Old instructions: Quick sync (recommended)
Start your Axelar node and download the blockchain.
💡
Tip: These instructions synchronize your Axelar node quickly by downloading a recent snapshot of the blockchain. If instead you prefer to synchronize your Axelar node using the Axelar peer-to-peer network then see Genesis sync
Prerequisites
- Operating system: MacOS or Ubuntu (tested on 18.04)
- Hardware: 4 cores, 8-16GB RAM, 512 GB drive, arm64 or amd64. Recommended 6-8 cores, 16-32 GB RAM, 1 TB+ drive.
- Software:
- You have configured your environment for
axelard
CLI commands as per Configure your environment.
Choose a keyring password
Your Axelar keyring is encrypted with a password you choose. Learn more about keyring passwords at Keyring backend.
In what follows you will execute a shell script node.sh
to join the Axelar network. Your keyring password is supplied to node.sh
via a KEYRING_PASSWORD
environment variable. The script node.sh
enforces an 8-character minimum for your keyring password.
Join the Axelar network
Clone the axelerate-community
repo:
git clone https://github.com/axelarnetwork/axelarate-community.gitcd axelarate-community
Launch a new Axelar mainnet node with version 0.10.7
of axelar-core:
./scripts/node.sh -a v0.10.7 -n mainnet
Your Axelar node will initialize your data folder ~/.axelar
Launch a new Axelar testnet node with version 0.13.6
of axelar-core:
./scripts/node.sh -a v0.13.6 -n testnet
Your Axelar node will initialize your data folder ~/.axelar_testnet
To recover your secret keys from mnemonics, use -t path_to_tendermint_key -m path_to_validator_mnemonic -r
(-r
is to reset the chain). These flags work only on a completely fresh state.
Then your Axelar node will begin downloading blocks in the blockchain one-by-one.
Backup your secret keys
BACKUP and DELETE the validator
account secret mnemonic:
~/.axelar/validator.txt
~/.axelar_testnet/validator.txt
BACKUP but do NOT DELETE the Tendermint consensus secret key (this is needed on node restarts):
~/.axelar/.core/config/priv_validator_key.json
~/.axelar_testnet/.core/config/priv_validator_key.json
View logs
View the streaming logs for your Axelar node:
In a new terminal window:
tail -f ~/.axelar/logs/axelard.log
tail -f ~/.axelar_testnet/logs/axelard.log
You should see log messages for each block in the blockchain that your node downloads.
Stop your node, delete your blockchain data
You will not download the entire blockchain in this way. Instead you will stop your node and swap in a recent snapshot of the entire blockchain.
Stop your currently running Axelar node:
kill -9 $(pgrep -f "axelard start")
Delete your data
directory:
rm -r ~/.axelar/.core/data
rm -r ~/.axelar_testnet/.core/data
Download the latest Axelar blockchain snapshot
Download the latest Axelar blockchain snapshot for your chosen network (testnet or mainnet) from a provider:
The following instructions assume you downloaded the default
snapshot from quicksync.io
.
Let {SNAPSHOT_FILE}
denote the file name of the snapshot you downloaded. Example file names:
- Testnet:
axelartestnet-lisbon-2-default.20220207.2240.tar.lz4
- Mainnet:
axelar-dojo-1-default.20220207.2210.tar.lz4
Decompress the downloaded snapshot into your data
directory:
lz4 -dc --no-sparse \{SNAPSHOT_FILE| tar xfC - ~/.axelar/.core
lz4 -dc --no-sparse \{SNAPSHOT_FILE| tar xfC - ~/.axelar_testnet/.core
Resume your node
Resume your Axelar node with the latest version of axelar-core:
./scripts/node.sh -n mainnet
./scripts/node.sh -n testnet
Your Axelar node will launch and resume downloading the blockchain. You should see log messages for new blocks.
Test whether your blockchain is downloaded
Eventually your Axelar node will download the entire Axelar blockchain and exit catching_up
mode. At that time your logs will show a new block added to the blockchain every 5 seconds.
You can test whether your Axelar node has exited catching_up
mode:
curl localhost:26657/status | jq '.result.sync_info'
Look for the field catching_up
:
true
: you are still downloading the blockchain.false
: you have finished downloading the blockchain.
Next steps
Congratulations! You joined the Axelar network and downloaded the blockchain.
Learn what you can do with Axelar: