BitCanna — node setup

Only 50 people got into the validators, and I am one of them. In connection with this, I decided to write detailed instructions for installing the node.

First you need a server. I recommend renting a VPS server, as it will provide you with 24/7 work. However, no one forbids you to configure a node on your computer.

1. System requirements
   We need a server with the following characteristics:
   4 CPU
   8 GB RAM
   80 SSD
   I started the server at https://www.hetzner.com/

2. Installation

2.1. Firstly, you should prepare your server and make some updates, as shown bellow:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade -y
sudo apt-get install -y build-essential curl wget jq

Then, you should increase the default open files limit:

sudo su -c "echo 'fs.file-max = 65536' >> /etc/sysctl.conf"
sudo sysctl -p

Now you have a two options, how to run a validator: to use binaries or compile source code by yourself.
I used the binaries for this time with following commands:

cd $HOME
wget https://github.com/BitCannaGlobal/testnet-bcna-cosmos/releases/download/v0.testnet6/bcnad
chmod +x bcnad
sudo mv bcnad /usr/local/bin/

After that you can check that you have correct version of bcnad, as bellow:

bcnad version

gives me output:

2.2. Then you should set up the connection with TestNet Blockchain. But firstly, it is neccessary to created a wallet. You should use the following command, but don’t forget to change <yourAddress> to your address name, what you will use in future.

bcnad keys add <yourAddress>

Now you can see your data, I created a test address:

2.3. Next, you should initialize the folders, with this command. And don’t forget to change <Moniker> with your desired moniker.

bcnad init <Moniker> --chain-id bitcanna-testnet-2

2.4. Then, with the following commands, you should download the genesis.json file.

cd $HOME
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/BitCannaGlobal/testnet-bcna-cosmos/main/instructions/stage1/genesis.json 
mv genesis.json $HOME/.bcna/config/

2.5. Added some things to config.toml
server SEEDs

sed -E -i 's/seeds = \".*\"/seeds = \"d6aa4c9f3ccecb0cc52109a95962b4618d69dd3f@seed1.bitcanna.io:26656,41d373d03f93a3dc883ba4c1b9b7a781ead53d76@seed2.bitcanna.io:16656\"/' $HOME/.bcna/config/config.toml

persistent peers

sed -E -i 's/persistent_peers = \".*\"/persistent_peers = \"d6aa4c9f3ccecb0cc52109a95962b4618d69dd3f@seed1.bitcanna.io:26656,41d373d03f93a3dc883ba4c1b9b7a781ead53d76@seed2.bitcanna.io:16656\"/' $HOME/.bcna/config/config.toml

2.6. Also you should set minimum gas prices for transaction, I used the same example, that in the guide.

sed -E -i 's/minimum-gas-prices = \".*\"/minimum-gas-prices = \"0.01ubcna\"/' $HOME/.bcna/config/app.toml

2.7. For successful connection you should configure the port 26656 with the following command.

sudo ufw allow 26656

Rules should be updated as shown bellow:

2.8. Finally, you are ready to test the connection to your node.

bcnad start --log_level info

If you see something like this, then connection is successful:

2.9. Before next steps, you should the state of sync. You can check it in three ways: (screenshots)
1)Gives us in output true if sync in progress and false if sync is finished;

curl -s localhost:26657/status  | jq .result.sync_info.catching_up

2)Gives us the last block that is synced by our node;

curl -s localhost:26657/status | jq .result.sync_info.latest_block_height

3)Gives the current block high of blockchain.

curl -s "http://seed1.bitcanna.io:26657/status?"  | jq .result.sync_info.latest_block_height

2.10. Now you should create a service that will be responsible for running a node. Just put the following code in console and press ENTER:

cd $HOME
    echo "[Unit]
    Description=BitCanna Node
    After=network-online.target
    [Service]
    User=${USER}
    ExecStart=$(which bcnad) start
    Restart=always
    RestartSec=3
    LimitNOFILE=4096
    [Install]
    WantedBy=multi-user.target
    " >bcnad.service

When service ready, you can enable and activate it:

sudo mv bcnad.service /lib/systemd/system/
sudo systemctl enable bcnad.service && sudo systemctl start bcnad.service

You check that everything is running good, by checking logs with this command:

sudo journalctl -u bcnad -f

3. Setting up a validator

Firstly, you should receive test tokens. Replace your_address with your address and ask for test tokens is Discord channel:

!claim your_address

To create a validator you should create a transaction with following parameters: (don’t forget to replace WALLET and MONIKER on yours)

bcnad tx staking create-validator \
    --amount 1000000ubcna \
    --commission-max-change-rate 0.10 \
    --commission-max-rate 0.2 \
    --commission-rate 0.1 \
    --from WALLET \
    --min-self-delegation 1 \
    --moniker MONIKER \
    --pubkey $(bcnad tendermint show-validator) \
    --chain-id bitcanna-testnet-2 \
    --gas auto \
    --gas-adjustment 1.5 \
    --gas-prices 0.01ubcna

Now you can find yourself in active validators in Testnet Explorer (screenshot)

To view active validators in console, you can use the follwing command:

bcnad query staking validators --output json| jq

4. Validator backup

It would be nice to create validator backup key with theese commands:

tar -czvf validator_key.tar.gz .bcna/config/*_key.json 
gpg -o validator_key.tar.gz.gpg -ca validator_key.tar.gz
rm validator_key.tar.gz

5. Prometheus installation

To make your node visible by prometheus, you should make following things:

5.1. Configure config.toml with following command:

nano $HOME/.bcna/config/config.toml

In the end of file you should change Instrumentation Configuration Options on the following and save it using CTRL+X,Y, ENTER:

#######################################################
###       Instrumentation Configuration Options     ###
#######################################################
[instrumentation]

# When true, Prometheus metrics are served under /metrics on
# PrometheusListenAddr.
# Check out the documentation for the list of available metrics.
prometheus = true

# Address to listen for Prometheus collector(s) connections
prometheus_listen_addr = "0.0.0.0:26660"

# Maximum number of simultaneous connections.
# If you want to accept a larger number than the default, make sure
# you increase your OS limits.
# 0 - unlimited.
max_open_connections = 3

# Instrumentation namespace
namespace = "tendermint"

To make things work, please type:

sudo service bcnad restart

5.2. Configure firewall:

sudo ufw allow from 167.172.43.16 proto tcp to any port 26660

6. Final

If you did everything correctly, you should see yourself among the validators. https://testnet-explorer.bitcanna.io/validators

Also your node is ready for prometheus monitoring.

***************************************
Official guide for configuring a node — link
Validator List — link
Project site — link

Regards Alex (Telegram: @oxess, Discord: oxes#8647)