Hive Node Setup for the Smart, the Dumb, and the Lazy.

Hive consensus node - simple way

<h1>Requirements: <p dir="auto">Hardware: x86-64, 32GB RAM, 1TB fast storage (SSD / NVMe)<br /> Software: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS <h1>Assumptions: <p dir="auto">We act as user <code>hive with uid <code>1000 and <code>HOME=/home/hive<br /> We use <code>screen for convenience.<br /> We use <code>/home/hive/datadir as a data dir for our node. <h1>Use cases: <p dir="auto">Simple, yet versatile configuration that can be used to spawn a node that serves as a: <h2>seed <p dir="auto">Take part in a P2P network. By default listen at publicly available TCP port 2001. <h2>witness <p dir="auto">Witnesses, a.k.a. block producers play an essential role on Hive. In this case, you don’t want to open webserver ports to the public or enable non-essential plugins such as account_history. Make sure that you set values for <code>witness and <code>private-key. <h2>exchange <p dir="auto">Exchanges need to track account history entries for a list of accounts they use for deposits and withdrawals. For that reason such accounts have to be specified in config files (see example entries). Each time you add a new account to be tracked, you have to perform a replay. <h2>personal wallet <p dir="auto">You might want to have a node for personal needs to handle your accounts. Configure it just like the exchange, except you will track your own account(s). <h2>basic API <p dir="auto">A consensus node has a basic, yet powerful API. It can return useful information about the current state of the blockchain, track the head block, return blocks with get_block API, and broadcast transactions, which might be just good enough to handle some bots or apps. <h1>Prepare directory tree <pre><code>mkdir -pv ~/datadir/{blockchain,snapshot} ~/bin <h1>Use example config file <pre><code>wget https://gtg.openhive.network/get/snapshot/exchange/example-exchange-config.ini -O ~/datadir/config.ini <h1>Get <code>hived and <code>cli_wallet binaries <pre><code>wget https://gtg.openhive.network/get/bin/hived-1.27.6 -nc -P ~/bin wget https://gtg.openhive.network/get/bin/cli_wallet-1.27.6 -nc -P ~/bin chmod u+x ~/bin/{hived,cli_wallet}-1.27.6 <h1>Run <code>hived <p dir="auto">Of course you need to make sure it won’t be killed when you disconnect (use screen, or configure it as a service), make sure that the configuration fits your needs (tracking accounts, bind ports to public interfaces or to localhost, etc.) <pre><code>~/bin/hived-1.27.6 -d /home/hive/datadir <p dir="auto">That’s it. <p dir="auto">It will start sync process during which <code>/home/hive/datadir/blockchain/block_log and <code>/home/hive/datadir/blockchain/block_log.artifacts will be created and updated as it will sync and process blocks coming from the Hive p2p network. As the blocks are processed the current state is being saved in the <code>/home/hive/datadir/blockchain/shared_memory.bin file. If you track account history then there’s also <code>/home/hive/datadir/blockchain/account-history-rocksdb-storage which is RocksDB storage with account history data. <h1>Optional steps and improvements <h2>Use tmpfs for shared_memory.bin file <p dir="auto">It’s worth mentioning that <code>/home/hive/datadir/blockchain/shared_memory.bin will be heavily accessed for read/write. Placing this file on tmpfs will speed up resync and replay, and will reduce I/O on the storage. The disadvantage is that it will not survive the reboot. You also need to have enough RAM / swap.<br /> To use tmpfs, uncomment this line in <code>config.ini file: <pre><code># shared-file-dir = "/run/hive" <p dir="auto">And prepare that location for storing <code>shared_memory.bin file: <pre><code>sudo mkdir /run/hive sudo chown -Rc hive:hive /run/hive sudo mount -o remount,size=30G /run <h2>Use existing block_log <p dir="auto">If you already have a block_log file you can use it to speed up the process. In such a case place it in <code>~/datadir/blockchain and use <code>--replay.<br /><br /> You can safely reuse block_log from older versions.<span> You can use a block_log from another instance you run or download from public sources (see: <a href="https://gtg.openhive.network/get/blockchain" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" title="This link will take you away from hive.blog" class="external_link">https://gtg.openhive.network/get/blockchain ) <pre><code>wget https://gtg.openhive.network/get/blockchain/block_log -nc -P ~/datadir/blockchain wget https://gtg.openhive.network/get/blockchain/block_log.artifacts -nc -P ~/datadir/blockchain <p dir="auto">Please note that the block_log is roughly 500GB, downloading it could take a significant amount of time (6-12 hours even with a decent network connection) <h2>Use a snapshot <p dir="auto">Snapshot can apply the state of the blockchain that was generated on a different machine. It’s tightly bound to the version that was used to generate it and the exact configuration (used plugins, etc.). Make sure that you have <code>lbzip2 installed (<code>sudo apt install lbzip2). Regular bzip2 will also work, but lbzip2 makes use of all available CPU threads. To use snapshot you also need a block_log that is at least as fresh at snapshot itself. <pre><code>wget https://gtg.openhive.network/get/snapshot/exchange/latest.tar.bz2 -O - | lbzip2 -dc | tar xvC /home/hive/datadir/snapshot <p dir="auto">When using snapshot use <code>--load-snapshot=latest (where the ‘latest’ is the name of the snapshot) <p dir="auto"><center> <h1>TL;DR: Complete optimized recipe <pre><code>screen -q # start the screen manager mkdir -pv ~/datadir/{blockchain,snapshot} ~/bin sudo mkdir /run/hive sudo chown -Rc hive:hive /run/hive sudo mount -o remount,size=30G /run wget https://gtg.openhive.network/get/blockchain/block_log -nc -P ~/datadir/blockchain wget https://gtg.openhive.network/get/blockchain/block_log.artifacts -nc -P ~/datadir/blockchain wget https://gtg.openhive.network/get/snapshot/exchange/latest.tar.bz2 -O - | lbzip2 -dc | tar xvC /home/hive/datadir/snapshot wget https://gtg.openhive.network/get/bin/hived-1.27.6 -nc -P ~/bin wget https://gtg.openhive.network/get/bin/cli_wallet-1.27.6 -nc -P ~/bin wget https://gtg.openhive.network/get/snapshot/exchange/example-exchange-config.ini -O ~/datadir/config.ini sed -i '/^# shared-file-dir/s/^# //' ~/datadir/config.ini # enable tmpfs location chmod u+x ~/bin/{hived,cli_wallet}-1.27.6 ~/bin/hived-1.27.6 -d /home/hive/datadir --load-snapshot=latest <h1>Upgrading from previous version <p dir="auto">If your instance is already configured this way, then upgrade is very easy: <pre><code>rm -rf /home/hived/datadir/snapshot/latest wget https://gtg.openhive.network/get/bin/hived-1.27.6 -nc -P ~/bin wget https://gtg.openhive.network/get/bin/cli_wallet-1.27.6 -nc -P ~/bin chmod u+x ~/bin/{hived,cli_wallet}-1.27.6 wget https://gtg.openhive.network/get/snapshot/exchange/latest.tar.bz2 -O - | lbzip2 -dc | tar xvC /home/hive/datadir/snapshot <p dir="auto">Stop current instance and start with new binary: <pre><code>~/bin/hived-1.27.6 -d /home/hive/datadir --load-snapshot=latest <h1>Estimated times: <p dir="auto">Sync (from scratch) - 36h<br /> Replay (if you already have a block_log) - 18h<br /> Load from snapshot (if you already have a block_log) - 1h <h1>Congratulations, you have your Hive node running!