NEAR Validator Bootcamp 🚀

Validator Onboarding FAQ's

What’s the current protocol upgrade that will increase the number of validators on Mainnet?

The next upgrade to increase the number of mainnet validators will introduce Chunk-Only Producers, and is currently slated for Q3 2022.

How do I join NEAR as a validator on the Mainnet? What steps do I need to take?

Find out more about how to become a validator, head to https://near.org/validators/
Join the Open Shards Alliance Server to find out more on how to run nodes and participate on the guildnet.

What are the future plans for NEAR Protocol?

Learn about the protocol roadmap here https://near.org/blog/near-launches-simple-nightshade-the-first-step-towards-a-sharded-blockchain/.

LESSON 1 - OVERVIEW OF NEAR

Blockchain Technology

Blockchain is a new technology originally developed by Bitcoin. The term most often used to describe blockchain technology is a “public ledger”. An easy way to describe it, is that it’s similar to your banking statement that keeps track of balances, debits, and credits, with several key differences:

Limitless – Transactions can be added as long as the network is up and running
Unchangeable – Immutable once written (validated), it can not be modified
Decentralized – Maintained by individual nodes called validators worldwide
Verifiable – Transactions are verified via consensus by decentralized validators via a Proof of Stake (POS) or Proof of Work (POW) algorithm

Smart Contracts

Not all blockchains are equal. While some only allow the processing of transactions (balances, debits, and credits), blockchains like NEAR and Ethereum offer another layer of functionality that enables programs to run on the blockchain known as smart contracts.

An easy way to think about it is that “smart contract” enabled blockchains are like supercomputers. They allow for users and developers to pay a fee to use CPU/Memory (resources), and Disk (storage) on a global scale.

However, it does not make sense to store everything on the blockchain as it would be too expensive. Web front-ends (HTML, CSS, and JS) are served from web hosting, Github, or Skynet, and images are often stored on InterPlanetary File Systems (IPFS) like Filecoin or Arweave.

Sharding

As the founding blockchains, Bitcoin and Ethereum, began to grow, limitations presented themselves. They could only manage to process a specific number of transactions in a block/space of time. This created severe bottlenecks with processing, wait times, and also significantly increased the transaction fee required to have transactions processed.

Sharding is a technological advancement that allows blockchains to scale and to provide more throughput, while decreasing wait times and keeping transaction fees low. It accomplishes this by creating additional shards as the use of the network grows.

About NEAR

NEAR Protocol was designed with a best-of-breed approach in mind. It focuses on fixing the bottlenecks of the earlier blockchains while also enhancing the user experience to enable broader adoption of blockchain technology by existing Web2 users and developers. NEAR is a sharded Proof of Stake (POS) blockchain.

Key Features

Award-Winning Team – Top Programmers in the world
Proof of Stake (POS)
Unlimited Shards
User Experience (UX)
Developer Experience (DX)
Rainbow Bridge to ETH – Bridge assets to and from ETH
Aurora – Run native ETH apps built-in solidity

Technology Stack

Rust – Primary Smart Contract Language
Assembly Script – Alternant Smart Contract Language (similar to TypeScript)
NodeJS – Tooling
Javascript / React / Angular – Frontends

LESSON 2 - NEAR-CLI

NEAR-CLI is a command-line interface that communicates with the NEAR blockchain via remote procedure calls (RPC):

Setup and Installation NEAR CLI
View Validator Stats

Note: For security reasons, it is recommended that NEAR-CLI be installed on a different computer than your validator node and that no full access keys be kept on your validator node.

Setup NEAR-CLI

First, let's make sure the Debian machine is up-to-date.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Install developer tools, Node.js, and npm

First, we will start with installing Node.js and npm:

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_17.x | sudo -E bash -  
sudo apt install build-essential nodejs
PATH="$PATH"

Check Node.js and npm version:

node -v

v17.x.x

npm -v

8.x.x

Install NEAR-CLI

Here's the Github Repository for NEAR CLI.: https://github.com/near/near-cli. To install NEAR-CLI, unless you are logged in as root, which is not recommended you will need to use sudo to install NEAR-CLI so that the near binary is saved to /usr/local/bin

sudo npm install -g near-cli

Validator Stats

Now that NEAR-CLI is installed, let's test out the CLI and use the following commands to interact with the blockchain as well as to view validator stats. There are three reports used to monitor validator status:

Environment

The environment will need to be set each time a new shell is launched to select the correct network.

Networks:

GuildNet
TestNet
MainNet

Command:

export NEAR_ENV=<network> (use guildnet / testnet / mainnet)

Proposals

A proposal by a validator indicates they would like to enter the validator set, in order for a proposal to be accepted it must meet the minimum seat price.

Command:

near proposals

Validators Current

This shows a list of active validators in the current epoch, the number of blocks produced, number of blocks expected, and online rate. Used to monitor if a validator is having issues.

Command:

near validators current

Validators Next

This shows validators whose proposal was accepted one epoch ago, and that will enter the validator set in the next epoch.

