A MUE guide for setting up and hosting a masternode on a VPS (virtual private server)
Version 2.0.2 - 2018-11-14
Version 1.0.3 - 2017-10-03
Last changes: - New guide overhaul as MUE moves to PoS.
Text is updated to install the VPS, images not yet updated.
Guide Contents:
- VPS Requirements
- Cold node setup and configuration
- Hot node setup (VPS)
- Starting up MUE daemon on the VPS
- Launching your masternode
- Additional help guides
The MUE network has now switched to a PivX/Phore Proof of Stake code base, and as such it inherits the strengths that a 2-tier network brings, in terms of a strong masternode network for additional functions and security of the network. This will enable a lower cost of chain security through staking nodes, and furthermore bring a self funding and community governance to the MUE network.
The masternodes perform tasks for the MUE network. These are for instance storage of the blockchain and commnuity governance capabilities. As a reward for running these functions, the masternodes are paid out a part of the block reward for their services. The block reward is 40 MUE per block and each block occurs on average every 40 seconds, thus growing the supply of up to 1 MUE every second.
The block reward is split in three, providing 45% to the staker who solved the block, 45% to the masternode for it’s services and the remaining 10% going to the continuous funding of the MUE project. The masternode reward is 45% * 40 MUE = 18 MUE per block.
For starters, the reason for running a dedicated VPS instead of hosting one’s masternode on a home internet connection are several. The masternode must be up and running all the time to provide services for the network. Should the connection go down, or the node performs badly, the rest of the network will be unhappy with the services and the masternode loses payments. Many home internet providers are unhappy if the owner runs a server at home and may shut down access to the masternode.
A typical masternode uses around 500 GB or more of traffic per month. Home internet users with traffic caps will have a hard time running a masternode if the bandwidth is limited. It is especially important to have a high speed connection as the masternode is serving up the blockchain. Additional features to the network will likely require a high speed connection as well.
The minimal requirements for running a masternode with prebuilt binaries are:
* 1 vCPU core
* 1 GB of RAM memory
* 25 GB of hard drive space
* a high speed internet connection and at least a transfer of 500 GB per month.
For users who would rather build the monetaryunit binaries themselves, the required VPS proterties are:
* 1 vCPU core
* 2 GB of RAM memory
* 25 GB of hard drive space
* a high speed internet connection and at least a transfer of 500 GB per month.
Better hardware can be used to help the masternode performance, but using less than the required minimal hardware can make the masternode unstable and cause the node to crash or perform poorly. By doing so, the node can get kicked off the masternode lists, causing the masternode to lose payments.
Users who are looking at building the hot wallet from source, please consider getting a VPS with 2 GB of ram, or setup a swap file to allow the building to be successful. Using 1 GB of ram will likely cause memory errors and crashes during compiling.
Let's start by getting the wallet for your platform. Please go the website: https://github.com/muecoin/MUE/releases/latest and select the wallet that matches your computer. For this tutorial we will be using a 64-bit Windows machine for the cold storage wallet and a Ubuntu Linux VPS for the hot masternode daemon.
Download the Windows client, mon-win64-setup-unsigned.exe You may check the files with the provided checksums, verify that the files downloaded correctly, and if they are different, please re-download the client again.
You may be prompted by the Windows Firewall to allow the wallet to accept connections on private and open networks. Please select both network boxes and accept. Now, with the client open, let it sync to the network wait for the blockchain to be downloaded. The wallet will attempt to synchronize with the network, no manual actions should be needed at this point.
However, if the wallet fails to get seed nodes from the monetaryunit network, the user can manually add nodes from the block explorer: https://chainz.cryptoid.info/mue/#!network
In your wallet, go to Settings and then Encrypt Wallet
Provide a strong password to secure your funds. Please make sure to remember this password or write it down and keep it in a bank safe deposit. If you lose your wallet password, there is no means of recovering your funds!
After providing a strong password, the wallet needs to be restarted to lock and encrypt your funds. Please restart your wallet for this step to complete.
