Hive Witness Setup Guide : HIAB Version 1.27.4 [ SELF HOSTED VERSION ]
Published on HivePostify by @crypt0gnome · Fri Jul 14 2023
Hello Hivers!
If you did not see my last post i recently started self hosting a [witness node](https://vote.hive.uno/@crypt0gnome) at home and have had a bunch of questions around what I used, specs, and other stuff. I really think more would do this if they knew it was pretty simple to do but does take some basic knowledge of Linux & a bit of spare time.
First of I want to thank the community members that have taken tons of time to put resources out there and there are some similar posts that are out there. I am doing another one that I can maintain and help get something recent out.
Thank you to these great people for answering questions and making great guides & software: @someguy123 @rishi556 @hivetrending @deathwing @acidyo
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If you want to support the upkeep of this post please consider voting for my witness node: https://vote.hive.uno/@crypt0gnome
the gEar ---
My setup is pretty simple, I am using an old gaming PC and it is connected to a UPS so that if there is a power/internet failure it has some time to write to the disk and prevent disk write errors. I am also running a 1GB connection but I would think a stable connection with around 200-400MB is probably fine to handle this and all your other network traffic in the house.
coRe hArdwAre sPecs: - [Intel Core i7-13700KF - Core i7 13th Gen Raptor Lake 16-Core](https://amzn.to/3rumX4U) - [Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 32GB (2x16GB)](https://amzn.to/3ro3Ysx) - [SAMSUNG 970 EVO Plus SSD 1TB NVMe M.2 Internal Solid State Hard Drive](https://amzn.to/3pMOn5s)
You could use any other motherboard, case, power supply, and on board graphics as they are not needed to run this.
soFtwAre I am going to suggest running the latest version of Ubuntu Server LTS 22.04 LTS this will make sure you are compatible with the packages and the current version of HIAB. https://ubuntu.com/download/server
After the setup is complete do a quick update to make sure linux is up to date:
sudo apt-get update -y sudo apt-get upgrade -y sudo apt-get install git -y sudo apt-get install screen -y
settiNg uP HIAB
Clone the repo here: https://github.com/someguy123/hive-docker
git clone https://github.com/someguy123/hive-docker.git
Install docker
cd hive-docker ./run.sh installdocker
grab the latest version of the witness docker image
./run.sh install
time to start the node
./run.sh start
Creating Witness Keys While it is possible to reuse existing keys, it is strongly advised to create new ones specifically for signing blocks. To accomplish this, we utilize the cliwallet tool.
./run.sh wallet
Please use the setpassword method to initialize a new wallet before continuing it will give you a prompt like this type the following after: new >>>
new >> setpassword passwordhere
To set your password, use the command "setpassword" followed by your desired password. Make sure to remember this password as it will be required to unlock the wallet later on. After setting the password, you can proceed to unlock your wallet. To unlock, simply enter "unlock" followed by the password you set, like this:
unlock passwordhere
Once your wallet is unlocked, you can utilize the command "suggestbrainkey" to generate a public-private keypair. It is crucial to save this keypair as you will need it in the future.
Now you are ready to config, hit CTRL-Dto back back out to the terminal prompt.
Witness Config
set the shared memory size
./run.sh shmsize 32G
edit the config
nano data/witnessnodedatadir/config.ini
Update the fields in the image using the Hive account you would like to be a witness and the private key from the Brain wifprivkey we created earlier.
witness = yourhivenamehere
private-key = brainwalletprivatekey
SYNC & WAIT this part can take some time 24-48 hours and will require you to check in from time to time, your node should already be running sense we started it earlier but there are two commands in linux you will use often to check on it.
to check/watch node in Realtime
./run.sh logs
if the node is no longer syncing you can check the monitor by using this command
./run.sh monitor
you can also stop/start the node if needed
./run.sh stop
./run.sh start
Enable Witness Broadcast
Once you see the blocks going up one at a time like above that means you are fully synced and can enable as a witness.
Open the wallet
./run.sh wallet
Tags: #witness#hive#hive-witness#hive-devs