Run Your Own Node

Requirements

System Requirements We recommend consulting the standard hardware section of the Polkadot Wiki for specs.

Below we describe two ways of running our chain node:

  1. Docker Container This is the recommended way to experiment with your own node. It will get you started within 5 minutes. Since docker is running pre-build containers, this setup minimizes the steps required to get started and isolates any potential issues.

  2. Bare Metal Running a bare metal setup requires you to compile centrifuge chain from source, which can take between a 10 minutes up to 4 hours, depending on your specs. For a production grade setup, we do recommend to run a bare metal validators for 2 reasons: a) It minimizes the tools involved, which increases security, b) The performance is slightly supperior.

Run your node in a Docker Container

  1. Ensure you have docker as well as subkey installed. Use subkey version v2.0.0.
  2. Generate a new key pair with subkey that will be used as your node-key: subkey generate. Make sure you save the output in a safe place. For mainnet keys use network flag: subkey generate -n centrifuge
  3. Start your node by running the following, where {name} is the name that will show up in Polkadot Telemetry and {node-key} is the private key you just generated (without the 0x prefix). Note that we do expose RPC and WS ports here for simplicity – these ports should not be exposed in a production grade setup.

a) Flint:

1docker run -p 30333:30333 -p 9933:9933 -p 9944:9944 --rm -it centrifugeio/centrifuge-chain:20201022093419-da56ac5     centrifuge-chain     --validator     --name="{name}"     --node-key={node-key}     --chain=flint     --bootnodes=/ip4/35.246.197.135/tcp/30333/p2p/12D3KooWBF1RdctVztxLLzEwUiuMtqEDVicCjVCS8eyxh71nonxz     --bootnodes=/ip4/34.89.219.76/tcp/30333/p2p/12D3KooWNHRdve4U1rsZsDnTKbY8C94Y7VJTrifBy9P2LXLDhCnG     --unsafe-rpc-external --unsafe-ws-external --rpc-cors="*"

b) Amber: 

1docker run -p 30333:30333 -p 9933:9933 -p 9944:9944 --rm -it centrifugeio/centrifuge-chain:20201022093419-da56ac5     centrifuge-chain     --validator     --name="{name}"     --node-key={node-key}     --chain=amber     --bootnodes=/ip4/34.107.94.59/tcp/30333/p2p/12D3KooWQ3YL8sP2M1S9PVNj8JjmACUjawwRPckzL8fJmXZ7YRPY     --bootnodes=/ip4/35.242.247.213/tcp/30333/p2p/12D3KooWECFKJirQiVHeidSkwrEocPr7wkUw3ijbJKNyvCVd3xcu     --unsafe-rpc-external --unsafe-ws-external --rpc-cors="*"

c) Mainnet:

1docker run -p 30333:30333 -p 9933:9933 -p 9944:9944 --rm -it centrifugeio/centrifuge-chain:20201022093419-da56ac5     centrifuge-chain     --validator     --name="{name}"     --node-key={node-key}     --chain=mainnet     --bootnodes=/ip4/34.89.245.58/tcp/30333/p2p/12D3KooWAVAMPNJywZS3J4be8gFGZACfgt1rXS3MyJ2MxEGtLXjr     --bootnodes=/ip4/35.246.188.4/tcp/30333/p2p/12D3KooWCUjDbbhJf1o6skuE1EJ5PnKpJMaK6scmvWsHnjAULzDU

** Mainnet deployments should follow a more secure setup. Learn more here: https://github.com/w3f/polkadot-secure-validator

  1. Generate new session keys in your node's keystore by running: curl -H 'Content-Type: application/json' --data '{ "jsonrpc":"2.0", "method":"author_rotateKeys", "id": 1 }' http://127.0.0.1:9933 This command will return the public keys under the "result" field starting with 0x..., which you should copy in order to use them in the next chapter.

Bare metal instructions

  1. Install dependencies:

    a) On Unix systems (Debian, Ubuntu, ...): sudo apt install -y cmake pkg-config libssl-dev git gcc build-essential clang libclang-dev

    b) On MacOS: brew install openssl cmake llvm

  2. Install Rust: curl https://sh.rustup.rs -sSf | sh

  3. Make sure that you are using the latest Rust stable by default: rustup default stable

  4. Install nightly for WASM support: 

    1RUST_TOOLCHAIN=nightly
    2rustup update $RUST_TOOLCHAIN

  5. If above does not work, use:

    1RUST_TOOLCHAIN=nightly-2020-08-16
    2rustup update $RUST_TOOLCHAIN
    3
    4rustup toolchain install $RUST_TOOLCHAIN
    5rustup default $RUST_TOOLCHAIN
    6
    7rustup target add wasm32-unknown-unknown --toolchain $RUST_TOOLCHAIN

  6. Add the WASM target: rustup target add wasm32-unknown-unknown --toolchain $RUST_TOOLCHAIN

  7. Clone centrifuge-chain: git clone -b v2.0.0-rc6.0 git@github.com:centrifuge/centrifuge-chain.git

  8. Change directory: cd centrifuge-chain

  9. Optional - run the tests: cargo test --all

  10. Build Centrifuge Chain: cargo build --release

  11. Ensure you have subkey installed (can be on another machine).

  12. Generate a new key pair with subkey that will be used as your node-key: subkey generate. Make sure you save the output in a safe place.

