Setting up a Telos Block Producer Node

Run Nodeos

nodeos generally runs in 2 modes:

A. Producing/Active mode

Producing Validator Nodes are configured for block production. They connect to the peer-to-peer (p2p) network and actively produce new blocks. Loose transactions are also validated and relayed. On mainnet, Producing Validator Nodes only produce blocks if their assigned block producer is part of an active schedule.

NOTE: System contracts required - These instructions assume you want to launch a producing validator node on a network with system contracts loaded. These instructions will not work on a default development node using native functionality, or one without system contracts loaded.

Goal

This section describes how to set up a producing node within the Telos network. A producing node, as its name implies, is a node that is configured to produce blocks on the Telos blockchain. This functionality is provided through the producer_plugin as well as other Nodeos Plugins.

nodeos plugins

Plugins extend the core functionality implemented in nodeos. Some plugins are mandatory, such as chain_plugin, net_plugin, and producer_plugin, which reflect the modular design of nodeos. The other plugins are optional as they provide nice-to-have features, but are non-essential for the node's operation.
The list of specific plugins is as follows:
- blockvault_client_plugin
- chain_api_plugin
- chain_plugin
- db_size_api_plugin
- history_api_plugin
- history_plugin
- http_client_plugin
- http_plugin
- login_plugin
- net_api_plugin
- net_plugin
- producer_plugin
- state_history_plugin
- trace_api_plugin
- txn_test_gen_plugin

Nodeos is modular: Plugins add incremental functionality to nodeos. Unlike runtime plugins, nodeos plugins are built at compile-time.

Pre-requisites

Install the Leap software before starting this section.
It is assumed that nodeos, cleos, and keosd are accessible through the path. If you built Leap using shell scripts, make sure to run the Install Script.
Know how to pass Nodeos options to enable or disable functionality.

Steps

Please follow the steps below to set up a producing node:

Local Wallet
Create your bp.json for your Telos validator
Register your account as a producing validator
Set Producer Name
Set the Producer's signature-provider
Define a peer list
Load the Required Plugins

1. Local Wallet

a. Create Telos Wallet locally. Record the password and keep secure.

cleos wallet create -n <wallet_name> --to-console
<!-- OR -->
cleos wallet create -n <wallet_name> --file <filename_with_extension>

b. Unlock EOS Wallet. Paste your wallet password

cleos wallet unlock -n <wallet_name> --password <wallet_password>

c. Account creation:

M-1: Use services like Telos account creator to create your account.
M-2: Using CLI

cleos -u <api_endpoint> system newaccount --stake-net <telos_net_amount> --stake-cpu <telos_cpu_amount> --buy-ram-kbytes <telos_ram_amount> <telos_existing_account_name> <telos_existing_account_name> <owner-publickey> <active-publickey>

d. Load new account private key into your wallet

cleos wallet import -n <wallet_name> <privkey>

2. Create your bp.json for your Telos validator

This will be used by voting portals and websites to identify validators. The bp.json contains location info for your Block Validator, nodes, and also contains other identifiable information such as your Block Producer public key.

For instance, http://yourwebsite.com/bp.json When you register your validator, the URL field should be filled with http://yourwebsite.com. Do not put the bp.json file in the URL.

For instance, for Aloha, the bp.json is located at https://www.alohaeos.com/bp.json, the URL to locate this will be https://www.alohaeos.com.

Template for the standard bp_info.json format for the EOS Mainnet.
You can find most Validator's bp.json on their websites.
Please conform to the JSON format standard.
Here is an excellent JSON validator.

3. Register your account as a producing validator

In order for your account to be eligible as a producing validator, you will need to register the account as a producing validator:

<!-- cleos -u <api_endpoint> system regproducer <producer_account_name> <producer_signature_public_key> <producer_website> <producer-geo-location> -->
cleos -u http://api.main.alohaeos.com system regproducer alohaeosprod EOS87wJkSDXLDVVoJUaBYd4tjg8F8chMWY5nPo8Mb5F919TpbjJvz https://www.alohaeos.com Honolulu

NOTE: separate key pair used only for signing blocks and can not perform any other operation.

