The most up-to date version of this document is available at:
- https://gitorious.org/electrum/server/blobs/master/HOWTO
+ https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum-server/blob/master/HOWTO.md
Conventions
-----------
Prerequisites
-------------
-**Expertise.** You should be familiar with Linux command line and standard
-Linux commands. You should have basic understanding of git, Python packages,
-compiling and applying patches to source code. You should have knowledge
-about how to install and configure software on your Linux distribution. You
-should be able to add commands to your distribution's startup scripts. If
-one of the commands included in this document is not available or does not
-perform the operation described here, you are expected to fix the issue so
-you can continue following this howto.
+**Expertise.** You should be familiar with Linux command line and
+standard Linux commands. You should have basic understanding of git,
+Python packages. You should have knowledge about how to install and
+configure software on your Linux distribution. You should be able to
+add commands to your distribution's startup scripts. If one of the
+commands included in this document is not available or does not
+perform the operation described here, you are expected to fix the
+issue so you can continue following this howto.
**Software.** A recent Linux distribution with the following software
-installed: `python`, `easy_install`, `git`, a SQL server, standard C/C++
+installed: `python`, `easy_install`, `git`, standard C/C++
build chain. You will need root access in order to install other software or
-Python libraries. You will need access to the SQL server to create users and
-databases.
-
-**Hardware.** Running a Bitcoin node and Electrum server is
-resource-intensive. At the time of this writing, the Bitcoin blockchain is
-3.5 GB large. The corresponding SQL database is about 4 time larger, so you
-should have a minimum of 14 GB free space. You should expect the total size
-to grow with time. CPU speed is also important, mostly for the initial block
-chain import, but also if you plan to run a public Electrum server, which
-could serve tens of concurrent requests. See step 6 below for some initial
-import benchmarks.
+Python libraries.
+
+**Hardware.** The lightest setup is a pruning server with diskspace
+requirements well under 1 GB growing very moderately and less taxing
+on I/O and CPU once it's up and running. If you have more ressources to spare
+you can run the server with a higher limit of historic transactions per address.
+CPU speed is also important, mostly for the initial block chain import, but
+also if you plan to run a public Electrum server, which could serve tens
+of concurrent requests.
Instructions
------------
-### Step 0. Create a user for running bitcoind and Electrum server
+### Step 1. Create a user for running bitcoind and Electrum server
This step is optional, but for better security and resource separation I
suggest you create a separate user just for running `bitcoind` and Electrum.
PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"
-### Step 1. Download and install Electrum
+### Step 2. Download and install Electrum
We will download the latest git snapshot for Electrum and 'install' it in
our ~/bin directory:
$ mkdir -p ~/src/electrum
$ cd ~/src/electrum
- $ git://gitorious.org/electrum/server.git
+ $ git clone https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum-server.git server
$ chmod +x ~/src/electrum/server/server.py
$ ln -s ~/src/electrum/server/server.py ~/bin/electrum
-### Step 2. Install a patched version of bitcoind
-
-Electrum server requires some small modifications to the bitcoind daemon.
-The patch is included in the Electrum sources we just downloaded, now we
-will download the Bitcoin sources, patch, compile and install the binary to
-our `~/bin` directory.
+### Step 2. Download Bitcoind from git & patch it
-Note that updated versions may affect these instructions, so *be mindful of
-what you are doing!*
+In order for the latest versions of Electrum to work properly we will need to use the latest
+build from Git and also patch it with an electrum specific patch.
