Configuring a Network

This article explains the steps needed to configure a network of multiple block producers. You can follow this guide to setup a private Aergo blockchain network.

This guide specifically requires no prior setup, so it should be easy to follow along with new bare machines running Ubuntu. It has been tested with AWS EC2 instances. We will setup three block producers, but you can adjust the procedure to any number of BPs.

Per-machine setup

Install Docker

You will need Docker for this setup, so let’s install that now.

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install docker.io
sudo usermod -aG docker ubuntu

NTP

Timing is critical in a blockchain, so it’s better to configure the machines’ time setup manually:

sudo bash
apt-get install chrony
vi /etc/chrony/chrony.conf

server time1.google.com iburst
server time2.google.com iburst
server time3.google.com iburst
server time4.google.com iburst

systemctl restart chronyd
chronyc makestep

Generate BP accounts and keys

You can use any machine (e.g. your own local machine) for this.

Start by installing aergocli if you haven’t already.

Generate accounts

aergocli account new --password yourpassword --path genesis
(displays generated address)

aergocli account new --password yourpassword --path bp01
(displays generated address)

aergocli account new --password yourpassword --path bp02
(displays generated address)

aergocli account new --password yourpassword --path bp03
(displays generated address)

Export accounts

aergocli account export --address [insert address from genesis]  --password yourpassword --path genesis
(displays exported private key)

aergocli account export --address [insert address from bp01]  --password yourpassword --path bp01
(displays exported private key)

aergocli account export --address [insert address from bp02]  --password yourpassword --path bp02
(displays exported private key)

aergocli account export --address [insert address from bp03]  --password yourpassword --path bp03
(displays exported private key)

Generate peer keys

aergocli keygen bp01
Wrote files bp01.{key,pub,id}.

aergocli keygen bp02
Wrote files bp02.{key,pub,id}.

aergocli keygen bp03
Wrote files bp03.{key,pub,id}.

Write configuration files

genesis.json (same for all machines)

{
    "chain_id":{
        "magic": "[insert an identifier string for your network]",
        "public": false,
        "mainnet": false,
        "consensus": "dpos"
    },
    "timestamp": 1548918000000000000,
    "balance": {
        "[insert address from genesis]": "470000000000000000000000000",
        "[insert address from bp01]": "10000000000000000000000000",
        "[insert address from bp02]": "10000000000000000000000000",
        "[insert address from bp03]": "10000000000000000000000000"
    },
    "bps": [
        "[insert text from bp01.id]",
        "[insert text from bp02.id]",
        "[insert text from bp03.id]"
    ]
}

config.toml (one per machine)

# aergo TOML Configration File (https://github.com/toml-lang/toml)
# base configurations
datadir = "./data"
enableprofile = true
profileport = 6060
enablerest = true
personal = false

[rpc]
netserviceaddr = "0.0.0.0"
netserviceport = 7845
nstls = false
nscacert = ""
nscert = ""
nskey = ""
nsallowcors = false

[p2p]
netprotocoladdr = "{LOCAL_IP}"  # Insert IP address from this machine
netprotocolport = 7846
npbindaddr = "0.0.0.0"
npbindport = 7846
nptls = false
npcert = ""
npkey = "bp{01,02,03}.key"  # Name of key file of node
npaddpeers = [
    "/ip4/[IP ADDRESS FROM BP 01]/tcp/7846/p2p/[PEER ID FROM BP 01]",
    "/ip4/[IP ADDRESS FROM BP 02]/tcp/7846/p2p/[PEER ID FROM BP 02]",
    "/ip4/[IP ADDRESS FROM BP 03]/tcp/7846/p2p/[PEER ID FROM BP 03]"
]

npexposeself = false
npusepolaris = false
nphiddenpeers= [
    "[PEER ID FROM BP 01]",
    "[PEER ID FROM BP 02]",
    "[PEER ID FROM BP 03]"
]

[blockchain]
usefastsyncer = true
blockchainplaceholder = false
coinbaseaccount = "[ADDRESS FROM THIS PEER]"

[mempool]
showmetrics = true
dumpfilepath = "./data/mempool.dump"

[consensus]
enablebp = true

Running

We are going to use the Docker image aergo/node to run the server. Please refer to the Docker documentation for learn about the available run options.

Check the directory contents

After following the above steps, you should now have these files in one directory for each machine. In this example we use the path /blockchain, but you can use any directory as long as you substitute its local path in the Docker run commands below.

/blockchain/
    bp{01,02,03}.key
    genesis.json
    config.toml

Create genesis block

docker run --rm \
    -v /blockchain:/aergo \
    aergo/node \
    aergosvr init --genesis /aergo/genesis.json --home /aergo --config /aergo/config.toml

Start the node

docker run -d --log-driver json-file --log-opt max-size=1000m --log-opt max-file=7 \
    -v /blockchain:/aergo \
    -p 7845:7845 -p 7846:7846 -p 6060:6060 \
    --restart="always" --name aergo-node \
    aergo/node \
    aergosvr --home /aergo --config /aergo/config.toml

Further reading

You may now want to setup further full nodes as well as Polaris for automatic node discovery.