Setup a Node

Run a peaq validator node in Docker on a VM that meets the hardware requirements. Sync the chain history and upgrade a running node while keeping its volume.

Your machine has to match the node hardware requirements. The c5ad.xlarge instance from AWS is one machine type that satisfies them.

Run the node

1. Install Docker on your VM (how to install Docker on Ubuntu).
2. Create and run the container from the validator node image:

sudo docker run -d -v peaq-storage:/chain-data -p 127.0.0.1:9944:9944 peaq/parachain:peaq-v0.0.113 \
--collator \
--parachain-id 3338 \
--chain ./node/src/chain-specs/peaq-raw.json \
--base-path chain-data \
--port 30333 \
--rpc-port 9944 \
--rpc-methods=unsafe \
--unsafe-rpc-external \
--runtime-cache-size 64 \
--rpc-cors=all \
--out-peers 50 \
--in-peers 50 \
-- \
--port 30343 \
--sync fast \
--rpc-port 9977

The RPC port is bound to 127.0.0.1, so the unsafe RPC methods are only reachable from the VM itself. Never publish port 9944 to the internet while --rpc-methods=unsafe is set.

3. Wait until the node syncs with the chain’s block history. This takes a few hours, depending on your connection speed.

A fully synced node looks like this:

Upgrade a running node

1. Stop your Docker container, keeping the Docker volume.
2. Copy the command above.
3. If you already generated session keys, remove --unsafe-rpc-external and --rpc-methods=unsafe from it.
4. Run the updated image.