The most up-to date version of this document is available at:
- https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum-server/blob/master/HOWTO.md
+ https://github.com/CryptoManiac/electrum-server/blob/master/HOWTO.md
Conventions
-----------
In this document, lines starting with a hash sign (#) or a dollar sign ($)
contain commands. Commands starting with a hash should be run as root,
commands starting with a dollar should be run as a normal user (in this
-document, we assume that user is called 'bitcoin'). We also assume the
-bitcoin user has sudo rights, so we use '$ sudo command' when we need to.
+document, we assume that user is called 'novacoin'). We also assume the
+novacoin user has sudo rights, so we use '$ sudo command' when we need to.
Strings that are surrounded by "lower than" and "greater than" ( < and > )
should be replaced by the user with something appropriate. For example,
should be copied verbatim or adapted, without the indentation tab.
apt-get install commands are suggestions for required dependencies.
-They conform to an Ubuntu 13.04 system but may well work with Debian
+They conform to an Ubuntu 13.10 system but may well work with Debian
or earlier and later versions of Ubuntu.
Prerequisites
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. However note that you also need
-to run bitcoind and keep a copy of the full blockchain, which is roughly
-9 GB in April 2013. If you have less than 2 GB of RAM make sure you limit
-bitcoind to 8 concurrent connections. 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
+requirements of about 200 MB for the electrum database. However note that
+you also need to run novacoind and keep a copy of the full blockchain,
+which is roughly 100 MB in 20 July 2014. If you have less than 2 GB of RAM
+make sure you limit novacoind to 16 concurrent connections. If you have more
+ressources to spare you can run the server with a higher limit of historic
+transactions per address. CPU speed is 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. Any multi-core x86 CPU ~2009 or
-newer other than Atom should do for good performance.
+newer other than Atom should do for good performance. An ideal setup
+has enough RAM to hold and procss the leveldb database in tmpfs (e.g. /dev/shm).
Instructions
------------
-### Step 1. Create a user for running bitcoind and Electrum server
+### Step 1. Create a user for running novacoind 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.
+suggest you create a separate user just for running `novacoind` and Electrum.
We will also use the `~/bin` directory to keep locally installed files
(others might want to use `/usr/local/bin` instead). We will download source
code files to the `~/src` directory.
- # sudo adduser bitcoin --disabled-password
- # su - bitcoin
+ $ sudo adduser novacoin --disabled-password
+ $ sudo apt-get install git
+ # su - novacoin
$ mkdir ~/bin ~/src
$ echo $PATH
-If you don't see `/home/bitcoin/bin` in the output, you should add this line
+If you don't see `/home/novacoin/bin` in the output, you should add this line
to your `.bashrc`, `.profile` or `.bash_profile`, then logout and relogin:
PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"
We will download the latest git snapshot for Electrum and 'install' it in
our ~/bin directory:
- $ mkdir -p ~/src/electrum
- $ cd ~/src/electrum
- $ sudo apt-get install 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-server
-
-### Step 3. Download bitcoind
-
-Older versions of Electrum used to require a patched version of bitcoind.
-This is not the case anymore since bitcoind supports the 'txindex' option.
-We currently recommend bitcoind 0.8.5 stable.
