By choosing to participate in the Casper Test Net, you acknowledge that you have reviewed and will abide by the Test Net Code of Conduct and Incentive Requirements. Failure to do so may reduce or fully disqualify any Test Net incentive participation.
Before you set up your node, make sure it conforms to the minimum Recommended Hardware Specifications
Do not execute all the commands below as
root.sudois included where it is required.Do not create or use the username
casper. It will be automatically created during the installation, and is meant to be used by the node software as a no-login user.Expect that initial setup of a node will take about 15-20 minutes, and you will need to wait for a few hours for the node to sync before bonding it to the network.
In your firewall set-up, make sure you expose the following ports to public and that they're routed to your node:
7777- rpc port8888- status port9999- event stream port35000- gossip port
Before beginning, update the maximum open files limit for your system. Specifically, update the node's /etc/security/limits.conf file as described below, to ensure proper node operation.
Add the following row to the bottom of the /etc/security/limits.conf file:
casper hard nofile 64000
And make sure the bottom part of the file contents looks similar to what is seen below:
#* soft core 0
#root hard core 100000
#* hard rss 10000
#@student hard nproc 20
#@faculty soft nproc 20
#@faculty hard nproc 50
#ftp hard nproc 0
#ftp - chroot /ftp
#@student - maxlogins 4
casper hard nofile 64000
# End of file
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y dnsutils software-properties-common git
The node uses dig to get external IP for autoconfig during the installation process
sudo apt install jq -y
We will use jq to process JSON responses from API later in the process
If you were running previous versions of the casper-node on this machine, first stop and remove the old versions:
sudo systemctl stop casper-node-launcher.service
sudo apt purge -y casper-client
sudo apt purge -y casper-node-launcher
sudo rm -rf /etc/casper
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/casper
Execute the following in order to add the Casper repository to apt in Ubuntu.
echo "deb [arch=amd64] https://repo.casperlabs.io/releases" focal main | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/casper.list
curl -O https://repo.casperlabs.io/casper-repo-pubkey.asc
sudo apt-key add casper-repo-pubkey.asc
sudo apt updatesudo apt install -y casper-client casper-node-launcher
cd ~
sudo apt purge --auto-remove cmake
wget -O - https://apt.kitware.com/keys/kitware-archive-latest.asc 2>/dev/null | gpg --dearmor - | sudo tee /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/kitware.gpg >/dev/null
sudo apt-add-repository 'deb https://apt.kitware.com/ubuntu/ focal main'
sudo apt update
sudo apt install cmake -y
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
sudo apt install libssl-dev -y
sudo apt install pkg-config -y
sudo apt install build-essential -y
BRANCH="1.0.20" \
&& git clone --branch ${BRANCH} https://github.com/WebAssembly/wabt.git "wabt-${BRANCH}" \
&& cd "wabt-${BRANCH}" \
&& git submodule update --init \
&& cd - \
&& cmake -S "wabt-${BRANCH}" -B "wabt-${BRANCH}/build" \
&& cmake --build "wabt-${BRANCH}/build" --parallel 8 \
&& sudo cmake --install "wabt-${BRANCH}/build" --prefix /usr --strip -v \
&& rm -rf "wabt-${BRANCH}"
Go to your home directory and clone the node repository. Later we will use this path to the smart contracts in our bonding request.
cd ~
git clone https://github.com/casper-network/casper-node.git
cd casper-node/
Note
Verify that the version of your contracts matches the version of the casper-node software you have installed.
git checkout release-1.5.8
make setup-rs
make build-client-contracts -j
Navigate to the default key directory:
cd /etc/casper/validator_keys
And execute the following command to generate the keys:
sudo -u casper casper-client keygen .
It will create three files in the /etc/casper/validator_keys directory:
secret_key.pem- your private key; never share it with anyonepublic_key.pem- your public keypublic_key_hex- hex representation of your public key; copy it to your machine to create an account
Save your keys to a safe place. The public key hex file is used to identify your account when delegators stake their tokens with you or if you are transferring CSPR to this account.
