Energi Core Node in a Docker container using Docker Compose

This repository is meant to ease running Energi Core Node in a Docker container using Docker Compose and the official Energi image.

As Energi Core node officially can be run on macOS, Ubuntu and Windows (menu subsections "Staking Guide" and "Set up Linux VPS" in Energi Support Wiki), this repository is intended for use on non-Ubuntu Linux machines, though energi-docker-compose can be used on Ubuntu as well and it should work on macOS too. Theoretically this repository should also work on Windows by using WSL and maybe Git Bash or any other Linux shell emulator that supports commands used in the helper shell script helper.

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• Prerequisites
• Run Energi Core Node
• Masternode
• Troubleshooting
  • Apply preimages
  • Bootstrap chain data
• Energi Core Node Monitor
• Update
• Helper script
• Credits

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Prerequisites

Requirements to run a Energi Core Node in a Docker container:

• Docker;
• Docker Compose;
• enough free space to store blockchain data (at the beginning of January 2022 size of the Energi Core Node data volume is roughly 50 GB).

Run Energi Core Node

To run Energi Core Node in a Docker container:

• clone this git repository: git clone https://github.com/eandersons/energi-docker-compose.git;

• create the following files:

  • configuration/energi_account_address that contains the Energi account address;

    to add multiple accounts for staking, they must be specified as a comma separated list of addresses;

  • configuration/energi_account_password that contains the Energi account password;

    to use multiple accounts for staking each password must be entered in a separate line in the same order addresses are specified in configuration/energi_account_address; these files are used to get account's address and password to automatically unlock account for staking when launching Energi Core Node;

• copy keystore file(s) to setup/.energi_core/keystore;

  Note: original keystore file(s) should be stored in a safe place as the keystore file(s) that will be placed in the directory setup/.energi_core/keystore will be moved to a Docker volume.

• open the necessary ports for external inbound access in router and/or firewall:

  • 39797 TCP;
  • 39797 UDP;

  39797 TCP and UDP ports are required for staking and Masternode as it is mentioned on 1.7. Firewall Rules);

• optionally, the Energi Core Node Monitor container can be enabled; instructions on how to do it can be found in nodemon/ReadMe.md;

• to move keystore file to the Energi data directory volume, bootstrap chaindata and start the Energi Core Node container the following command should be executed: ./helper setup core (or ./helper setup if Energi Core Node Monitor container should be set up and started as well and all the neccessary preparation for it has been done);

  docker compose is used in ./helper setup so sudo might be necessary.

The aforementioned actions must be executed only once - when running Energi Core Node container for the first time. Later on container can be started with the command docker compose up --detach or with the helper command ./helper start.

To check if Energi Core Node is running and account is unlocked for staking, the command ./helper status should be executed. When Energi Core Node is fully synchronised, value under nrg.syncing: is false and value for miner and staking in the output under miner.stakingStatus(): is true. If not, a block synchronisation might be in progress and ./helper status should be executed after a while again to check if Energi Core Node is syncrhonised.

Masternode

energi-docker-compose is masternode ready. Masternode can be enabled by following the official Masternode Guide.

A helper command is available to get masternode enode URL: ./helper masternode-enode-url (shorter aliases are available as well: masternode-enode, mn-enode-url, mn-enode). It covers steps 3.1 and 3.2 from the section Announcing the Masternode.
Alternatively step 3.1 can be executed with ./helper attach, then 3.2 as described in the guide.

Troubleshooting

The following actions executed one by one might help if something goes sideways with chain synchronisation in Energi Core Node container:

1. apply preimages;

   if the problem is not solved, the next step should be executed;

2. bootstrap chaindata.

If applying preimages and bootstraping chaindata did not help, it might help if those actions are executed again. Energi support should be contacted if the problem is still persistent after multiple tries.

Apply preimages

Official Energi documentation: Apply Preimages (note: the link currently is broken, but the same link currently (July 2024) is provided on Energi Core Node Downloads).

To apply preimages for Energi Core Node container the following command can be used: ./helper apply-preimages.

docker compose is used in ./helper apply-preimages so sudo might be necessary.

Bootstrap chain data

Official Energi documentation: Bootstrap Chaindata.

To bootstrap chaindata for Energi Core Node container the following command can be used: ./helper bootstrap-chaindata.

docker compose is used in ./helper bootstrap-chaindata so sudo might be necessary.

Energi Core Node Monitor

It is possible to enable Energi Core Node Monitor. Instructions on how to set it up are located in nodemon/ReadMe.md.

Energi Core Node Monitor container provides some additional features that can be enabled optionally:

• configurable interval between Monitor runs (ECNM_INTERVAL);
• configurable timezone for time display in messages (MESSAGE_TIME_ZONE);
• display the current Enrgi market price in the configured currency in information messages (MARKET_PRICE_IN_INFORMATION);
• display reward amount, balance and its changes also in the configured currency (NRG_AMOUNT_IN_CURRENCY).

Update

To get changes from the repository and update Energi Core Node images and containers the command ./helper update should be executed. Or ./helper update core or ./helper update monitor to update image and container only for the specified service.

It is possible to build images and create containers for Energi Core Node versions other than the one specified in .env: ./helper update vX.Y.Z or ./helper update core|monitor vX.Y.Z. This may be especially useful for cases when a new version has been released but it has not been reflected in .env yet to update Energi Core Node (and Monitor) to the lateset version. Note that there is a chance that this command will fail (most probably because of an error while building Monitor image when the newest Energi version cannot be compiled using the Go version specified in nodemon/Dockerfile), and in such case the following commands should be executed:

1. ./helper start core to start Core container as the image for the newest Energi Core Node version should be already built;
2. ./helper update monitor if Energi Core Node Monitor is used; this will use the version that is specified in .env

or ./helper update to use Core and Monitor version specified in .env till isues are resolved in the repopsitory.

Helper script

A little helper script helper is available. To see what it provides, ./helper help should be executed.

Credits

A list of tools and sources used in this repository:

• Docker Engine;
• Docker Compose;
• Energi Docker image (source: Energi Core GitHub repository (containers/docker/master-alpine/Dockerfile));
• Energi Core Node Monitor script nodemon.sh.