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Run a t0rn Testnet Collator

This guide outlines the essential minimum of steps required to run a collator for t0rn - a release candidate of t3rn on the Rococo testnet. This guide uses latest v1.88.0-rc.0 release.

Make sure to have your machine setup for Rust and Substrate development.

note

This guide assumes that everything will be run and stored in current directory.

Boot Node for t0rn​

caution

t0rn currently has single bootnode but it might change in the future

The t0rn boot node with static DNS address:

/dns/bootnode.t0rn.io/tcp/33333/p2p/12D3KooWEepV69XCJB4Zi193cZcm5W22ZR62DEP84iLFTUKVPtwp

Prerequistes​

Setup Directories​

Create the collator node's data and a specs directory:

mkdir -p {data,keystore,specs}

Install subkey​

Install the subkey tool:

cargo install subkey --git https://github.com/paritytech/substrate

Fetch Chain Specs​

To associate your node to the correct network we need to provide the t0rn chain spec as well as the Rococo chain specification. We need the latter as every collator runs an embedded relay chain node.

curl -sSfL \
  -o specs/rococo.raw.json \
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/t3rn/t3rn/v1.88.0-rc.0/specs/rococo.raw.json

curl -sSfL \
  -o specs/t0rn.raw.json \
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/t3rn/t3rn/v1.88.0-rc.0/specs/t0rn.raw.json

Running Collator​

We support running collator with our binary attached to Github Releases or with a Docker Image.

danger

When running the collator the first time, add the --rpc-methods=unsafe argument to be able to call rotateKeys later.
For security reasons please restart your node after the registering the candidate process without this flag.

Optional Collator Node Key​

tip

This is optional, only if the collator should have the same node ID after restart

To generate a new Substrate node key just run:

subkey generate-node-key

Save the entire output to a proper secret vault or at least keep note of the secret phrase.

Add a flag for running collator

--node-key=<generated node key by subkey>

Option 1 - Binary​

Fetch Collator from a Github Release​

We maintain collator binaries which we release alongside every runtime release. Our sole target platform is glibc based Linux. Download and extract the prebuild:

curl -sSfL \
  https://github.com/t3rn/t3rn/releases/download/v1.88.0-rc.0/t0rn-collator-v1.88.0-rc.0-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.gz \
| gunzip > t0rn-collator

Don't forget to make it executable:

chmod +x t0rn-collator

Start the Collator​

./t0rn-collator \
  --collator \
  --name=<collator-name> \
  --base-path=data \
  --keystore-path=keystore \
  --chain=specs/t0rn.raw.json \
  --bootnodes="/dns/bootnode.t0rn.io/tcp/33333/p2p/12D3KooWEepV69XCJB4Zi193cZcm5W22ZR62DEP84iLFTUKVPtwp" \
  --rpc-port=9944 \
  --port=33333 \
  --prometheus-port=7003 \
  --telemetry-url='wss://telemetry.polkadot.io/submit 1' \
  --pruning=archive \
  -- \
  --chain=specs/rococo.raw.json \
  --rpc-port=9933 \
  --port=33334 \
  --prometheus-port=7004 \
  --prometheus-external \
  --sync=fast

Option 2 - Docker​

Pull latest Docker image​

docker pull ghcr.io/t3rn/t0rn-collator:v1.88.0-rc.0

Start the Collator​

docker run -p 33333:33333 -p 33334:33334 -p 9944:9944 -p 9933:9933 -p 7003:7003 \
  -v /node ghcr.io/t3rn/t0rn-collator:v1.88.0-rc.0 \
  --collator \
  --name=<collator-name> \
  --base-path=/node/data \
  --keystore-path=/node/keystore \
  --chain=/node/specs/t0rn.raw.json \
  --bootnodes="/dns/bootnode.t0rn.io/tcp/33333/p2p/12D3KooWEepV69XCJB4Zi193cZcm5W22ZR62DEP84iLFTUKVPtwp" \
  --rpc-port=9944 \
  --port=33333 \
  --prometheus-port=7003 \
  --telemetry-url='wss://telemetry.polkadot.io/submit 1' \
  --pruning=archive \
  -- \
  --chain=/node/specs/rococo.raw.json \
  --rpc-port=9933 \
  --port=33334 \
  --prometheus-port=7004 \
  --prometheus-external \
  --sync=fast

Set Your Collator's Aura Key​

Your collator needs an Aura identity in order to produce blocks.

Aura Keypair Generation​

To generate a new generic Substrate keypair just run:

subkey generate

Save the entire output to a proper secret vault or at least keep note of the secret phrase.

Aura Keypair Insert​

The Aura key must be inserted into the keystore after startup.

For the Binary Collator:

./t0rn-collator \
  key \
  insert \
  --base-path data \
  --chain specs/t0rn.raw.json \
  --scheme Sr25519 \
  --suri "<your collator's secret phrase generated in >" \
  --key-type aura

Produce Blocks on t0rn Chain​

Get Some T0RN Balance​

Your Collator needs some funds to register on testnet.

Go to the t0rn testnet faucet, insert your substrate address and get some T0RN to cover transaction costs.

Register as Candidate for Block Production​

  1. Go to the polkadot.js app and connect your collator account by clicking "Add account", then inserting your previously generated secret phrase aka mnemonic.

  2. Generate a new session key pair and obtain the corresponding public key:

curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"id":1, "jsonrpc":"2.0", "method": "author_rotateKeys", "params":[]}' http://localhost:9944

Your output should look similar to:

{"jsonrpc":"2.0","result":"0x0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef","id":1}

The result key is your public key of the newly created session key pair. Copy it as it is needed in the next step.

  1. Set the session key for your collator under:
Developer --> Extrinsics --> session -> setKeys(sr25519_pubkey, 0x00)
  1. Now finally register your collator as candidate under:
Developer --> Extrinsics --> collatorSelection -> registerAsCandidate()

After some time your collator should be included and producing blocks! You can check here if your collator has registered successfully.