Ergo Node FAQ & Guidelines

Frequently asked questions and guidelines for running an Ergo node. Find answers about requirements, setup, security, and best practices.

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General

What benefits are there for running a node?

There is no direct financial incentive to run a node. However, doing so contributes to increasing the security of the network.

Can nodes be viewed anywhere?

Yes, public nodes can be viewed at ergonodes. However, unless your node is hosted on a publicly accessible web-server, your node should be protected by your router.

To run a public node, refer to this nginx.conf example.
Be cautious when using a remote node as it can be insecure.

Minimum Requirements

Java

An Ergo node requires a JDK/JRE version >= 9 installed on your system. We recommend using Oracle Java SE or SDKMAN for Unix-based systems:

SDKMAN Installation

curl -s "https://get.sdkman.io" | bash
sdk install java 11.0.13.8.1-amzn

Hardware

The only hardware requirements are ~20GB of storage for the blockchain and ~8GB of RAM for handling the sync. The node utilizes Java, so it should work across all operating systems. You can even run it on a Raspberry Pi.

Note

Due to the intensive disk I/O, we recommend having 4-6GB of RAM with a fast SSD, running with the -Xmx4G flag on JVM9/11.

Running the Node

API Commands

/node/shutdown

Use the following command to safely shut down your node:

Safe Shutdown

curl -X POST "http://127.0.0.1:9053/node/shutdown" -H "api_key: hello"

If a safe shutdown is not possible, you can terminate the ports:

Force Kill Ports

kill -9 $(lsof -t -i:9053)
kill -9 $(lsof -t -i:9030)

Please refer to the section on swagger for more information.

Security

Your node should be protected by your router unless it's running on a publicly accessible web-server. If you wish to host a public node, consider the following:

The ergo.conf file must never be made public.
Sensitive API methods require a security token that should not be transmitted over untrusted channels.
Restrict access to the Ergo REST API to known hosts only. Specifically, the API should not be accessible from the Internet.

Compiling from Source

Instead of downloading the precompiled Ergo jar, you can clone the repository and compile the jar from source using the sbt assembly command.

Running as a Service

Create a service file:

Service File

vi /etc/systemd/system/node.service

And enter the following content:

Service Configuration

[Unit]
Description=ErgoNode Service
[Service]
User=user
WorkingDirectory=/mnt/HC_Volume_19304500/ergo
ExecStart=/mnt/HC_Volume_19304500/run_node.sh
SuccessExitStatus=143
TimeoutStopSec=10
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Next, create the sh file:

Run Script

echo "#!/bin/sh
sudo /usr/bin/java -jar -Xmx4G ergo.jar --mainnet -c ergo.conf" > run_node.sh
chmod +x run_node.sh

Finally, enable and start the service:

Enable Service

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable node.service
sudo systemctl start node
sudo systemctl status node