Command:

near validators next

LESSON 3 - SETUP UP A VALIDATOR

In this lesson you will learn about:

Setting up a Node
Difference between MainNet and TestNet
Compiling Nearcore for MainNet
Genesis file (genesis.json)
Config file (config.json)

Server Requirements

For Block Producing Validators, please refer to the Validator Hardware For Chunk-Only Producers (an upcoming role on NEAR), please see the hardware requirement below:

Hardware	Chunk-Only Producer Specifications
CPU	4-Core CPU with AVX support
RAM	8GB DDR4
Storage	500GB SSD

Install required software & set the configuration

Prerequisites:

Before you start, you may want to confirm that your machine has the right CPU features. For more hardware specific information, please take a look of the Hardware requirement.

lscpu | grep -P '(?=.*avx )(?=.*sse4.2 )(?=.*cx16 )(?=.*popcnt )' > /dev/null \
  && echo "Supported" \
  || echo "Not supported"

Supported

Next, let's make sure the Debian machine is up-to-date.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Install developer tools:

sudo apt install -y git binutils-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev zlib1g-dev libdw-dev libiberty-dev cmake gcc g++ python docker.io protobuf-compiler libssl-dev pkg-config clang llvm cargo

Install Python pip:

sudo apt install python3-pip

Set the configuration:

USER_BASE_BIN=$(python3 -m site --user-base)/bin
export PATH="$USER_BASE_BIN:$PATH"

Install Building env

sudo apt install clang build-essential make

Install Rust & Cargo

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

You will see the following:

Press 1 and press enter.

Source the environment

source $HOME/.cargo/env

Clone `nearcore` project from GitHub

First, clone the nearcore repository.

git clone https://github.com/near/nearcore
cd nearcore
git fetch origin --tags

Checkout to the branch you need. Latest unstable release is recommended if you are running on testnet and latest stable version is recommended if you are running on mainnet. Please check the releases page on GitHub.

git checkout tags/<version> -b mynode

Compile `nearcore` binary

In the nearcore folder run the following commands:

make neard

The binary path is target/release/neard. If you are seeing issues, it is possible that cargo command is not found. Make sure sudo apt install cargo. Compiling nearcore binary may take a little while.

Initialize working directory

In order to work properly, the NEAR node requires a working directory and a couple of configuration files. Generate the initial required working directory by running:

./target/release/neard --home ~/.near init --chain-id <network> --download-genesis

This command will create the directory structure and will generate config.json, node_key.json, and genesis.json on the network you have passed. The genesis file for testnet is big (6GB +) so this command will be running for a while and no progress will be shown.

config.json - Configuration parameters which are responsive for how the node will work. The config.json contains needed information for a node to run on the network, how to communicate with peers, and how to reach consensus. Although some options are configurable. In general validators have opted to use the default config.json provided.
genesis.json - A file with all the data the network started with at genesis. This contains initial accounts, contracts, access keys, and other records which represents the initial state of the blockchain. The genesis.json file is a snapshot of the network state at a point in time. In contacts accounts, balances, active validators, and other information about the network. On MainNet, it is the state of what the network looked like at launch. On testnet or guildnet, it can include a more intermediate state if the network was hard-forked at one point.
node_key.json - A file which contains a public and private key for the node. Also includes an optional account_id parameter which is required to run a validator node (not covered in this doc).
data/ - A folder in which a NEAR node will write it's state.

Replace the `config.json`

rm ~/.near/config.json
wget -O ~/.near/config.json https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/build.nearprotocol.com/nearcore-deploy/<network>/validator/config.json

Get data backup

The node is ready to be started. However, you must first sync up with the network. This means your node needs to download all the headers and blocks that other nodes in the network already have.

First, please install AWS CLI:

sudo apt-get install awscli -y

Then, download the snapshot using the AWS CLI:

aws s3 --no-sign-request cp s3://near-protocol-public/backups/<testnet|mainnet>/rpc/latest .
LATEST=$(cat latest)
aws s3 --no-sign-request cp --no-sign-request --recursive s3://near-protocol-public/backups/<testnet|mainnet>/rpc/$LATEST ~/.near/data

NOTE: The .tar file is around 147GB (and will grow) so make sure you have enough disk space to unpack inside the data folder.

Run the node

To start your node simply run the following command:

cd nearcore
./target/release/neard --home ~/.near run

The node is now running you can see log outputs in your console. Your node should be find peers, download headers to 100%, and then download blocks.

Using NearUp

You can set up a node using neard on Mainnet and Testnet. On Guildnet, you have the option to use NearUp to set the node. However, NearUp is not recommended or supported for Mainnet. We recommend that you use neard consistently on Guildnet, Testnet, and Mainnet.

However, if you choose to use NearUp, NearUp will download the necessary binaries and files to get up and running. You just need to provide the network to run and the staking pool id.

Install NearUp:

pip3 install --user nearup

Install latest NearUp Version:

pip3 install --user --upgrade nearup

Create a wallet

MainNet: https://wallet.near.org/
TestNet: https://wallet.testnet.near.org/
GuildNet: https://wallet.openshards.io/

Authorize Wallet Locally

A full access key needs to be installed locally to be able transactions via NEAR-CLI.

For Guildnet

export NEAR_ENV=testnet

You need to run this command:

near login

Note: This command launches a web browser allowing for the authorization of a full access key to be copied locally.

