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Docker Install
Setup a Witness Node using a pre-configured Docker container
This document assumes that you are running Ubuntu 18.04 or 20.04. Other Debian based releases may also work with the provided script.
The following steps outline the Docker installation of a Witness Node:
- 1.Preparing the Environment
- 2.Installing Docker
- 3.Installing the Peerplays image
- 4.Starting the Container
- 5.Update the
config.iniFile - 6.Create a Peerplays Account
- 7.Update
config.iniwith Witness Account Info - 8.Start the Container and Vote for Yourself
Before we begin, to set up a Witness node requires about 15 PPY. This is to pay for an upgraded account (5 PPY) and to create a new witness (8 PPY). The remaining funds are to pay for various transaction fees while setting up the node (like voting for yourself!). Please see Obtaining Your First Tokens for more info.
Note that these fees will likely change over time as recommended by the Committee of Advisors.
For the docker install on Peerplays Mainnet, the requirements that we'll need for this guide would be as follows (as per the hardware requirements doc):
Node Type? | CPU | Memory | Storage | Bandwidth | OS |
Witness | 4 Cores | 16GB | 100GB SSD | 1Gbps | Ubuntu 18.04 |
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install git curl
Then we'll clone the Peerplays Docker repository.
git clone -b release https://gitlab.com/PBSA/tools-libs/peerplays-docker.git
It is required to have Docker installed on the system that will be performing the steps in this document.
Docker can be installed using the
run.sh script inside the Peerplays Docker repository:cd peerplays-docker
sudo ./run.sh install_docker
The
run.sh script contains many commands to make managing the node easy. A list of all its commands are listed in section 9 of this document.Since the script has added the currently logged in user to the Docker group, you'll need to re-login (or close and reconnect SSH) for Docker to function correctly.
You can look at https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/ to learn more on how to install Docker. Or if you are having permission issues trying to run Docker, use
sudo or look at https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/linux-postinstall/.Copy the
example.env to .env located in the root of the repository (ie peerplays-docker folder) cp example.env .env
We're going to have to make some changes to the
.env file so we'll open that now using a text editor.nano .env
Here are the important parts of the
.env file. These will be the parts that need to be edited or optionally edited. The rest of the file should be unchanged.# Comma separated port numbers to expose to the internet (binds to 0.0.0.0)
# Expose 9777 to the internet, but only expose RPC ports 8090 and 8091 onto 127.0.0.1 (localhost)
# allowing the host machine access to the container's RPC ports via 127.0.0.1:8090 and 127.0.0.1:8091
# We'll need ports 8090 and 8091 open to our localhost to interact with the Peerplays CLI Wallet.
PORTS=9777,127.0.0.1:8090:8090,127.0.0.1:8091:8091
# Websocket RPC node to use by default for ./run.sh remote_wallet
REMOTE_WS="wss://ca.peerplays.info/"
Use
run.sh to pull the node image:cd ~/peerplays-docker
sudo ./run.sh install
With at least 8GB of disk space available in your home folder, we'll start the node. This will create and/or start the Peerplays docker container.
sudo ./run.sh replay
Then we'll check the status of the container to see if all is well.
sudo ./run.sh logs
Last we'll stop the container so we can make updates to the
config.ini file.sudo ./run.sh stop
We need to set the endpoint and seed-node addresses so we can access the cli_wallet and download all the initial blocks from the chain. Within the
config.ini file, locate the p2p-endpoint, rpc-endpoint, and seed-node settings and enter the following addresses.nano ~/peerplays-docker/data/witness_node_data_dir/config.ini
p2p-endpoint = 0.0.0.0:9777
rpc-endpoint = 127.0.0.1:8090
seed-node = ca.peerplays.info:9777
seed-node = de.peerplays.xyz:9777
seed-node = pl.peerplays.org:9777
seed-nodes = []
Save the changes and start the container back up.
sudo ./run.sh replay
We'll need an account as the basis of creating a new Witness. The easiest way to do that is to use the Peerplays DEX.
- 1.Install, open, and create an account. It's pretty self-explanatory.🙂
- 2.Wait for your node to sync the blocks (about 7.3GB at the time of writing). We need to do this before we can use the CLI wallet.
- 3.From this point on, please note the results of the following commands as you'll need them later.