We need to activate a few advanced wallet features before proceeding.
Click on Settings and Options and select the two top boxes
"Enable coin control features" and "Show Masternodes Tab"
Click OK and we are ready to continue.
With the wallet back up and running, it's time to get it ready for the masternode address.
Open the console by clicking the Tools menu and selecting Debug console
The next command provides us with a key for the masternode collateral. Please type
masternode genkey
and hit enter. The output will look something like this:
5EmzAjbC7HBqTF6VSGysNCgZaBfRRAXMEHmFAzuw5Ywnccb9Bkj
Note: this is not the same as a MUE address private key. This key is used to communicate to the MUE network that this is a masternode, it cannot be used to move the collateral funds. The key is used to announce the presence of the masternode to the network, or remove the node from the masternode list.
Next, we need to make a transaction of exactly 500 000 MUE to an address. This is very important, the transaction must be exactly 500 000 MUE for the collateral, no more and no less.
Go to the Receive tab of your wallet and in the Label field write Masternode Collateral and keep the two checkboxes Reuse an existing receiving address and Request InstantSend unchecked. Click the orange button Request payment to get a new address:
7WszYALmCVMJLN39JngawyVszvwrjYMEub
This is the address we will be sending our collateral to.
Next, make a transaction of exactly 500 000 MUE to the address you just generated. If you are sending from you own wallet or from an exchange, make sure that any transaction fees are not taken from the sending amount. It is crucial that the collateral transaction is exactly 500 000 MUE and made in one (1) single transaction.
Go to the Send tab of your wallet and paste in the MUE address to receive the collateral funds.
Uncheck the box with Subtract fee from amount and ensure that the sending amount is exactly 500 000 MUE.
Please triple check that the address is correct, and that the sending amount is 500 000 MUE. If you by mistake send your funds to the wrong address, THEY WILL BE GONE!
After checking everything, send your funds to the address above and wait for the transaction to confirm. Press send and write your wallet password to make the transaction.
Check the Transactions tab, and there should be a transaction listed as Payment to yourself if you sent the funds from the wallet. Otherwise sending from an exchange will list that transaction address instead.
To avoid spending these funds we can lock the transaction in the wallet. This is done with the the coin control features of the wallet. Go back to the Send tab of the wallet and click on the Inputs... botton.
Select the box(es) with the 500 000 MUE transfer(s). Right click and chose Lock unspent. Notice that a small lock icon is shown next to the tranaction. This prevents the coins in this transaction from being spent the next time a transaction is made from the wallet. This is good, because if funds are taken from the holding address, it breaks the transaction for the masternode collateral and the masternode stops working - even if we have more than 500 000 MUE in our cold storage wallet! Should you want to send these funds again, simply right click on the transaction and select Unlock unspent.
This guide will use Digital Ocean as a VPS provider, but the reader is free to chose whomever they like. The author has used them for years as a masternode host and they are very reliable. There are defiantly cheaper providers, but something to consider is that the masternode needs to be up and running 24/7 for supporting the network. Running a masternode on a cheaper, less reliable host will likely give more downtime and less payments in the longer run.
This promotion & referral code https://m.do.co/c/0c50700df3bf gives every new user a $10 value to start using a new VPS. Please feel free to use it if you like.
Sign up for a new account, log in and click New Droplet
For this guide we are looking to start a 18.04 Ubuntu version of Linux as the host:
Select the 1 vCPU core / 1 GB of RAM memory / 25 GB of hard drive space version. The $10 USD credit provided via the promotional code will give most of the first month hosting for free! Chose a location, it doesn't really matter, but it might be better to chose a location closer to yourself for the remote management.
If you would rather like to build the VPS hot node daemon from source instead, consider getting the VPS that has 2GB of ram.
Create the droplet, and the root login, ip and password will be sent to your email address. These details are needed to access your VPS instance.
To access a Linux VPS, you need a program called Putty, http://www.putty.org/ it is a client to securely connect remotely to the VPS host.
