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Manual Install#

This guide is for installing a full node on a server. If you want a full node on your desktop, try Satergo

Running the node#

Create a dedicated folder (such as ~/ergo) for running the node and download the latest Ergo client release .jar

Note that instead of downloading the precompiled Ergo jar, you can clone the repository and compile the jar from the source using SBT by issuing the sbt assembly command. Alternatively, you can also use Docker

Create a configuration file ergo.conf in the same directory as the .jar with the following text 

ergo {
    node {
        mining = false
    }
}

Then issue the following command to run the node for the first time.

java -jar -Xmx4G ergo-*.jar --mainnet -c ergo.conf

The -Xmx4G flag sets the max heap size for the JVM. 4-6G is recommended depending on your memory allocation. It is better to use more memory on heap-Xmx4g for initial syncing. -Xmx1g should be sufficient once the node is fully synced.

The node will start syncing immediately after this. Wait for a few minutes for the API to start and go to the next step.

Note: You can use any name for the file instead of ergo.conf. All configuration parameters are to be passed through this file and you only need to rewrite parameters that you want to change from the default values. The above config file actually has the default values.

Securing the API#

We need to set a secret password to protect the API. In this example, we'll use hello, but you must use a different and strong secret.**

Navigate 127.0.0.1:9053/swagger#/utils/hashBlake2b and call the API to compute the Blake2b hash of your secret.

Please note that 127.0.0.1 is your local machine and the .jar must be running for it to be available.

Compute Hash of secret

Copy the hash response, which we will place back in the ergo.conf file.

As you can see hello corresponds to the Blake2b hash 324dcf027dd4a30a932c441f365a25e86b173defa4b8e58948253471b81b72cf

response

We then need to update the config file with API key hash

    ergo {
      node {
        mining = false
      }
    }

    scorex {
     restApi {
        ## Hex-encoded Blake2b256 hash of an API key. 
        ## Should be 64-chars long Base16 string.
        ## below is the hash of the string 'hello'
        ## replace with your actual hash 
        apiKeyHash = "324dcf027dd4a30a932c441f365a25e86b173defa4b8e58948253471b81b72cf"
      }
    }

Restart and your node should now be syncing and you should be able to access the API.

Check if the node is synced#

While the node is syncing, the panel will show "Active synchronization" (see the image below).

active synchronization

After the node is fully synced, the text will change to "Node is synced", as shown below.

synced

You can also check this at 127.0.0.1:9053/info and compare to the latest block height given at explorer.ergoplatform.com

Shutdown#

To safely shut down the node, use the following command

curl -X POST "http://127.0.0.1:9053/node/shutdown" -H "api_key: hello"

Running this command in a new terminal will let you spot any errors or warnings. 

tail -Fn+0 ergo.log | grep 'ERROR\|WARN'

Next up, initialising your wallet

Resources#