If you currently have your active key listed in your config.ini for signing blocks — you need to stop it and replace it with a separate Signature key

Just follow this in order to replace the existing active (or insecure key) with a separate signature key

Create a new key pair using cleos create key --to-console
Replace the signature provider record in your config.ini with the new key: signature-provider = EOS-SIGNATURE-PUBLIC-KEY=KEY:SIGNATURE-PRIVATE-KEY
Call regproducer command with the new signature key: cleos system regproducer [PRODUCER-NAME] [EOS-SIGNATURE-PUBLIC-KEY] {PRODUCER_URL] [COUNTRY_CODE]

4. Set Producer Name

Set the validator_name option in config.ini to your account, as follows:

# config.ini:

# ID of producer controlled by this node (e.g. inita; may specify multiple times) (eosio::producer_plugin)
producer-name = alohaeosprod

5. Set the Producer's signature-provider

You will need to set the separate private key for your validator. The public key should have an authority for the validator account defined above.

signature-provider is defined with a 3-field tuple:

public-key - A valid EOSIO public key in form of a string.
provider-spec - It's a string formatted like :
provider-type - KEY or KEOSD

Using a Key:

# config.ini:

signature-provider = PUBLIC_SIGNING_KEY=KEY:PRIVATE_SIGNING_KEY

//Example
//signature-provider = EOS51PsUQXRKphEBPBP8iH8ZRGNvyqJ13hbR8yXGSPKEf5TQH27TF=KEY:5KgV1HsxEm3qKYdLaUgpdZvJcAV2AA7zVDJYBL7nVoE4mdcqQR1

Using Keosd:

# config.ini:

signature-provider = KEOSD:<data>   

//Example
//EOS51PsUQXRKphEBPBP8iH8ZRGNvyqJ13hbR8yXGSPKEf5TQH27TF=KEOSD:https://127.0.0.1:88888

6. Define a peers list

# config.ini:

# Default p2p port is 9876
p2p-peer-address = 195.201.82.181:9876
p2p-peer-address = 47.52.71.18:9876
p2p-peer-address = 207.180.220.203:9876
p2p-peer-address = 149.28.254.141:9876
p2p-peer-address = p2p-telos.blckchnd.com:19876
p2p-peer-address = p2p.blindblocart.io:9877
p2p-peer-address = telos.caleos.io:9880
p2p-peer-address = p2p.telos.cryptosuvi.io:2222

For more, visit here for Telos Mainnet & Telos Testnet

7. Load the Required Plugins

In your config.ini, confirm the following plugins are loading or append them if necessary.

# config.ini:

plugin = eosio::chain_plugin
plugin = eosio::producer_plugin

B. Non-Producing or Standby mode

Non-Producing Validator Nodes connect to the peer-to-peer (p2p) network but do not actively produce new blocks; they are useful for acting as proxy nodes, relaying API calls, validating transactions, broadcasting information to other nodes, etc. Non-Producing Validator Nodes are also useful for monitoring the blockchain state.

Goal

This section describes how to set up a non-producing validator node within the Telos network. A non-producing validator node is a node that is not configured to produce blocks, instead, it is connected and synchronized with other peers from the Telos blockchain, exposing one or more services publicly or privately by enabling one or more Nodeos Plugins, except the producer_plugin.

Pre-requisites

Install the EOSIO software before starting this section.
It is assumed that nodeos, cleos, and keosd are accessible through the path. If you built Leap using shell scripts, make sure to run the Install Script.
Know how to pass Nodeos options to enable or disable functionality.

Steps

Please follow the steps below to set up a non-producing node:

Set Peers
Enable one or more available plugins

1. Set Peers

You need to set some peers in your config ini, for example:

# config.ini:

# Default p2p port is 9876
p2p-peer-address = 195.201.82.181:9876
p2p-peer-address = 47.52.71.18:9876
p2p-peer-address = 207.180.220.203:9876
p2p-peer-address = 149.28.254.141:9876
p2p-peer-address = p2p-telos.blckchnd.com:19876
p2p-peer-address = p2p.blindblocart.io:9877
p2p-peer-address = telos.caleos.io:9880
p2p-peer-address = p2p.telos.cryptosuvi.io:2222

For more, visit here for Telos Mainnet & Telos Testnet

Or you can include the peer in as a boot flag when running nodeos, as follows:

nodeos ... --p2p-peer-address=106.10.42.238:9876

2. Enable one or more available plugins

Each available plugin is listed and detailed in the Nodeos Plugins section. When nodeos starts, it will expose the functionality provided by the enabled plugins it was started with. For example, if you start nodeos with state_history_plugin enabled, you will have a non-producing node that offers full blockchain history. If you start nodeos with http_plugin enabled, you will have a non-producing node which exposes the Telos RPC API. Therefore, you can extend the basic functionality provided by a non-producing node by enabling any number of existing plugins on top of it. Another aspect to consider is that some plugins have dependencies to other plugins. Therefore, you need to satisfy all dependencies for a plugin in order to enable it.

