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Validator Setup

  1. Setup Validator

    1.1 Prepare

    1.1.1 Obtain Ethereum Software Wallet or Hardware wallet

    Get a Ledger, Hardware or Software wallet ready like Metamask/Portis/Bitski/Torus/myetherwallet. Specific setup instructions will follow.

    This wallet will be used for receiving delegation, bounties, and self delegating.

    1.1.2 Fund Validator Wallet with ETH

    Be ready to have some ETH to accept delegations and link your validator node. Remember these are transactions with SKALE Manager on Ethereum, and therefore require ETH.

    Minimum ETH: 1.0

    1.1.3 Get SKALE Manager contract ABIs from SKALE

    https://raw.githubusercontent.com/skalenetwork/skale-network/master/releases/mainnet/skale-manager/1.11.0/skale-manager-1.11.0-mainnet-abi.json

    1.1.4 Fund SRW Wallet with ETH

    Be ready to fund ETH in your self-recharging wallet (SRW). See Self-recharging wallet documentation.

    Minimum ETH: 0.5∙node count

    1.1.5 Decide your commission fee

    Decide on your commission fee. This cannot be changed once it is set. To set a new commission fee, you’ll have to register a new validator. This new validator would have to link nodes and accept delegations for it (old validator nodes and delegations cannot be rolled into a new validator commission fee).

    Reference Documents

    1.2 Register Validator

    SKALE Validator CLI is the validator client interface for registering a new validator into network or handling additional delegation services where validators can self delegate or token holders can delegate to a validator. These are the type of operations that can be done with the Validator CLI:

    • Register Validator (Set Commission Rate or Minimum delegation amount)
    • Accept pending delegations
    • Link all validator node addresses to a validator wallet address
    • Request or cancel a delegation

    See the SKALE Validator CLI documentation

    This document contains instructions on how to get started with the SKALE Validator CLI.

    1.2.1 Install SKALE Validator CLI

    Download the SKALE Validator CLI binary

    VERSION_NUM is a version identifier

    Terminal window
    VERSION_NUM=[VERSION_NUM] && sudo -E bash -c "curl -L https://github.com/skalenetwork/validator-cli/releases/download/$VERSION_NUM/sk-val-$VERSION_NUM-`uname -s`-`uname -m` >  /usr/local/bin/sk-val"
    Apply executable permissions to the binary
    Terminal window
    chmod +x /usr/local/bin/sk-val
    Set SKALE Manager contracts info and set the endpoint
    Terminal window
    sk-val init -e [ENDPOINT] -c [ABI] --wallet [software/ledger]

    Required arguments:

    • --endpoint/-e - RPC endpoint of the node in the network where SKALE manager is deployed (http or https). Example is https://my.geth.node.ip/..

    • --contracts-url/-c - URL to SKALE Manager contracts ABI and addresses

    • -w/--wallet - Type of the wallet that will be used for signing transactions (software or ledger)

    1.2.2 Setup wallet

    Software wallet

    If you want to use software wallet you need to save private key into a file.

    Replace [YOUR PRIVATE KEY] with your wallet private key

    Terminal window
    echo [YOUR PRIVATE KEY] > ./pk.txt
    Ledger wallet

    If you want to use ledger you should install ETH ledger application and initialize device with setup-ledger command.

    Terminal window
    sk-val wallet setup-ledger --address-index [ADDRESS_INDEX] --keys-type [KEYS_TYPE]

    Required arguments:

    • --address-index - Index of the address to use (starting from 0)
    • --keys-type - Type of the Ledger keys (live or legacy)

    1.2.3 Register as a new SKALE validator

    Terminal window
    sk-val validator register -n [NAME] -d [DESCRIPTION] -c [COMMISSION_RATE] --min-delegation [MIN_DELEGATION]

    Required arguments:

    • --name/-n - Validator name
    • --description/-d - Validator description (preferably organization info)
    • --commission-rate/-c - Commission rate (percent %)
    • --min-delegation - Validator minimum delegation amount

    Optional arguments:

    • --pk-file - Path to file with private key (only for software wallet type)
    • --gas-price - Gas price value in Gwei for transaction (if not specified doubled average network value will be used)
    • --yes - Confirmation flag

    1.3 Make sure that your validator is added to the trusted list

    To ensure that your validator is added to trusted contact SKALE team.

