How do I modify the chain spec for a local relay chain to have an additional relay chain validator? (I already have two: Alice and Bob)

Question

I am referring this documentation on preparing a local relay chain in which they have provided a plain sample relay chain spec. Also, I have cloned this release locally. The documentation says that

For this tutorial, the local relay chain uses a sample chain specification file with two validator relay chain nodes—Alice and Bob—as authorities. Because a relay chain must have at least one more validator node running than the total number of connected parachain collators, you can only use the chain specification from this tutorial for a local relay chain network with a single parachain. If you wanted to connect two parachains with a single collator each, you would need to run three or more relay chain validator nodes. In general, you would need to modify the chain specification and hard-code additional validators to set up a local test network for two or more parachains.

My question is "How do I modify the chain spec and hardcode an additional relay chain validator to setup a local test network for two or more parachains?"

Answer 1

The long way is to modify the chain spec.rs (or the plain json chain spec) of the Relay chain and regenerate the raw chain spec. You can look at this:

• How to create a Polkadot chain spec for development purposes?

The quick way is to use Zombienet and spin up a Relay chain with multiple validators quickly:

• How do I spin up a testnet with Zombienet?

Answer 2

I believe you can quickly modify the genesis by using parachain-launch.

https://github.com/open-web3-stack/parachain-launch/blob/06da5c4aa749efce78473e8c02a07cfb118d1881/src/index.ts#L179

I think it can overwrite the genesis validators based on the link above.

---

Alternatively, you can clone the repository and modify this section: https://github.com/paritytech/polkadot-sdk/blob/f6ee4781f633f0f89598f7b230595afe401da8dc/polkadot/node/service/src/chain_spec.rs#L967.

I don't know which network you are using, but here you can add more initial_authorities for the Rococo Development network.

After modifying, compile the node and follow the tutorial to build the desired genesis file.

Answer 3

I tried using zombienet which helped me set up a test network. I do not want to use zombienet now. What I did was go here and add an extra key Charlie something like below

#[cfg(feature = "rococo-native")]
fn rococo_local_testnet_genesis(wasm_binary: &[u8]) -> rococo_runtime::RuntimeGenesisConfig {
    rococo_testnet_genesis(
        wasm_binary,
        vec![get_authority_keys_from_seed("Alice"), get_authority_keys_from_seed("Bob"), get_authority_keys_from_seed("Charlie"),],
        get_account_id_from_seed::<sr25519::Public>("Alice"),
        None,
    )
}

Used the following command to generate a raw chain spec

./target/release/polkadot build-spec --chain rococo-local --disable-default-bootnode --raw > rococo-local.json

and got something like below

2024-01-17 16:25:40 Took active validators from set with wrong size
2024-01-17 16:25:40 Took active validators from set with wrong size
2024-01-17 16:25:40 Took active validators from set with wrong size.
2024-01-17 16:25:40 Took active validators from set with wrong size

What is the issue here? It's like zombienet did the job for me but when I am trying to do it I do not understand what is happening.