+ $ mkdir -p ~/electrum-server
+ $ git clone https://github.com/CryptoManiac/electrum-server.git
+ $ cd electrum-server/ltc-scrypt
+ $ sudo python setup.py install
-If your package manager does not supply a recent bitcoind and prefer to compile
-here are some pointers for Ubuntu:
+### Step 3. Download novacoind
- $ cd ~/src && wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/files/Bitcoin/bitcoin-0.8.5/bitcoin-0.8.5-linux.tar.gz
- $ tar xfz bitcoin-0.8.5-linux.tar.gz
- $ cd bitcoin-0.8.5-linux/src/src
- $ sudo apt-get install make g++ python-leveldb libboost-all-dev libssl-dev libdb++-dev
- $ make USE_UPNP= -f makefile.unix
- $ strip ~/src/bitcoin-0.8.5-linux/src/src/bitcoind
- $ ln -s ~/src/bitcoin-0.8.5-linux/src/src/bitcoind ~/bin/bitcoind
+ # apt-get install make g++ python-leveldb libboost-all-dev libssl-dev libdb++-dev pkg-config libminiupnpc-dev git
+ # su - novacoin
+ $ cd ~/src && git clone https://github.com/novacoin-project/novacoin.git
+ $ cd novacoin/src
+ $ make -f makefile.unix
+ $ strip novacoind
+ $ cp -a ~/src/litecoin/src/litecoind ~/bin/litecoind
-### Step 4. Configure and start bitcoind
+### Step 4. Configure and start novacoind
-In order to allow Electrum to "talk" to `bitcoind`, we need to set up a RPC
-username and password for `bitcoind`. We will then start `bitcoind` and
+In order to allow Electrum to "talk" to `novacoind`, we need to set up a RPC
+username and password for `novacoind`. We will then start `novacoind` and
wait for it to complete downloading the blockchain.
- $ mkdir ~/.bitcoin
- $ $EDITOR ~/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf
+ $ mkdir ~/.novacoin
+ $ $EDITOR ~/.novacoin/novacoin.conf
-Write this in `bitcoin.conf`:
+Write this in `novacoin.conf`:
rpcuser=<rpc-username>
rpcpassword=<rpc-password>
daemon=1
- txindex=1
-
-
-If you have an existing installation of bitcoind and have not previously
-set txindex=1 you need to reindex the blockchain by running
-
- $ bitcoind -reindex
-If you have a fresh copy of bitcoind start `bitcoind`:
+If you have a fresh copy of novacoind start `novacoind`:
- $ bitcoind
+ $ novacoind
-Allow some time to pass, so `bitcoind` connects to the network and starts
+Allow some time to pass, so `novacoind` connects to the network and starts
downloading blocks. You can check its progress by running:
- $ bitcoind getinfo
+ $ novacoind getinfo
-You should also set up your system to automatically start bitcoind at boot
-time, running as the 'bitcoin' user. Check your system documentation to
+Before starting electrum server your novacoind should have processed all
+blockes and caught up to the current height of the network.
+You should also set up your system to automatically start novacoind at boot
+time, running as the 'novacoin' user. Check your system documentation to
find out the best way to do this.
### Step 5. Install Electrum dependencies
package manager. Electrum also depends on two Python libraries which we will
need to install "by hand": `JSONRPClib`.
- $ sudo apt-get install python-setuptools
+ $ sudo apt-get install python-setuptools python-openssl
$ sudo easy_install jsonrpclib
- $ sudo apt-get install python-openssl
-### Step 6. Install leveldb
+### Step 6. Install leveldb and plyvel
- $ sudo apt-get install python-leveldb
+ $ sudo apt-get install python-leveldb libleveldb-dev
+ $ sudo easy_install plyvel
See the steps in README.leveldb for further details, especially if your system
-doesn't have the python-leveldb package.
+doesn't have the python-leveldb package or if plyvel installation fails.
+
+leveldb should be at least version 1.1.9. Earlier version are believed to be buggy.
### Step 7. Select your limit
The section in the electrum server configuration file (see step 10) looks like this:
[leveldb]
- path = /path/to/your/database
+ path_fulltree = /path/to/your/database
# for each address, history will be pruned if it is longer than this limit
pruning_limit = 100
### Step 8. Import blockchain into the database or download it
-It's recommended to fetch a pre-processed leveldb from the net
+It's recommended to fetch a pre-processed leveldb from the net.
+
+You can fetch recent copies of electrum leveldb databases from novacoin sourceforge page at:
-You can fetch recent copies of electrum leveldb databases and further instructions
-from the Electrum full archival server foundry at:
-http://foundry.electrum.org/
+http://sourceforge.net/projects/novacoin/files/electrum-foundry/
Alternatively if you have the time and nerve you can import the blockchain yourself.
-As of April 2013 it takes between 6-24 hours to import 230k of blocks, depending
-on CPU speed, I/O speed and selected pruning limit.