  2. Setup SGX

    2.1 Overview

    SGX is a secure storage for BLS private key shares, which are used in consensus to sign new blocks. SGX is also used for private key shares.

    SKALE DKG uses Intel® SGX server to store account and BLS keys and all the data related to DKG process and it also uses the random number generator provided by Intel® SGX. For more information, please check here.

    Clients connect to the server, authenticate to it using TLS 1.0 protocol with client certificates, and then issue requests to the server to generate crypto keys and perform cryptographic operations. The keys are generated inside the secure SGX enclave and never leave the enclave unencrypted.

    2.2 Configure server

    To be able to set up an SGXWallet, validators are required to have SGX compatible servers. Before installing SGXWallet, validators must make sure that SGX is enabled in the server.

    2.2.1 Server Requirements

    • Ubuntu 20.04 (focal)
    • SGX-enabled Intel processor
    • At least 8 GB
    • Swap size equals to half (1/2) of RAM size

    2.3 Configure Network

    It’s required to setup VPN between nodes and SGX server. Ports 1026-1031 should open only to SKALE Nodes, not public ports should be accessible by node.

    2.4 Install and Configure Packages

    Before running SGXWallet install the following packages

    Install general tools:

    Terminal window
    sudo apt-get install -y build-essential make cmake gcc g++ yasm  python libprotobuf10 flex bison automake libtool texinfo libgcrypt20-dev libgnutls28-dev

    Install Docker:

    Terminal window
    sudo apt-get install -y docker

    Install docker.io:

    Terminal window
    sudo apt-get install -y docker.io

    Install docker-compose:

    Terminal window
    sudo apt-get install -y docker-compose

    Install cpuid and libelf-dev packages:

    Terminal window
    sudo apt-get install -y libelf-dev cpuid

    Verify your processor supports Intel SGX with:

    Terminal window
    cpuid | grep SGX:

    Disable automatic updates

    It’s recommended to only update the SGXWallet server if there are critical security fixes. This is because SGXWallet is based on new low level technology, and kernel updates may break the system. Currently SGX is tested on 4.15-* kernels. It’s best to avoid minor version updates too.

    To make sure apt update won’t update the kernel you should use apt-mark hold command:

    Terminal window
    sudo apt-mark hold linux-generic linux-image-generic linux-headers-generic

    Also if you configured unattended upgrades, you should make sure kernel won’t update automatically. To do this, add the following lines to /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades file:

    Terminal window
    Unattended-Upgrade::Package-Blacklist {
            "linux-generic";
            "linux-image-generic";
            "linux-headers-generic";
    };

    Output

    Terminal window
    SGX: Software Guard Extensions supported = true

    2.5 Download SGXWallet source code

    2.5.1 Clone SGXWallet Repository

    Clone SGX Wallet Repository to your SGX compatible Server:

    Terminal window
    git clone https://github.com/skalenetwork/sgxwallet/
    cd sgxwallet
    git checkout tags/ADD_VERSION_TAG

    2.5.2 Enable SGX

    SGX Wallet repository includes the sgx_enable utility. To enable SGX run:

    Terminal window
    sudo ./sgx_enable

    Note: if you aren’t using Ubuntu 18.04 (not recommended), you may need to rebuild the sgx-software-enable utility before use by typing:

    Terminal window
    cd sgx-software-enable;
    make
    cd ..

    Install SGX Library:

    Terminal window
    cd scripts
    sudo ./sgx_linux_x64_driver_2.5.0_2605efa.bin
    cd ..

    System Reboot:

    Check driver installation: To check that isgx device is properly installed run this command:

    Terminal window
    ls /dev/isgx

    If you don’t see the isgx device, you need to troubleshoot your driver installation from here.