1 – Copy the link in your browser

2 – Grant Access to Near CLI

3 – After Grant, you will see a page like this, go back to console

4 – Enter your wallet and press Enter

For Guildnet

Download the latest genesis and config files:

cd ~/.near/guildnet
wget -c https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/build.openshards.io/nearcore-deploy/guildnet/config.json
wget -c https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/build.openshards.io/nearcore-deploy/guildnet/genesis.json

Launch this command so set the Near guildnet Environment:

export NEAR_ENV=guildnet

You can also run this command to set the Near guildnet Environment persistent:

echo 'export NEAR_ENV=guildnet' >> ~/.bashrc

Running command is:

nearup run $NEAR_ENV --account-id <staking pool id>

Where AccountId is xx.stake.guildnet, xx is your pool name for example bootcamp.stake.guildnet

For Testnet

Download the latest genesis, config files:

cd ~/.near/testnet
wget -c https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/build.nearprotocol.com/nearcore-deploy/testnet/validator/config.json
wget -c https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/build.nearprotocol.com/nearcore-deploy/testnet/genesis.json

Download the latest snapshot:

mkdir ~/.near/testnet/data
cd ~/.near/testnet
wget -c https://near-protocol-public.s3.amazonaws.com/backups/testnet/rpc/data.tar -O - | tar -xf -

Launch this command so set the Near testnet Environment:

export NEAR_ENV=testnet

You can also run this command to set the Near testnet Environment persistent:

echo 'export NEAR_ENV=testnet' >> ~/.bashrc

Running command is:

nearup run $NEAR_ENV --account-id <staking pool id>

Where AccountId is xx.pool.f863973.m0, xx is your pool name for example bootcamp.pool.f863973.m0

On the first run, NEARUp will ask you to enter a staking pool id, provide the staking pool id set up previously in the form {pool id}.{staking pool factory}

Note: This is the Chicken and the Egg. You have not created the staking pool, but need to provide the name.

Check the validator_key.json

Run the following command:

For Guildnet

cat ~/.near/guildnet/validator_key.json

For Testnet

cat ~/.near/testnet/validator_key.json

Note: If a validator_key.json is not present, follow these steps to create one

Create a validator_key.json for Guildnet

Generate the Key file:

near generate-key <pool_id>

Copy the file generated to Guildnet folder:

Make sure to replace YOUR_WALLET by your accountId

cp ~/.near-credentials/guildnet/<YOUR_WALLET>.json ~/.near/guildnet/validator_key.json

Edit “account_id” => xx.stake.guildnet, where xx is your PoolName
Change private_key to secret_key

Note: The account_id must match the staking pool contract name or you will not be able to sign blocks.\

File content must be in the following pattern:

{
  "account_id": "xx.stake.guildnet",
  "public_key": "ed25519:HeaBJ3xLgvZacQWmEctTeUqyfSU4SDEnEwckWxd92W2G",
  "secret_key": "ed25519:****"
}

Create a validator_key.json for Testnet

Generate the Key file:

near generate-key <pool_id>

Copy the file generated to Testnet folder: Make sure to replace YOUR_WALLET by your accountId

cp ~/.near-credentials/testnet/YOUR_WALLET.json ~/.near/testnet/validator_key.json

Edit “account_id” => xx.pool.f863973.m0, where xx is your PoolName
Change private_key to secret_key

Note: The account_id must match the staking pool contract name or you will not be able to sign blocks.\

File content must be in the following pattern:

{
  "account_id": "xx.stake.guildnet",
  "public_key": "ed25519:HeaBJ3xLgvZacQWmEctTeUqyfSU4SDEnEwckWxd92W2G",
  "secret_key": "ed25519:****"
}

Step 8 – Check all files were generated

Command for Guildnet

ls ~/.near/guildnet

Command for Testnet

ls ~/.near/testnet

You should have: validator_key.json node_key.json config.json data genesis.json

Setup using NEARCore (MainNet)

RECOMMENDED FOR MAINNET

Step 1 – Installation required software & set the configuration

Before you start, you might want to ensure your system is up to date.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Install Python

sudo apt install python3 git curl

Install Building env

sudo apt install clang build-essential make

Install Rust & Cargo

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

Press 1 and press enter

Source the environment

source $HOME/.cargo/env

Clone the NEARCore Repo

git clone https://github.com/nearprotocol/nearcore.git

Set environment to the latest release tag. For the latest release tag, please check here: https://github.com/near/nearcore/releases. Note: RC tags are for Testnet only.

export NEAR_RELEASE_VERSION=1.26.1

cd nearcore
git checkout $NEAR_RELEASE_VERSION
make release

Install Nodejs and NPM

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_17.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt install build-essential nodejs
PATH="$PATH"

Install Near CLI

Once NodeJs and NPM are installed you can now install NEAR-Cli.

Unless you are logged in as root, which is not recommended you will need to use sudo to install NEAR-Cli so that the near binary to /usr/local/bin

sudo npm install -g near-cli

Launch this command so set the Near Mainnet Environment:

export NEAR_ENV=mainnet

You can also run this command to set the Near testnet Environment persistent:

echo 'export NEAR_ENV=mainnet' >> ~/.bashrc

Step 2 – Create a wallet

MainNet: https://wallet.near.org/

Step 3 – Authorize Wallet Locally

A full access key needs to be installed locally to be able transactions via NEAR-Cli.

You need to run this command:

near login

Note: This command launches a web browser allowing for the authorization of a full access key to be copied locally.

1 – Copy the link in your browser

2 – Grant Access to Near CLI

3 – After Grant, you will see a page like this, go back to console

4 – Enter your wallet and press Enter

Step 4 – Initialize & Start the Node

Download the latest genesis, config files:

mkdir ~/.near
cd ~/.near
wget -c https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/build.nearprotocol.com/nearcore-deploy/mainnet/genesis.json
wget -c https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/build.nearprotocol.com/nearcore-deploy/mainnet/validator/config.json

Download the latest snapshot from the snapshot page.
Initialize NEAR:

target/release/neard init --chain-id="mainnet" --account-id=<staking pool id>

Create `validator_key.json`

Generate the Key file:

near generate-key <pool_id>

Copy the file generated to Mainnet folder.Make sure to replace YOUR_WALLET by your accountId

cp ~/.near-credentials/YOUR_WALLET.json ~/.near/mainnet/validator_key.json

Edit “account_id” => xx.poolv1.near, where xx is your PoolName
Change “private_key” to “secret_key”
Note: The account_id must match the staking pool contract name or you will not be able to sign blocks. File content must be something like : { "account_id": "xx.poolv1.near", "public_key": "ed25519:HeaBJ3xLgvZacQWmEctTeUqyfSU4SDEnEwckWxd92W2G", "secret_key": "ed25519:****" }

near generate-key <your_accountId>
vi ~/.near/{your_accountId}.json

Rename "private_key" to "secret_key", then move the file to ~/.near.

mv the file to ~/.near

Update "account_id" to be the staking_pool_id

Note: The account_id must match the staking pool contract name or you will not be able to sign blocks.

Start the Node

target/release/neard run

Setup Systemd Command:

sudo vi /etc/systemd/system/neard.service

Paste:

Description=NEARd Daemon Service

[Service]
Type=simple
User=<USER>
#Group=near
WorkingDirectory=/home/<USER>/.near
ExecStart=/home/<USER>/nearcore/target/release/neard run
StandardOutput=file:/home/<USER>/.near/neard.log
StandardError=file:/home/<USER>/.near/nearderror.log
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=30
KillSignal=SIGINT
TimeoutStopSec=45
KillMode=mixed

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Note: Change USER to your paths

Command:

sudo systemctl enable neard

Command:

sudo systemctl start neard

If you need to make a change to service because of an error in the file. It has to be reloaded:

sudo systemctl reload neard

Watch logs

Command:

journalctl -n 100 -f -u neard

Make log output in pretty print

Command:

sudo apt install ccze

View Logs with color

Command:

journalctl -n 100 -f -u neard | ccze -A

Becoming a Validator

In order to become a validator and enter the validator set, a minimum set of success criteria must be met.

The node must be fully synced
The validator_key.json must be in place
The contract must be initialized with the public_key in validator_key.json
The account_id must be set to the staking pool contract id
There must be enough delegations to meet the minimum seat price. See the seat price here.
A proposal must be submitted by pinging the contract
Once a proposal is accepted a validator must wait 2-3 epoch to enter the validator set
Once in the validator set the validator must produce great than 90% of assigned blocks

Check running status of validator node. If “Validator” is showing up, your pool is selected in the current validators list.

Submitting Pool Information (Mainnet Only)

Adding pool information helps delegators and also helps with outreach for upgrades and other important announcements: https://github.com/zavodil/near-pool-details. The available fields to add are: https://github.com/zavodil/near-pool-details/blob/master/FIELDS.md.

The identifying information that we ask the validators:to provide are:

Name
Description
URL
Country and country code
Email (for support)
Telegram, Discord, or Twitter

Command:

near call name.near update_field '{"pool_id": "<pool_id>.poolv1.near", "name": "url", "value": "https://yoururl.com"}' --accountId=<accountId>.near  --gas=200000000000000

near call name.near update_field '{"pool_id": "<pool_id>.poolv1.near", "name": "twitter", "value": "<twitter>"}' --accountId=<account id>.near  --gas=200000000000000

near view name.near get_all_fields '{"from_index": 0, "limit": 3}'

near view name.near get_fields_by_pool '{"pool_id": "<pool_id>.poolv1.near"}'

LESSON 4 - STAKING POOLS

NEAR uses a staking pool factory with a whitelisted staking contract to ensure delegators’ funds are safe. In order to run a validator on NEAR, a staking pool must be deployed to a NEAR account and integrated into a NEAR validator node. Delegators must use a UI or the command line to stake to the pool. A staking pool is a smart contract that is deployed to a NEAR account.

Deploy a Staking Pool Contract

Deploy a Staking Pool

Calls the staking pool factory, creates a new staking pool with the specified name, and deploys it to the indicated accountId.

For Guildnet

near call stake.guildnet create_staking_pool '{"staking_pool_id": "<pool id>", "owner_id": "<accountId>", "stake_public_key": "<public key>", "reward_fee_fraction": {"numerator": 5, "denominator": 100}}' --accountId="<accountId>" --amount=30 --gas=300000000000000

For Testnet

near call pool.f863973.m0 create_staking_pool '{"staking_pool_id": "<pool id>", "owner_id": "<accountId>", "stake_public_key": "<public key>", "reward_fee_fraction": {"numerator": 5, "denominator": 100}}' --accountId="<accountId>" --amount=30 --gas=300000000000000

For Mainnet

near call poolv1.near create_staking_pool '{"staking_pool_id": "<pool id>", "owner_id": "<accountId>", "stake_public_key": "<public key>", "reward_fee_fraction": {"numerator": 5, "denominator": 100}}' --accountId="<accountId>" --amount=30 --gas=300000000000000

From the example above, you need to replace:

Pool ID: Staking pool name, the factory automatically adds its name to this parameter, creating {pool_id}.{staking_pool_factory} Examples:

nearkat.stake.guildnet for guildnet
nearkat.pool.f863973.m0 for testnet
nearkat.poolv1.near for mainnet

Owner ID: The NEAR account that will manage the staking pool. Usually your main NEAR account.
Public Key: The public key in your validator_key.json file.
5: The fee the pool will charge (e.g. in this case 5 over 100 is 5% of fees).
Account Id: The NEAR account deploying the staking pool.

Be sure to have at least 30 NEAR available, it is the minimum required for storage.