Configuration Files

Mainnet

genesis.json

{
 "initial_key": "EOS52vfcN43YHHU8Akh7VyfBdnDiMg15dPTELosWG9SR86ssBoU1T",
 "initial_configuration": {
   "max_transaction_delay": 3888000,
   "min_transaction_cpu_usage": 100,
   "net_usage_leeway": 500,
   "context_free_discount_net_usage_den": 100,
   "max_transaction_net_usage": 524288,
   "context_free_discount_net_usage_num": 20,
   "max_transaction_lifetime": 3600,
   "deferred_trx_expiration_window": 600,
   "max_authority_depth": 6,
   "max_transaction_cpu_usage": 5000000,
   "max_block_net_usage": 1048576,
   "target_block_net_usage_pct": 1000,
   "max_generated_transaction_count": 16,
   "max_inline_action_size": 4096,
   "target_block_cpu_usage_pct": 1000,
   "base_per_transaction_net_usage": 12,
   "max_block_cpu_usage": 50000000,
   "max_inline_action_depth": 4
 },
 "initial_timestamp": "2018-12-12T10:29:00.000"
}

config.ini

###### producer plugin options - enable if running producer node
plugin = eosio::producer_plugin
## sig provider keys should match the key on your producer-name
signature-provider = <pubkey>=KEY:<privkey>
producer-name = <your unique telos account name>

## additional producer plugin options can be left default
max-transaction-time = 10000
max-irreversible-block-age = -1
abi-serializer-max-time-ms = 2000
enable-stale-production = true
pause-on-startup = false

###### chain plugin options
plugin = eosio::chain_plugin
wasm-runtime = wabt
reversible-blocks-db-size-mb = 340
contracts-console = false
## set chain-state-db-size-mb to equal the size of your RAM
chain-state-db-size-mb = 98304

###### http plugin options
plugin = eosio::http_plugin
http-server-address = 0.0.0.0:1880
access-control-allow-origin = *
access-control-allow-credentials = false
https-client-validate-peers = 1 
verbose-http-errors = true
http-validate-host = 0
## enable if using https
# https-server-address = 0.0.0.0:443
# https-certificate-chain-file

# nodeos general config
p2p-server-address = 0.0.0.0:9876
p2p-listen-endpoint = 0.0.0.0:9876
p2p-max-nodes-per-host = 1
max-clients = 250
connection-cleanup-period = 30
sync-fetch-span = 100
txn-reference-block-lag = 0
allowed-connection = any
agent-name = bensigcoolconfig

###### additional plugins
plugin = eosio::chain_api_plugin
plugin = eosio::history_plugin

###### p2p peer address
p2p-peer-address = 159.69.63.222:7776
p2p-peer-address = 109.237.25.217:3876
p2p-peer-address = testnet.telos.caleos.io:9879
p2p-peer-address = p2p.testnet.telos.eosdetroit.io:1337
p2p-peer-address = telosafrique.eosnairobi.io:9376
p2p-peer-address = telos.eosbcn.com:9876
p2p-peer-address = testnet.telos.eosindex.io:9876

Testnet

genesis.json

{
"initial_key": "EOS7xyPWfh6743fhZ46zQQcXSctddoqG65d44YsyRnCJCs54mJLrH",
"initial_configuration": {
   "max_block_net_usage": 1048576,
   "target_block_net_usage_pct": 1000,
   "max_transaction_net_usage": 524288,
   "base_per_transaction_net_usage": 12,
   "net_usage_leeway": 500,
   "context_free_discount_net_usage_num": 20,
   "context_free_discount_net_usage_den": 100,
   "max_block_cpu_usage": 5000000,
   "target_block_cpu_usage_pct": 1000,
   "max_transaction_cpu_usage": 150000,
   "min_transaction_cpu_usage": 100,
   "max_transaction_lifetime": 3600,
   "deferred_trx_expiration_window": 600,
   "max_transaction_delay": 3888000,
   "max_inline_action_size": 4096,
   "max_inline_action_depth": 4,
   "max_authority_depth": 6
 },
"initial_timestamp": "2019–08–07T12:00:00.000"
}

config.ini

###### producer plugin options - enable if running producer node
plugin = eosio::producer_plugin
## sig provider keys should match the key on your producer-name
signature-provider = <pubkey>=KEY:<privkey>
producer-name = <your unique telos account name>

## additional producer plugin options can be left default
max-transaction-time = 10000
max-irreversible-block-age = -1
abi-serializer-max-time-ms = 2000
enable-stale-production = true
pause-on-startup = false