Install Casper Wallet, and import your secret_key.pem file following the steps described under the Import keys into Casper Wallet section of the Migrating to Casper Wallet from Signer guide.
Go to Testnet CSPR.Live, and connect with the account you want to fund. Click Tools from the top navigation menu, then click Faucet. Wait for the faucet page to load, and click the Request tokens button. Wait until the request transaction succeeds.
Note: If you need more Testnet tokens than provided by the faucet, you can make a request by sending an email to
casper-testnet@make.servicesexplaining the details of your need.
In order to secure your node somewhat from unauthorized/excessive connections/requests, you can configure the firewall of the node using a template ufw setup:
cd ~; curl -JLO https://genesis.casperlabs.io/firewall.sh
chmod +x ./firewall.sh
# Look at this and make sure you understand what it does and want to run it on your server.
# You will need to provide `y` to reset and enable steps.
cat ./firewall.sh
# Install firewall
sudo ./firewall.sh
sudo -u casper /etc/casper/node_util.py stage_protocols casper-test.conf
The above command will download and stage all available node upgrades to your machine so they are prepped when the node is turned on, and will automatically execute the upgrade and the required time.
Set the trusted_hash to the hash value of the latest block on Casper TestNet:
NODE_ADDR=https://rpc.testnet.casperlabs.io
PROTOCOL=1_5_8
sudo sed -i "/trusted_hash =/c\trusted_hash = '$(casper-client get-block --node-address $NODE_ADDR | jq -r .result.block.hash | tr -d '\n')'" /etc/casper/$PROTOCOL/config.toml
The command above will set the trusted hash on the config file of the 1.5.8 protocol version. Please note that the protocol version should be set to the largest available protocol version you see in ls /etc/casper.
sudo logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.d/casper-node
sudo systemctl start casper-node-launcher; sleep 2
systemctl status casper-node-launcher
Please note that it is expected to see a lot of connection messages flooding your screen when you check the logs. Don't be scared by the request timed out and outgoing connection failed messages as long as they are all INFO level messages, and as long as you also see a lot of linear chain block stored messages, which means that your node is successfully fetching and storing existing blocks from other/older peers on the network.
sudo tail -fn100 /var/log/casper/casper-node.log /var/log/casper/casper-node.stderr.log
curl -s http://127.0.0.1:8888/status | jq
You can monitor the node's synchronization progress by using the node_util.py utility script:
/etc/casper/node_util.py watch
When you run the watch command, expect to see something like this:
Every 5.0s: /etc/casper/node_util.py node_status ; /etc/casper/node_util.py systemd_status
Last Block: 2035316 (Era: 10565)
Peer Count: 214
Uptime: 1day 20h 31m 7s 504ms
Build: 1.5.2-86b7013
Key: 0173a3611a3730d6d1a71e91c15a046b3278f6ae9291df6963067958d87035e1fc
Next Upgrade: None
Reactor State: KeepUp
Available Block Range - Low: 2028872 High: 2035316
● casper-node-launcher.service - Casper Node Launcher
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/casper-node-launcher.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Fri 2023-09-08 22:15:57 UTC; 1 day 20h ago
Docs: https://docs.casperlabs.io
Main PID: 2775 (casper-node-lau)
Tasks: 11 (limit: 38291)
Memory: 29.3G
CGroup: /system.slice/casper-node-launcher.service
├─2775 /usr/bin/casper-node-launcher
└─2789 /var/lib/casper/bin/1_5_2/casper-node validator /etc/casper/1_5_2/config.toml
If your Reactor State is in "CatchUp" you will need to wait for the node to gather more blocks before it will become "KeepUp" and subsequently show an "Available Block Range".
If your casper-node-launcher status is not active (running) with increasing time, you are either not running or restarting.
The watch command also allows an --ip argument to use with a node on the same network that is in sync. This will show how far behind your node currently is.
