Hello, GoodBlock Systems Administrator Nathaniel here. This article is the start of a new series that serves as a distillation of all the knowledge I have gained as a Block Producer.
In this part, I’m going to provide you with a network of links which are my bookmarks. In my BP bookmarks folder, I have 40~ links, not all of which I’m going to share with you, but just the ones you need to know to be awesome at being a BP. From brand new BP to day-to-day operations, this guide will give you the info you need to know for starting and running a Telos BP node. Here’s everything I wish I knew when I was going through the process of getting started with Telos BP operation:
Installing your own BP:
Listed below you will find my recommendations for hardware.
Requirements and Tips:
- Optimize for Single-threaded CPU usage instead of GPU.
- Optimize for Hard Disk space and RAM.
- GPUs are not needed as Telos and Telos EVM are Proof of Stake (or rotational block production).
What are the current best in class specs as of this article? Arguably my best single threaded build:
- Intel Core i9–12900KF 3.2 GHz 16-Core
- ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 420 72.8 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
- ARCTIC Intel LGA1700 Upgrade Kit — For Liquid Freezer II Series
- Gigabyte Z690 AERO G DDR4 ATX LGA 1700 Motherboard
- G.Skill Ripjaws V 128 GB (4 x 32GB) DDR4–3200 CL16 Memory
- Western Digital Black SN850 2TB M.2–2280 NVME Solid State Drive
- PNY NVIDIA T400 Graphic Card — 2 GB GDDR6 — Low-Profile — 64 bit Bus Width — PCI Express 3.0 x16 — Mini DisplayPort
- NZXT C 750 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply
This build costs 5400$ as of this article.
The minimum requirements for running a BP Node are here, but do not run the minimums. I recommend the following at the time of writing:
- 16–32GB RAM
- 2 SSD Arrays
- One can be 200GB for the OS and EOSIO,
- The other at least 4–6 TB, if not more, to hold the blocks and any snapshots you’d like to start from. Having more storage to start means less down time.
Building from block 1 using just a genesis.json file just isn’t feasible anymore. In my own test, it took 28 days to catch up from just genesis.json. Snapshots are the best way to catch up and start producing/seeding. You can find the latest snapshots here: TelosUnlimited Snapshots
This link is used for creating a Telos account on mainnet. Telos Account Creator account creation is free, but it will cost about $5 USD for RAM and CPU to run the smart contracts. You can do this at Buy Telos Ram Here.
You will need to generate a keypair using cleos wallet and make up a name to create an account for Testnet using the faucet here: Create Test Accounts — telos docs. The faucet’s source may go empty causing an error when you try to make an account. You can ask in the testnet Telegram chat for a replenishment, and then once confirmed, you’ll be able to make an account with some test TLOS.
I consider the following link to be the Telos “BP Bible” for setting up a validator node: Telos Docs — Setting up Telos Validator Nodes
The BP Bible will walk you through installing EOS.io onto an Ubuntu or MacOS (10.14 or better) server. Personally, I do not recommend installing on MacOS. I do recommend Ubuntu 20.04, as EOS.io has updated to 2.1.0 since the linked document was released and currently works well with this OS. In the future, we will walk through installing a node, but following this guide works great.
The github for the bp.json file you must create and host to show your node(s), can be found here — BP.json Standards. It is important to subscribe to see if the standards update. Here is an example, Goodblock.io’s bp.json example.
Once your bp.json is up and you’ve got your node running, an EXCELLENT check is to use get_info to see the current status of the blockchain — yourdomain*/v1/chain/get_info
For running the process automatically on start, and managing environment updates (updates to the config), and restarting the program for you with a single command, use this tool — ProcessManager 2. Look for an article coming soon on how I personally use ProcessManager 2
You’ll need to learn nginx to deter attacks. Let’sEncrypt — lets you create your own SSL certificates, so you don’t have to worry about Centralized SSL corporations charging you exorbitant fees.
Finally, once you’re up and running, you’ll want to know how fast you are in comparison to others. Telos Speed Test also allows you to check your speed and compliance.
Support Chat is in place to help! You have to be on the Telos testnet for 7 days before you can host a mainnet server, The Testnet Telegram room serves to help baby BPs troubleshoot issues.
Since you are going to be a Block Producer, you will want to join the community to keep up to date with information regarding Telos. The best places to do so are Telegram and Discord.
Stay tuned for Part 2, coming soon!
GoodBlock Technologies is an app developer and Block Producer candidate on the Telos Blockchain Network, with a focus on 2 of the pillars of Web3.0; Governance (decidevoter.app) and Decentralized Cloud Storage (dstor.cloud). Vote for goodblocktls, and learn more at goodblock.io.
Telos is a cost-effective, energy efficient, fast, and scalable DPoS blockchain that has been operational for over 2 years. The Telos blockchain has leading on-chain governance (Telos Decide), and is built and developed by a core development team using the EOSIO codebase.
GoodBlock Resources and Social Media:
Website: https://goodblock.io/
Twitter: @goodblockio
Medium: https://medium.com/goodblock-io
Telegram: t.me/goodblocktls