###### chain plugin options
plugin = eosio::chain_plugin
wasm-runtime = wabt
reversible-blocks-db-size-mb = 340
contracts-console = false
## set chain-state-db-size-mb to equal the size of your RAM
chain-state-db-size-mb = 98304

###### http plugin options
plugin = eosio::http_plugin
http-server-address = 0.0.0.0:1880
access-control-allow-origin = *
access-control-allow-credentials = false
https-client-validate-peers = 1 
verbose-http-errors = true
http-validate-host = 0
## enable if using https
# https-server-address = 0.0.0.0:443
# https-certificate-chain-file

# nodeos general config
p2p-server-address = 0.0.0.0:9876
p2p-listen-endpoint = 0.0.0.0:9876
p2p-max-nodes-per-host = 1
max-clients = 250
connection-cleanup-period = 30
sync-fetch-span = 100
txn-reference-block-lag = 0
allowed-connection = any
agent-name = bensigcoolconfig

###### additional plugins
plugin = eosio::chain_api_plugin
plugin = eosio::history_plugin

###### p2p peer address
p2p-peer-address=testnet2.telos.eosusa.news:59877
p2p-peer-address=node1.testnet2.telosglobal.io:9876
p2p-peer-address=node2.testnet2.telosglobal.io:9876
p2p-peer-address=basho.eos.barcelona:9899
p2p-peer-address=sslapi.teloscentral.com:9875
p2p-peer-address=145.239.133.188:5566
p2p-peer-address=testnet.telos.eclipse24.io:6789
p2p-peer-address=testnet2.telos.eosdetroit.io:1337
p2p-peer-address=basho-p2p.telosuk.io:19876
p2p-peer-address=telos-testnet.atticlab.net:7876
p2p-peer-address=testnet.eossweden.eu:8022
p2p-peer-address=testnet.telos.cryptosuvi.io:2223
p2p-peer-address=nickfury.tlos.goodblock.io:9876
p2p-peer-address=telosapi.eosmetal.io:59877
p2p-peer-address=207.148.6.75:9877
p2p-peer-address=p2p.testnet.telosgermany.io
p2p-peer-address=176.9.86.214:9877
p2p-peer-address=telos-testnet-b.eosphere.io:9876
p2p-peer-address=testnet.telos.africa:9875
p2p-peer-address=p2p.testnet.telosgreen.com:9876
p2p-peer-address=testnet2p2p.telosarabia.net:9876
p2p-peer-address=peer.tlostest.alohaeos.com:9876
p2p-peer-address=157.230.29.117:9876

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q. How does a Validator create a new account on Telos Blockchain?

A. There are 2 ways to create an account on Telos Blockchain:

a. Telos account creator b. Using CLEOS

Q. What is the difference between Telos Mainnet and Testnet?

A. The differences are as follows:

a. The mainnet of a blockchain launches when the protocol is fully developed and is the network where the project's functionalities, such as transactions with the native tokens, are carried out. Here is where transactions are being broadcasted, verified, and recorded on a distributed ledger technology. Whereas the testnet is a safe, separate network where developers carry out tests in the code without risking the main blockchain. The Telos Testnets are a sandbox for testing newly implemented features, finding bugs within the network and developing DApps. a. Testnet is for testing code updates, other functionalities, bug identification, new projects and program development, among many other uses. b. People associate a testnet with the initial developing of a blockchain where all the codes run, and we test everything before the final deployment of the protocol to the mainnet. c. the Telos testnets have one prominent advantage over the other testnets: it is a duplicate of the mainnet so it includes all its smart contracts and functionalities in the testnets. Because of this, developers and BPs obtain complete, accurate results when they run their tests, while reducing the work they have to do before running them. e. Testnet is designed to be as close to the code/features of the Telos Mainnet, with exception to any new innovations being tested in preparation for deployment on Mainnet.

Q. When a new upgrade or anything different will be tested before launch, what test strategies the Telos Validators follow?

A. Telos Validators follow a 4-tier test strategy, as it allows “to properly test/vet things at each respective level, and as it progresses through the tiers, additional testing/testers stress-test the system until its final deployment to the Telos Mainnet.” The stages are:

Internal Dev Testing: closed-loop testing of all code changes before presenting to any public tier.
Stagenet Testing: initial selected access, testing ran dedicated nodes.
Testnet Testing: this is where most public testing of features will occur before completing deployment to Mainnet. Code changes/activation at this level require 15/21 approval of the Testnet BPs.
Mainnet Deployment: once all testing has been completed, a deployment date agreed upon, a 15/21 BP approval is needed to activate all code changes/features on the Mainnet.