Polygon Node notes

Notes on building a MAINNET Polygon node on Debian starting from snapshots

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Download the IMPROVED snapshot downloader script:

wget https://github.com/davidedg/polygon-node-notes/raw/main/snapstream.sh

Heimdall (req ports: 26656 tcp)

Get and install the latest stable release from https://github.com/maticnetwork/heimdall/releases

wget https://github.com/maticnetwork/heimdall/releases/download/v1.0.3/heimdalld-v1.0.3-amd64.deb
wget https://github.com/maticnetwork/heimdall/releases/download/v1.0.3/heimdalld-mainnet-sentry-config_v1.0.3-amd64.deb
apt install ./heimdalld-v1.0.3-amd64.deb ./heimdalld-mainnet-sentry-config_v1.0.3-amd64.deb

Dont run Heimdall on boot (optional)

systemctl disable heimdalld

Download Heimdall snapshots (this might take hours and lots of space ... how much?)

tmux
bash snapstream.sh -n mainnet -c heimdall -d /mnt/ssd/heimdall -t /mnt/ssd/heimdall-tmp -v true -z true -k false

Edit the unit definition if required (e.g.: change User to root or change the "--chain=mainnet" - but for this you'd be better off with starting with a different profile deb)

systemctl edit heimdalld.service
systemctl daemon-reload

Initialize Heimdall config file

chown heimdall /var/lib/heimdall
sudo -u heimdall heimdalld init --chain=mainnet --home /var/lib/heimdall

(optional) Use a pre-populated address book file ( example ), put it under /var/lib/heimdall/config/

Changes to /var/lib/heimdall/config/config.toml

laddr = "tcp://127.0.0.1:26657"

change to 0.0.0.0 if needed - this port does not need be published to the Internet.

configure list of initial nodes (seeds) - get them from https://wiki.polygon.technology/docs/pos/operate/node/full-node-binaries/#configure-heimdall-seeds-mainnet

sed -i 's|^seeds\s*=.*|seeds = "1500161dd491b67fb1ac81868952be49e2509c9f@52.78.36.216:26656,dd4a3f1750af5765266231b9d8ac764599921736@3.36.224.80:26656,8ea4f592ad6cc38d7532aff418d1fb97052463af@34.240.245.39:26656,e772e1fb8c3492a9570a377a5eafdb1dc53cd778@54.194.245.5:26656,6726b826df45ac8e9afb4bdb2469c7771bd797f1@52.209.21.164:26656"|g' /var/lib/heimdall/config/config.toml

set the public ip address (if under NAT)
```
external_address = "1.2.3.4:26656"
```

Symlink the downloaded heimdall snaphot to data directory

mv /var/lib/heimdall/ssd /var/lib/heimdall/ssd-orig && sudo -u heimdall  ln -s /mnt/ssd/heimdall /var/lib/heimdall/ssd

Reset permissions to heimdall user (mind the -L switch !) and check that no other files are not owned by heimdall

chown heimdall:nogroup -L -R /var/lib/heimdall/
find -L /var/lib/heimdall/ -not -user heimdall

Run Heimdall

systemctl start heimdalld

Check logs

journalctl -u heimdalld.service -f

Check sync status - check info-heimdall

curl 127.0.0.1:26657/status

Do not start bor until Heimdall is synced! (curl localhost:26657/status - catching_up = false !)

Bor (req ports: 30303 tcp/udp)

Get and install the latest stable release from https://github.com/maticnetwork/bor/releases

wget https://github.com/maticnetwork/bor/releases/download/v1.1.0/bor-v1.1.0-amd64.deb
wget https://github.com/maticnetwork/bor/releases/download/v1.1.0/bor-mainnet-sentry-config_v1.1.0-amd64.deb
apt install ./bor-v1.1.0-amd64.deb ./bor-mainnet-sentry-config_v1.1.0-amd64.deb

Dont run Bor on boot (optional - I prefer to start it manually after checking that heimdall is in sync)

systemctl disable bor

Understand the directory structure:

Bor requires very fast storage for chaindata (recent blocks) - SSD is strictly required (NVMe is recommended).
We will download the snapshots in /mnt/tmpdrv/bor-snap and the final structure will reside in /mnt/ssd/bor/
Final directory structure will be:

/var/lib/bor/
         ├── config-default-sentry.toml
         ├── config.toml
         └── data -> /mnt/ssd/bor/data/

/mnt/ssd/bor/
         ├── ancient/    << this dir may reside on a slower storage
         ├── snapshot/
         └── data/
              ├── bor/
              │   ├── chaindata -> /mnt/ssd/bor/snapshot/
              │   ├── LOCK
              │   ├── nodekey
              │   ├── nodes -> /mnt/ssd/bor/snapshot/bor/nodes/
              │   ├── transactions.rlp
              │   └── triecache/
              ├── bor.ipc=
              ├── genesis.json
              └── keystore/