    Another way to verify Intel SGX is enabled in BIOS:

    Enter BIOS by pressing the BIOS key during boot. The BIOS key varies by manufacturer and could be F10, F2, F12, F1, DEL, or ESC.

    Usually Intel SGX is disabled by default.

    To enable:

    find the Intel SGX feature in BIOS Menu (it’s usually under the “Advanced” or “Security” menu) Set SGX in BIOS as enabled (preferably) or software-controlled. save your BIOS settings and exit BIOS. Enable “software-controlled” SGX Software-controlled means that SGX needs to be enabled by running a utility.

    2.6 Update docker-compose.yaml

    Open run_sgx directory

    Terminal window
    cd sgxwallet/run_sgx;

    On some machines, the SGX device isn’t /dev/mei0 but a different device, such as /dev/bs0 or /dev/sg0. In this case please edit docker-compose.yml on your machine to specify the correct device to use:

    Terminal window
    vi docker-compose.yml

    make sure image is skalenetwork/sgxwallet:<SGX_VERSION> in docker-compose and it will look like:

    Terminal window
    version: '3'
    services:
      sgxwallet:
        image: skalenetwork/sgxwallet:<SGX_VERSION>
        ports:
          - "1026:1026"
          - "1027:1027"
          - "1028:1028"
          - "1029:1029"
        devices:
          - "/dev/isgx"
          - "/dev/sg0"
        volumes:
          - ./sgx_data:/usr/src/sdk/sgx_data
          -  /dev/urandom:/dev/random
        logging:
          driver: json-file
          options:
            max-size: "10m"
            max-file: "4"
        restart: unless-stopped
        command: -s -y -V
        healthcheck:
          test: ["CMD", "ls", "/dev/isgx", "/dev/"]

    2.7 Spin up SGXWallet Container

    Start SGX Wallet Containers To run the server as a daemon:

    Terminal window
    sudo docker-compose up -d

    2.8 Securely save generated backup key

    The backup key is automatically stored in sgx_data directory.

    The filename of the key is sgx_wallet_backup_key.txt, and is generated the first time the SGX wallet is started.

    Terminal window
    docker exec -it <SGX_CONTAINER_NAME> bash && apt-get install secure-delete && srm -vz backup_key.txt

    2.9 Backup sgx data

    It’s strongly recommended to backup sgx data regularly. The guide can be found here.

  3. Node Setup

    After Setting up SGX Wallet and create certifications, validators can download the SKALE Node CLI executables register and maintain your SKALE node. This process downloads docker container images from docker hub and spins up SKALE Node functionalities. Some base containers such as SKALE Admin, Bounty, TransactionManager will be created during installation for each node.

    This document contains instructions on how to setup node using SKALE Node CLI.

    3.1 Prepare Server

    Node server should follow compliance requirements which will be checked during installing SKALE node software. Please make sure:

    General requirements

    • A Linux x86_64 machine
    • Ubuntu 20.04 (focal)
    • Separate not mounted block device - 2 Tb
    • 8 physical cores
    • 32GB RAM
    • 16GB Swap

    More information can be found here: Compliance requirements

    3.2 Install Packages

    Before setting up node you should make sure that the following software is installed:

    • docker
    • docker-compose (preferably 1.27.4)
    • iptables-persistent
    • lvm2
    Terminal window
    echo iptables-persistent iptables-persistent/autosave_v4 boolean true | sudo debconf-set-selections
    echo iptables-persistent iptables-persistent/autosave_v6 boolean true | sudo debconf-set-selections
    sudo apt install iptables-persistent -y

    If you have any concerns or questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to SKALE Team leads on http://skale.chat/[Discord].

    3.3 Download Node CLI binary

    3.4 Download the Executable

    Terminal window
    sudo -E bash -c "curl -L {node-cli} >  /usr/local/bin/skale"

    3.5 Apply executable permissions to the downloaded binary:

    Terminal window
    chmod +x /usr/local/bin/skale

    3.6 Test the Installation

    Terminal window
    sudo skale --help

    More information can be found here.

