Getting IRI running on a Google Cloud Instance

Google Cloud gives you $300 in free credit once you join, so that's a node running for free for at least 3 months.

Table of Contents:

Starting Your Instance
Installing IRI
Monitoring IRI
Installing Nelson (Only Nelson, no manual neighbors)

Soon:
Installing Nelson with manual neighbors
Adding nelson.gui for node monitoring

Starting Your Instance

1. Make a Google Cloud account (https://console.cloud.google.com/).

2. Once created and logged in, you have to create a project.

3. Once the box opens, create a new project "+", call it "Iota".

4. In the search box, type in Instance, and click on the result that says Instances, Compute Engine.

5. It'll take some time to start this service, but once it's started, click "Create".

6. Call the instance something like, "iota-full-node-1"

7. Pick a zone, if you're in the US, pick east, central, or west. The closer it is to you, the faster you can ssh, etc. Here's the location of all specific zones: (https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/regions-zones/)

8. Pick at least 2vCPU and 4gb or ram, recommended is 6gb+ and 4 cores, but that can get pricey. Update 12/26/2017: After extensive testing, all you really need is 2core/6gb/128gb (SSD Recommended).

9. Change your boot disk to Ubuntu 17.10, it's the latest and won't require a reboot. Make sure you give yourself at least 96gb of HD space (I recommend). Pick SSD for faster read/write or standard for cheaper but slower read/write.

10. Important: Under Identity and API access, make sure "Allow full access to all Cloud APIs" is checked.

11. Important: Under Firewall, make sure "Allow HTTP traffic" and "Allow HTTPS traffic" is checked.

12. Create instance, once it's done we have to enable all the ports.

13. We must enable all the ports for IRI and nelson to work properly, In the search box type External IP addresses. You'll see your server, make sure you change the IP from Ephemeral to Static.

14. Now we have to enable the necessary ports. Click Firewall rules on the left side. Create a new firewall rule, we have 4 ports we have to open (14265, udp 14600, tcp 15600, and 16600 for nelson).

15. Start with 14265, call it something like iota-14265-in,
    Direction of traffic: Ingress
    Action on match: Allow,
    Targets: All instances in the network
    IP ranges: 0.0.0.0/0
    Specified protocols and ports: tcp; udp:14265;

16. Repeat this except call the new one iota-14265-out, and Direction of traffic: Egress.

17. Repeat the same for port 16600.

18. For udp 14600, you only have to do Specified protocols and ports: udp:14600;, for tcp tcp:15600.

19. Remember to do both in and out ( Ingress and Egress ).

20. Go back to Instances, Google Compute, click on SSH to access the shell and part 2, Installing IRI.

Installing IRI

We have to do a bit of maintenance on the server and upgrade all the things we need to get up and running.

1. Lets upgrade as needed:

sudo apt update -qqy --fix-missing && sudo apt-get upgrade -y && sudo apt-get clean -y && sudo apt-get autoremove -y --purge

2. We're going to install the Oracle version of Java 8, make sure you accept the license agreement.

sudo apt install software-properties-common -y && sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java -y && sudo apt update && sudo apt install oracle-java8-installer curl wget jq git -y && sudo apt install oracle-java8-set-default -y

3. Lets add 2 users, one for IOTA and one for nelson in the future. This is for security.

sudo useradd -s /usr/sbin/nologin -m iota
sudo useradd -s /usr/sbin/nologin -m nelson

4. Lets create directories where everything will live.

sudo -u iota mkdir -p /home/iota/node /home/iota/node/ixi /home/iota/node/mainnetdb

5. Lets download the latest IRI and put it in the node directory.

sudo -u iota wget -O /home/iota/node/iri-1.4.1.4.jar https://github.com/iotaledger/iri/releases/download/v1.4.1.4/iri-1.4.1.4.jar

6. We want to create a service for IRI, just in case you reboot or if you want to start it then stop it.

sudo nano /lib/systemd/system/iota.service

IMPORTANT: Then paste, but remember to remove {{ SUBSTITUTE }} and substitute with your server's ram. Here's a simple chart:

• 4gb: -Xmx3g
• 6gb: -Xmx4500m or -Xmx4g
• 8gb: -Xmx6144m or -Xmx6g
• 10gb: -Xmx8192m or -Xmx8g
• 12gb: -Xmx10240m or -Xmx10g
• 16gb: -Xmx14336m or -Xmx14g

So the line will read:

ExecStart=/usr/bin/java -Xmx6144m -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true -jar iri-1.4.1.4.jar -c iota.ini` for an 8gb server.

Paste this:

[Unit]
Description=IOTA (IRI) full node
After=network.target

[Service]
WorkingDirectory=/home/iota/node
User=iota
PrivateDevices=yes
ProtectSystem=full
Type=simple
ExecReload=/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID
KillMode=mixed
KillSignal=SIGTERM
TimeoutStopSec=60
ExecStart=/usr/bin/java {{ SUBSTITUTE }} -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true -jar iri-1.4.1.4.jar -c iota.ini
SyslogIdentifier=IRI
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=30

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Alias=iota.service

7. Save with Ctrl + X, then Y, then Enter
8. To enable the service type:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload && sudo systemctl enable iota.service

You can now start/stop/restart the service with: sudo service iota start|stop|restart|status

9. Now we have to configure IRI. Type this into the terminal:

cat << "EOF" | sudo -u iota tee /home/iota/node/iota.ini

Then paste the following, remember to add a few RELIABLE neighbors. Reliable neighbors have NEW incoming transactions. You can ask for neighbors on the iotatangle.slack. People are having luck with TCP vs. UDP. I have no idea because syncing is out of whack. Press enter once you pasted and entered neighbors.