Create structure

mkdir -p /mnt/ssd/bor/snapshot
mkdir -p /mnt/ssd/bor/data

ln -s /mnt/ssd/bor/data /var/lib/bor/data
mkdir -p /var/lib/bor/data/bor
ln -s /mnt/ssd/bor/snapshot           /var/lib/bor/data/bor/chaindata
ln -s /mnt/ssd/bor/snapshot/bor/nodes /var/lib/bor/data/bor/nodes

Optionally, ancient blocks can reside on slower storage (e.g. hdd + nvme cache).
Before extracting the snapshots, we can create the ancient path as a symlink to the slower storage, e.g.:

mkdir -p /mnt/hddcached/bor/ancient
ln -s /mnt/hddcached/bor/ancient /mnt/ssd/bor/snapshot/ancient

The download script will extract and place data by following any existing symlinks, thus extracting the ancient data into /mnt/hddcached/bor/ancient/
This feature is optional, if you do not want it, just do not create the ancient symlink and adjust the ancient path accordingly in the config.toml file.

Download Bor snapshots (this might take days and lots of space ... how much?)

tmux
bash snapstream.sh -n mainnet -c bor -d /mnt/ssd/bor/snapshot -t /mnt/tmpdrv/bor-snap -v true -z true -k false

Generate a new config.toml in /var/lib/bor/config.toml

mv /var/lib/bor/config.toml /var/lib/bor/config-default-sentry.toml && bor dumpconfig > /var/lib/bor/config.toml

Changes to /var/lib/bor/config.toml

Change datadir

sed -i 's|^datadir\s*=.*|datadir = "/var/lib/bor/data"|g' /var/lib/bor/config.toml

Change ancient datadir

sed -i 's|^ancient\s*=.*|ancient = "/mnt/ssd/bor/ancient"|g' /var/lib/bor/config.toml
# OR, if using the slower drive #
sed -i 's|^ancient\s*=.*|ancient = "/mnt/hddcached/bor/ancient"|g' /var/lib/bor/config.toml

Enable HTTP, WS, IPC endpoints

sed -i 's|ipcdisable\s*=.*|ipcdisable = false|g' /var/lib/bor/config.toml
sed -i 's|ipcpath\s*=.*|ipcpath = "bor.ipc"|g' /var/lib/bor/config.toml

[jsonrpc.http]
  enabled = true
  host = "0.0.0.0"
  api = ["eth", "net", "web3", "txpool", "bor"]

[jsonrpc.ws]
  enabled = true
  host = "0.0.0.0"
  api = ["eth", "net", "web3", "txpool", "bor"]

Review recent recommended settings: https://forum.polygon.technology/t/recommended-peer-settings-for-mainnet-nodes/13018#bor-2

[p2p]
maxpeers = 50

[p2p.discovery]
bootnodes = ["enode://76316d1cb93c8ed407d3332d595233401250d48f8fbb1d9c65bd18c0495eca1b43ec38ee0ea1c257c0abb7d1f25d649d359cdfe5a805842159cfe36c5f66b7e8@52.78.36.216:30303", "enode://b8f1cc9c5d4403703fbf377116469667d2b1823c0daf16b7250aa576bacf399e42c3930ccfcb02c5df6879565a2b8931335565f0e8d3f8e72385ecf4a4bf160a@3.36.224.80:30303", "enode://8729e0c825f3d9cad382555f3e46dcff21af323e89025a0e6312df541f4a9e73abfa562d64906f5e59c51fe6f0501b3e61b07979606c56329c020ed739910759@54.194.245.5:30303", "enode://681ebac58d8dd2d8a6eef15329dfbad0ab960561524cf2dfde40ad646736fe5c244020f20b87e7c1520820bc625cfb487dd71d63a3a3bf0baea2dbb8ec7c79f1@34.240.245.39:30303"]

(optional) Increase resources (review num of procs)

[cache]
  cache = 4096
  triesinmemory = 256

[parallelevm]
  enable = true
  procs = 8

(optional) Enable telemetry
```
[telemetry]
  metrics = true
```

Download the mainnet bor genesis file

curl -o /var/lib/bor/data/genesis.json 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/maticnetwork/bor/master/builder/files/genesis-mainnet-v1.json'

Reset permissions to bor user (mind the -L switch !) and check that no other files are not owned by bor

chown bor:nogroup -L -R /var/lib/bor/
find -L /var/lib/bor/ -not -user bor

chown bor:nogroup -L -R /mnt/hddcached/bor
find -L /mnt/hddcached/bor -not -user bor

Run Bor (double check that heimdall is in sync!)

systemctl start bor

Check logs

journalctl -u bor.service -f

Attach to admin interface and check progress

bor attach /var/lib/bor/data/bor.ipc

Check how many peers are connected
```
> admin.peers.length
```

Check how many blocks till sync

> eth.syncing.highestBlock - eth.syncing.currentBlock
170749

Check bor status - check info-bor