+As of July 2014 it takes about one hour to import 110k of blocks, depending on CPU speed,
+I/O speed and selected pruning limit.
-It's considerably faster to index in memory. You can use /dev/shm or
+It's considerably faster and strongly recommended to index in memory. You can use /dev/shm or
or create a tmpfs which will also use swap if you run out of memory:
- $ sudo mount -t tmpfs -o rw,nodev,nosuid,noatime,size=6000M,mode=0777 none /tmpfs
+ $ sudo mount -t tmpfs -o rw,nodev,nosuid,noatime,size=15000M,mode=0777 none /tmpfs
-Figures from April 2013:
-At limit 100 the database comes to 2,6 GB with 230k blocks and takes roughly 6h to import in /dev/shm.
-At limit 1000 the database comes to 3,0 GB with 230k blocks and takes roughly 10h to import in /dev/shm.
-At limit 10000 the database comes to 3,5 GB with 230k blocks and takes roughly 24h to import in /dev/shm.
+If you use tmpfs make sure you have enough RAM and swap to cover the size. If you only have 4 gigs of
+RAM but add 15 gigs of swap from a file that's fine too. tmpfs is rather smart to swap out the least
+used parts. It's fine to use a file on a SSD for swap in thise case.
-As of November 2013 expect at least double the time for indexing the blockchain. Databases have grown to
-roughly 4 GB, give or take a few hundred MB between pruning limits 100 and 10000.
+It's not recommended to do initial indexing of the database on a SSD because the indexing process
+puts considerable wear-and-tear on a SSD. It's a lot better to use tmpfs and just swap out to disk
+ when necessary.
+
+Databases have grown to roughly 8 GB in April 2014, give or take a gigabyte between pruning limits
+100 and 10000. Leveldb prunes the database from time to time, so it's not uncommon to see databases
+~50% larger at times when it's writing a lot especially when indexing from the beginning.
### Step 9. Create a self-signed SSL cert
### Step 10. 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
+file includes the database setup, novacoind RPC setup, and a few other
options.
$ sudo cp ~/src/electrum/server/electrum.conf.sample /etc/electrum.conf
$ sudo sed -i '$a ulimit -n 16384' /root/.bashrc
-We're aware the leveldb part in electrum server may leak some memory and it's good practice to
-to either restart the server once in a while from cron (preferred) or to at least monitor
-it for crashes and then restart the server. Weekly restarts should be fine for most setups.
-If your server gets a lot of traffic and you have a limited amount of RAM you may need to restart
-more often.
+Also make sure the novacoin user can actually increase the ulimit by allowing it accordingly in
+/etc/security/limits.conf
+
+While most bugs are fixed in this regard electrum server may leak some memory and it's good practice to
+to restart the server once in a while from cron (preferred) or to at least monitor
+it for crashes and then restart the server. Monthly restarts should be fine for most setups.
Two more things for you to consider:
-1. To increase security you may want to close bitcoind for incoming connections and connect outbound only
+1. To increase security you may want to close novacoind for incoming connections and connect outbound only
-2. Consider restarting bitcoind (together with electrum-server) on a weekly basis to clear out unconfirmed
+2. Consider restarting novacoind (together with electrum-server) on a weekly basis to clear out unconfirmed
transactions from the local the memory pool which did not propagate over the network
### Step 12. (Finally!) Run Electrum server
The magic moment has come: you can now start your Electrum server:
- $ electrum-server
+ $ cd ~/electrum-server
+ $ ./start
-You should see this on the screen:
+You should see this in the log file:
starting Electrum server
- cache: yes
-If you want to stop Electrum server, open another shell and run:
+If you want to stop Electrum server, use the 'stop' script:
- $ electrum-server stop
+ $ cd ~/electrum-server
+ $ ./stop
-You should also take a look at the 'start' and 'stop' scripts in
-`~/src/electrum/server`. You can use them as a starting point to create a
-init script for your system.
### Step 13. Test the Electrum server
current server and connect to your new Electrum server. You should see your
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 14. 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.
+novacoins to confirm that everything is working properly.
git://git.novaco.in / electrum-server.git / blobdiff