admin Namespace

The admin API gives access to several non-standard RPC methods, which allows fine grained control over a Geth instance, including but not limited to network peer and RPC endpoint management.

admin_addPeer

The addPeer administrative method requests adding a new remote node to the list of tracked static nodes. The node will try to maintain connectivity to these nodes at all times, reconnecting every once in a while if the remote connection goes down.

The method accepts a single argument, the enode URL of the remote peer to start tracking and returns a BOOL indicating whether the peer was accepted for tracking or some error occurred.

Example:

> admin.addPeer("enode://a979fb575495b8d6db44f750317d0f4622bf4c2aa3365d6af7c284339968eef29b69ad0dce72a4d8db5ebb4968de0e3bec910127f134779fbcb0cb6d3331163c@52.16.188.185:30303")
true

admin_addTrustedPeer

Adds the given node to a reserved trusted list which allows the node to always connect, even if the slots are full. It returns a BOOL to indicate whether the peer was successfully added to the list.

admin_datadir

The datadir administrative property can be queried for the absolute path the running Geth node currently uses to store all its databases.

Example:

> admin.datadir
"/home/john/.ethereum"

admin_exportChain

Exports the current blockchain into a local file. It optionally takes a first and last block number, in which case it exports only that range of blocks. It returns a boolean indicating whether the operation succeeded.

admin_importChain

Imports an exported list of blocks from a local file. Importing involves processing the blocks and inserting them into the canonical chain. The state from the parent block of this range is required. It returns a boolean indicating whether the operation succeeded.

admin_nodeInfo

The nodeInfo administrative property can be queried for all the information known about the running Geth node at the networking granularity. These include general information about the node itself as a participant of the ÐΞVp2p P2P overlay protocol, as well as specialized information added by each of the running application protocols (e.g. eth, les, shh, bzz).

Example:

> admin.nodeInfo
{
  enode: "enode://3d876252880e32116fdb52ea56a78ee2b9789e55b4413de910db69702ce93a7ff9a0b7c647a010a5e1e079c0aca146331083009644e12dc03510b9de9f50b9ef@156.146.56.131:30303?discport=39261",
  enr: "enr:-K64QL0-CI9BofDkirpulbV1OOOgqf5HLRMHr9iaziZInqI9HmeGOGZv2hs6J7olLu32LUMeYHTCjNBu3De_zlkI1fSGAY_h5ivyg2V0aMrJhPxk7ASDEYwwgmlkgnY0gmlwhJySOIOJc2VjcDI1NmsxoQM9h2JSiA4yEW_bUupWp47iuXieVbRBPekQ22lwLOk6f4RzbmFwwIN0Y3CCdl-DdWRwgpldhHVkcDaCdl8",
  id: "b7b61ea54ad081258a13a6d82920ce6719301f4670c458f64f0035e3463ec2df",
  ip: "156.146.56.131",
  listenAddr: "[::]:30303",
  name: "Geth/v1.14.4-unstable-51327686/linux-arm64/go1.22.3",
  ports: {
    discovery: 39261,
    listener: 30303
  },
  protocols: {
    eth: {
      config: {
        arrowGlacierBlock: 13773000,
        berlinBlock: 12244000,
        byzantiumBlock: 4370000,
        cancunTime: 1710338135,
        chainId: 1,
        constantinopleBlock: 7280000,
        daoForkBlock: 1920000,
        daoForkSupport: true,
        eip150Block: 2463000,
        eip155Block: 2675000,
        eip158Block: 2675000,
        ethash: {},
        grayGlacierBlock: 15050000,
        homesteadBlock: 1150000,
        istanbulBlock: 9069000,
        londonBlock: 12965000,
        muirGlacierBlock: 9200000,
        petersburgBlock: 7280000,
        shanghaiTime: 1681338455,
        terminalTotalDifficulty: 5.875e+22,
        terminalTotalDifficultyPassed: true
      },
      difficulty: 17179869184,
      genesis: "0xd4e56740f876aef8c010b86a40d5f56745a118d0906a34e69aec8c0db1cb8fa3",
      head: "0xd4e56740f876aef8c010b86a40d5f56745a118d0906a34e69aec8c0db1cb8fa3",
      network: 1
    },
    snap: {}
  }
}