Before you do anything, such as trying to bond as a validator or perform any RPC calls, make sure your node has fully caught up with the network. You can recognize this by log entries that tell you that joining has finished, and that the RPC and REST servers have started:
{"timestamp":"Feb 09 02:28:35.577","level":"INFO","fields":{"message":"finished joining"},"target":"casper_node::cli"}
{"timestamp":"Feb 09 02:28:35.578","level":"INFO","fields":{"message":"started JSON-RPC server","address":"0.0.0.0:7777"},"target":"casper_node::components::rpc_server::http_server"}
{"timestamp":"Feb 09 02:28:35.578","level":"INFO","fields":{"message":"started REST server","address":"0.0.0.0:8888"},"target":"casper_node::components::rest_server::http_server"}
While Monitoring the node’s synchronization progress using the node_util.py utility script:
/etc/casper/node_util.py watch
Make sure the Node is in KeepUp and has synced enough blocks for the current TTL (2 hours / 16.384 = 450 blocks) before continuing with the next steps.
Once you ensure that your node is running correctly and is visible by other proceed to bonding.
Check your balance to ensure you have funds to bond:
If you followed the installation steps from this document you can run the following script to check the balance:
PUBLIC_KEY_HEX=$(sudo -u casper cat /etc/casper/validator_keys/public_key_hex)
STATE_ROOT_HASH=$(casper-client get-state-root-hash --node-address http://127.0.0.1:7777 | jq -r '.result | .state_root_hash')
PURSE_UREF=$(sudo -u casper casper-client query-state --node-address http://127.0.0.1:7777 --key "$PUBLIC_KEY_HEX" --state-root-hash "$STATE_ROOT_HASH" | jq -r '.result | .stored_value | .Account | .main_purse')
casper-client get-balance --node-address http://127.0.0.1:7777 --purse-uref "$PURSE_UREF" --state-root-hash "$STATE_ROOT_HASH" | jq -r '.result | .balance_value'
If you followed the installation steps from this document you can run the following script to bond. It substitutes the public key hex value for you and sends recommended argument values:
PUBLIC_KEY_HEX=$(sudo -u casper cat /etc/casper/validator_keys/public_key_hex)
CHAIN_NAME=$(curl -s http://127.0.0.1:8888/status | jq -r '.chainspec_name')
sudo -u casper casper-client put-deploy \
--chain-name "$CHAIN_NAME" \
--node-address "http://127.0.0.1:7777/" \
--secret-key "/etc/casper/validator_keys/secret_key.pem" \
--session-path "$HOME/casper-node/target/wasm32-unknown-unknown/release/add_bid.wasm" \
--payment-amount 3500000000000 \
--session-arg=public_key:"public_key='$PUBLIC_KEY_HEX'" \
--session-arg=amount:"u512='10000000000000'" \
--session-arg=delegation_rate:"u8='1'"
amount- This is the amount that is being bid. If the bid wins, this will be the validator’s initial bond amount. The minimum bid amount is10000 CSPRor10000000000000 motesas an argument to theadd_bidcontract deploy.delegation_rate- The percentage of rewards that the validator retains from delegators that delegate their tokens to the node.payment-amount- The fee in motes (1 CSPR = 10^9 motes) to cover the contract execution cost. It's3500 CSPRor3500000000000 moteson the command above.
Remember the deploy_hash returned in the response to query its status later.
Sending a transaction to the network does not mean that the transaction processed successfully. It’s important to check to see that the contract executed properly:
casper-client get-deploy --node-address http://127.0.0.1:7777 <DEPLOY_HASH> | jq .result.execution_results
Replace <DEPLOY_HASH> with the deploy hash of the transaction you want to check.
To determine if the bid was accepted, execute the following command:
casper-client get-auction-info --node-address http://127.0.0.1:7777
The bid should appear among the returned bids. If the public key associated with a bid appears in the validator_weights structure for an era, then the account is bonded in that era.
Please note that the Casper Testnet program is implemented by providing rewards through the Casper Association (CA), a not-for-profit, Switzerland-domiciled organization responsible for overseeing the Casper network and supporting its organic evolution and continued decentralization. MAKE Technology LLC is not affiliated with the Casper Association, and has no control over the program sponsorship or the incentivized reward program, and is hosting these guides and documents as a service to the Casper community only.