Back in the command line window, we can access the cli_wallet program after all the blocks have been downloaded from the chain. Note that "your-password-here" is a password that you're creating for the cli_wallet and doesn't necessarily have to be the password you used in the GUI wallet earlier.
sudo ./run.sh remote_wallet
set_password your-password-here
unlock your-password-here
The CLI wallet will show
unlocked >>> when successfully unlocked.A list of CLI wallet commands is available here: https://devs.peerplays.tech/api-reference/wallet-api/wallet-calls
This will return an array with your owner key in the form of
["PPYxxx", "xxxx"]. Note that the "created-username" and "created-password" used here are the username and password from the GUI wallet!get_private_key_from_password created-username owner created-password
The second value in the returned array is the private key of your owner key. Now we'll import that into the cli_wallet.
import_key "created-username" SECONDVALUEFROMLASTCOMMAND
Once again, this will return an array with your active key in the form of
["PPYxxx", "xxxx"]. Note that the "created-username" and "created-password" used here are the username and password from the GUI wallet!get_private_key_from_password created-username active created-password
The second value in the returned array is the private key of your active key. Now we'll import that into the cli_wallet.
import_key "created-username" SECONDVALUEFROMLASTCOMMAND
The keys that begin with "PPY" are the public keys.
You will need some PPY for this command to succeed. The account must have lifetime membership status to create a new Witness.
upgrade_account created-username true
The URL in this command is your own URL which should point to a page which describes who you are and why you want to become a Peerplays witness. Note your block signing key after you enter this command.
This command will require some PPY as well.
create_witness created-username "https://your-url-to-witness-proposal" true
The above command will also return YOURBLOCKSIGNINGKEY
First we'll get the private key for your block_signing_key.
get_private_key YOURBLOCKSIGNINGKEY
Then dump your keys to check and compare. One of the returned values from the following command should match your block_signing_key.
dump_private_keys
Last we'll get your witness ID.
get_witness created-username
Exit the cli_wallet with the
quit command. We'll stop the container and edit the config.ini file once again.sudo ./run.sh stop
nano ~/peerplays-docker/data/witness_node_data_dir/config.ini
witness-id = "your_witness_id"
private-key = ["block_signing_key", "private_key_for_your_block_signing_key"]
sudo ./run.sh start
Once again, we need to wait for the node to sync the blocks to use the cli_wallet. After the sync, you can vote for yourself.
sudo ./run.sh wallet
unlock your-password-here
vote_for_witness created-username created-username true true
Now you can check your votes to verify it worked.
get_witness your_witness_account
Complete! You've installed your Witness node and you're up and running.
🎊
Up until this point we have been running the node in the foreground which is fragile and inconvenient. So let's start the node as a service when the system boots up instead.
After that, it would be smart to create a backup server to enable you to make software updates, troubleshoot issues with the node, and otherwise take your node offline without causing service outages.
You've got a Witness node. Now you'll need a BOS node. And since you're in the node making mood, how about a SON too?
If you have a node that is accessible from the internet (for example, an API or Seed node) it would be wise to enable SSL connections to your node.
start- starts seed containerstart_son- starts son seed containerstart_son_regtest- starts son seed container and bitcoind container under the docker networkclean- Remove blockchain, p2p, and/or shared mem folder contents, seed, bitcoind, and son docker network (warns beforehand)dlblocks- download and decompress the blockchain to speed up your first startreplay- starts seed container (in replay mode)replay_son- starts son seed container (in replay mode)memory_replay- starts seed container (in replay mode, with --memory-replay)shm_size- resizes /dev/shm to size given, e.g. ./run.sh shm_size 10Gstop- stops seed containerstatus- show status of seed containerrestart- restarts seed containerinstall_docker- install dockerinstall- pulls latest docker image from server (no compiling)install_full- pulls latest (FULL NODE FOR RPC) docker image from server (no compiling)rebuild- builds seed container (from docker file), and then restarts itbuild- only builds seed container (from docker file)logs- show all logs inc. docker logs, and seed logswallet- open cli_wallet in the containerremote_wallet- open cli_wallet in the container connecting to a remote seedenter- enter a bash session in the currently running containershell- launch the seed container with appropriate mounts, then open bash for inspection
Witness: An independent server operator which validates network transactions.
Witness node: Nodes with a closed RPC port. They don't allow external connections. Instead these nodes focus on processing transactions into blocks.
Last modified 1mo ago