Running a Consensus Node
Last updated
Was this helpful?
Last updated
Was this helpful?
If you're planning to run a consensus miner, it's important to make sure your system meets the recommended requirements to ensure that your miner performs at its best.The consensus miner consists of a cess-node and a Tee worker.
Recommended OS
Ubuntu_x64 20.04 or higher
CPU Processor Num
≥ 4
Intel SGX Enabled
required
Memory (SGX encrypted memory)
≥ 16 GB
Bandwidth
≥ 5 Mbps
Public Network IP
required
Linux Kernel Version
5.11 or higher
For a system to support Intel Software Guard Extensions () and Flexible Launch Control (FLC), it needs a CPU that supports these features. The CPU should be either Intel ME, Intel SPS, or both Intel SPS and Intel ME. Additionally, the BIOS must support Intel SGX and the SGX option must be enabled. To enable SGX functionality, please refer to the server manufacturer's BIOS guide. You can also check out the to ensure your system supports Intel SGX.
CPU Recommended Models: Intel E, E3, Celeron (some models), Core series CPUs, with Intel Core i5-10500 being the optimal choice.
Recommended Motherboard BIOS: Preferred options include mainstream manufacturers such as Supermicro.
The server requires a static public IPv4 IP. Please ensure that the IP address is accessible and not behind a NAT. Run the following command to confirm your public IP.
Before setting up your CESS wallet accounts, you must select the type of consensus miner you would like to run.
Starting from version CESS v0.7.9-venus, users can select the consensus miner's operational capacity. Depending on the type of operational capacity the work load of TEE differs.
Full: A full node is a type of node that has all the necessary functions to operate as a fully-capable consensus miner. This includes generating random challenges, verifying data, computing tags, and generating and replacing space holder data, etc. Moreover, these nodes participate in the network consensus. To register as a full node, binding to consensus nodes is required.
Verifier: Verifier nodes also participate in netowrk consensus and handles random challenges for idle and service data. These nodes are also required to bound to consensus nodes for registration.
Marker: These nodes are called Markers, and their role is to compute tags for the user's data, also known as service data. They are also responsible for creating, verifying, and replacing idle data segments. These nodes can be registered independently and serve a designated storage node cluster. It's important to note that operating the consensus node in this capacity does not increase reputation points.
To run the consensus miner in both Full and Verifier operational capacities, you need two separate accounts.
Stash Account: This is the account where you keep all the funds you want to stake. This account requires at least 3,000,000 TCESS for staking it can be either from the node owner itself or delegated by other users.
Controller Account: This account is required to pay gas fees for staking-related transactions and registration.
The Stash Account is used to bond/unbond your funds and to choose which address will be the Controller Account. The Controller Account is used to take actions on behalf of the bonded funds. However, the Controller Account can't move the bonded funds out of the Stash Account.
Select the appropriate stash account from the drop down menu and enter at least 3,000,000 TCESS in value bounded field. In payment destination, select Stash Account as the reward receiving account (do not increase the amount at stake), which means that mining income will not be automatically added to the stake.
Click Bond -> Sign and Submit to link the Stash Account.
Fund is bonded successfully!
The cess-nodeadm is a CESS node deployment and management tool. It helps deploying and managing storage nodes, consensus nodes, and full nodes, simplifying the devOps for all CESS miners.
On successful installation of cess-nodeadm you will see Install cess nodeadm success message.
Execute:
The following is an operational example of running the miner in the Full capacity mode:
Tips: You can press Enter to skip when the default value of 'current' is suitable
If you select the "authority" option, the Intel SGX driver on your device will be initiated in software mode. You might encounter a notification that reads "Software enable has been set. Please reboot your system to finish enabling Intel SGX." Therefore, it is recommended that you restart your device after completing the configuration and before moving on to the next steps.
You will see the follwing message printed on the screen.
Give your node a name then you can either enter CESS chain ws url or leave it as default.
The next prompt you will asked to set the TEE worker port. You can either set a custom port or leave it as default. Once the port is set the public IP of the system is automaticallt detected. In case you find that the public ip is incorrect you can enter it manually. Instead or IP you can also use your domain name here.
