GuidesDiscussions
Guides

Starting a U°OS Calculator Node

Suggest Edits

Table of contents

Introduction

This document will guide you through starting a Calculator Node on the U°OS testnet.

A Calculator Node calculates the Importance scores for every account on the U°OS blockchain.

The calculation is done continuously in 600 block cycles. The node follows the Block Producer voting pattern — the top 21 Calculator Nodes publish hashes of their calculation results to the U°OS blockchain.

UOS token emission is issued and distributed based on the Calculator Node results.

System requirements

Supported operating systems:

  • Ubuntu
  • Debian
  • Fedora

RAM:

  • 8 GB

Note that if you are running a Block Producer node, you will need a separate machine and a separate account to run the Calculator Node.

Overview of the process

  1. Install build libraries
  2. Time sync the system
  3. Create new user for UOS
  4. Clone the UOS repository
  5. Update submodules
  6. Build the UOS software. Note that this will run for over an hour, so plan accordingly.
  7. Install the node from the UOS software
  8. Generate two key pairs using the UOS software
  9. Contact the UOS developers with your preferred account name and public keys
  10. Create and modify config.ini
  11. Download blocks.log
  12. Download snapshot file
  13. Start your node
  14. Create a wallet and import both your Active and Owner private keys
  15. Register as a Calculator Node

Step-by-step

1. Install build libraries

Install libboost-all-dev build-essential and llvm-4.0-dev:

sudo apt -y install libboost-all-dev build-essential llvm-4.0-dev

2. Time sync the system

Sync the time to where your node is actually located. Check DigitalOcean: How To Set Up Time Synchronization on Ubuntu 16.04.

Since we are running this node in Singapore, we are issuing the following command:

sudo timedatectl set-timezone Asia/Singapore

3. Create new user for UOS

adduser uos

and switch to this user

su - uos

4. Clone the UOS repository

Clone the UOS repository:

git clone https://github.com/UOSnetwork/uos

5. Update the submodules

Update the submodules:

cd ~/uos
git submodule update --init --recursive

6. Build the UOS software

Build the UOS software with the following command:

./scripts/eosio_build.sh -y

Note that this will run for over an hour, so plan accordingly.

7. Install the node

Install the node from the UOS software:

./scripts/eosio_install.sh

Add installed eosio binaries to the PATH variable:

echo 'PATH="/home/uos/eosio/1.8/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.profile

You need to relogin as uos user.

Verify the version of the node:

nodeos --version

It will give you something similar to:

v1.8.4-1-g11eeb9b85

8. Generate two key pairs

You will need to generate two key pairs that you will use to manage your account:

  • Owner key pair: Use this key pair to manage the ownership of your account; use the owner key to recover the active permissions if they get compromised.
  • Active key pair: Use this key pair to transfer funds and vote.

Generate the key pairs:

cleos create key --to-console

The command will output a key pair once on each run. Run it two times to generate two key pairs.

Label each key pair as Owner and Active. Labeling here just means putting a note next to each of the key pairs — in a file or on a paper or anything else; it's up to you.

Keep the keys safe. You may want to encrypt them and store securely.

9. Contact the U°OS developers

Think up an account name that you would like to register as a Calculator Node.

The account name has the following conventions:

  • Must start with a letter
  • Must be 12 characters
  • Can only contain the characters lowercase a-z and 1-5

For example, 123example345 meets the convention requirements.

Prepare the information that you will need to provide to the U°OS developers:

  • Your preferred account name
  • Your Owner public key
  • Your Active public key

Contact the U°OS general group in Telegram at https://t.me/uos_network_en.

PM the group Admin for the U°OS Block Producers and Calculator Nodes Telegram group.

Once you join the Telegram group, provide your account name, owner and active public keys. The developers will register you as a Standby Block Calculator Node.

10. Create and modify config.ini

  1. Start the node once to create a default config.ini file:

    nodeos

    The config.ini file will be created in the ~/.local/share/eosio/nodeos/config/ directory.