To change the pool parameters, such as changing the amount of commission charged to 1% in the example below, use this command:

near call <pool_name> update_reward_fee_fraction '{"reward_fee_fraction": {"numerator": 1, "denominator": 100}}' --accountId <account_id> --gas=300000000000000

You will see something like this:

If there is a “True” at the End. Your pool is created.

You have now configure your Staking pool.

For Guildnet & Testnet You can go to OSA Discord to ask for some guildnet or testnet token to be a validator, https://discord.gg/GrBqK3ZJ2T

Configure your staking pool contract

Replace:

Pool Name – pool_id.staking_pool_factory
Owner Id
Public Key
Reward Fraction
Account Id

near call <pool name> new '{"owner_id": "<owner id>", "<public key>": "<public key>", "reward_fee_fraction": {"numerator": <reward fraction>, "denominator": 100}}' --accountId <accountId>

Manage your staking pool contract

HINT: Copy/Paste everything after this line into a text editor and use search and replace. Once your pool is deployed, you can issue the commands below:

Retrieve the owner ID of the staking pool

Command:

near view {pool_id}.{staking_pool_factory} get_owner_id '{}'

Issue this command to retrieve the public key the network has for your validator

Command:

near view {pool_id}.{staking_pool_factory} get_staking_key '{}'

If the public key does not match you can update the staking key like this (replace the pubkey below with the key in your validator.json file)

near call {pool_id}.{staking_pool_factory} update_staking_key '{"stake_public_key": "<public key>"}' --accountId <accountId>

Working with Staking Pools

NOTE: Your validator must be fully synced before issuing a proposal or depositing funds.

Proposals

In order to get a validator seat you must first submit a proposal with an appropriate amount of stake. Proposals are sent for epoch +2. Meaning if you send a proposal now, if approved, you would get the seat in 3 epochs. You should submit a proposal every epoch to ensure your seat. To send a proposal we use the ping command. A proposal is also sent if a stake or unstake command is sent to the staking pool contract.

To note, a ping also updates the staking balances for your delegators. A ping should be issued each epoch to keep reported rewards current on the pool contract. You could set up a ping using a cron job.

Staking Pools Factories for each network:

GuildNet: stake.guildnet
TestNet: pool.f863973.m0
MainNet: poolv1.near

Transactions

Deposit and Stake NEAR

Command:

near call <staking_pool_id> deposit_and_stake --amount <amount> --accountId <accountId> --gas=300000000000000

Unstake NEAR

Amount in yoctoNEAR.

Run the following command to unstake:

near call <staking_pool_id> unstake '{"amount": "<amount yoctoNEAR>"}' --accountId <accountId> --gas=300000000000000

To unstake all you can run this one:

near call <staking_pool_id> unstake_all --accountId <accountId> --gas=300000000000000

Withdraw

Unstaking takes 2-3 epochs to complete, after that period you can withdraw in YoctoNEAR from pool.

Command:

near call <staking_pool_id> withdraw '{"amount": "<amount yoctoNEAR>"}' --accountId <accountId> --gas=300000000000000

Command to withdraw all:

near call <staking_pool_id> withdraw_all --accountId <accountId> --gas=300000000000000

Ping

A ping issues a new proposal and updates the staking balances for your delegators. A ping should be issued each epoch to keep reported rewards current.

Command:

near call <staking_pool_id> ping '{}' --accountId <accountId> --gas=300000000000000

Balances Total Balance Command:

near view <staking_pool_id> get_account_total_balance '{"account_id": "<accountId>"}' --gas=300000000000000

Staked Balance

Command:

near view <staking_pool_id> get_account_staked_balance '{"account_id": "<accountId>"}'

Unstaked Balance

Command:

near view <staking_pool_id> get_account_unstaked_balance '{"account_id": "<accountId>"}'

Available for Withdrawal

You can only withdraw funds from a contract if they are unlocked.

Command:

near view <staking_pool_id> is_account_unstaked_balance_available '{"account_id": "<accountId>"}'

Pause / Resume Staking

Pause

Command:

near call <staking_pool_id> pause_staking '{}' --accountId <accountId>

Resume

Command:

near call <staking_pool_id> resume_staking '{}' --accountId <accountId>

LESSON 5 - MONITORING

Log Files

The log file is stored either in the ~/.nearup/logs directory or in systemd depending on your setup.

NEARUp Command:

nearup logs --follow

Systemd Command:

journalctl -n 100 -f -u neard | ccze -A

Log file sample:

Validator | 1 validator

INFO stats: #85079829 H1GUabkB7TW2K2yhZqZ7G47gnpS7ESqicDMNyb9EE6tf Validator 73 validators 30 peers ⬇ 506.1kiB/s ⬆ 428.3kiB/s 1.20 bps 62.08 Tgas/s CPU: 23%, Mem: 7.4 GiB

Validator: A “Validator” will indicate you are an active validator
73 validators: Total 73 validators on the network
30 peers: You current have 30 peers. You need at least 3 peers to reach consensus and start validating
#46199418: block – Look to ensure blocks are moving

RPC

Any node within the network offers RPC services on port 3030 as long as the port is open in the nodes firewall. The NEAR-CLI uses RPC calls behind the scenes. Common uses for RPC are to check on validator stats, node version and to see delegator stake, although it can be used to interact with the blockchain, accounts and contracts overall.