admin_peerEvents

PeerEvents creates an RPC subscription which receives peer events from the node's p2p server. The type of events emitted by the server are as follows:

admin_peers

The peers administrative property can be queried for all the information known about the connected remote nodes at the networking granularity. These include general information about the nodes themselves as participants of the ÐΞVp2p P2P overlay protocol, as well as specialized information added by each of the running application protocols (e.g. eth, les, shh, bzz).

Example:

> admin.peers
[{
    caps: ["eth/68", "snap/1"],
    enode: "enode://4aeb4ab6c14b23e2c4cfdce879c04b0748a20d8e9b59e25ded2a08143e265c6c25936e74cbc8e641e3312ca288673d91f2f93f8e277de3cfa444ecdaaf982052@157.90.35.166:30303",
    id: "6b36f791352f15eb3ec4f67787074ab8ad9d487e37c4401d383f0561a0a20507",
    name: "Geth/v1.13.14-stable-2bd6bd01/linux-amd64/go1.21.7",
    network: {
      inbound: false,
      localAddress: "172.17.0.2:33666",
      remoteAddress: "157.90.35.166:30303",
      static: false,
      trusted: false
    },
    protocols: {
      eth: {
        version: 68
      },
      snap: {
        version: 1
      }
    }
}, /* ... */ {
    caps: ["eth/66", "eth/67", "eth/68", "snap/1"],
    enode: "enode://404786d90feafd54abcbcb7a7c791b6197304e58f7f582715312372af7297f194baf4abb6ce1cc5c55050e8111194d500590d0e08fcd75ce575f8fdd2e090af0@34.241.148.206:30303",
    id: "8a2a75da0f099ee3d1dcfad4a4825c81b5ab1cb3c18207e7626abae87ce589b1",
    name: "Geth/v1.11.6-stable-ea9e62ca/linux-amd64/go1.20.3",
    network: {
      inbound: false,
      localAddress: "172.17.0.2:59938",
      remoteAddress: "34.241.148.206:30303",
      static: false,
      trusted: false
    },
    protocols: {
      eth: {
        version: 68
      },
      snap: {
        version: 1
      }
    }
}]

admin_removePeer

Disconnects from a remote node if the connection exists. It returns a boolean indicating validations succeeded. Note a true value doesn't necessarily mean that there was a connection which was disconnected.

admin_removeTrustedPeer

Removes a remote node from the trusted peer set, but it does not disconnect it automatically. It returns a boolean indicating validations succeeded.

admin_startHTTP

The startHTTP administrative method starts an HTTP based JSON-RPC API webserver to handle client requests. All the parameters are optional:

The method returns a boolean flag specifying whether the HTTP RPC listener was opened or not. Please note, only one HTTP endpoint is allowed to be active at any time.

Example:

> admin.startHTTP("127.0.0.1", 8545)
true

admin_startWS

The startWS administrative method starts an WebSocket based JSON RPC API webserver to handle client requests. All the parameters are optional:

The method returns a boolean flag specifying whether the WebSocket RPC listener was opened or not. Please note, only one WebSocket endpoint is allowed to be active at any time.

Example:

> admin.startWS("127.0.0.1", 8546)
true

admin_stopHTTP

The stopHTTP administrative method closes the currently open HTTP RPC endpoint. As the node can only have a single HTTP endpoint running, this method takes no parameters, returning a boolean whether the endpoint was closed or not.

Example:

> admin.stopHTTP()
true

admin_stopWS

The stopWS administrative method closes the currently open WebSocket RPC endpoint. As the node can only have a single WebSocket endpoint running, this method takes no parameters, returning a boolean whether the endpoint was closed or not.

Example:

> admin.stopWS()
true