Nillion Validator Node Installation Guide

This guide provides instructions for setting up a Nillion validator node. It covers dependency installation, binary configuration, and service management for production-grade operations.

Prerequisites

Before starting the installation, ensure your environment meets the following requirements:

• Operating System: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or higher.
• User Permissions: Standard user with sudo privileges.
• Hardware: 4 vCPU, 8GB RAM, 100GB+ SSD recommended.

System Preparation

Update the local package index and install the necessary build tools and dependencies.

sudo apt update && \
sudo apt install curl git jq build-essential gcc unzip wget lz4 -y

Install Go Environment

Nillion requires Go version 1.21.6 or higher. If you do not have Go installed, use the following commands:

cd $HOME
VER="1.21.6"
wget "https://golang.org/dl/go$VER.linux-amd64.tar.gz"
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/go
sudo tar -C /usr/local -xzf "go$VER.linux-amd64.tar.gz"
rm "go$VER.linux-amd64.tar.gz"

# Update environment variables
[ ! -f ~/.bash_profile ] && touch ~/.bash_profile
echo "export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin:~/go/bin" >> ~/.bash_profile
source $HOME/.bash_profile
mkdir -p ~/go/bin

Node Installation

Download and Install Binary

Download the pre-compiled nilchaind binary and move it to your executable path.

cd $HOME
wget -O nilchaind https://explorer.dongqn.com/guidenode/nillion/nilchaind
chmod +x nilchaind
mv nilchaind $HOME/go/bin/
nilchaind version

Initialize Node

Configure the client settings and initialize the node’s home directory. Replace YOUR_MONIKER with your desired node name.

nilchaind config set client chain-id nillion-chain-testnet-1
nilchaind config set client keyring-backend test
nilchaind config set client node tcp://localhost:18057

nilchaind init YOUR_MONIKER --chain-id nillion-chain-testnet-1 --home=$HOME/.nillionapp

Network Configuration

Genesis and Address Book

Download the latest genesis file and address book to ensure the node can connect to the peer-to-peer network.

curl -Ls https://explorer.dongqn.com/guidenode/nillion/genesis.json > $HOME/.nillionapp/config/genesis.json
curl -Ls https://explorer.dongqn.com/guidenode/nillion/addrbook.json > $HOME/.nillionapp/config/addrbook.json

Seed and Gas Configuration

Set the network seeds and define the minimum gas price to prevent transaction rejection.

# Set Seeds
SEEDS="3f472746f46493309650e5a033076689996c8881@nillion-testnet.rpc.kjnodes.com:18059"
sed -i.bak -e "s/^seeds *=.*/seeds = \"${SEEDS}\"/" $HOME/.nillionapp/config/config.toml

# Set Minimum Gas Price
sed -i -e "s|^minimum-gas-prices *=.*|minimum-gas-prices = \"0unil\"|" $HOME/.nillionapp/config/app.toml

Pruning Optimization (Optional)

To reduce disk usage, configure custom pruning to keep only recent state entries.

sed -i \
  -e 's|^pruning *=.*|pruning = "custom"|' \
  -e 's|^pruning-keep-recent *=.*|pruning-keep-recent = "100"|' \
  -e 's|^pruning-keep-every *=.*|pruning-keep-every = "0"|' \
  -e 's|^pruning-interval *=.*|pruning-interval = "19"|' \
  $HOME/.nillionapp/config/app.toml

Service Management

Create Systemd Service

Create a systemd unit file to manage the node process in the background with automatic restarts.

sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/nillion.service > /dev/null <<EOF
[Unit]
Description=Nillion Node
After=network.target

[Service]
User=$USER
Type=simple
ExecStart=$(which nilchaind) start --home $HOME/.nillionapp
Restart=on-failure
LimitNOFILE=65535

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

Start the Node

Reload the systemd daemon and enable the service.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable nillion
sudo systemctl restart nillion

To monitor the node logs in real-time, use:

sudo journalctl -u nillion -f -o cat

Wallet Operations

Create a New Wallet

Generate a new keypair for your validator. Safeguard your mnemonic seed phrase.

nilchaind keys add YOUR_WALLET_NAME

Note: If you need to restore an existing wallet, append the --recover flag to the command above.

Verify Synchronization

Before performing on-chain transactions, ensure your node is fully synced with the network.

nilchaind status --node tcp://127.0.0.1:18057 2>&1 | jq .SyncInfo.catching_up

If the output is false, your node is synced. You can then check your balance:

nilchaind q bank balances $(nilchaind keys show YOUR_WALLET_NAME -a)