---
title: admin Namespace
sort_key: C
---

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

* TOC
{:toc}

### 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`](https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/enode-url-format)
URL of the remote peer to start tracking and returns a `BOOL` indicating whether the peer was accepted
for tracking or some error occurred.

| Client  | Method invocation                              |
|:--------|------------------------------------------------|
| Go      | `admin.AddPeer(url string) (bool, error)`      |
| Console | `admin.addPeer(url)`                           |
| RPC     | `{"method": "admin_addPeer", "params": [url]}` |

#### Example

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

### admin_datadir

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

| Client  | Method invocation                 |
|:--------|-----------------------------------|
| Go      | `admin.Datadir() (string, error`) |
| Console | `admin.datadir`                   |
| RPC     | `{"method": "admin_datadir"}`     |

#### Example

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

### 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](https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/%C3%90%CE%9EVp2p-Wire-Protocol) P2P
overlay protocol, as well as specialized information added by each of the running application protocols
(e.g. `eth`, `les`, `shh`, `bzz`).

| Client  | Method invocation                         |
|:--------|-------------------------------------------|
| Go      | `admin.NodeInfo() (*p2p.NodeInfo, error`) |
| Console | `admin.nodeInfo`                          |
| RPC     | `{"method": "admin_nodeInfo"}`            |

#### Example

```javascript
> admin.nodeInfo
{
  enode: "enode://44826a5d6a55f88a18298bca4773fca5749cdc3a5c9f308aa7d810e9b31123f3e7c5fba0b1d70aac5308426f47df2a128a6747040a3815cc7dd7167d03be320d@[::]:30303",
  id: "44826a5d6a55f88a18298bca4773fca5749cdc3a5c9f308aa7d810e9b31123f3e7c5fba0b1d70aac5308426f47df2a128a6747040a3815cc7dd7167d03be320d",
  ip: "::",
  listenAddr: "[::]:30303",
  name: "Geth/v1.5.0-unstable/linux/go1.6",
  ports: {
    discovery: 30303,
    listener: 30303
  },
  protocols: {
    eth: {
      difficulty: 17334254859343145000,
      genesis: "0xd4e56740f876aef8c010b86a40d5f56745a118d0906a34e69aec8c0db1cb8fa3",
      head: "0xb83f73fbe6220c111136aefd27b160bf4a34085c65ba89f24246b3162257c36a",
      network: 1
    }
  }
}
```

### 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](https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/%C3%90%CE%9EVp2p-Wire-Protocol)
P2P overlay protocol, as well as specialized information added by each of the running application
protocols (e.g. `eth`, `les`, `shh`, `bzz`).

| Client  | Method invocation                        |
|:--------|------------------------------------------|
| Go      | `admin.Peers() ([]*p2p.PeerInfo, error`) |
| Console | `admin.peers`                            |
| RPC     | `{"method": "admin_peers"}`              |

#### Example

```javascript
> admin.peers
[{
    caps: ["eth/61", "eth/62", "eth/63"],
    id: "08a6b39263470c78d3e4f58e3c997cd2e7af623afce64656cfc56480babcea7a9138f3d09d7b9879344c2d2e457679e3655d4b56eaff5fd4fd7f147bdb045124",
    name: "Geth/v1.5.0-unstable/linux/go1.5.1",
    network: {
      localAddress: "192.168.0.104:51068",
      remoteAddress: "71.62.31.72:30303"
    },
    protocols: {
      eth: {
        difficulty: 17334052235346465000,
        head: "5794b768dae6c6ee5366e6ca7662bdff2882576e09609bf778633e470e0e7852",
        version: 63
      }
    }
}, /* ... */ {
    caps: ["eth/61", "eth/62", "eth/63"],
    id: "fcad9f6d3faf89a0908a11ddae9d4be3a1039108263b06c96171eb3b0f3ba85a7095a03bb65198c35a04829032d198759edfca9b63a8b69dc47a205d94fce7cc",
    name: "Geth/v1.3.5-506c9277/linux/go1.4.2",
    network: {
      localAddress: "192.168.0.104:55968",
      remoteAddress: "121.196.232.205:30303"
    },
    protocols: {
      eth: {
        difficulty: 17335165914080772000,
        head: "5794b768dae6c6ee5366e6ca7662bdff2882576e09609bf778633e470e0e7852",
        version: 63
      }
    }
}]
```

### admin_startRPC

The `startRPC` administrative method starts an HTTP based [JSON RPC](https://www.jsonrpc.org/specification)
API webserver to handle client requests. All the parameters are optional:

* `host`: network interface to open the listener socket on (defaults to `"localhost"`)
* `port`: network port to open the listener socket on (defaults to `8545`)
* `cors`: [cross-origin resource sharing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-origin_resource_sharing) header to use (defaults to `""`)
* `apis`: API modules to offer over this interface (defaults to `"eth,net,web3"`)

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.

| Client  | Method invocation                                                                             |
|:--------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Go      | `admin.StartRPC(host *string, port *rpc.HexNumber, cors *string, apis *string) (bool, error)` |
| Console | `admin.startRPC(host, port, cors, apis)`                                                      |
| RPC     | `{"method": "admin_startRPC", "params": [host, port, cors, apis]}`                            |

#### Example

```javascript
> admin.startRPC("127.0.0.1", 8545)
true
```

### admin_startWS

The `startWS` administrative method starts an WebSocket based [JSON RPC](https://www.jsonrpc.org/specification)
API webserver to handle client requests. All the parameters are optional:

* `host`: network interface to open the listener socket on (defaults to `"localhost"`)
* `port`: network port to open the listener socket on (defaults to `8546`)
* `cors`: [cross-origin resource sharing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-origin_resource_sharing) header to use (defaults to `""`)
* `apis`: API modules to offer over this interface (defaults to `"eth,net,web3"`)

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.

| Client  | Method invocation                                                                             |
|:--------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Go      | `admin.StartWS(host *string, port *rpc.HexNumber, cors *string, apis *string) (bool, error)` |
| Console | `admin.startWS(host, port, cors, apis)`                                                      |
| RPC     | `{"method": "admin_startWS", "params": [host, port, cors, apis]}`                            |

#### Example

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

### admin_stopRPC

The `stopRPC` 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.

| Client  | Method invocation               |
|:--------|---------------------------------|
| Go      | `admin.StopRPC() (bool, error`) |
| Console | `admin.stopRPC()`               |
| RPC     | `{"method": "admin_stopRPC"`    |

#### Example

```javascript
> admin.stopRPC()
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.

| Client  | Method invocation              |
|:--------|--------------------------------|
| Go      | `admin.StopWS() (bool, error`) |
| Console | `admin.stopWS()`               |
| RPC     | `{"method": "admin_stopWS"`    |

#### Example

```javascript
> admin.stopWS()
true
```
