Intermediate

How to Run a persistent baking node.

Welcome to our tutorial on how to run a persistent baking node on the Tezos blockchain network. In this tutorial, we will cover the process of setting up and running a persistent baking node, which is responsible for creating and validating new blocks on the Tezos blockchain. We will explore the process of setting up a baking node, configuring it, and maintaining it to ensure optimal performance and security.

By the end of this tutorial, you will have the knowledge and hands-on experience needed to set up and run a persistent baking node on the Tezos blockchain. You will also learn how to troubleshoot and diagnose issues with your baking node, and how to monitor its performance. This tutorial is ideal for developers, researchers, and anyone interested in participating in the Tezos blockchain by running a baking node and earning rewards for their participation.

Want to make your baking infrastructure more resilient to electricity and internet cut-offs? Let’s use Linux service files to keep those Tezos binaries running.

The following tutorial deep dives into the subject and shows how to create persistent Tezos services.

Running Tezos binaries as services​

One advantage of setting up the node and baker daemons as services is that it can automatically relaunch the daemons if they stop working, or when the machine restarts. No additional action is needed from the user side.

(Note that systems relying on a Ledger hardware wallet will need to have the PIN input again after a power failure. In these cases only using a UPS can ensure a truly persistent system.)

Systemd is a set of system software components necessary for Linux operation. In particular, it exposes a set of daemons: systemd, journald, networkd, and logind. For each system, a set of utilities and commands are available to the user like systemctl, journalctl, loginctl, etc. In our case, we will take advantage of this powerful Linux tool to build Tezos binaries that keep running over time.

Pre-requisites: Install and compile the Tezos Octez suite from scratch (the same approach works with Ubuntu PPA installation, but the .service files need to be adapted). It is also possible to use service files otherwise, but we will only cover the From scratch approach in this tutorial.

Creation of the Octez Tezos node service​

Create the following file (named tezos-node.service) in /etc/systemd/system/.

# The Tezos Node service (part of systemd)
# file: /etc/systemd/system/tezos-node.service 
​
[Unit]
Description     = Tezos Node Service
Documentation   = http://tezos.gitlab.io/
Wants           = network-online.target
After           = network-online.target
​
[Service]
User            = <user> 
Group           = <user>
WorkingDirectory= /home/<user>/tezos/
ExecStart       = /home/<user>/tezos/octez-node run --rpc-addr 127.0.0.1:8732 --data-dir ~/.tezos-node
Restart         = on-failure
​
[Install]
WantedBy        = multi-user.target
RequiredBy      = tezos-baker.service tezos-accuser.service

Creation of the baker service​

Create the following file (named tezos-baker.service) in /etc/systemd/system/.

# The Tezos Baker service (part of systemd)
# file: /etc/systemd/system/tezos-baker.service 
​
[Unit]
Description     = Tezos baker Service
Documentation   = http://tezos.gitlab.io/
Wants           = network-online.target
Requires        = tezos-node.service
​
[Service]
User            = <user>
Group           = <user>
Environment     = "TEZOS_LOG=* -> debug"
WorkingDirectory= /home/<user>/tezos/
ExecStart       = /home/<user>/tezos/octez-baker-015-PtLimaPt --endpoint http://127.0.0.1:8732 run with local node /home/<user>/.tezos-node --liquidity-baking-toggle-vote <vote>
Restart         = on-failure
​
[Install]
WantedBy        = multi-user.target

Creation of the accuser service​

Create the following file (named tezos-accuser.service) in /etc/systemd/system/.

# The Tezos Accuser service (part of systemd)
# file: /etc/systemd/system/tezos-accuser.service 
​
[Unit]
Description     = Tezos accuser Service
Documentation   = http://tezos.gitlab.io/
Wants           = network-online.target
Requires        = tezos-node.service
​
[Service]
User            = <user>
Group           = <user>
WorkingDirectory= /home/<user>/tezos/
ExecStart       = /home/<user>/tezos/octez-accuser-015-PtLimaPt --endpoint http://127.0.0.1:8732 run 
Restart         = on-failure
​
[Install]
WantedBy        = multi-user.target

Enable and start service files​

Once tezos-node.service, tezos-baker.service, and tezos-accuser.service are created, continue with these steps:

1. Enable the services using: sudo systemctl enable tezos-node.service tezos-baker.service tezos-accuser.service

2. Finally, start the services using: sudo systemctl start tezos-node.service tezos-baker.service tezos-accuser.service

Useful commands​

Monitor your services​

sudo systemctl status tezos-node.service tezos-baker.service tezos-accuser.service

Stop your services​

sudo systemctl stop tezos-node.service tezos-baker.service tezos-accuser.service

Reload or restart a service​

sudo systemctl reload-or-restart tezos-*.service (* being node, baker, or accuser)

Displaying service logs​

When launching node, baker, and accuser services, we ideally want to be able to leanly monitor the behavior of the daemons by keeping track of their logs. Using services has the advantage of being able to rely on journalctl to handle and organize logs for you – including rotating logs so that they don’t take a lot of space (verbose modes can get large quite quickly).

Moreover, journalctl support querying and exporting concrete snapshots of the logs. Here follow a few examples on how to use --since and --until to refine the logs around particular time windows.

Follow live the logs of the node/baker/accuser services​

journalctl --follow --unit=tezos-node.service journalctl --follow --unit=tezos-baker.service journalctl --follow --unit=tezos-accuser.service

Export node logs since yesterday​

journalctl --follow --unit=tezos-node.service --since yesterday

Export baker logs since 8 am today​

journalctl --follow --unit=tezos-baker.service --since 08:00

Export node logs since a week ago until one hour ago​

journalctl --follow --unit=tezos-node.service --since "1 week ago" --until "1 hour ago"

Export baker logs between two specific timestamps​

journalctl --follow --unit=tezos-baker.service --since "2022-05-09 00:00:00" --until "2022-05-09 00:00:02"

Export interleaved node/baker/accuser logs around a specific window​

journalctl --follow --unit=tezos-*.service --since "2 minutes ago" --until "60 seconds ago"

Running a remote signer as a service​

To secure their baking infrastructure, some bakers use a remote signer. This setup consists in:

• Running the node and baker on a first machine, e.g. a remote node running on a VPS in the cloud.

• Storing the key on a second machine, typically a local system (perhaps using a Ledger/HSM), and running a signing daemon to perform signing operations requested by the remote node running on the first machine.

Setup a remote signer using a .service file​

Prerequisites:

First make sure you have setup a remote machine on which your node will be running, and a “home” machine on which your baking keys will be stored (or that is connected to a Ledger/HSM).

Setup the remote signer following the procedure here.

On the home machine, create and launch the following service:

# The Tezos Signer service (part of systemd)
# file: /etc/systemd/system/tezos-signer.service 
​
[Unit]
Description     = Tezos Signer Service
Documentation   = http://tezos.gitlab.io/
Wants           = network-online.target
Requires        = tezos-node.service
​
[Service]
User            = <user>
Group           = <user>
WorkingDirectory= /home/<user>/tezos/
ExecStart       = /home/<user>/tezos/octez-signer launch http signer
Restart         = on-failure
​
[Install]
WantedBy        = multi-user.target