    3.7 Configure .env

    Configuration parameters are passed to Node CLI through .env file. It should contain the following variables:

    • CONTAINERS_CONFIG_STREAM - git branch with containers versions config
    • DISK_MOUNTPOINT - Attached storage block device
    • DOCKER_LVMPY_STREAM - git branch of docker lvmpy volume driver for schains
    • ENDPOINT - RPC endpoint of the node in the network where SKALE manager is deployed (http or https)
    • FILEBEAT_HOST - URL to the Filebeat log server
    • IMA_CONTRACTS_ABI_URL - URL to IMA contracts ABI and addresses
    • IMA_ENDPOINT - IMA endpoint to connect (should be the same as ENDPOINT).
    • MANAGER_CONTRACTS_ABI_URL - URL to SKALE Manager contracts ABI and addresses
    • SGX_SERVER_URL - URL to SGX server in the network (i.e. http(s)://host:port , do not add a trailing ”/” after the port number )
    • ENV_TYPE - network type (mainnet/testnet)

    ENDPOINT, IMA_ENDPOINT, SGX_SERVER_URL, DISK_MOUNTPOINT are server dependent. Other options depend on the network type.

    For the {ENV_TYPE} network .env will look like:

    CONTAINER_CONFIGS_STREAM=3.0.1
    DOCKER_LVMPY_STREAM=1.0.2-stable.0
    FILEBEAT_HOST=filebeat.mainnet.skalenodes.com:5000
    MANAGER_CONTRACTS_ABI_URL=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/skalenetwork/skale-network/master/releases/mainnet/skale-manager/1.11.0/skale-manager-1.11.0-mainnet-abi.json
    IMA_CONTRACTS_ABI_URL=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/skalenetwork/skale-network/master/releases/mainnet/IMA/1.5.0/mainnet/abi.json
    ENV_TYPE=mainnet
    DISK_MOUNTPOINT=[DISK_MOUNTPOINT]
    IMA_ENDPOINT=[IMA_ENDPOINT]
    ENDPOINT=[ENDPOINT]
    SGX_SERVER_URL=[SGX_SERVER_URL] # Do not add a trailing "/" after the port number.

    It’s possible to configure Telegram based alert system by providing the following options:

    • TG_API_KEY - Telegram API key
    • TG_CHAT_ID - Telegram chat ID

    3.8 Initialize node

    To install node on your server you should run skale node init. It will create necessary configuration files and run base services and containers.

    Terminal window
    sudo skale node init .env

    Example Output:

    Terminal window
    48914619bcd3: Pull complete
    db7a07cce60c: Pull complete
    d285532a5ada: Pull complete
    8646278c4014: Pull complete
    3a12d6e582e7: Pull complete
    0a3d98d81a07: Pull complete
    43b3a182ba00: Pull complete
    Creating monitor_filebeat          ... done
    Creating skale_transaction-manager ... done
    Creating skale_watchdog            ... done
    Creating skale_admin               ... done
    Creating skale_bounty              ... done
    Creating skale_api                 ... done

    You can verify installation procedure by running:

    Terminal window
    sudo skale wallet info

    Output:

    Terminal window
    Address: <your-skale-node-wallet-address>
    ETH balance: 1.0 ETH
    SKALE balance: 0 SKALE

    The common problem is network misconfiguration between the node and SGXWallet. You can recheck connection status using skale health sgx:

    Terminal window
    sudo skale health sgx

    Output:

    Terminal window
    SGX server status:
    ┌────────────────┬──────────────────────────┐
    │ SGX server URL │ <sgx-url>                │
    ├────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
    │ Status         │ CONNECTED                │
    └────────────────┴──────────────────────────┘

    3.9 Setup SSL Certificates

    3.9.1 Setup IP Redirects

    You will need to setup redirects from each node IP to the node domain.