Find many commands and how to use them in more detail here:

https://docs.near.org/api/rpc/introduction

Command:

sudo apt install curl jq

Common Commands:

Check your node version:

Command:

curl -s http://127.0.0.1:3030/status | jq .version

Check Delegators and Stake

Command:

near view <your pool>.stake.guildnet get_accounts '{"from_index": 0, "limit": 10}' --accountId <accountId>.guildnet

Check Reason Validator Kicked

Command:

curl -s -d '{"jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": "validators", "id": "dontcare", "params": [null]}' -H 'Content-Type: application/json' https://rpc.openshards.io | jq -c ".result.prev_epoch_kickout[] | select(.account_id | contains ("<POOL_ID>"))" | jq .reason

Check Blocks Produced / Expected

Command:

curl -s -d '{"jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": "validators", "id": "dontcare", "params": [null]}' -H 'Content-Type: application/json' http://localhost:3030/ | jq -c ".result.current_validators[] | select(.account_id | contains ("POOL_ID"))"

Prometheus

Monitoring disk, CPU, memory, network io, missed blocks, and peers is critically important to a healthy node. Prometheus and Grafana combined provide monitoring and visual reporting tools. Please note that Prometheus is best set up on another machine due the storage requirement for logs.

Installation

Command:

sudo apt-get update

Command:

sudo apt-get install prometheus prometheus-node-exporter prometheus-pushgateway
prometheus-alertmanager

Check that Prometheus was installed and is in your path.

prometheus --version

Start Services

Command:

sudo systemctl status prometheus

Command:

sudo systemctl status prometheus-node-exporter

Command:

sudo vi /etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml

Update the targets and save

targets: [‘localhost:9093’, ‘localhost:3030’]

Reference the rules file

Load rules once and periodically evaluate them according to the global 'evaluation_interval'.

rule_files:

- "rules.yml"

Setup Postfix email

Command:

sudo apt-get install mailutils

Setup Responses

internet site
enter a domain name (Used for the from email address)

Command

sudo vi /etc/postfix/main.cf

Update and save the config file

inet_interfaces = all to inet_interfaces = localhost
inet_protocols = all to inet_protocols = ipv4

Restart postfix

Command:

sudo service postfix restart

Add the hostname used with Postfix

Command:

sudo vi /etc/hostname

Command

sudo nano /etc/hosts

Send a test email

echo "This is the body of the email" | mail -s "This is the subject line" user@example.com

Update rules.yml

Command:

sudo vi /etc/prometheus/rules.yml

groups:
  - name: near
    rules:
      - alert: InstanceDown
        expr: up == 0
        for: 1m
        labels:
          severity: "critical"
        annotations:
          summary: "Endpoint {{ $labels.instance }} down"
          description: "{{ $labels.instance }} of job {{ $labels.job }} "
      - alert: NearVersionBuildNotMatched
        expr: near_version_build{instance="yournode.io", job="near"} != near_dev_version_build{instance="yournode.io", job="near"}
        for: 5m
        labels:
          severity: critical
        annotations:
          summary: "Near Node Version needs updated."
          description: "Your version is out of date and you risk getting kicked."
      - alert: StakeBelowSeatPrice
        expr: abs((near_current_stake / near_seat_price) * 100) < 100
        for: 2m
        labels:
          severity: critical
        annotations:
          description: 'Pool is below the current seat price'

Restart services

Command:

sudo systemctl restart prometheus

Command:

sudo systemctl status prometheus

sudo systemctl status prometheus

Grafana

Download and add the package

Command:

wget -q -O - https://packages.grafana.com/gpg.key | sudo apt-key add -

Command:

sudo add-apt-repository "deb https://packages.grafana.com/oss/deb stable main"

Command:

sudo apt-get install grafana

Setup Rules

Command:

sudo vi /etc/prometheus/rules.yml

- job_name: validator
  - static_configs:
    - targets: ['localhost:9093']

Update alert manager

Command:

sudo vi /etc/init.d/prometheus-alertmanager

NAME=prometheus-alertmanager

Set the command-line arguments

Command:

sudo vi /etc/default/prometheus-alertmanager

ARGS="--cluster.listen-address="

Start & Reload services

Command:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

sudo systemctl enable grafana-server.service

sudo systemctl start grafana-server

sudo service grafana-server status

Install additional plugins

sudo grafana-cli plugins install simpod-json-datasource

sudo grafana-cli plugins install ryantxu-ajax-panel

Restart service and update password

service grafana-server restart

sudo grafana-cli admin reset-admin-password admin

Open Ports to specific IP

Command:

sudo iptables -L

Command:

sudo iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 3000 -s 66.73.0.194 -j ACCEPT

sudo netfilter-persistent save

sudo netfilter-persistent reload

Create Dashboard

Add datasource Prometheus
Add Notification channel email
Config grafana email

Command

sudo vi /etc/grafana/grafana.ini

enabled = true
host = localhost:25
skip_verify = true
from_address = moinitor@yournode.com
from_name = Validator

Restart service

service grafana-server restart

Watch logs

sudo tail -f /var/log/grafana/grafana.log

Install Prometheus Exporter

Command:

sudo apt install golang-go
git clone https://github.com/masknetgoal634/near-prometheus-exporter.git
cd near-prometheus-exporter/
go build -a -installsuffix cgo -ldflags="-w -s" -o main .