Install the client and open putty.exe, if needed allow it through the Windows firewall and access your new droplet.
Provide the ip-number, keep the port on 22, and save the configuration with a suitable name. This allows for easier access next time you want to log on your droplet.
Click connect and a block window will open up, prompting you for your login and password. root is the login and the password is in your email from Digital Ocean.
Once logged in, it is smart to change the root password to something more secure. Remember that the email with the root password was sent in plain text, better change that and secure your VPS! Type the command:
passwd
and then provide a new password twice to change the password for user root.
We need a new common user to run the masternode. Running as root is in itself a security risk and is not encouraged. Here we are adding the user "mue", but you may choose whatever username you like. type the following commands:
useradd -d /home/mue -s /bin/bash -m mue
passwd mue
This adds the user mue and we setup the users password.
Next add the user to the sudo group:
usermod -aG sudo mue
Now, we have a normal user that can do some administrative tasks on the system.
Lets switch to the new user mue and proceed with the installation:
su - mue
Just for good measures, make sure the user mue is in the right directory:
cd /home/mue
Before starting the installation, make sure the VPS is all updated and ready to go. Do upgrade the VPS from time to time. Once a week is probably a good routine:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade && sudo apt autoclean
Select y to proceed with any updates and wait for the VPS to complete the tasks.
Next, download the Linux client, and unpack the compressed files:
wget https://github.com/muecoin/MUE/releases/download/v2.0.2/mon-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz
tar -zxvf mon-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz
We need to copy the binaries to a folder in our path for easier access
sudo cp mon/monetaryunit-cli /usr/local/bin/
sudo cp mon/monetaryunitd /usr/local/bin/
sudo cp mon/monetaryunit-tx /usr/local/bin/
Please note that we do not need to copy the monetaryunit-qt file, as it is the graphical wallet interface. It will not work on our server.
If we want to build the daemon instead, we have to setup the building environment before compiling the source:
Please note that compiling the software requires more than 1GB of RAM memory for the VPS. Please setup a swap file or use a VPS instance with at least 2GB of RAM memory.
sudo add-apt-repository universe
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bitcoin/bitcoin
sudo apt-get update -y
git clone https://github.com/muecoin/MUE.git
sudo apt-get install build-essential libtool autotools-dev autoconf pkg-config libssl-dev -y
sudo apt-get install libprotobuf-dev protobuf-compiler -y
cd MUE/depends/
make -j2 NO_QT=1
cd ..
./autogen.sh
./configure --prefix=/home/<your_user_name>/MUE/depends/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu --enable-tests=no --with-gui=no
make -j2
make install
sudo cp depends/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/bin/monetaryunit* /usr/local/bin/
sudo strip /usr/local/bin/monetaryunit*
Open putty again, and connect to your VPS. When prompted log in as user mue
Next step is to setup the configuration files for the MUE daemon (client) Use the editor nano to edit the files. More experienced users may use other editors, but nano is an easy to use editor for new beginners and more experienced users alike.
cd .monetaryunit
nano -w monetaryunit.conf
write or copy the settings below to your monetaryunit.conf file:
rpcuser=XXXXXXXXXXXXX
rpcpassword=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
rpcallowip=127.0.0.1
#----
listen=1
server=1
daemon=1
maxconnections=128
#--------------------
masternode=1
masternodeprivkey=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
externalip=XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX:19687
#
#If needed, uncomment these nodes for connections to the network:
#addnode=dns1.monetaryunit.org
#addnode=dns2.monetaryunit.org
#addnode=dns3.monetaryunit.org
#addnode=192.99.217.102
#addnode=164.132.151.109
The rpcuser and password can be anything you like, just put in some long random strings of text.
The masternodeprivkey is the long key we obtained earlier on the Windows wallet after the masternode genkey command.
The externalip is the ipnumber of the masternode VPS.
Save and exit the edited file by pressing ctrl w followed by ctrl x.