+Please make sure you run a version of bitcoind from git from at least December 2012 or newer:
- $ cd ~/src
- $ wget https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/tarball/v0.6.0 -O bitcoin-0.6.0.tgz
- $ tar xvzf bitcoin-0.6.0.tgz
- $ mv bitcoin-bitcoin-b3b5ab1 bitcoin-0.6.0
- $ cd bitcoin-0.6.0/src
- $ patch -p 2 < ~/src/electrum/server/patches/bitcoin-0.6.0.diff
- $ make -f makefile.unix
- $ strip bitcoind
- $ mv bitcoind ~/bin
+ $ cd src && git clone git://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin.git
+ $ cd bitcoin
+ $ patch -p1 < ~/src/electrum/server/patch/patch
+ $ cd src && make -f makefile.unix
### Step 3. Configure and start bitcoind
time, running as the 'bitcoin' user. Check your system documentation to
find out the best way to do this.
-### Step 4. Install Electrum dependencies
+### Step 5. Install Electrum dependencies and leveldb
Electrum server depends on various standard Python libraries. These will be
already installed on your distribution, or can be installed with your
-package manager. Electrum also depends on two Python libraries which we wil
-l need to install "by hand": `Abe` and `JSONRPClib`.
+package manager. Electrum also depends on two Python libraries which we will
+need to install "by hand": `JSONRPClib`.
$ sudo easy_install jsonrpclib
- $ cd ~/src
- $ git clone git://github.com/jtobey/bitcoin-abe.git
- $ cd bitcoin-abe
- $ sudo python setup.py install
-
-Please note that the path below might be slightly different on your system,
-for example python2.6 or 2.8.
-
- $ sudo chmod +x /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/Abe/abe.py
- $ ln -s /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/Abe/abe.py ~/bin/abe
-
-### Step 5. Configure the database
-
-Electrum server uses a SQL database to store the blockchain data. In theory,
-it supports all databases supported by Abe. At the time of this writing,
-MySQL and PostgreSQL are tested and work ok, SQLite was tested and *does not
-work* with Electrum server.
-
-For MySQL:
-
- $ mysql -u root -p
- mysql> create user 'electrum'@'localhost' identified by '<db-password>';
- mysql> create database electrum;
- mysql> grant all on electrum.* to 'electrum'@'localhost';
- mysql> exit
-
-For PostgreSQL:
- TBW!
-### Step 6. Configure Abe and import blockchain into the database
+Then carry out the steps in README.leveldb to get your system ready for
+leveldb setups.
-When you run Electrum server for the first time, it will automatically
-import the blockchain into the database, so it is safe to skip this step.
-However, our tests showed that, at the time of this writing, importing the
-blockchain via Abe is much faster (about 20-30 times faster) than
-allowing Electrum to do it.
+### Step 6. Select your limit
- $ cp ~/src/bitcoin-abe/abe.conf ~/abe.conf
- $ $EDITOR ~/abe.conf
+Electrum server uses leveldb to store transactions. You can choose
+how many spent transactions per address you want to store on the server.
+The default is 100, but there are also servers with 1000 or even 10000.
+Very few addresses have more than 10000 transactions. A limit this high
+can be considered to be equivalent to a "full" server. Full servers previously
+used abe to store the blockchain. The use of abe for electrum servers is now
+deprecated.
-For MySQL, you need these lines:
+The pruning server uses leveldb and keeps a smaller and
+faster database by pruning spent transactions. It's a lot quicker to get up
+and running and requires less maintenance and diskspace than abe.
- dbtype MySQLdb
- connect-args = { "db" : "electrum", "user" : "electrum" , "passwd" : "<database-password>" }
+The section in the configuration file looks like this:
-For PostgreSQL, you need these lines:
+[leveldb]
+path = /path/to/your/database
+# for each address, history will be pruned if it is longer than this limit
+pruning_limit = 100
- TBD!
+### Step 7. Import blockchain into the database or download it
-Start Abe:
+As of April 2013 it takes between 12-24 to import 230k of blocks, depending
+on CPU speed, I/O speed and selected pruning limit.
- $ abe --config ~/abe.conf
+It's considerably faster to index in memory. You can use /dev/shm or indexing in RAM
+or create a tmpfs which will also use swap if you run out of memory:
-Abe will now start to import blocks. You will see a lot of lines like this:
+ $ sudo mount -t tmpfs -o rw,nodev,nosuid,noatime,size=6000M,mode=0777 none /tmpfs
- 'block_tx <block-number> <tx-number>'
+At limit 10000 the database comes to 3,5 GB with 230k blocks.
