Install & Run

Quick start to running a Harmony Validator.

This option is deprecated and is not supported anymore. Please setup your node Using Node Binary.

All commands for auto-node have a help message that describes its usage. Just append --help to the command you wish to learn more about. For example: auto-node --help.

Step 1: Spin up your instance on AWS or other providers

It is recommended to go with Ubuntu 18+ or Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8+ as your operating system.

Step 2: SSH into the machine

Step 2.5: (Optional) Create a new user

You can choose any <new-user-name> you want. The command below will ask for a passphrase for the user, choose one and keep track of this password for future use! The command below will also add the user to the sudo group for convenience.

new_user_name=<new-user-name>
sudo adduser $new_user_name

Answer the prompts, then execute:

sudo adduser $new_user_name sudo
sudo loginctl enable-linger $new_user_name

Next, if you wish to use the same SSH credentials as your current user to log into your new user, execute the following commands:

sudo mkdir -p /home/$new_user_name/.ssh
sudo cp ~/.ssh/authorized_keys /home/$new_user_name/.ssh/authorized_keys
sudo chown $new_user_name:$new_user_name /home/$new_user_name/.ssh/authorized_keys

Command above assumes you use the default home directory for your new user

Otherwise, you can create your own SSH key for your user following this documentation.

Lastly, exit your SSH session and re-SSH back into your machine under your new user. Your ssh command may look something like this:

ssh -i "key.pem" <new-user-name>@your-server.com

Alternatively, you can swap users when SSH-ed in as your default user with the following command:

su - <new-user-name>

If you choose to swap users, you must export 2 environment variables to install AutoNode. Do so with the following command:

export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR="/run/user/$UID"
export DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS="unix:path=${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR}/bus"

It may be convient to add this command to your ~/.bashrc profile.

Step 3: Install AutoNode

sudo access for your user is needed for installation.

install_file_source="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/harmony-one/auto-node/master/scripts/first-install.sh"
tmp_install_file="/tmp/autonode-first-install.$(date +'%s').sh"
curl -o "$tmp_install_file" "$install_file_source" && bash "$tmp_install_file" && rm -f "$tmp_install_file"

Make sure to answer the prompts!

You will need to have access to systemd in user mode. This may require SSH-ing in as the user running AutoNode, or upgrading systemd. It may be easier to choose another Operating System if you have to upgrade systemd, Ubuntu 18+ is known to work.

If you created a user just for AutoNode, make sure to follow all parts of step 2.

Step 3.5: (Optional) Update your shell

You can reload your shell by exiting your SSH session and SSH-ing back into the machine, or you can execute the following command:

export PATH=$PATH:~/bin

This step is only needed if the command: auto-node does not work.

Step 4: Add or import a Validator Key

New Key

auto-node hmy keys add example-validator-wallet-name

This is the recommended way to run AutoNode.

You can send 10,100 ONE from your 'main' wallet to your AutoNode validator wallet (generated with the above command). This way, AutoNode can automate common validator commands for this new wallet, like create the validator for you. Once AutoNode creates the validator, you can delegate from your 'main' wallet to your AutoNode validator to increase its stake.

Import Keystore File

auto-node hmy keys import-ks <path-to-keystore-file>

Note that you can transfer files to your remote machine with the scp command. Documetation to do so can be found here.

Import Private Key (not recommended)

auto-node hmy keys import-private-key <private-key-string>

BE CAREFULL WITH RAW WALLET PRIVATE KEYS!!!

You can use the following command to list all of the loaded wallets:

auto-node hmy keys list

Step 5: Run AutoNode & start your Validator

Mainnet

auto-node run --clean --fast-sync

Testnet

auto-node run --clean --fast-sync --auto-active \
    --network testnet --beacon-endpoint https://api.s0.b.hmny.io/ --shard 0

Use --clean to start fresh/remove old node files (if present)

Use --fast-sync option to rclone the correct Harmony DB to reduce sync time. One can choose to sync from scratch by removing the --fast-sync option

Use --expose-rpc if you wish to expose RPC for your node to enable endpoint functionality

Use --shard (your shard number here) to run a node for a specific shard

Use --archival to run in archival mode. Make sure your machine has enough space. We expect around 500GB is needed to run an Archival node (Jun 2020)

Use --auto-active to automatically activate your validator on next epoch in case it gets deactivated

Make sure to respond to the prompts. If you are unable to create a validator (but started your node) don't worry! Follow the next step on how to create your validator.

Once the monitor has started and you see repeated prints of the node information & headers, you can exit with ctrl+C.From here, you are free to do whatever on the machine, or you can exit the machine. Your Harmony node will keep running!

Step 5.5: (Optional) Create your validator after the initial run

You can go through the create validator flow again by executing the following command:

auto-node create-validator

Note that this can only be done if you failed to create a validator on the inital run of auto-node