Compendia Docs

# Nodes (Relay & Forging)

# What are nodes?

Your Forging Node is your server that will verify transactions and forge blocks. You must have a forging node in order to collect block rewards and transaction fees when you're in the Top 47.

Your Relay Nodes are API servers that maintain a copy of the blockchain. Users and apps in the network can automatically connect to nearby relay nodes to make transactions and get blockchain data. Your forging node will also need reliable relay nodes to connect with, so if you're running a Validator you should host at least two Relays.

Forging Node:

  • Ubuntu 20.x
  • 2 CPU
  • 8GB RAM
  • 50+ GB SSD (HDD)

Relay Node:

  • Ubuntu 20.x
  • 1 CPU
  • 3GB-4GB RAM
  • 50+ GB SSD (HDD)

# Create a relay node

We're going to install your relay nodes first using the simple "core-control" package.

Once we set up the first relay, we can create a snapshot and instantly create our second one.

  1. Create an account at a VPS provider. If you don't know which provider to use, pick any from the following list: Vultr, DigitalOcean, Hetzner, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud.

Important: If you're signing up with a referral link, make sure to turn off your adblockers (e.g. Brave Browser can block your referral data from your session).

  1. Once logged in to the provider, create a new server.
    image|690x243

  2. Select a $15 to $20 per month standard server (3 GB RAM / 1 CPU): image|690x302

  3. Select your preferred hosting location. You'll use the same location for all your nodes. This can be your own country, or you can ask the community in which country more nodes are needed: image|690x220

  4. If you don't have an SSH Key, click New SSH Key and follow the on-screen instructions, or Google How to set up ssh key for [YOUR VPS PROVIDER] :
    image|228x324

  5. Enter a hostname such as "relay-1" image|690x125

  6. You can optionally enable backups for a low cost. Enabling it is recommended.

# Install core-control

Now we're going to set up core-control.

  1. Log in to your VPS using SSH. These instruction links are from DigitalOcean, but work with any VPS: Instructions for Windows - Instructions for macOS/Linux.

  2. Once logged in, update the server and then create a new user:

adduser bind
usermod -aG sudo bind
su bind

Whenever you log in to your server, you can (and should always) log in with su bind. You can also configure it as your default user account when logging in with PuTTy or OpenSSH.

  1. Navigate to your bind user directory:
cd ~

Clone the core-control repository and navigate into it:

# For a testnet node, replace "-b main" with "-b develop"
git clone https://github.com/compendia/core-control -b main
cd core-control

Now we can install the blockchain node software (enter one of the two commands below based on your preference):

# If you'd like core-control to set up everything, including a firewall:
./ccontrol.sh install core

# OR: If you don't want your firewall (UFW) auto-configured (advanced users):
./ccontrol.sh install core advanced

The installation will take a few minutes.

  1. After installation is done, set up one more relay (name it relay-2) in another country and repeat the above steps. You can select the server's geographical location in its creation wizard. You can also use the same SSH keys that you made for your first server.

  2. Click create and log in to your new node using OpenSSH or PuTTy. Now you should have two SSH sessions open: one for relay-1 and another for relay-2.

  3. In relay-2, execute the following to log in as the bind user and go to the core-control directory:

su bind
cd ~/core-control
  1. Now execute the following commands in both relay-1 and relay-2:
./ccontrol.sh start relay
./ccontrol.sh logs

Next time you log in to your nodes, as the bind user, you can run ccontrol <command> without navigating to the core-control directory.

You can run ccontrol logs to check the node logs.

  1. The relay node should now be live and working.

# Create a forging node

We can use the snapshot we made when we set up our first node to quickly bootstrap the forger:

  1. Set up core-control on a server with the following minimum specs: 8GB RAM / 4 CPU plan (~$40/mo).

  2. Add your SSH key and enter the hostname forger-1. Adding the back-up plan for your forger is recommended.

  3. Create the node and log in with SSH.

  4. Configure your private key by entering:

ccontrol secret set {your secret here}

Replace {your secret here} with your validator's mnemonic key, without the { ... } brackets.

  1. Run the following:
ccontrol start core
ccontrol logs

You should see your forger start syncing blocks.

When your Validator has enough votes to be in the Top 47, you'll start forging blocks and collecting block rewards and transaction fees.

If you're in the top 5, you'll earn 0.94 BIND extra per block!

While you're not in the Top 47, all of your nodes will still sync the blockchain and help secure and increase the performance of the network.

# Updating a node

To update a node to the latest Compendia node software version, simply log in to the node as your node user, then enter:

ccontrol update core

Followed by the following command for forging nodes:

ccontrol restart core

Or for relay nodes:

ccontrol restart relay

Some updates may require you to reset your configuration as well. This will be announced in any update announcement. The process to reset your config is:

# Stop the node
ccontrol stop
# Back up your custom plugins' config first, then reset your config:
ccontrol config reset
# If you're running a forging node:
ccontrol secret set [your validator secret]
# Start your node
ccontrol start core

# Tips

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