Start exporter

Command:

./main -accountId <contract account id>
netstat -an | grep 9333

Update Prometheus

Command:

sudo vi /etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml

- job_name: near-node
scrape_interval: 15s
static_configs:
- targets: ['<NODE_IP_ADDRESS>:3030']

Update AlertManager

sudo vi /etc/prometheus/alertmanager.yml

postqueue -p

amtool alert

promtool check rules /etc/prometheus/rules.yml

promtool check config /etc/prometheus/prometheus.yml

amtool check-config /etc/prometheus/alertmanager.yml

cd near-prometheus-exporter/

mv main near-exporter

sudo vi /lib/systemd/system/near-exporter.service

[Unit]

Description=NEAR Prometheus Exporter

[Service]

Restart=always

User=prometheus

EnvironmentFile=/etc/default/near-exporter

ExecStart=/opt/near-prometheus-exporter/near-exporter $ARGS

ExecReload=/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID

TimeoutStopSec=20s

SendSIGKILL=no

[Install]

WantedBy=multi-user.target

Update exporter

Command:

sudo vi /etc/default/near-exporter

# Set the command-line arguments to pass to the server.

# Set you contract name

ARGS="-accountId yournode"

Copy config and start service

Command:

sudo cp /lib/systemd/system/near-exporter.service /etc/systemd/system/near-exporter.service

sudo chmod 644 /etc/systemd/system/near-exporter.service

sudo systemctl start near-exporter

sudo systemctl status near-exporter

ps -elf | grep near-exporter

netstat -an | grep 9333

sudo systemctl enable near-exporter

LESSON 6 - TROUBLESHOOTING

In this lesson you will learn about:

Keys
Common Errors

Keys

NEAR uses cryptographic keys to secure accounts and validators, each key has a public and matching private key pair.

Find more detailed information about NEAR and keys: https://docs.near.org/concepts/basics/account#access-keys

Validator Keys:

To manage and sign transactions a node_key and validator_key.

Node Key:

Used to communicate with other peers and is primarily responsible for syncing the blockchain.

~/.near/<network>/node_key.json

Common Issue:

In a failure situation, both the node_key and validator_key must be copied over

Validator Key:

Used to sign and validate blocks.

~/.near/<network>/validator_key.json

Common Issues:

The validator key used to initialize the staking contract is not the one listed in validator_key.json
The account Id submitted when NEARUp was initialized is not the same as the one in validator_key.json

Common Errors & Solutions

Submitting a proposal before the validator is synced

A validator must be fully synced before submitting a proposal to enter the validator set. If you are not fully synced and you entered the validator set your log will be filled with errors.

Resolution Wait until 4 epochs until you have been kicked from the validator set. Delete the data directory and resync. Be sure to be fully synced before staking actions or pings go to your pool.

Stop the node
rm -Rf ~/.near/<NETWORK_ID>/data
Start the node

Starting the node when another instance is running

On occasion, a process will get disconnected from the shell or NEARUp. The common error seen when trying to start the node will be:

Err value: Os { code: 98, kind: AddrInUse, message: "Address already in use" }',

Resolution Find the pid of the running process

ps -elf | grep neard

Kill the hung pid

kill -9 <PID>

Running out of Disk space

If you find no space left on device errors in the validator log files then you likely ran out of disk space.

Stop the node
Failover to a backup node
Cleanup files or resize disk
Fail back over.

Not enough stake to obtain a validator seat

You can check that your validator proposal was accepted by checking

near proposals

Not producing blocks

Your validator is producing zero blocks in near validators current.

This is due the staking pool contract and the validator_key.json have different public keys or the account_id in validator_key.json not being the staking pool contract id.

Get the staking pool key

near view <POOL_ID> get_staking_key '{}'

Get the key in validator_key.json

cat ~/.near/<network>/validator_key.json | grep public_key

Note: Both keys must match. If they do not update the staking pool key and wait 2 epochs before pinging.

Update staking pool key

near call <POOL_ID> update_staking_key '{"stake_public_key": "<PUBLIC_KEY>"}' --accountId <ACCOUNT_ID>

Check the account_id is set to the staking pool contract

vi ~/.near/<network>/validator_key.json

"account_id" = <staking pool id>

Note: if it does now match the staking pool id upate it and restart your node.

Not producing enough blocks or chunks

Missing blocks or chunks is the primary reason a validator is kicked from the validator pool. You can check the number of blocks expected/missed via NEAR-Cli and RPC.

NEAR-CLI

near validators current | grep <pool id>

RPC

curl -s -d '{"jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": "validators", "id": "dontcare", "params": [null]}' -H 'Content-Type: application/json' http://localhost:3030/ | jq -c ".result.current_validators[] | select(.account_id | contains ("<POOL_ID>"))"

Check the reason kicked

curl -s -d '{"jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": "validators", "id": "dontcare", "params": [null]}' -H 'Content-Type: application/json' https://rpc.openshards.io | jq -c ".result.prev_epoch_kickout[] | select(.account_id | contains ("<POOL_ID>"))" | jq .reason

Not exporting the correct environment

Be sure that you are using the correct environment each time you run NEAR-Cli

export NEAR_ENV=<mainnet,testnet,guildnet>

Incompatible CPU without AVX support

One cause of missed blocks and nodes falling out of sync is running on a CPU without AVX support. AVX support is required, but not always used depending on the complexity of the transaction.

Not running on SSD drives

NEAR Requires a 1 second block time and HDD disks are just not fast enough. SDD drives are required and SSD NVME drives are recommended.

Inconsistent Internet connection

NEAR requires a 1 second block time, so any latency from your internet provider can cause you to miss blocks.

Inability to gain enough peers for consensus

If you are unable to gain any peers a restart can help. In some rare cases the boot_nodes in config.json can be empty.