    3.9.2 Issue SSL Certificates

    You will need SSL certs issued by one of the Trusted CAs. Once you’ve decided on the certificate issuer you have several options - issue a separate certificate for each subdomain (node-0.awesome-validator.com, node-1.awesome-validator.com) or issue a single Wildcard SSL for all nodes (*.awesome-validator.com). As a result, you should have 2 main files saved and copied to the respective nodes:

    • Certificate file (for example, fullchain.pem or cert.pem)
    • Private key file (for example, privkey.pem, pk.pem)

    3.9.3 Upload certificates to the SKALE Node

    Once you copied the certificate and private key file, all you have to do is to run the following command:

    Terminal window
    sudo skale ssl upload -c $PATH_TO_CERT_FILE -k $PATH_TO_KEY_FILE

    3.9.4 SSL Status

    Status of the SSL certificates on the node

    Terminal window
    sudo skale ssl status

    For more details, please see Node SSL docs.

    3.10 Fund Node wallet with ETH

    Some of the node operations send ETH mainnet transaction (e.g. chain creation). So the node wallet should have at least 1 ETH

    To get the address you should run skale wallet info command.

    3.11 Sign Validator ID using SGXWallet

    Using validator-cli check your validator ID:

    Terminal window
    sk-val validator ls

    Get your SKALE node signature by running Node CLI command.

    Terminal window
    sudo skale node signature [VALIDATOR_ID]

    Output:

    Terminal window
    Signature: <your-signature>

    To successfully register new node you should bind node address and validator entity using validator-cli link-address:

    Terminal window
     sk-val validator link-address [NODE_ADDRESS] [SIGNATURE]

    Optional arguments:

    • --pk-file - Path to file with private key (only for software wallet type)
    • --gas-price - Gas price value in Gwei for transaction (if not specified doubled average network value will be used)
    • --yes - Confirmation flag

    3.13 Backup Node

    We strongly recommend to regularly backup node data. The critical information stored ~/.skale directory.

    The skale node backup command archives the data which you can download and store somewhere else.

    To restore the node you should use skale node restore

    More information can be found xref:node-cli::index.adoc#_node_backup[here].

    3.14 Accept Delegations

    Every delegation need to be accepted. You can do it using sk-val validator accept-delegation command:

    Terminal window
    sk-val validator accept-delegation --delegation-id [DELEGATION-ID]

    Required arguments:

    • --delegation-id - Delegation id to accept

    Optional arguments:

    • --pk-file - Path to file with private key (only for software wallet type)
    • --gas-price - Gas price value in Gwei for transaction (if not specified doubled average network value will be used)
    • --yes - Confirmation flag

    You can get [DELEGATION-ID] by running sk-val validator delegations:

    Terminal window
    sk-val validator delegations [VALIDATOR_ID]

    You will see your pending delegation (PENDING status) as well as already accepted ones (DELEGATED status).

  4. Register Node in SKALE Network

    4.1 Register Node with Node CLI

    To register with the network, you will need to provide the following:

    • Node name
    • Machine public IP
    • Domain name
    Terminal window
    sudo skale node register --name [NODE_NAME] --ip [NODE_IP] --domain [DOMAIN_NAME]

    Optional arguments:

    • --port - beginning of the port range that will be used for skale schains (10000 by default)

    Output:

    Terminal window
    Node registered in SKALE manager. For more info run: skale node info

    4.2 Check Node Status

    You can check the status of your node, and ensure that it’s properly registered with the SKALE Network.

    Terminal window
    sudo skale node info

    Output:

    Terminal window
    # Node info
    Name: <Node name>
    ID: <Node ID>
    IP: <IP of Machine>
    Public IP: <Public IP of Machine>
    Port: <Node port>
    Domain name: <Node domain name>
    Status: Active

  5. Post Registration Checks


    Private and backup keys are secured in a safe place.

    VPN is configured on all SGXWallet servers.

    Ensure node wallets have sufficient ETH

    Accept delegations for the next month

    Check telegram notifications (if you enabled them)

    Use watchdog to monitor node status.

    Get support from the SKALE validator community