Bare Metal

Author: [ jleopoldA ]

System Requirements

CPU	OS	RAM	DISK
2 Cores	Debian / Ubuntu 22.04	8Gb RAM	128GB

Rootstock has a size of 118GB on October 9, 2024.

Using a version of Rootstock that is below 6.3.1 will result in issues that prevent successful syncing.

Pre-Requisites

sudo apt update -y && sudo apt upgrade -y && sudo apt autoremove -y

Setting up Firewall

Set explicit default UFW rules

# Set explicit default UFW rules
sudo ufw default deny incoming
sudo ufw default allow outgoing

Allow SSH

sudo ufw allow 22/tcp

Allow remote RPC connections with Rootstock node

sudo ufw allow 4444
sudo ufw allow 4445

Allow P2P Connections

sudo ufw allow 30303/tcp
sudo ufw allow 30303/udp

Enable Firewall

sudo ufw enable

To check status of UFW and see the current rules

sudo ufw status verbose

Building a Node on Rootstock

Dependencies

Rootstock uses Java 8

Install Java

# If you have a previous version of Java - remove it.
sudo apt purge openjdk-*

# Remove unused packages
sudo apt autoremove

# Install Java 8
sudo apt install openjdk-8-jdk

# Verify Installation
java -version

Create Directories for Rootstock

# Create directory for Rootstock
mkdir /root/rootstock 

# Create a folder for configuration
mkdir /root/rootstock/config

Create Configuration File

# Create Configuration File
nano /root/rootstock/config/node.conf

Paste the below Configuration into the file:

blockchain.config.name = "main"

database.dir = /root/rootstock/database/mainnet
rpc {
    providers: {
        web: {
            cors = "*"
                http: {
                    enabled = true
                    bind_address = 0.0.0.0
                    port = 4444
                    hosts = ["*"]
                }
                ws: {
                    enabled = true
                    bind_address = 0.0.0.0
                    port = 4445
                }
        }
    }
    modules = {
        eth { version: "1.0", enabled: "true"},
        net { version: "1.0", enabled: "true"},
        rpc { version: "1.0", enabled: "true"},
        web3 { version: "1.0", enabled: "true"},
        evm { version: "1.0", enabled: "true"},
        sco { version: "1.0", enabled: "false"},
        txpool { version: "1.0", enabled: "true"},
        debug { version:"1.0", enabled: "true"},
        personal { version: "1.0", enabled: "false"}
    }
}

Ctrl + X and Y to exit and confirm saving changes to a file.

Create Data Directory to store chain data for Rootstock blockchain.

mkdir /root/rootstock/database/mainnet/

Download Rootstock

# Download Rootstock within your "rootstock" directory.
cd ./root/rootstock/
git clone --recursive https://github.com/rsksmart/rskj.git
cd rskj
git checkout tags/ARROWHEAD-6.3.1 -b ARROWHEAD-6.3.1

Ensure the Security Chain

Rootstock advises to ensure the security chain. Follow the verification steps provided here: Verify security chain of RSKj source code

Get External Dependencies

# From within the root of your "rskj" directory, run the following.
./configure.sh
# This will download and set important components (ex. Gradle Wrapper)

Compile the node

# From within the root of your "rskj" directory, run the following.
./gradlew build -x test

Create systemd service for Rootstock node

# Copy and paste the code below and run it within your terminal.
sudo echo "[Unit]
Description=Rootstock Node
After=network.target
StartLimitIntervalSec=200
StartLimitBurst=5

[Service]
Type=simple
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5
TimeoutSec=900
User=root
Nice=0
LimitNOFILE=200000
WorkingDirectory=/root/rootstock/rskj/rskj-core/build/libs/
ExecStart=/usr/bin/java -Drsk.conf.file=/root/rootstock/config/node.conf -jar /root/rootstock/rskj/rskj-core/build/libs/rskj-core-6.3.1-ARROWHEAD-all.jar co.rsk.Start

KillSignal=SIGTERM

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target" > /etc/systemd/system/rootstock.service

Start Rootstock Node

sudo systemctl daemon-reload # refresh for systemd configuration changes

sudo systemctl enable rootstock.service # enable rootstock.service at start up

sudo systemctl start rootstock.service # start rootstock.service

View Logs for Debugging

This method of installing does not allow you to view sync progress.

journalctl -fu rootstock.service

Query Rootstock Node

curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X POST --data '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"eth_blockNumber","params":[],"id":1}' http://localhost:4444

# The response should resemble the follow
{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"result":"0xcab5ab"}

References

How to compile and run an RSKj node on Linux | Rootstock Developers Portaldev.rootstock.io

Set Config Preferences | Rootstock Developers Portaldev.rootstock.io