Logs like that :

INFO stats: #42376888 Waiting for peers 0/0/40 peers ⬇ 0 B/s ⬆ 0 B/s 0.00 bps 0 gas/s CPU: 2%, Mem: 91.3 MiB

Resolution Download the latest config.json file and restart:

For Testnet: https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/build.nearprotocol.com/nearcore-deploy/testnet/validator/config.json
For Mainnet: https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/build.nearprotocol.com/nearcore-deploy/mainnet/validator/config.json

LESSON 7 - NODE FAILOVER

It is an unspoken requirement to maintain a secondary node in a different location in the event of a hardware or network failure on your primary node.

You will need to set up a standard node (without a validator key) and a different node_key. The node will be set up using the normal process see Setup a Validator Node.

Note: The backup node must track the same shard in the config.json as the primary node, to be used as a failover node. Please confirm the backp node has the the same config.json as the primary node.

"tracked_shards":[0],

Failing Over

To failover you must copy the node_key.json and the validatory_key.json to the secondary node and restart.

Copy over node_key.json
Copy over validator_key.json
Stop the node primary node
Stop the secondary node
Restart the secondary node

When failing back over to the primary simply move the secondary node_key.json into place and restart the services in reverse order.

Got a question?
Ask it on StackOverflow!

NEAR Validator Bootcamp 🚀

Validator Onboarding FAQ's​

LESSON 1 - OVERVIEW OF NEAR​

Blockchain Technology​

Smart Contracts​

Sharding​

About NEAR​

Key Features​

Technology Stack​

LESSON 2 - NEAR-CLI​

Setup NEAR-CLI​

Install developer tools, Node.js, and npm​

Install NEAR-CLI​

Validator Stats​

Environment​

Proposals​

Validators Current​

Validators Next​

LESSON 3 - SETUP UP A VALIDATOR​

Server Requirements​

Install required software & set the configuration​

Prerequisites:​

Install developer tools:​

Install Python pip:​

Set the configuration:​

Install Building env​

Install Rust & Cargo​

Source the environment​

Clone nearcore project from GitHub​

Compile nearcore binary​

Initialize working directory​

Replace the config.json​

Get data backup​

Run the node​

Using NearUp​

Create a wallet​

Authorize Wallet Locally​

Check the validator_key.json​

Step 8 – Check all files were generated​

Setup using NEARCore (MainNet)

Step 1 – Installation required software & set the configuration​

Step 2 – Create a wallet​

Step 3 – Authorize Wallet Locally​

Step 4 – Initialize & Start the Node​

Create validator_key.json​

Watch logs​

Becoming a Validator​

Submitting Pool Information (Mainnet Only)​

LESSON 4 - STAKING POOLS​

Deploy a Staking Pool Contract​

Deploy a Staking Pool​

Configure your staking pool contract​

Manage your staking pool contract​

Retrieve the owner ID of the staking pool​

Issue this command to retrieve the public key the network has for your validator​

If the public key does not match you can update the staking key like this (replace the pubkey below with the key in your validator.json file)​

Working with Staking Pools​

Proposals​

Transactions​

Deposit and Stake NEAR​

Unstake NEAR​

Withdraw​

Ping​

Staked Balance​

Unstaked Balance​

Available for Withdrawal​

Pause / Resume Staking​

Pause​

Resume​

LESSON 5 - MONITORING​

Log Files​

RPC​

Common Commands:​

Check your node version:​

Check Delegators and Stake​

Check Reason Validator Kicked​

Check Blocks Produced / Expected​

Prometheus​

Installation​

Start Services​

Validator Onboarding FAQ's

LESSON 1 - OVERVIEW OF NEAR

Blockchain Technology

Smart Contracts

Sharding

About NEAR

Key Features

Technology Stack

LESSON 2 - NEAR-CLI

Setup NEAR-CLI

Install developer tools, Node.js, and npm

Install NEAR-CLI

Validator Stats

Environment

Proposals

Validators Current

Validators Next

LESSON 3 - SETUP UP A VALIDATOR

Server Requirements

Install required software & set the configuration

Prerequisites:

Install developer tools:

Install Python pip:

Set the configuration:

Install Building env

Install Rust & Cargo

Source the environment

Clone `nearcore` project from GitHub

Compile `nearcore` binary

Initialize working directory

Replace the `config.json`

Get data backup

Run the node

Using NearUp

Create a wallet

Authorize Wallet Locally

Check the validator_key.json

Step 8 – Check all files were generated

Step 1 – Installation required software & set the configuration

Step 2 – Create a wallet

Step 3 – Authorize Wallet Locally

Step 4 – Initialize & Start the Node

Create `validator_key.json`

Watch logs

Becoming a Validator

Submitting Pool Information (Mainnet Only)

LESSON 4 - STAKING POOLS

Deploy a Staking Pool Contract

Deploy a Staking Pool

Configure your staking pool contract

Manage your staking pool contract

Retrieve the owner ID of the staking pool

Issue this command to retrieve the public key the network has for your validator

If the public key does not match you can update the staking key like this (replace the pubkey below with the key in your validator.json file)

Working with Staking Pools

Proposals

Transactions

Deposit and Stake NEAR

Unstake NEAR

Withdraw

Ping

Staked Balance

Unstaked Balance

Available for Withdrawal

Pause / Resume Staking

Pause

Resume

LESSON 5 - MONITORING

Log Files

RPC

Common Commands:

Check your node version:

Check Delegators and Stake

Check Reason Validator Kicked

Check Blocks Produced / Expected

Prometheus

Installation

Start Services

Update the targets and save

Reference the rules file