We will secure the configuration file by changing its permissions:
chmod 600 /home/mue/.monetaryunit/monetaryunit.conf
monetaryunitd -daemon
The MUE client will start downloading the blockchain, and synchronize to the network. Give it time to sync up, and in the meantime we will continue with more configuration on the cold node (Windows). The masternode.conf on the Windows host must be made with the correct data for controlling the masternode hot node.
Open the Windows MUE client again, and under the menu Tools look for the option Open Masternode Configuration File near the bottom of the list. Select that option to open up the configuration file. If prompted, select to open the file in Notepad.
The syntax of this file is very important, but it is also very straight forward.
The masternode.conf file needs a few values;
Format: alias IP:port masternodeprivkey collateral_output_txid collateral_output_index
- the
aliasis a name we assign to our masternode, likeMN1 IP:portare the external ip and node for the hot node on the VPS. The port for MUE mainnet is19683masternodeprivkeyis the output from themasternode genkeycommand earlier, eg5EmzAjbC7HBqTF6VSGysNCgZaBfRRAXMEHmFAzuw5Ywnccb9Bkj- for the
collateral_output_txidandcollateral_output_indexwe need to issue a command in the cold wallet console.
In the wallet, select Tools and Debug console, and in the console window run the command:
masternode outputs
the output will look something like this:
masternode outputs
{
"f9a2013b00205098ad8b192d9ac68e7d55e47eb80c860972a404a51bfbc100ac": "1"
}
which are the two values that we are looking for. The collateral_output_index will be either a 0 or a 1.
Alternaly, check your transaction history in the wallet: double click on the collateral transaction Payment to yourself and the transaction can be found in hte transaction dialog. Compare this with the outputs from masternode outputs, this is helpful if the user has multiple collateral transactions and can use this to find the specific transaction details.
Put these values in the masternode.conf all on one single line, save the file and restart the wallet.
MN1 123.45.56.78:19687 5EmzAjbC7HBqTF6VSGysNCgZaBfRRAXMEHmFAzuw5Ywnccb9Bkj f9a2013b00205098ad8b192d9ac68e7d55e47eb80c860972a404a51bfbc100ac 1
When the cold wallet starts up again, check the masternode tab, and the masternode should be visible in the list of your own masternodes.
monetaryunit-cli mnsync status
We need the masternode hot wallet to be synced and up to date before proceeding. It will be ready when the output looks like this:
{
"AssetID": 999,
"AssetName": "MASTERNODE_SYNC_FINISHED",
"Attempt": 0,
"IsBlockchainSynced": true,
"IsMasternodeListSynced": true,
"IsWinnersListSynced": true,
"IsSynced": true,
"IsFailed": false
}
If the output is different, please wait for the node to finish syncing, and try the command monetaryunit-cli mnsync status again. When the hot node is all synced and ready, the node is communicating to the MonetaryUnit network and waiting for further instructions. The masternode is not yet accepted by the other masternodes, we must start it first.
We need to activate the masternode, so we move back to the cold wallet on Windows. Check the masternode tab of the wallet.
If you have more than one masternode in the list, check the masternode that you would like to start.
Finally, click the Start alias button, and the masternode will be activated on the network. You will be prompted to unlock your wallet, so type in your password and click OK.
We can see the output change in the masternode status fields to Pre-Enabled and then Enabled
Verify the status on your hot node with the command:
monetaryunit-cli masternode debug
Masternode successfully started
Well done! Congratulations to successfully getting your masternode up and running!
Below are a few guides to improving the stability and performance of the masternode VPS
-
Setting up a firewall to protect the masternode - Install and configure to run the UFW firewall on the VPS. This is critical to protecting the masternode against remote attacks.
-
Monit - a monitoring service to prevent downtime! - Install and configure Monit, a monitoring service to keep your masternode up and running.
-
Hardening of your VPS - Increase the security of your VPS. Prevent remote root access, block persistent intrusion attempts, and keep your masternode server secure.