Configure Node using Deployment Playbook

To run playbook you will need a user on the server with sudo privileges and who can be logged in via SSH public key. By default it is assumed that this user is called ubuntu. If you already have a user with different name who satisfies these requirements, at the top of site.yml in -hosts: all section change line user: ubuntu to the sudo user you have

---
- hosts: all
  user: ubuntu
  become: True
...

Playbook will additionally create a new unprivileged user named validator and add your ssh public key to root account.

1) Clone repository with ansible playbooks and checkout branch with the network name you want to join (e.g. core for mainnet and sokol for testnet)

git clone https://github.com/poanetwork/deployment-playbooks.git
cd deployment-playbooks
# for core mainnet
git checkout core
# OR for sokol testnet
git checkout sokol
# check that you ended up on a correct branch (look where the `*` is)
git branch

2) two files with ssh public key need to be created for ansible playbook to configure node correctly, use the path to your desired key.

cat ~/.ssh/id_poa-core.pub > files/admins.pub
cp files/admins.pub files/ssh_validator.pub

3) create configuration file

cat group_vars/all.network group_vars/validator.example > group_vars/all

4) edit the group_vars/all file and comment out parameters corresponding to aws:

#access_key
#secret_key
#awskeypair_name
#vpc_subnet_id

5) set values given to you by Master of Ceremony for the following parameters in group_vars/all:

• NODE_FULLNAME - your real name (will be visible to other members of the network)

• NODE_ADMIN_EMAIL - your public email address (will be visible to other members of the network)

• MINING_KEYFILE - insert content of your mining keystore json file. Resulting value should be enclosed in single quotes and look similar to this: MINING_KEYFILE: '{"address":"..."}'

• MINING_ADDRESS - insert your mining key address, e.g. MINING_ADDRESS: "0x..."

• MINING_KEYPASS - insert your mining key password

8) set values given to you by Master of Ceremony for the following parameters in group_vars/all:

• NETSTATS_SERVER

• NETSTATS_SECRET

9) set the following options as follows in group_vars/all:

allow_validator_ssh: true
allow_validator_p2p: true
associate_validator_elastic_ip: false

Double check that allow_validator_ssh is true otherwise you won't be able to connect to the node.

10) create file hosts with the server's ip address (e.g. 192.0.2.1):

[validator]
192.0.2.1

11) run ansible playbook, replace the --key-file path with your desired SSH key

ansible-playbook -i hosts site.yml -K --key-file "~/.ssh/id_poa-core"

12)open NETSTATS_SERVER url in the browser and check that the node named NODE_FULLNAME appeared in the list

13) Setup Metadata in Validators DApp

Sokol Only Instruction:

Skip this step if you are deploying your node to CORE network. You should not make your enode public as it will make your validator node an easy target for denial of service attacks.

If you are deploying on a testnet (sokol), follow the steps below: login to the node and get enode from parity logs:

Without access to root you can use sudo user instead, append sudo in front of commands after connecting to remote machine

ssh root@192.0.2.1
grep enode /home/validator/logs/parity.log

copy enode uri and send it to Master of Ceremony. If this line is not found, restart parity

systemctl restart poa-parity

and try again. If enode uri is still not found, use the commands below to restart all services.

NOTE if after parity restart you notice that on NETSTATS_SERVER url your node starts to fall behind other nodes (block number is less than on other nodes), try to restart statistics service (assuming you are connected as root):

su validator
pm2 restart all

after that refresh NETSTATS_SERVER url and check your node's block number. If your node is still not active or missing enode, log in to root account and reboot. Without access to root you can use sudo user instead, append sudo in front of commands after connecting to remote machine

su
shutdown -r now