[IRI]
PORT = 14265
UDP_RECEIVER_PORT = 14600
TCP_RECEIVER_PORT = 15600
API_HOST = 0.0.0.0
IXI_DIR = ixi
HEADLESS = true
DEBUG = false
TESTNET = false
DB_PATH = mainnetdb
RESCAN_DB = true
REMOTE_LIMIT_API="removeNeighbors, addNeighbors, interruptAttachingToTangle, attachToTangle, getNeighbors"
NEIGHBORS = {{ NEIGHBORS GO HERE }}
EOF

10. Now we have to add a Database so IRI has a starting point for syncing. First we made (previously) the directory for the db, then we download the database inside. Lets navigate to the iota directory.

cd /home/iota/node/

Then download and copy the database into the directory, then delete the download (it's big, like 8gb). This will take some time.

sudo curl -O http://db.iota.partners/IOTA.partners-mainnetdb.tar.gz && sudo tar xzfv ./IOTA.partners-mainnetdb.tar.gz -C ./mainnetdb && sudo rm ./IOTA.partners-mainnetdb.tar.gz && sudo service iota start

11. We are ready to start the IRI node for the first time.

sudo service iota start

12. Lets enable auto-updating of the IRI if there's a new version. This will check for a new version every 15 minutes.

echo '*/15 * * * * root bash -c "bash <(curl -s https://gist.githubusercontent.com/zoran/48482038deda9ce5898c00f78d42f801/raw)"' | sudo tee /etc/cron.d/iri_updater > /dev/null

Monitoring IRI

1. Check the health of the Node with this command, make sure you have no errors:

journalctl -u iota -f

2. Show all neighbors you have now:

curl http://localhost:14265 -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H 'X-IOTA-API-Version: 1.4' -d '{"command": "getNeighbors"}' | jq

3. Show IRI Status:
   PLEASE NOTE: It takes a long time to get up from milestone 243000 to the current one, be it with nelson or manual neighbors.

curl http://localhost:14265 -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H 'X-IOTA-API-Version: 1.4' -d '{"command": "getNodeInfo"}' | jq

4. If IRI gets stuck on a milestone, you need to stop the service, delete the database and database logs, redownload the database, install it, and restart iota service.

5. Add/Remove Neighbors, useful for removing nelson neighbors with 0 incoming new transactions:

Add Neighbors:

curl -H 'X-IOTA-API-VERSION: 1.4' -d '{"command":"addNeighbors", "uris":[
  "tcp://ip-of-the-new-neighbor:12345", "udp://ip-of-the-new-neighbor:54321"
]}' http://localhost:14265

Remove Neighbors:

curl -H 'X-IOTA-API-VERSION: 1.4' -d '{"command":"removeNeighbors", "uris":[
  "tcp://ip-of-the-new-neighbor:12345", "udp://ip-of-the-new-neighbor:54321"
]}' http://localhost:14265

Installing Nelson

1. Install nodejs 8+ and npm:

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_8.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

2. Navigate to your home directory and create a nelson directory

sudo -u nelson mkdir /home/nelson

3. Install nelson globally.

sudo npm install -g nelson.cli

4. Run this command and then paste in the config.

cat << "EOF" | sudo -u iota tee /home/nelson/config.ini

Config:

[nelson]
cycleInterval = 60
epochInterval = 300
apiPort = 18600
apiHostname = 127.0.0.1
port = 16600
IRIHostname = localhost
IRIPort = 14265
TCPPort = 14600
UDPPort = 15600
dataPath = data/neighbors.db
incomingMax = 5
outgoingMax = 4
isMaster = false
silent = false
gui = false
getNeighbors = https://raw.githubusercontent.com/SemkoDev/nelson.cli/master/ENTRYNODES
; add as many initial Nelson neighbors, as you like
neighbors[] = mainnet.deviota.com/16600
neighbors[] = mainnet2.deviota.com/16600
neighbors[] = mainnet3.deviota.com/16600
neighbors[] = iotairi.tt-tec.net/16600
EOF

5. If you haven't started your IRI service, start it now. Start nelson with:

sudo nelson --config /home/nelson/config.ini

6. Keep an eye on your neighbors with the getNeighbors API call. Paste it in and check every 2-4 minutes.

curl http://localhost:14265 -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -H 'X-IOTA-API-Version: 1.4' -d '{"command": "getNeighbors"}' | jq

7. If you're stuck with a neighbor that's not producing new transactions, like this one (example), or they're producing invalid transactions, remove them:

{
  "address": "example.neighbor:15600",
  "numberOfAllTransactions": 6535,
  "numberOfRandomTransactionRequests": 0,
  "numberOfNewTransactions": 0,
  "numberOfInvalidTransactions": 0,
  "numberOfSentTransactions": 11299,
  "connectionType": "tcp"
}

Remove the naughty neighbor manually with this command:

curl -H 'X-IOTA-API-VERSION: 1.4' -d '{"command":"removeNeighbors", "uris":[
  "tcp://example.neighbor:15600"
]}' http://localhost:14265

Remember to have the connection type before their address.

8. If you get stuck on a number HIGHER than 243000 for longer than 30 minutes, run this command and start all over:

sudo rm -r /home/iota/node/mainnet.log && sudo rm -r /home/iots/node/mainnetdb && sudo -u iota mkdir /home/iota/node/mainnetdb && cd /home/iota/node && sudo curl -O http://db.iota.partners/IOTA.partners-mainnetdb.tar.gz && sudo tar xzfv ./IOTA.partners-mainnetdb.tar.gz -C /home/iota/node/mainnetdb && sudo rm ./IOTA.partners-mainnetdb.tar.gz && sudo service iota start && sudo nelson --config /home/nelson/config.ini

9. It takes patience.

I'm running 6 nodes now, please help out the cost by donating here:

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