Node Setup¶

The following guide will help you get started running a nano node on the various network available. If you haven't already, reviewing both the overview and security pages of this running a node section is highly encouraged.

Overview and node lifecycle¶

The simplest process for setting up a node includes configuring a machine with the proper TCP port open to the internet for your chosen network and running a build of the node software you generated or which was published by the Nano Foundation. Beyond that there are various methods for monitoring, querying and integrating with the node for specific cases.

The lifecycle of a new node is helpful to understand at a high level, with plenty of additional detail to be discovered here in the documentation:

On startup the node will discover other nodes on the network through the peering process, becoming aware of and establishing connections to hundreds of them.
Before a new node can fully participate on the network, it must bootstrap the ledger from its peers by requesting chains of blocks starting from the genesis block up to more recent blocks.
As the ledger is built out the node works to gain consensus on blocks by requesting votes from representatives on the network - once enough voting weight is received for a block it is considered confirmed and unchangeable in the ledger.
Before the ledger is built out and blocks are confirmed, the node can be queried but may return partial data, and it will only participate in certain activities. Once the ledger is synced with the rest of the network and stays synced, it can fully participate.

In addition to the lifecycle details and processes mentioned above, it can be helpful to know the different between accounts, keys, seeds and wallet IDs in nano and how they are used. Also understanding the different blocks and transaction types is useful as you work with the node.

Choose a network¶

There are three networks the Nano Foundations published builds for:

Network name	Purpose	Do funds have value?
Test network	Used for basic integration testing, no load testing	No, test nano has no value
Main network	Primary network that exchanges and services integrate with	Yes
Beta network	Experimental network used to test new features and do load and performance testing	No, beta nano has no value

If you are just looking to try out and experiment with basic node setup, we recommend setting up on the test network first and then exploring the beta and main networks after.

At this point if you know which network you want to setup a node for, have a machine with the proper hardware specifications, understand how to manage ports and firewall settings on it and are comfortable with the maintenance requirements, you should be ready to get started!

Configure network ports¶

The node has a few configurable ports it may use throughout its lifecycle, but at a minimum the port for the live network and bootstrap traffic over TCP must be open to the internet for proper connectivity. The port numbers vary based on the network being joined:

Test networkMain networkBeta network

Port	Protocol	Required?	Purpose
17075	TCP	Yes, open to all traffic	For live network activity and bootstrap network activity.
17076	TCP	No, recommended	For communication with RPC server. Do not expose this outside of your production environment. Anyone with access to this port can control your node's RPC.
17077	TCP	No, optional	For communication via IPC (advanced). See IPC integration guide for more details.
17078	TCP	No, optional	For communication with websocket server. Depending on configuration, data throughput can be very high.

Port	Protocol	Required?	Purpose
7075	TCP	Yes, open to all traffic	For live network activity and bootstrap network activity.
7076	TCP	No, recommended	For communication with RPC server. Do not expose this outside of your production environment. Anyone with access to this port can control your node's RPC.
7077	TCP	No, optional	For communication via IPC (advanced). See IPC integration guide for more details.
7078	TCP	No, optional	For communication with websocket server. Depending on configuration, data throughput can be very high.

Port	Protocol	Required?	Purpose
54000	TCP	Yes, open to all traffic	For live network activity and bootstrap network activity.
55000	TCP	No, recommended	For communication with RPC server. Do not expose this outside of your production environment. Anyone with access to this port can control your node's RPC.
56000	TCP	No, optional	For communication via IPC (advanced). See IPC integration guide for more details.
57000	TCP	No, optional	For communication with websocket server. Depending on configuration, data throughput can be very high.

By default the node will attempt to use UPnP. Troubleshooting information can be found here

Get a build¶

There are three main options for nano node builds:

Generating your own build (advanced)
Using a binary build published by the Nano Foundation (see below)
Running a Docker container published by the Nano Foundation (see below)

Using Docker is recommended for most implementations due to the ease of upgrading and maintenance, so this guide will focus on setting up a node using that method. If you are not familiar with Docker, we recommend checkout out the official Docker documentation and other related resources to gain some knowledge before moving forward.

