Elrond Node Deploy Scripts - Testnet

INTRODUCTION

The current scripts version aims to bring the validator experience to a higher standard. Following a few simple steps, you can run your node(s) on the local machine. Each node will run in background as a separate systemd unit.

REQUIREMENTS

• Running Ubuntu 18.04 & up
• Running the script requires a user (not root) with sudo priviledges (without password).

SCRIPT SETTINGS - MUST BE MODIFIED BEFORE FIRST RUN

• config/variables.cfg - used to define username, home path, validator keys location, Github OAUTH Token, SSH port, extra node parameters. In this file, it is very important to set the CUSTOM_HOME and CUSTOM_USER variables. Whoever wants to use the keybase identity, should provide here the IDENTITY value as it will be written automatically by the upgrade script each time an upgrade occurs.

KEY MANAGEMENT

Each machine must have its own key set(s) copied locally. For each node the file validatorKey.pem should be placed in a zip file named 'node-0.zip', in the path previously specified in variables.cfg file (NODE_KEYS_LOCATION). Whithout this zip file, the node won't be able to start as the keygenerator no longer creates a default .pem file. Note: "$NODE_KEYS_LOCATION" is created from "$CUSTOM_HOME" and the folder "VALIDATOR_KEYS" by default. For running additional nodes on the same machine, simply create additional zip files incrementing the numeric value (i.e. for second node: 'node-1.zip', for third node: 'node-2.zip', etc..), containing the additional key sets.

File structure example:

$CUSTOM_HOME/VALIDATOR_KEYS/node-0.zip
$CUSTOM_HOME/VALIDATOR_KEYS/node-1.zip
$CUSTOM_HOME/VALIDATOR_KEYS/node-2.zip
...
$CUSTOM_HOME/VALIDATOR_KEYS/node-x.zip

If someone wishes to join the network as an observer, should run the following script for each installed node (replacing node-0 string with node-1, node-2 and so on)

~/elrond-utils/keygenerator
mv validatorKey.pem ~/elrond-nodes/node-0/config

Example of adding your validator keys to a zip file (node-0.zip):

1. Navigate to your current node install path and go into the /config folder
2. Issue the command to create your zip archive: zip node-0.zip *.pem (repeat for each node on that machine incrementing the value 0,1,2...x)
3. Move the zip archive to the $CUSTOM_HOME/VALIDATOR_KEYS folder: mv node-0.zip $CUSTOM_HOME/VALIDATOR_KEYS/ (repeat for all nodes on that machine)

RUNNING THE SCRIPT

[FIRST RUN]
	#installs the node(s) on the local machine
	./script.sh install 
	
	Running the script with the 'install' parameter will prompt for each machine the following:
		- number of nodes to be ran on the machine
		- validator display name for each node (this will only be asked one time)	
		
[UPGRADE]
	#upgrades the node(s) on the local machine
	./script.sh upgrade
	
[START]
	#starts the node(s) on the local machine
	./script.sh start
	
[STOP]
	#stops the node(s) on the local machine
	./script.sh stop
			
[CLEANUP]
	#Removes all the node(s) files on the local machine
	./script.sh cleanup

[SCRIPTS UPDATE]
	#fetches the latest version of the scripts from github while backing up your configs
	./script.sh github_pull
	
[GET NODE LOGS]
	#creates a tar.gz file containing the node logs
	./script.sh get_logs 
	
[VERSION]
	#Outputs the current version of the scripts
	./script.sh version 

TERMUI NODE INFO

This version of scripts will start your nodes as separate systemd services and an additional termui binary will be build for you on each machine and placed in your $CUSTOM_HOME/elrond-utils folder. This tool provides a console-graphical interface useful for providing node status in a user-friendly way. The binary will try to connect to the node over the rest API interface provided. During the install process your nodes will have rest api sockets assigned to them following this pattern:

elrond-node-0 will use localhost:8080
elrond-node-1 will use localhost:8081
elrond-node-2 will use localhost:8082
...
elrond-node-x will use localhost:(8080+x)

You can check the status of each of your nodes in turn by going to your $CUSTOM_HOME/elrond-utils/ folder and using this command (making sure you select the proper socket for the desired node):

./elrond-utils/termui -address localhost:8080
or
./elrond-utils/termui -address localhost:8081
...

LOGVIEWER INFO

This version of scripts will start your nodes as separate systemd services and an additional logviewer binary will be build for you on each machine and placed in your $CUSTOM_HOME/elrond-utils folder. This tool provides a way of capturing (and even storing) logger lines generated by an elrond-node instance. The binary will try to connect to the node over the rest API interface provided. During the install process your nodes will have rest api sockets assigned to them following this pattern:

elrond-node-0 will use localhost:8080
elrond-node-1 will use localhost:8081
elrond-node-2 will use localhost:8082
...
elrond-node-x will use localhost:(8080+x)

You can check the status of each of your nodes in turn by going to your $CUSTOM_HOME/elrond-utils/ folder and using this command (making sure you select the proper socket for the desired node):

./elrond-utils/logviewer -address localhost:8080
or
./elrond-utils/logviewer -address localhost:8081
...

If the log level is not provided, it will start with the *:INFO pattern, meaning that all subpackages that assemble the elrond-go binary will only output INFO (or up) messages. There is another flag called -level that can be used to alter the logger pattern. The expected format is MATCHING_STRING1:LOG_LEVEL1,MATCHING_STRING2:LOG_LEVEL2 If matching string is *, it will change the log levels of all contained from all packages. Otherwise, the log level will be modified only on those loggers that will contain the matching string on any position. For example, having the parameter process:DEBUG will set the DEBUG level on all loggers that will contain the "process" string in their name ("process/sync", "process/interceptors", "process" and so on). The rules are applied in the exact order they are provided, starting from left to the right part of the string

Example: *:INFO,p2p:ERROR,*:DEBUG,data:INFO will result in having the data package logger(s) on INFO log level and all other packages on DEBUG level

Defined logger levels are: NONE, ERROR, WARN, INFO, DEBUG, TRACE TRACE will output anything, NONE will practically silent everything. Whatever is in between will display the provided level + the left-most part from the afore mentioned list.

Example: INFO log level will output all logger lines with the levels INFO or WARN or ERROR.

The flag for storing into a file the received logger lines is -file

Example: ./elrond-utils/logviewer -address localhost:8080 -level *:DEBUG,api:INFO -file will start the binary that will try to connect to the locally-opened 8080 port, will set the log level to DEBUG for all packages except api package and will store all captured log lines in a file.

SEEDNODE INFO

If there's ever a need to start a separate seed/boot node - there's a seednode binary available in the $CUSTOM_HOME/elrond-utils folder. This binary will start a new seed node that can be used as a fallback if the primary seed nodes are experiencing issues. The seednode requires a p2p.toml file to use for its settings, so you would also have to download that configuration file:

  `mkdir -p config && curl -o config/p2p.toml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ElrondNetwork/elrond-config/master/p2p.toml`

Example: ./seeednode --help will display all available arguments/options ./seeednode will start the seed node using the default settings: --port 10000, --p2p-seed "seed", --log-level "*:INFO " ./seeednode --port 12000 will start the seed node using the settings: --port 12000, --p2p-seed "seed", --log-level "*:INFO "

NODE LOGS INFO

As of version 1.3.4 of the scripts there is a new command for extracting and tarballing your node logs. The tar file will be stored in the $CUSTOM_HOME/elrond-logs folder and will contain a timestamp in their name.

Command Example: ./script.sh get_logs

FINAL THOUGHTS

KEEP CALM AND VALIDATE ON ELROND NETWORK!