Starting a block producing node

Starting a cardano block producing node as a systemd service

Starting a node in block producing node is similar to starting it in relay mode, with the difference that 3 extra parameters are required:

• the VRF signing key

• the KES signing key

• the operational certificate

These 3 files were creating during the stake pool registration process described in the Stake pool registration section above.

In addition to the folders created for the relay node, 2 extra folders will be required for the keys and certificates (actually they can be placed in the same folder, but I prefer keeping them in separate folders, keys and certs). Run as the cardano user:

mkdir ~/cardano-node ~/cardano-node/bin  ~/cardano-node/config ~/cardano-node/db ~/cardano-node/certs ~/cardano-node/keys

After downloading the configuration files to the ~/cardano-node/config folder, like in the previous section about starting a relay node, copy the operational certificate (node.cert) in the ~/cardano-node/certs folder and the kes.skey and vrf.skey to the ~/.cardano-node/keys folder.

Create the /etc/systemd/system/cardano-node.service file just like for a relay (as the cardano user), but create the /home/cardano/cardano-node/bin/startNode.sh with the following content:

cd ~/cardano-node/bin
cat >startNode.sh<<EOF
#!/bin/bash

DIRECTORY=/home/cardano/cardano-node
PORT=3001
HOSTADDR=0.0.0.0
TOPOLOGY=\${DIRECTORY}/config/topology.json
DB_PATH=\${DIRECTORY}/db
SOCKET_PATH=\${DIRECTORY}/db/node.socket
CONFIG=\${DIRECTORY}/config/config.json
KES=\${DIRECTORY}/keys/kes.skey
VRF=\${DIRECTORY}/keys/vrf.skey
CERT=\${DIRECTORY}/certs/node.cert
cardano-node +RTS -N -RTS run \\
--topology \${TOPOLOGY} \\
--database-path \${DB_PATH} \\
--socket-path \${SOCKET_PATH} \\
--host-addr \${HOSTADDR} \\
--port \${PORT} \\
--config \${CONFIG} \\
--shelley-kes-key \${KES} \\
--shelley-vrf-key \${VRF} \\
--shelley-operational-certificate \${CERT}
EOF
chmod 755 startNode.sh

The block producing node should only connect to the relay nodes of the same stake pool (to be able to sync the blockchain from them), and all the relays should also connect to the block producing node, to propagate the transactions to it and to propagate the blocks it mints to other relays in the network.

Starting the block producing node and watching the logs is similar as for the relay node. As root:

systemctl start cardano-node.service

journalctl -f -u cardano-node.service -n 50