Docker Limitations

Although Docker is a great choice for many setups, it is not recommended to run a *nix container, such as the officially provided one, on a Windows host - there are known issues with handling ports which prevent proper communication with peers.

If planning to use ufw with Docker, note that you may need to prevent Docker from manipulating iptables to properly manage firewall settings.

Test networkMain networkBeta network

OS	Download link/command
Universal Linux	https://repo.nano.org/test/binaries/nano-node-V26.1-Linux.tar.bz2
Debian	https://repo.nano.org/test/binaries/nano-node-V26.1-Linux.deb
macOS	https://repo.nano.org/test/binaries/nano-node-V26.1-Darwin.dmg
Windows (exe)	https://repo.nano.org/test/binaries/nano-node-V26.1-win64.exe
Windows (zip)	https://repo.nano.org/test/binaries/nano-node-V26.1-win64.zip
Docker	`docker pull nanocurrency/nano-test:V26.1`
RHEL/RockyLinux rpm	Not available anymore. Please check Build Options for build instructions.

OS	Download link/command	Verification
Universal Linux	https://repo.nano.org/live/binaries/nano-node-V26.1-Linux.tar.bz2	SHA256 Checksum
Debian	https://repo.nano.org/live/binaries/nano-node-V26.1-Linux.deb	SHA256 Checksum
macOS	https://repo.nano.org/live/binaries/nano-node-V26.1-Darwin.dmg	SHA256 Checksum
Windows (exe)	https://repo.nano.org/live/binaries/nano-node-V26.1-win64.exe	SHA256 Checksum
Windows (zip)	https://repo.nano.org/live/binaries/nano-node-V26.1-win64.zip	SHA256 Checksum
Docker	`docker pull nanocurrency/nano:V26.1` See Pulling the Docker Image for more details.
RHEL/RockyLinux rpm	Not available anymore. Please check Build Options for build instructions.

Join the nano Discord server and head to the #beta-announcements channel for the latest build details.

Docker setup¶

Step 1: Install Docker¶

Docker must be installed on the host machine and instructions can be found here: https://docs.docker.com/install/. We recommend installing the latest stable version available.

Step 2: Pull the Docker Image¶

The Docker image can be downloaded via docker pull for a specific version/tag.

Test networkMain networkBeta network

docker pull nanocurrency/nano-test:V25.1

docker pull nanocurrency/nano:V25.1

docker pull nanocurrency/nano-beta:V25.1

Please see the Beta Network page if you plan to join this network.

Warning - Multiple Node Setups

Never use the same seed on multiple running nano node instances at the same time.

Multiple nano nodes using the same seed can result in network race conditions that degrade performance for your personal accounts.
In addition, publishing transactions from two nodes with the same account at the same time may cause an account fork which requires a slower representative voting process.
Similarly, if you are running a representative account on multiple nodes, they may publish conflicting votes, causing your representative to be ignored by the network.
Performance degradation in enterprise environments may be significant.

Step 3: Start the Node¶

The following command will start the node container. Either set the specified environment variables (i.e. NANO_NAME=nano_node_container) or substitute in explicit values to the docker run command.

${NANO_NAME} - The name that you would like to assign to the docker container, nano_node_container can be used to avoid ambiguity with the commands made to the nano_node process.

${NANO_TAG} - The version you will be running from the Docker tag section above (i.e. V25.1).

${NANO_HOST_DIR} - Location on the host computer where the ledger, configuration files, and logs will be stored. The Docker container will directly store files such as config-node.toml, config-rpc.toml and data.ldb into this directory.

Test networkMain networkBeta network

docker run --restart=unless-stopped -d \
  -p 17075:17075 \
  -p 127.0.0.1:17076:17076 \ # (1)
  -p 127.0.0.1:17078:17078 \ # (2)
  -v ${NANO_HOST_DIR}:/root \
  --name ${NANO_NAME} \
  nanocurrency/nano-test:${NANO_TAG}

Port 17076 is optional, but recommended, for querying via RPC
Port 17078 is optional for connecting via WebSockets

docker run --restart=unless-stopped -d \
  -p 7075:7075 \
  -p 127.0.0.1:7076:7076 \ # (1)
  -p 127.0.0.1:7078:7078 \ # (2)
  -v ${NANO_HOST_DIR}:/root \
  --name ${NANO_NAME} \
  nanocurrency/nano:${NANO_TAG}

