebra_network=debug'
+```