Docker Installation

The following link contains the location of all the Docker images:

https://hub.docker.com/repository/docker/pendulumchain/pendulum-collatorhub.docker.com

Step-by-step installation

We assume that your Ubuntu server is a fresh install, it does have an external IP address that has direct access to the internet.

Apply the latest patches

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y

Follow the steps below to install docker on your Ubuntu server:

sudo apt install apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl software-properties-common git binutils -y
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo apt-key add -
sudo add-apt-repository "deb [arch=amd64] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu `lsb_release -cs` stable"
sudo apt update
sudo apt-cache policy docker-ce 
sudo apt install docker-ce -y
sudo systemctl status docker
sudo groupadd docker
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
su -s ${USER}

Firewall Config

Configure your local firewall to allow communication for the required ports

sudo ufw allow 30335/tcp
sudo ufw allow 30334/tcp
sudo ufw allow https
sudo ufw enable

Chain Specs

Download chain specifications

Amplitude

sudo mkdir -p /data/
sudo wget -P /data https://raw.githubusercontent.com/paritytech/polkadot/master/node/service/chain-specs/kusama.json
sudo wget -P /data https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pendulum-chain/pendulum/main/res/amplitude-spec-raw.json

Pendulum

Install the application using docker. This will name the docker container the same as the hostname of the Ubuntu server. If you wish to change that, replace the $(hostname) parameter with a name of your choice.

Amplitude

sudo docker pull pendulumchain/amplitude-collator:v0.9.42
docker run --name $(hostname) --restart unless-stopped -d -v /data:/data -it -p 30335:30335 -p 30334:30334 pendulumchain/amplitude-collator:v0.9.42 --collator --no-private-ipv4 --rpc-cors all --force-authoring --enable-offchain-indexing=true --ws-port 8844 --port 30335 --rpc-port 9955 --chain /data/amplitude-spec-raw.json --execution=wasm --name $(hostname) -d /data/ --state-cache-size 0 -- --port 30334 --chain /data/kusama.json --execution=wasm -d /data

Pendulum

Set up an RPC Node instead

You may want to only run an RPC Node instead. That is, a reachable node, that connects to the network and that can be used from other apps, but that doesn't produce any blocks. If you need this, you can run the following command instead of the one above.

docker run --name $1 --restart unless-stopped -d -v /data:/data -it -p 30335:30335 -p 30334:30334 pendulumchain/pendulum-collator:v0.9.42 --no-private-ipv4 --rpc-cors all --ws-port 8844 --ws-max-connections 200 --port 30335 --rpc-port 9955 --chain /data/amplitude-spec-raw.json  --execution=wasm -- --port 30334 --chain /data/kusama.json --database=RocksDb --execution=wasm -d /data:/data --unsafe-pruning --pruning=256

After you have run this, you can continue with the next verification steps, taking into account that your node will not produce blocks if you executed the command above.

Verify your installation

Run docker ps command to verify if the collator is running properly. You should see the following output:

# docker ps
CONTAINER ID   IMAGE                                     COMMAND                  CREATED          STATUS          PORTS                                                                                                                                                                   NAMES
3212d72e1291   pendulumchain/pendulum-collator:v0.9.42   "tini -- /usr/local/…"   10 minutes ago   Up 10 minutes   0.0.0.0:8844->8844/tcp, :::8844->8844/tcp, 0.0.0.0:9935->9935/tcp, :::9935->9935/tcp, 0.0.0.0:30334-30335->30334-30335/tcp, :::30334-30335->30334-30335/tcp, 9945/tcp   yourhostname

The /data directory should start to get populated with data and should have a structure similar to:

drwxr-xr-x 3 root root    6144 Sep 28 11:09 chains
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2861651 Oct  4 16:36 kusama.json
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1326607 Oct  4 16:36 amplitude-spec-raw.json

What happens next?

Now your collator will start syncing both the Relaychain(Kusama/Polkadot) and the Parachain (Amplitude/Pendulum). Relaychain syncing may take several days to complete due to the size of the Relaychain database, this is normal and expected. You can follow the progress in the log files using the docker logs -f $(hostname) command.

2022-09-28 19:02:26 assembling new collators for new session 45 at #52800
2022-09-28 19:02:30 ✨ Imported #14652094 (0x7505…a7d8)
2022-09-28 19:02:30 💤 Idle (49 peers), best: #14652094 (0x7505…a7d8), finalized #14652090 (0xbc43…9e95), ⬇ 488.0kiB/s ⬆ 425.0kiB/s
2022-09-28 19:02:31 ⚙️  Syncing 224.8 bps, target=#181974 (12 peers), best: #53857 (0x2f61…0009), finalized #0 (0xccea…1aaf), ⬇ 1.4MiB/s ⬆ 2.1kiB/s

When the node is syncing, you can see the block it is trying to sync up to. The “best” section will tell you what block the sync actually is at, and the “target” where it needs to get to.

How to speed up the chain syncing process?

As we previously pointed out, syncing the Kusama/Polkadot chain could take many days. Luckily enough, there is a solution for that provided by Polkashots. Follow the procedure in one of the following links to try and speed up your sync procedure:

Chain	Link
Kusama	https://ksm-rocksdb.polkashots.io/
Polkadot	https://dot-rocksdb.polkashots.io/

💡 Polkashots is a 3rd party service provider and in no way affiliated with Pendulum/Amplitude