The node is now built and available in target/release/centrifuge-chain.

Executing the binary

Below are the commands to start a node as a validator. {name} is the name that will show up in Polkadot Telemetry and {node-key} is the private key (Secret seed in the output of subkey) you just generated (without the 0x prefix).

To run the node for Flint you can use: 

1./target/release/centrifuge-chain     --validator     --name="{name}"     --node-key={node_key}     --chain=flint     --bootnodes=/ip4/35.246.197.135/tcp/30333/p2p/12D3KooWBF1RdctVztxLLzEwUiuMtqEDVicCjVCS8eyxh71nonxz     --bootnodes=/ip4/34.89.219.76/tcp/30333/p2p/12D3KooWNHRdve4U1rsZsDnTKbY8C94Y7VJTrifBy9P2LXLDhCnG

or Amber:

1./target/release/centrifuge-chain     --validator     --name="{name}"     --node-key={node_key}     --chain=amber     --bootnodes=/ip4/34.107.94.59/tcp/30333/p2p/12D3KooWQ3YL8sP2M1S9PVNj8JjmACUjawwRPckzL8fJmXZ7YRPY     --bootnodes=/ip4/35.242.247.213/tcp/30333/p2p/12D3KooWECFKJirQiVHeidSkwrEocPr7wkUw3ijbJKNyvCVd3xcu

Mainnet:

1./target/release/centrifuge-chain     --validator     --name="{name}"     --node-key={node_key}     --chain=mainnet     --bootnodes=/ip4/34.89.245.58/tcp/30333/p2p/12D3KooWAVAMPNJywZS3J4be8gFGZACfgt1rXS3MyJ2MxEGtLXjr     --bootnodes=/ip4/35.246.188.4/tcp/30333/p2p/12D3KooWCUjDbbhJf1o6skuE1EJ5PnKpJMaK6scmvWsHnjAULzDU

Creating a service

For your convenience, below are templates for running it as a systemd service:

Create a service, where {pwd} is your current working directory, {name} is the name that will show up in Polkadot Telemetry and {node-key} is the private key (Secret seed in the output of subkey) you just generated (without the 0x prefix).

Copy below template to /etc/systemd/system/centrifuge-chain.service and replace the {} placeholders with your local settings.

a) Flint:

1[Unit]
2Description=Centrifuge Chain Validator
3After=network.target
4StartLimitIntervalSec=0
5
6[Service]
7Type=simple
8Restart=always
9RestartSec=1
10ExecStart={pwd}/target/release/centrifuge-chain     --validator     --name="{name}"     --node-key={node_key}     --chain=flint     --bootnodes=/ip4/35.246.197.135/tcp/30333/p2p/12D3KooWBF1RdctVztxLLzEwUiuMtqEDVicCjVCS8eyxh71nonxz     --bootnodes=/ip4/34.89.219.76/tcp/30333/p2p/12D3KooWNHRdve4U1rsZsDnTKbY8C94Y7VJTrifBy9P2LXLDhCnG
11
12[Install]
13WantedBy=multi-user.target

b) Amber:

1[Unit]
2Description=Centrifuge Chain Validator
3After=network.target
4StartLimitIntervalSec=0
5
6[Service]
7Type=simple
8Restart=always
9RestartSec=1
10ExecStart={pwd}/target/release/centrifuge-chain     --validator     --name="{name}"     --node-key={node_key}     --chain=amber     --bootnodes=/ip4/34.107.94.59/tcp/30333/p2p/12D3KooWQ3YL8sP2M1S9PVNj8JjmACUjawwRPckzL8fJmXZ7YRPY     --bootnodes=/ip4/35.242.247.213/tcp/30333/p2p/12D3KooWECFKJirQiVHeidSkwrEocPr7wkUw3ijbJKNyvCVd3xcu
11
12[Install]
13WantedBy=multi-user.target

c) Mainnet:

1[Unit]
2Description=Centrifuge Chain Validator
3After=network.target
4StartLimitIntervalSec=0
5
6[Service]
7Type=simple
8Restart=always
9RestartSec=1
10ExecStart={pwd}/target/release/centrifuge-chain     --validator     --name="{name}"     --node-key={node_key}     --chain=mainnet     --bootnodes=/ip4/34.89.245.58/tcp/30333/p2p/12D3KooWAVAMPNJywZS3J4be8gFGZACfgt1rXS3MyJ2MxEGtLXjr     --bootnodes=/ip4/35.246.188.4/tcp/30333/p2p/12D3KooWCUjDbbhJf1o6skuE1EJ5PnKpJMaK6scmvWsHnjAULzDU
11
12[Install]
13WantedBy=multi-user.target

To run the service:

  1. Start your service: systemctl start centrifuge-chain
  2. Enable automatic restarts of your service after every boot: systemctl enable centrifuge-chain
  3. To view and follow your logs, run tail -f /var/log/syslog
Edit this page on GitHub