Port 7076 is optional, but recommended, for querying via RPC
Port 7078 is optional for connecting via WebSockets

docker run --restart=unless-stopped -d \
  -p 54000:54000 \
  -p 127.0.0.1:55000:55000 \ # (1)
  -p 127.0.0.1:57000:57000 \ # (2)
  -v ${NANO_HOST_DIR}:/root \
  --name ${NANO_NAME} \
  nanocurrency/nano-beta:${NANO_TAG}

Port 55000 is optional, but recommended, for querying via RPC
Port 57000 is optional for connecting via WebSockets

See the Beta Network page for further details.

Tip

On some systems it may be necessary to replace 127.0.0.1 with IPv6 equivalent of [::1] when mapping Docker ports

Step 4: Check the logs¶

When the node starts up it will generate log files in the ${NANO_HOST_DIR} defined in the docker run command above. All lines will have a date and time prefix such as [2021-Jun-24 08:26:49.331844]:. Below are some common messages seen on startup with brief descriptions of their meanings. The date and time prefixes have been removed from examples below for simplicity.

Node starting, version: V25.1

Verify you are running the correct version
Appears at each startup to indicate version number

Build information: d91016b "Clang version " "12.0.0 (clang-1200.0.32.29)" "BOOST 107000" BUILT "Jun 21 2021"

Various build information starting with the abbreviated git hash of latest commit, Clang and BOOST version information and build date.

Database backend: LMDB 0.9.25

Database used for the backend - default LMDB but RocksDB can also be configured.

Active network: test

Verify you are running on the correct network
Indicates which of the three network (test, main, beta) the node is running on.

Work pool running 12 threads

Number of threads available for generating Proof of Work.

0 work peers configured

Work peers setup in the config-node.toml file, option node.work_peers. This is not required if doing local work generation, but is encouraged if planning to do large transaction volumes. See the work generation integration guide for further details.

Outbound Voting Bandwidth limited to 10485760 bytes per second, burst ratio 3

Bandwidth limit set in the config-node.toml file, options node.bandwidth_limit and node.bandwidth_limit_burst_ratio.

Node ID: node_1gh7ghwwquxp9kw7r3p5634p3n8goyf49a3xyzcnbykxge44gjjonmhexd6h

Ephemeral and unique node ID created on each startup and only used for network communications with other nodes. This is not a valid nano address (notice prefix of node_).

Starting legacy bootstrap attempt with ID auto_bootstrap_0
...
Exiting legacy bootstrap attempt with ID auto_bootstrap_0

Indicates attempts at starting bootstrap activities from other nodes on the network.

UPnP local address: 10.0.0.115, discovery: 0, IGD search: 1
UPNP_GetSpecificPortMappingEntry failed 714: NoSuchEntryInArray
UPnP leasing time getting old, remaining time: 0, lease time: 1787, below the threshold: 893
UPnP TCP 24.17.20.184:17075 mapped to 17075

Details of UPnP attempts at mapping ports. See UPnP troubleshooting for further details.

Found a representative at [::ffff:168.119.169.220]:17075

Indicates the IP address of a new representative discovered on the network.

Wallet unlocked

Certain activities performed by the node, including signing votes, requires unlocking the wallet during operation.

The above examples are subset of potential entries in logging.

Step 5: Query RPC¶

Once the node is up and running you can query via RPC. Below is a basic command example to return the block counts on the node and example responses. If you are unable to connect to the server, it may be worth trying IPv6 [::1] or localhost instead of http://127.0.0.1.

Test networkMain networkBeta network

Request

curl -d '{
  "action": "block_count"
}' http://127.0.0.1:17076

Response

{
    "count": "16599",
    "unchecked": "0",
    "cemented": "12456"
}

Request

curl -d '{
  "action": "block_count"
}' http://127.0.0.1:7076

Response

{
    "count": "122301952",
    "unchecked": "89",
    "cemented": "122301952"
}

Request

curl -d '{
  "action": "block_count"
}' http://127.0.0.1:55000

Response

{
    "count": "48983527",
    "unchecked": "0",
    "cemented": "48983527"
}

The count indicates how many blocks are in the ledger total (confirmed and unconfirmed). The unchecked is how many blocks have been downloaded but haven't been verified and inserted into the ledger. These unchecked blocks may or may not be valid and having a count here typically does not indicate any issue. The cemented count is how many blocks have been confirmed.

