IPFS websocket error crashing application for ipfs-js (javascript implementation)

Help
1

Hey IPFS team,
Recently, my application is now crashing while throwing an error for IPFS web socket. Narrowed it down to the fact it is in fact the IPFS JS node not setting up itself as a node and creating a websocket. Please advise:

  • Version: “ipfs”: “^0.28.2”
  • Platform: Linux on AWS EC2 (Dockerized API)
  • Subsystem: /ipfs/src/core/boot.js or p2plib?

Type: Bug

Severity:Critical - System crash, application panic.

Description:

Upon start of the application, it starts normally - then as soon as the IPFS js node gets initialized, the application throws a critical error with the following:

App starting..

events.js:165
      throw er; // Unhandled 'error' event
      ^

Error: websocket error
    at WS.Transport.onError (/path/to/application/node_modules/engine.io-client/lib/transport.js:64:13)
    at WebSocket.ws.onerror (/path/to/application/node_modules/engine.io-client/lib/transports/websocket.js:150:10)
    at WebSocket.onError (/path/to/application/node_modules/ws/lib/EventTarget.js:109:16)
    at WebSocket.emit (events.js:180:13)
    at WebSocket.finalize (/path/to/application/node_modules/ws/lib/WebSocket.js:182:41)
    at ClientRequest._req.on (/path/to/application/node_modules/ws/lib/WebSocket.js:653:12)
    at ClientRequest.emit (events.js:180:13)
    at HTTPParser.parserOnIncomingClient [as onIncoming] (_http_client.js:539:21)
    at HTTPParser.parserOnHeadersComplete (_http_common.js:117:17)
    at TLSSocket.socketOnData (_http_client.js:444:20)
Emitted 'error' event at:
    at done (/path/to/application/node_modules/ipfs/src/core/boot.js:58:19)
    at /path/to/application/node_modules/async/internal/parallel.js:39:9
    at /path/to/application/node_modules/async/internal/once.js:12:16
    at iterateeCallback (/path/to/application/node_modules/async/internal/eachOfLimit.js:44:17)
    at /path/to/application/node_modules/async/internal/onlyOnce.js:12:16
    at /path/to/application/node_modules/async/internal/parallel.js:36:13
    at done (/path/to/application/node_modules/ipfs/src/core/components/start.js:15:16)
    at series (/path/to/application/node_moduless/ipfs/src/core/components/start.js:39:25)
    at /path/to/application/node_modules/async/internal/parallel.js:39:9
    at /path/to/application/node_modules/async/internal/once.js:12:16

In the configuration, I have a node.js application that uses IPFS-js. I have the application dockerized as well as a full ipfs dockerized node that websockets as a peer to the IPFS-js app. This works perfectly fine and I have had no problem until last night when every single one of my environments started throwing the same error out of nowhere. Now none of my team can spin up the api because it has the same issue. One odd thing is that in the gap of time before it crashes, we can spam the API with a curl and get back the IPFS results for a quick second, otherwise it fails. I have confirmed it is not a websocket issue on my end and it is infact something with the IPFS-js package in the nodeJS application. Guidance is much appreciated.

Steps to reproduce the error:

  1. npm install ipfs
  2. set the options for websockets
let options = {
  config: {
    Addresses: {
      Swarm: [
        // '/dns4/wrtc-star.discovery.libp2p.io/tcp/443/wss/p2p-webrtc-star'
        '/dns4/ws-star.discovery.libp2p.io/tcp/443/wss/p2p-websocket-star'
      ]
    }
  }
}
  1. initialize the node
    const ipfsNode = new IPFS(options) 
4.  Connect to swarm
ipfsNode.on('ready', () => {
  // Your node is now ready to use \o/
  console.log('IPFS Online Status: ', ipfsNode.isOnline())
  ipfsNode.swarm.connect(ipfsPeer, (err, result) => {
    console.log('connecting to peers: ', result)
    ipfsNode.swarm.peers((err, peerCount) => {
      console.log('There are this many peers: ', peerCount)
    })
  })