Intro for new developers and witnesses

This is a quick introduction to get new developers and witnesses up to speed on Peerplays blockchain. It is intended for witnesses plannig to join a live, already deployed blockchain.

Building and Installation Instructions

Officially supported OS are Ubuntu 20.04 and Ubuntu 18.04.

Ubuntu 20.04 and 18.04

Following dependencies are needed for a clean install of Ubuntu 20.04 and Ubuntu 18.04:

sudo apt-get install \
    autoconf bash bison build-essential ca-certificates dnsutils expect flex git \
    graphviz libbz2-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev libncurses-dev libpcre3-dev \
    libsnappy-dev libsodium-dev libssl-dev libtool libzip-dev locales lsb-release \
    mc nano net-tools ntp openssh-server pkg-config python3 python3-jinja2 sudo \
    systemd-coredump wget

Boost libraries setup:

wget https://boostorg.jfrog.io/artifactory/main/release/1.72.0/source/boost_1_72_0.tar.gz
tar -xzf boost_1_72_0.tar.gz boost_1_72_0
cd boost_1_72_0
./bootstrap.sh
./b2
sudo ./b2 install
sudo ldconfig

cmake setup:

wget https://github.com/Kitware/CMake/releases/download/v3.24.2/cmake-3.24.2-linux-x86_64.sh
chmod 755 ./cmake-3.24.2-linux-x86_64.sh
sudo ./cmake-3.24.2-linux-x86_64.sh --prefix=/usr --skip-license
cmake --version

libzmq setup:

wget https://github.com/zeromq/libzmq/archive/refs/tags/v4.3.4.tar.gz
tar -xzvf v4.3.4.tar.gz
cd libzmq-4.3.4
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make -j$(nproc)
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig

cppzmq setup:

wget https://github.com/zeromq/cppzmq/archive/refs/tags/v4.9.0.tar.gz
tar -xzvf v4.9.0.tar.gz
cd cppzmq-4.9.0
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make -j$(nproc)
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig

gsl setup:

wget https://github.com/imatix/gsl/archive/refs/tags/v4.1.4.tar.gz
tar -xzvf v4.1.4.tar.gz
cd gsl-4.1.4
make -j$(nproc)
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig

libbitcoin-explorer setup:

git clone --branch version3.8.0 --depth 1 https://gitlab.com/PBSA/peerplays-1.0/libbitcoin-explorer.git
cd libbitcoin-explorer
sudo ./install.sh
sudo ldconfig

Doxygen setup:

wget https://github.com/doxygen/doxygen/archive/refs/tags/Release_1_8_17.tar.gz
tar -xvf Release_1_8_17.tar.gz
cd doxygen-Release_1_8_17
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make -j$(nproc)
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig

Perl setup:

wget https://github.com/Perl/perl5/archive/refs/tags/v5.30.0.tar.gz
tar -xvf v5.30.0.tar.gz
cd perl5-5.30.0
./Configure -des
make -j$(nproc)
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig

Building Peerplays

git clone https://gitlab.com/PBSA/peerplays.git
cd peerplays
git submodule update --init --recursive

# If you want to build Mainnet node
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release

# If you want to build Testnet node
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DBUILD_PEERPLAYS_TESTNET=1

# Update -j flag depending on your current system specs;
# Recommended 4GB of RAM per 1 CPU core
# make -j2 for 8GB RAM
# make -j4 for 16GB RAM
# make -j8 for 32GB RAM
make -j$(nproc)

sudo make install # this can install the executable files under /usr/local

Docker images

Install docker, and add current user to docker group.

sudo apt install docker.io
sudo usermod -a -G docker $USER

# You need to restart your shell session, to apply group membership
# Type 'groups' to verify that you are a member of a docker group

Official docker image for Peerplas Mainnet

docker pull datasecuritynode/peerplays:latest

Building docker images manually

# Checkout the code
git clone https://gitlab.com/PBSA/peerplays.git
cd peerplays

# Checkout the branch you want
# E.g.
# git checkout beatrice
# git checkout develop
git checkout master

git submodule update --init --recursive

# Execute from the project root, must be a docker group member

# Build docker image, using Ubuntu 20.04 base
docker build --no-cache -f Dockerfile -t peerplays .

# Build docker image, using Ubuntu 18.04 base
docker build --no-cache -f Dockerfile.18.04 -t peerplays-18-04 .

Start docker image

# Start docker image, using Ubuntu 20.04 base
docker run peerplays:latest

# Start docker image, using Ubuntu 18.04 base
docker run peerplays-18-04:latest

Rest of the instructions on starting the chain remains same.

