How to setup a Q Fullnode

Setup your Server

You must prepare your server / machine to begin. One possibility is to use a local machine, alternatively you can use a cloud instance on AWS for example. There is a good external tutorial on how to get started with Ethereum on AWS. You can use this tutorial as a basic reference.

Get basic Configuration

Clone the repository

Linux, macOS, other Unix-like systems:

git clone https://gitlab.com/q-dev/testnet-public-tools

Windows (if you don't have git installed):

# Download the contents of the Git repository
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://gitlab.com/q-dev/testnet-public-tools/-/archive/master/testnet-public-tools-master.zip -OutFile testnet-public-tools-master.zip

# Extract the contents of the ZIP file
Expand-Archive -Path testnet-public-tools-master.zip -DestinationPath .

# Remove the ZIP file
Remove-Item -Path testnet-public-tools-master.zip

and go to the /testnet-fullnode directory

Linux, macOS, other Unix-like systems:

cd testnet-public-tools/testnet-fullnode

Windows:

Set-Location -Path "testnet-public-tools\testnet-fullnode"

This directory contains the docker-compose.yaml file for quick launching of the full node with preconfigurations on rpc, blockchain explorer using .env (which can be created from .env.example).

Configure Ports

Choose ports (or leave default values) for node rpc api and blockchain explorer by copying .env.example to .env and editing the file.

Linux, macOS, other Unix-like systems:

cp .env.example .env
nano .env

Windows:

# This will copy the .env.example file to a new file named .env.
Copy-Item -Path ".\env.example" -Destination ".\env"

#This will open the .env file in Notepad for editing. If you prefer to use a different text editor, replace notepad.exe with the appropriate command for your editor.
notepad.exe .\env

Choose ports (or leave default values) for node RPC API and blockchain explorer by editing the .env file.

EXT_PORT=<rpc port>
EXPLORER_PORT=<blockchain explorer port>

Launch Node

Launch the node by executing the following command from /testnet-fullnode directory:

docker-compose up -d

Verify your Installation

After node is launched, it starts syncing with network.

The setup includes a local blockchain explorer. You can browse blocks, transactions and accounts via your browser by opening the url http://localhost:PORT where PORT is the number you chose above for EXPLORER_PORT, e.g. http://localhost:8080

You can check your nodes real-time logs with the following command:

docker-compose logs -f --tail "100"

Find additional peers

In case your client can't connect with the default configuration, we recommend that you add an additional flag referring to one of our additional peers ($BOOTNODE1_ADDR, $BOOTNODE2_ADDRor $BOOTNODE3_ADDR) within docker-compose.yaml file:

testnet-fullnode:
  image: $QCLIENT_IMAGE
  entrypoint: ["geth", "--bootnodes=$BOOTNODE1_ADDR,$BOOTNODE2_ADDR,$BOOTNODE3_ADDR", "--datadir=/data", ...]

Updating Q-Client & Docker Images

To upgrade the node follow the instructions Upgrade Node