Run A Node

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Introduction

Here, we’ll be installing go-quai, the Go implementation of Quai Network. This tutorial is focused on Linux distributions and MacOS systems.

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Requirements

Quai consists of many “slices,” or execution shards, that work together to form an overarching network. A global node runs all of these slices, while a slice node runs only a single slice. Running a slice node is recommended for most users.

To run a global node during the Iron Age Testnet, you’ll need a MacOS or Ubuntu machine with the following specifications:

To run a slice node during the Iron Age Testnet, you’ll need a MacOS or Ubuntu machine with the following specifications:

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Install Dependencies

To run an instance of go-quai, you’ll need to install a few dependencies. You can install dependencies with your favorite package manager (apt, brew, etc.). The following dependencies are required to run a node:

  # install snapd if you don't have it already
  sudo apt install snapd

  # install go
  sudo snap install go --classic

# install git and make
sudo apt install git make g++

git clone https://github.com/dominant-strategies/go-quai
cd go-quai

git checkout put-latest-release-here

git checkout v1.2.3-rc.4

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Node Configuration

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Selecting a Node Type

There are two types of nodes in Quai: Global and Slice nodes.

Global nodes validate every shard in the network, i.e. Prime, all Region chains, and all Zone chains. Running a global node is only recommended for users who:

• have more available computing power (strong CPU, more RAM, large SSD, etc.)
• want to easily switch between shards for mining
• want to provide chain data as an RPC service

Slice nodes validate a “slice” of all shards in the network. A slice is defined as the smallest set of shards a node can validate trustlessly, i.e. the Prime chain, any one Region chain, and any one Zone chain under the selected Region chain. A slice node validates only the shards in that slice, and runs lighter non-validation processes for all other shards in the network. Running a slice node is recommended for users who:

• have less available computing power (less RAM, small SSD, etc.)
• are not switching their miners between shards
• are not providing chain data as an RPC service

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Environment Variables

After you’ve successfully installed go-quai, you’ll need to configure your node. Go-quai uses a config.toml file to configure the node. If this is your first time running go-quai, you’ll need to run the following commands to build the node and populate the config file:

# build go-quai
make go-quai

# populate config file
./build/bin/go-quai config

After running the above command, a config file will be created in the following directories (depending on your operating system):

• Linux
• MacOS

The config.toml file houses a number of important parameters that we will configure to run our node correctly. The variables listed below will need to be set correctly for every experience level.

• environment: the network (testnet, devnet, etc.) your node is running on.
• coinbases: the addresses in each chain (location) that mining rewards are paid to. Note that you must have one address per slice you are running.
• slices: the slices of the network that the node will run.

# edit with nano
nano ~/.config/go-quai/config.toml

# open in vscode to edit
cd ~/.config/go-quai/
code .

# edit network.env with vim
vim ~/.config/go-quai/config.toml

environment = 'colosseum'

[global node]
coinbases = '0x00a3e45aa16163F2663015b6695894D918866d19,0x01a3e45aa16163F2663015b6695894D918866d19,0x02a3e45aa16163F2663015b6695894D918866d19,0x10a3e45aa16163F2663015b6695894D918866d19,0x11a3e45aa16163F2663015b6695894D918866d19,0x12a3e45aa16163F2663015b6695894D918866d19,0x20a3e45aa16163F2663015b6695894D918866d19,0x21a3e45aa16163F2663015b6695894D918866d19,0x22a3e45aa16163F2663015b6695894D918866d19'

[single slice node]
coinbases = '0x00a3e45aa16163F2663015b6695894D918866d19'

[multi slice node (3 slices)]
coinbases = '0x00a3e45aa16163F2663015b6695894D918866d19,0x01a3e45aa16163F2663015b6695894D918866d19,0x02a3e45aa16163F2663015b6695894D918866d19'

[global node]
slices = '[0 0],[0 1],[0 2],[1 0],[1 1],[1 2],[2 0],[2 1],[2 2]'

[single slice node]
slices = '[0 0]'

[multi slice node (3 slices)]
slices = '[0 0],[0 1],[0 2]'

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Starting a Node

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Build

To start the node, we first need to build the source. You can build via Makefile by running the following command:

make go-quai

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Start

Now that we’ve built the source, we need to decide which type of node to run. As detailed in the Node Overview page, users can opt for either a global node or slice node depending on individual use case and hardware.

To start your node, simply run:

./build/bin/go-quai start

This will spin up a node using the configuration we set in the config.toml file. Logs should begin printing to the terminal.

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Stop

Stopping your node should be done any time you make changes to your config file or prior to shutting your machine down. A node instance can terminated using CTRL+C.