-You should wait until you see this message on the screen:
+Alternatively you can fetch a pre-processed leveldb from the net
- Listening on http://localhost:2750
+You can fetch recent copies of electrum leveldb databases and further instructions
+from the Electrum full archival server foundry at:
+http://electrum-foundry.no-ip.org/
-It means the blockchain is imported and you can exit Abe by pressing CTRL-C.
-You will not need to run Abe again after this step, Electrum server will
-update the blockchain by itself. We only used Abe because it is much faster
-for the initial import.
-
-Important notice: This is a *very* long process. Even on fast machines,
-expect it to take hours. Here are some benchmarks for importing
-~196K blocks (size of the Bitcoin blockchain at the time of this writing):
-
- * System 1: ~9 hours.
- * CPU: Intel Core i7 Q740 @ 1.73GHz
- * HDD: very fast SSD
- * System 2: ~55 hours.
- * CPU: Intel Xeon X3430 @ 2.40GHz
- * HDD: 2 x SATA in a RAID1.
-
-### Step 7. Configure Electrum server
+### Step 8. Configure Electrum server
Electrum reads a config file (/etc/electrum.conf) when starting up. This
file includes the database setup, bitcoind RPC setup, and a few other
$ sudo cp ~/src/electrum/server/electrum.conf.sample /etc/electrum.conf
$ sudo $EDITOR /etc/electrum.conf
-Write this in `electrum.conf`:
-
- # sample config for a public Electrum server
- [server]
- host = host-fqdn
- native_port = 50000
- stratum_tcp_port:50001
- stratum_http_port:8081
- password = <electrum-server-password>
- banner = Welcome to Electrum server!
- irc = yes
- cache = yes
-
- # sample config for a private server (does not advertise on IRC)
- [server]
- host = localhost
- native_port = 50000
- stratum_tcp_port:50001
- stratum_http_port:8081
- password = <electrum-server-password>
- banner = Welcome to my private Electrum server!
- irc = no
- cache = yes
-
- # database setup - MySQL
- [database]
- type = MySQLdb
- database = electrum
- username = electrum
- password = <database-password>
-
- # database setup - PostgreSQL
- TBD!
-
- # bitcoind RPC setup
- [bitcoind]
- host = localhost
- port = 8332
- user = <rpc-username>
- password = <rpc-password>
-
-### Step 8. (Finally!) Run Electrum server
+Go through the sample config options and set them to your liking.
+If you intend to run the server publicly have a look at README-IRC.md
+
+If you're looking to run SSL / HTTPS you need to generate a self-signed certificate
+using openssl. Otherwise you can just comment out the SSL / HTTPS ports and run
+without.
+
+### Step 9. (Finally!) Run Electrum server
The magic moment has come: you can now start your Electrum server:
- $ electrum-server
+ $ server
You should see this on the screen:
`~/src/electrum/server`. You can use them as a starting point to create a
init script for your system.
-### 9. Test the Electrum server
+### Step 10. Test the Electrum server
We will assume you have a working Electrum client, a wallet and some
transactions history. You should start the client and click on the green
addresses and transactions history. You can see the number of blocks and
response time in the Server selection window. You should send/receive some
bitcoins to confirm that everything is working properly.
+
+### Step 11. Join us on IRC, subscribe to the server thread
+
+Say hi to the dev crew, other server operators and fans on
+irc.freenode.net #electrum and we'll try to congratulate you
+on supporting the community by running an Electrum node
+
+If you're operating a public Electrum server please subscribe
+to or regulary check the following thread:
+https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=85475.0
+It'll contain announcements about important updates to Electrum
+server required for a smooth user experience.
git://git.novaco.in / electrum-server.git / blobdiff