After your node has been running or a few minutes you should see the count increasing. The cemented will being increasing also as resources are available for the node to confirm blocks, but will go up at a slower rate.

Step 6: Monitor sync status¶

It is important to wait for your node to be synced with the network before attempting to setup a representative or send and receive transactions from a wallet it uses. In order to determine when the node should be able to carry out these activities you will want to use the above block_count RPC to see your local count and cemented values, and compare those to other nodes on the network.

The fastest way compare is using the 'telemetry' RPC. This will return average/median/mode values from all peers for each of the values nodes share with each other.

Test networkMain networkBeta network

Request

curl -d '{
  "action": "telemetry"
}' http://127.0.0.1:17076

Response

{
    "block_count": "16599",
    "cemented_count": "16599",
    "unchecked_count": "0",
    "account_count": "413",
    "bandwidth_cap": "10485760",
    "peer_count": "8",
    "protocol_version": "18",
    "uptime": "928162",
    "genesis_block": "B1D60C0B886B57401EF5A1DAA04340E53726AA6F4D706C085706F31BBD100CEE",
    "major_version": "22",
    "minor_version": "1",
    "patch_version": "0",
    "pre_release_version": "0",
    "maker": "0",
    "timestamp": "1624923328669",
    "active_difficulty": "ffffffe300000000"
}

Request

curl -d '{
  "action": "telemetry"
}' http://127.0.0.1:7076

Response

{
    "block_count": "122270697",
    "cemented_count": "122206279",
    "unchecked_count": "13045",
    "account_count": "25682295",
    "bandwidth_cap": "10485760",
    "peer_count": "266",
    "protocol_version": "18",
    "uptime": "1234166",
    "genesis_block": "991CF190094C00F0B68E2E5F75F6BEE95A2E0BD93CEAA4A6734DB9F19B728948",
    "major_version": "22",
    "minor_version": "1",
    "patch_version": "0",
    "pre_release_version": "0",
    "maker": "0",
    "timestamp": "1624924581283",
    "active_difficulty": "fffffff800000000"
}

Request

curl -d '{
  "action": "telemetry"
}' http://127.0.0.1:55000

Response

{
    "block_count": "48983527",
    "cemented_count": "48979917",
    "unchecked_count": "81",
    "account_count": "3701404",
    "bandwidth_cap": "10485760",
    "peer_count": "18",
    "protocol_version": "18",
    "uptime": "2186034",
    "genesis_block": "01A92459E69440D5C1088D3B31F4CA678BE944BAB3776C2E6B7665E9BD99BD5A",
    "major_version": "22",
    "minor_version": "1",
    "patch_version": "0",
    "pre_release_version": "1",
    "maker": "0",
    "timestamp": "1624924823965",
    "active_difficulty": "fffff00000000000"
}

Although the threshold for being synced can vary based on the level of network activity, typically if your node has count and cemented each within 1% of the network telemetry values, you can consider it in sync. In the example above from the test network the local node has 100% of count vs. other nodes, but only ~75% of cemented. This means it is still working to confirm all available blocks to get in sync.

This is a common situation when starting a new node, as it takes time to bootstrap all the blocks and confirm them. As you check the counts over time you should see them both getting closer to the 99% mark, although there may be interruptions in progress lasting minutes to hours or longer.

If your node stops making progress on syncing for over 24 hours, try connecting with the nano community for troubleshooting assistance on Discord or the Forum.

Next steps¶

Congratulations on getting your node setup and running! We'd recommend joining our mailing list to ensure you get all the latest updates about the protocol and node:

Technical Update Mailing List

Sign up for email updates on the latest protocol/node releases and other technical details including network upgrades.

Join Mailing List

Below are resources to help you take the next step to use your node to interact with and participate on the network:

Get a wallet setup with a seed and accounts
Learn more about managing the node in a Docker container
Update your node configuration options to enable various features
Start voting as a representative
Find out how to best manage your ledger file