Starting A Peerplays Node

Launching the witness creates required directories. Next, stop the witness and continue.

$ vi witness_node_data_dir/config.ini
p2p-endpoint = 0.0.0.0:9777
rpc-endpoint = 127.0.0.1:8090
seed-node = 213.184.225.234:59500

Start the witness back up

./programs/witness_node/witness_node

Upgrading A Peerplays Node

To minimize downtime of your peerplays node when upgrading, one upgrade idea was written in this steemit article.

Wallet Setup

Then, in a separate terminal window, start the command-line wallet cli_wallet:

./programs/cli_wallet/cli_wallet

To set your initial password to 'password' use:

>>> set_password password
>>> unlock password

A list of CLI wallet commands is available here.

Testnet - "Beatrice"

• chain-id - T.B.D.

Use the get_private_key_from_password command

You will to generate owner and active keys

get_private_key_from_password your_witness_username active the_key_you_received_from_the_faucet

This will reveal an array for your active key ["PPYxxx", "xxxx"]

import_keys into your cli_wallet

• use the second value in the array returned from the previous step for the private key
• be sure to wrap your username in quotes
• import the key with this command

import_key "your_witness_username" xxxx

Upgrade your account to lifetime membership

upgrade_account your_witness_username true

Create your witness (substitute the url for your witness information)

• place quotes around url

create_witness your_witness_username "url" true

Be sure to take note of the block_signing_key

IMPORTANT (issue below command using block_signing_key just obtained)

get_private_key block_signing_key

Compare this result to

dump_private_keys

You should see 3 pairs of keys. One of the pairs should match your block_signing_key and this is the one you will use in the next step!

Get your witness id

get_witness username (note the "id" for your config)

Modify your witness_node config.ini to include your witness id and private key pair.

Comment out the existing private-key before adding yours

vim witness_node_data_dir/config.ini

witness-id = "1.6.x"
private-key = ["block_signing_key","private_key_for_your_block_signing_key"]

start your witness back up

./programs/witness_node/witness_node

If it fails to start, try with these flags (not for permanent use)

./programs/witness_node/witness_node --resync --replay

Vote for yourself

vote_for_witness your_witness_account your_witness_account true true

Ask to be voted in!

Join @Peerplays Telegram group to find information about the witness group. http://t.me/@peerplayswitness

You will get logs that look like this:

2070264ms th_a       application.cpp:506           handle_block         ] Got block: #87913 time: 2017-05-27T16:34:30 latency: 264 ms from: bhuz-witness  irreversible: 87903 (-10)

Assuming you've received votes, you will start producing as a witness at the next maintenance interval (once per hour). You can check your votes with.

get_witness your_witness_account

systemd

It's important for your witness to start when your system boots up. The filepaths here assume that you installed your witness into /home/ubuntu/peerplays

Create a logfile to hold your stdout/err logging

sudo touch /var/log/peerplays.log

Save this file in your peerplays directory. vi /home/ubuntu/peerplays/start.sh

#!/bin/bash

cd /home/ubuntu/peerplays
./programs/witness_node/witness_node &> /var/log/peerplays.log

Make it executable

chmod 744 /home/ubuntu/peerplays/start.sh

Create this file: sudo vi /etc/systemd/system/peerplays.service Note the path for start.sh. Change it to match where your start.sh file is if necessary.

[Unit]
Description=Peerplays Witness
After=network.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/home/ubuntu/peerplays/start.sh

[Install]
WantedBy = multi-user.target

Enable the service

sudo systemctl enable peerplays.service

Make sure you don't get any errors

sudo systemctl status peerplays.service

Stop your witness if it is currently running from previous steps, then start it with the service.

sudo systemctl start peerplays.service

Check your logfile for entries

tail -f /var/log/peerplays.log

Running specific tests

• tests/chain_tests -t block_tests/name_of_test