How to Setup a Node Validator?

Setting Up a Node/Validator for Paseo Testnet

Welcome to the Paseo testnet! This guide will walk you through the process of setting up a node and becoming a validator on the Paseo testnet network using the Polkadot binary, which is also used for Polkadot and Kusama validators.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have the following: https://github.com/paseo-network/paseo-action-submission/blob/main/pas/Hardware_specs.md

These hardware specs takes as a reference the Polkadot hardware specs listed here. The initial group supporting Paseo Network decided to set the 1/2 of the resources needed for Polkadot (except the storage which much less than 1TB is needed).

Hardware specs details:

• CPU
  • x86-64 compatible;
  • Intel Ice Lake, or newer (Xeon or Core series); AMD Zen3, or newer (EPYC or Ryzen);
  • 2 physical cores @ 3.4GHz;
  • Simultaneous multithreading disabled (Hyper-Threading on Intel, SMT on AMD);
  • Prefer single-threaded performance over higher cores count. A comparison of single-threaded performance can be found here.
• Storage
  • An NVMe SSD of 200 GB (As it should be reasonably sized to deal with blockchain growth). An estimation of current chain snapshot sizes can be found here. In general, the latency is more important than the throughput.
• Memory
  • 16 GB DDR4 ECC.
• System
  • Linux Kernel 5.16 or newer.
• Network
  • The minimum symmetric networking speed is set to 500 Mbit/s (= 62.5 MB/s). This is required to support a large number of parachains and allow for proper congestion control in busy network situations

1. Download the Chain Specification

First, you need to download the Paseo chain specification file:

wget https://github.com/paseo-network/runtimes/blob/main/chain-specs/paseo.raw.json

2. Initialize Your Node

With the chain specification file downloaded, you will initialize your node. This step prepares your node to run by setting up the necessary directories and configuration files.

polkadot --chain paseo.raw.json --base-path /path/to/your/node/data/directory

Replace /path/to/your/node/data/directory with the actual path where you want your node's data to be stored.

3. Running Your Node

To start your node and connect it to the Paseo testnet, run the following command:

polkadot --chain paseo.raw.json --name 'Your Node Name' --pruning archive

Replace 'Your Node Name' with a unique name for your node. The --pruning archive flag is recommended for validators to ensure you retain all historical data.

4. Becoming a Validator

Setting up a validator is trivial once your node is synchronized with the network. However, you need to ensure you have a secure setup, especially for key management and exposure to the internet. Validators participate in consensus and, therefore, require a higher level of security.

Please follow the Polkadot Validator Guide for detailed instructions on secure validator setup: Polkadot Validator Setup

While the guide is for Polkadot, the principles and steps apply to Paseo as well. Just make sure to use the paseo.raw.json chain spec when prompted.

5. Monitoring and Maintenance

Once your validator is set up, it's crucial to monitor its performance and keep it updated. To be able to join our Telemetry server, please add this argument to the node deployment process

--telemetry-url 'wss://shard-tememetry-paseo.beryx.io/submit 1'

Conclusion

Congratulations! You have set up a node and are on your way to becoming a validator on the Paseo testnet. By participating as a validator, you're contributing to the network's security and operation.

For support and further discussions, join our community channels on Element.