  2. Open config.ini for editing and add the following lines:

    calculator-name = "CALCULATOR_NODE_NAME"
calculator-public-key = "PUBLIC_KEY"
calculator-private-key = "PRIVATE_KEY"

p2p-peer-address = mainnet-node-1.uos.network:9876
p2p-peer-address = mainnet-node-2.uos.network:9876
p2p-peer-address = mainnet-node-3.uos.network:9876
p2p-peer-address = mainnet-node-4.uos.network:9876
p2p-peer-address = mainnet-node-5.uos.network:9876

plugin = eosio::chain_api_plugin
plugin = eosio::history_api_plugin
plugin = eosio::uos_rates

    where

    • CALCULATOR_NODE_NAME — Your account name that you provided to the U°OS developers earlier
    • PUBLIC_KEY — Your public key from the Active key pair that you generated earlier
    • PRIVATE_KEY — Your private key from the Active key pair that you generated earlier
    • You might need to change p2p peers, just ask for the current peers in the dev chat

  3. Save the file.

Note that the default config.ini file has the agent-name = "EOS Test Agent" parameter uncommented, so you will need to comment it (#) or replace with the calculator-name, calculator-public-key and calculator-private-key parameters as specified above. If you don't do this, you will get an error when starting your node.

Save or copy config.ini to you home directory:

cp ~/.local/share/eosio/nodeos/config/config.ini config.ini

11. Download blocks.log

Download latest blocks.log from S3:

wget https://s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/snapshot.uos.network/blocks.log

Move blocks.log file:

mv blocks.log ~/.local/share/eosio/nodeos/data/blocks

12. Download snapshot file

Download latest snapshot from S3:

wget https://s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/snapshot.uos.network/snapshot_latest.bin

13. Start your node

Start your Standby Calculator Node:

nodeos --snapshot ~/snapshot_latest.bin -c ~/config.ini "$@" >> ~/output.log 2>&1 &

Check that the node is running:

tail -f ~/output.log

This should give you a running list of blocks and Block Producers.

14. Create a wallet and import the Active private key

Create a wallet that you will use to stake UOS and receive UOS emission:

cleos wallet create -n NAME --to-console

where

  • NAME — Any name for your wallet
  • --to-console — The wallet password will be printed to console. You can also specify --file instead of --to-console if you would like the password to be saved to a file instead.

Save the wallet password and keep it secure.

Make sure the wallet is unlocked:

cleos wallet list

This will print all your wallet names. The unlocked wallets will have an asterisk next to the name *.

For example, the wallet ledgerblocks is unlocked in this output:

Wallets:

[
"default",
"ledgerblocks *",
"test"
]

If your wallet is locked, you can unlock it with the following command:

cleos wallet unlock -n NAME

where NAME is the name of your wallet.

Import your Active private key into the unlocked wallet:

cleos wallet import -n NAME --private-key PRIVATE_KEY

Lock your wallet:

cleos wallet lock -n NAME

Now you have a locked wallet with your Active private key.

13. Register as a Calculator Node

Run the following command:

cleos -u https://api.uos.network:7889 push action eosio regcalc '["ACCOUNT", "ACCOUNT_INFO", "LOCATION_ID"]' -p ACCOUNT

where

  • -p — Permission level to authorize the action.
  • ACCOUNT_NAME — This is your Calculator Node account name.
  • ACCOUNT_INFO — Additional information for your account identification in the Calculator Node list; usually your website or a U°Community link.
  • LOCATION_ID — Get your country ISO 3166 Numeric Code from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ISO_3166_country_codes

The command might print a warning:

warning: transaction executed locally, but may not be confirmed by the network yet

This is a standard warning saying that it may take a second to register on the network.

You can now check your account name on the GOVERNANCE page of U°Community.

You should now be a Standby Calculator Node on the U°OS blockchain.

Troubleshooting and maintenance

Checking if the node is running:

ps -elf | grep nodeos

Gracefully stopping the node:

pkill nodeos

Deleting all blocks to restart the node fresh:

nodeos --delete-all-blocks -c ~/config.ini "$@" >> ~/output.log 2>&1 &

You might want to do this if you started your node prematurely without properly following the instructions.

A full running U°OS node for API calls:

https://api.uos.network:7889

A full running U°OS history node for API calls:

https://history.uos.network:7889

Get any account information, including balances and voting:

cleos -u https://api.uos.network:7889 get account NAME

Feel free to talk to the developers in the chat.

https://t.me/joinchat/F4mwU0tLqMTrmb8H5kbIMg

Updated almost 5 years ago