a²v: Avalanche Automated Validators

Features

Simple, one script solution for validator management.
Self-contained, easy-to-use.

How to Use

First make sure you have one or more Docker hosts (servers) running, with SSH access of them. An example is to launch an Ubuntu instance on AWS EC2. The following commands are run on the host to setup (only need to setup once):
- install sudo apt update && sudo apt install docker.io;
- add ubuntu to docker group: sudo gpasswd -a ubuntu docker;
- start Docker: sudo systemctl start docker && sudo systemctl enable docker.
- check: if you can run docker ps as ubuntu user, then everything is configured properly.
- (only for those who want to follow an example): sudo mkdir -p /bigboy/stakers && sudo chown ubuntu:ubuntu -R /bigboy/stakers
Then modify validators.json to suit your needs.
- The exmaple shows three hosts named "example", "docker1" and "docker2":
  - example will host one validator "mystaker" (and uses localhost),
  - docker1 will host four validators: "staker0", "staker1", "staker2", "staker3",
  - docker2 will host three.
  The corresponding cert and key files for each validator should be placed under ./keys, such as staker0.key.
- Change host to your docker host address.
- Configure SSH privateKey accordingly.
- Change workDir to where you would like to keep the databases and logs (and also the user has access to).
Install a2v: npm install -g a2v.
Before we start the validators, we need to build the image on the remote host(s):
```
a2v buildImage <your-host>
```
(<your-host> could be example, for example). This builds a ready-to-use avalanchego image on the selected host, with the release version specified in validators.json (release field).
Now we can start all validators on a given host:
```
a2v run <your-host>
```
Done!
To stop all validators on a given host:
```
a2v stop <your-host>
```
To auto restart validators on crashes, just add a2v run -c <your-validators.json> to your crontab, as it will only start validators if they're not running.

For more usage: a2v --help:

       ___
 ___ _|_  |  __
/ _ `/ __/ |/ /
\_,_/____/___/    Avalanche Automated Validators

Commands:
a2v run [host-id] [node-id]             start the container(s) on the given host
a2v stop [host-id] [node-id] [--force]  stop the container(s) on the given host
a2v buildImage [host-id]                build avalanchego image on the given host
a2v show [host-id] [node-id]            show validators on the given host
a2v showImage [host-id]                 show avalanchego images on the given host
a2v rmImage <host-id> <image-tag>       remove the specified avalanchego image on the given host
a2v genKey <node-id>                    randomly generate a new <node-id>.key and <node-id>.crt
a2v prune [host-id]                     prune unused containers and images on the given host

Options:
--help     Show help                                                                [boolean]
-c, --profile  JSON file that describes all validators    [string] [default: "./validators.json"]
--version  Show version number                                                      [boolean]

Determinant/a2v

a2v: Avalanche Automated Validators

Features

How to Use

a²v: Avalanche Automated Validators