The current version of Tee worker supports two running remote attestation types. You can choose according to your machine. For details on how to know which remote attestation type your machine supports, please see the Questions & Answers at the end of the article.
You can choose role now. Full mode has all the capabilities of Tee worker, Verifier only has the capabilities of Tee worker to verify the proof from miners, and Marker only has the capabilities of Tee worker to tag file from miners. When you choose the Marker role, you do not need to fill in the CESS validator stash account in the next step.
Then enter your CESS Controller account mnemonic phrase.
Lastly, you will see the following messages printed on the screen which downloads all the required docker images.
Start the consensus node
Generate a session key
The field in the quotation marks after "result" is the Session Key, which will be used in subsequent operations. "localhost:9933" is the default port.
Setup a session key
Fill in the Session Key in the red box
Click Sign and Submit
Becoming a validator
Enter 100 in reward commission percentage, indicating that the reward will not be distributed to others.
Select No, block all nominations in allows new nominations dropdown, indicating that no nominations will be accepted.
Again, click Sign and Submit.
You should see that the node has already appeared on the candidate node list.
Navigate to CESS Explorer: Network > Staking > Payouts > Payout.
In Payouts, click Payout to initiate a payment. Any account can initiate a payment.
Stop the Consensus
Clear Session Keys
Enter controller account in using the selected account controller. Then in submit the following extrinsic, enter session and choose purgeKeys() in the box next to it.
Click Submit Transaction button to clear session keys
Unbond fund
Stop the CESS client
Do not perform this operation unless the CESS network has been redeployed and it is confirmed that the data can be cleared.
cess-nodeadmI don't want to expose my IP address on the chain. What should I do?
Alternatively, you can manually configure an nginx proxy. Please avoid using the intermediate proxy provided by the domain service provider.
How do I know if the program is working properly?
You can select Chain State in the block explorer. Through this method, you can check whether the registration was successful.
I don't want the program to update automatically. What should I do?
After the program has started successfully, a watchtower service will manage local services on behalf of the user. When the CESS official updates a component, the watchtower will pull the latest program for automatic upgrading. If you don't want to use the automatic upgrade feature, you can disable it with the following command before the cess config set.
Every automatic upgrade from you means a bug fix for the consensus miner program by the official, and we strongly discourage you from turning off the automatic upgrade feature, as this may render your service unusable.
How do I know which remote attestation method my machine supports? If the processor supports Intel® SGX and FLC, then DCAP is supported. There are two options to determine if your system's processor supports FLC:
First Option: On Linux* systems, execute cpuid in a terminal:
Open a terminal and run: $ cpuid | grep -i sgx
Look for the output: SGX_LC: SGX launch config supported = true
Second Option: Using test-sgx.c:
Compile and run test-sgx.c according to the following instructions:
Find Output: sgx launch control: 1
You can also refer to the artcle for creating a CESS account.
You can either use to get TCESS, or to receive TCESS tokens for staking.
After the wallet account is created, navigate to .
Open and Select Network > Staking > Accounts > Stash
You can verify that you are running the latest version of .
If the installation fails, please check the .
It is very important to fill in the correct TEE Worker server address while you configure the endpoint. If you would like to know more about TEE Worker, please refer to the .
If the configuration process fails, please refer to the .
Navigate to , choose Network > Staking > Accounts > Session Key
Navigate to , click Network > Staking > Accounts > Validate
After completing the steps above, open the and click Network > Staking > Waiting.
In , navigate to: Network > Staking > Account Actions > Stop.
In , navigate to: Developer -> Submission
After 28 eras (each era of the test network is 6 hours), goto , navigate to: Network > Staking > Account Actions > Unbond Funds.
Currently is v0.5.5.
During the cess config set process, you can set your endpoint with a domain name. For example, if your registered domain is tee-xxx.cess.network, you can enter when setting the endpoint. The script will then ask you if you want to enable one-click domain proxy. You can enter y to enable it, as shown below:
Go to the and download the file test-sgx.c or clone the repository