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Latency Optimization

Node operators should self-select the slice least latent to them (geographically closest to them). This will help maximize their mining rewards, minimize uncle rate, and reduce communication time between nodes.

Below is an initial suggestion for geographic organization, which will generally expedite the minimization of latency.

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Other Node Operations

# view global logs (recommended)
tail -f nodelogs/global.log

# view specific region or zone logs
tail -f nodelogs/region-2.log
# OR
tail -f nodelogs/zone-0-0.log

INFO [01-30|19:55:15.397] Starting Quai 0.1.0-pre.0 on local testnet
INFO [01-30|19:55:15.414] Maximum peer count                       ETH=50 total=50
WARN [01-30|19:55:15.460] Disable transaction unindexing for archive node
INFO [01-30|19:55:15.460] Enabling recording of key preimages since archive mode is used
INFO [01-30|19:55:15.460] Set global gas cap                       cap=50,000,000
INFO [01-30|19:55:15.460] Allocated trie memory caches             clean=307.00MiB dirty=0.00B
INFO [01-30|19:55:15.461] Allocated cache and file handles         database=/Users/user/Library/Quai/local/zone-0-0/quai/chaindata cache=512.00MiB handles=5120
INFO [01-30|19:55:17.727] Opened ancient database                  database=/Users/user/Library/Quai/local/zone-0-0/quai/chaindata/ancient readonly=false
INFO [01-30|19:55:17.728] Writing custom genesis block

# Print all appended blocks
cat nodelogs/location-to-print-here.log | grep Appended

# Continuously print new appended blocks
tail -f nodelogs/location-to-print-here.log | grep Appended

# Continuously print appended blocks across all chains
tail -f nodelogs/* | grep Appended

INFO   [09-18|10:18:17.273] Appended new block                       number=[102 1934 40392] hash=0x0000067368b679ce7994dbd6e3dfe93a5e5fe16642a6083604fd405556836cbe difficulty=405369 uncles=0 txs=0 etxs=0 gas=0 gasLimit=5000000 root=0x7df4c77d1463a5e4c7d5f5446476e34df01cf14b6226b7d83ccab072bc302edc order=2 location=[0 0] elapsed=2.019ms
INFO   [09-18|10:18:17.736] Appended new block                       number=[102 1934 40393] hash=0x0000285b7ffa020c8f9f5f8832381593170d1d7618ad2fae8202350a0d81acac difficulty=405875 uncles=0 txs=0 etxs=0 gas=0 gasLimit=5000000 root=0x81954cf5d93a979890641acffe7496965ff4602ad2b24d24ab5356ba52072c39 order=2 location=[0 0] elapsed=1.933ms
INFO   [09-18|10:18:17.803] Appended new block                       number=[102 1934 40394] hash=0x00000d6f0d100a8d254088090876a6ab911720af7e7bc6454f5d1a01417f786f difficulty=406382 uncles=0 txs=0 etxs=0 gas=0 gasLimit=5000000 root=0x8eb0b430e2df8f91a180b6f29fea46430c9014ccde42fa538df62bf3251dff03 order=2 location=[0 0] elapsed=2.005ms
INFO   [09-18|10:18:18.511] Appended new block                       number=[102 1934 40395] hash=0x00001211f391c0a162701ad0dcbdef47f4efe96b3fb5f77e1f0b75b6ff439312 difficulty=406889 uncles=0 txs=0 etxs=0 gas=0 gasLimit=5000000 root=0xc810b3d05f9a9b7f4fee3da271d3544cba26b6368f84ee5e5e885cbe4fd11cab order=2 location=[0 0] elapsed=2.147ms

git fetch --all

git checkout put-latest-release-here

make go-quai

rm -rf nodelogs ~/.local/share/go-quai

# Install transmission
sudo apt-get install transmission-cli transmission-common transmission-daemon

# Start transmission daemon
transmission-daemon

# Download snapshot - note the date in the file name, this will change with each snapshot
transmission-remote -a quai_colosseum_backup-1-8-24.tar.zst.torrent

# Check download progress
transmission-remote  -l

# Remove peer database
rm -rf ~/.quai/*/quai/nodes

# Remove nodekey
rm -rf ~/.quai/*/quai/nodekey

# Remove database lock
rm -rf ~/.quai/*/quai/LOCK

# install zstd if you don't have it already
sudo apt install zstd

# Archive and compress database
tar -I 'zstd -T0' -cvf quai_colosseum_backup.tar.zst .quai

# Remove current db
# This command will permanently delete all state that you have synced thus far
rm -rf ~/.quai

# install zstd if you don't have it already
sudo apt install zstd

# Expand compressed db into node
tar -I 'zstd -T0' -xvf quai_colosseum_backup.tar.zst

# Copy db into db directory
cp -r quai-colosseum-backup ~/.quai