Running a Local Testnet

This guide explains how to run a local Archway testnet. If you have not installed a Archway node before, please follow this guide here.

To have a working test network we need at least one validator node. So, let's create a validator node.

Initialize the validator node

First, let's a directory to keep all nodes data in to stay organized:

mkdir testnet
cd testnet

Since we will create two nodes in this testnet, let's create a directory for first node that will will call node-main.

mkdir -p node-main

Initiate node-main with the chain name:

archwayd init node-main --chain-id my-chain --home ./node-main

You will see something similar after running the command:

{"app_message":{"auth":{"accounts":[],"params":{"max_memo_characters":"256","sig_verify_cost_ed25519":"590","sig_verify_cost_secp256k1":"1000","tx_sig_limit":"7","tx_size_cost_per_byte":"10"}},"authz":{"authorization":[]},"bank":{"balances":[],"denom_metadata":[],"params":{"default_send_enabled":true,"send_enabled":[]},"supply":[]},"capability":{"index":"1","owners":[]},"crisis":{"constant_fee":{"amount":"1000","denom":"stake"}},"distribution":{"delegator_starting_infos":[],"....

Create a key to hold your account. An account is a pair of public key and private key. These keys are then stored in an object called a keyring.

archwayd keys add node-main-account --home ./node-main

After running this command, you will be asked to create a keyring phrase. Create a keyring passphrase and re-enter the same phrase.

info

Please remember your keyring passphrase as it is need to complete the following steps

Once you have created a passphrase, you will see a similar message:

- name: node-main-account
  type: local
  address: archway10n7srpt0x859ghelguwxvxwh84vdsryy8ptel8
  pubkey: '{"@type":"/cosmos.crypto.secp256k1.PubKey","key":"A6+usIOWVm2K45jsAzjhrRWDzDWANQsQvxXLtIZyT4OL"}'
  mnemonic: "

Add that key into the genesis.app_state.accounts array in the genesis file.

Note: This command lets you set the number of coins. Make sure this account has some coins with the genesis.app_state.staking.params.bond_denom denom, the default is staking.

archwayd add-genesis-account $(archwayd keys show node-main-account -a --home ./node-main) 1000000000stake,1000000000validatortoken --home ./node-main

Now we will generate the genesis transaction to create the validator. The gensesis transactions is the first transaction of the local chain.

archwayd gentx node-main-account 1000000000stake --chain-id my-chain --home ./node-main

archwayd collect-gentxs --home ./node-main

After running the above command, you will see a message like this:

Genesis transaction written to "node-main/config/gentx/gentx-69b522ae3010219fc2317b3aa8f1c789df81fa30.json"

Now let's start the validator node.

archwayd start --home ./node-main

If successful, the node will start running and you will see a message like below:

8:49PM INF starting node with ABCI Tendermint in-process

Congrats! You have created the first node. Now let's create a second node to connect to our testnet

Initialize the second node

Open another terminal window and create a directory for the second node:

mkdir -p node2

Initiate the node with the chain name like we did with the main node earlier.

archwayd init node2 --chain-id my-chain --home ./node2

Fix port conflicts

Since we are running both nodes on the same machine, there will be some port conflicts. Let's fix them before starting the second node.

Changes to the `app.toml` file

The first file we will change is the app.toml file. Go to this file by running the below commands:

cd node2/config 

nano app.toml

Under the gRPC Configuration section you will see the address settings. Change the value to the below:

Original Value	Changed Value
address = "0.0.0.0:9090"	address = "0.0.0.0:9092"

Save the file after making the above changes.

Changes to the `config.toml` file

The next file we will change is the config.toml file. Go to this file by running the below commands after you have made the first edits above:

nano config.toml

Under the RPC Server Configuration Options you will see the laddr settings. Change the value to the below:

Original Value	Changed Value
laddr = "tcp://127.0.0.1:26657"	laddr = "tcp://127.0.0.1:10002"

Then find the pprof_laddr settings and change it to the value below:

Original Value	Changed Value
pprof_laddr = "localhost:6060"	pprof_laddr = "localhost:6062"

And the last thing we need to change in this file is the listen port for p2p connections. This is under the P2P Configuration Options and we will change the laddr value to the below:

Original Value	Changed Value
laddr = "tcp://0.0.0.0:26656"	laddr = "tcp://0.0.0.0:20002"

Save the edits to this file.

Copy the genesis file

In order to join the local test network, we need to use the same genesis file of that network. The genesis file contains all the information and parameters about the initial state of our blockchain.

Let's copy it from the main node and replace it on our genesis file.

Make sure you are in the /testnet directory before running the below command

cp ./node-main/config/genesis.json ./node2/config/

Find addresses of the seeds

To join a p2p network we need the addresses of nodes that we are willing to connect to. So let's find the address of the main-node via running the following command:

archwayd status

Note: Please note that this command shows the status of the running node on default port. If we want to get the status of a specific node, we need to give it the IP address and the port it is listening to. For example: archwayd status -n tcp://localhost:10002 for node2 that we just configured.

This command gives an output like the following:

{
  "NodeInfo": {
    "protocol_version": {
      "p2p": "8",
      "block": "11",
      "app": "0"
    },
    "id": "a118197af3c66781faa0299633cc59a1622d27e3",
    "listen_addr": "tcp://0.0.0.0:26656",
    "network": "chain-main",
    "version": "",
    "channels": "40202122233038606100",
    "moniker": "node3",
    "other": {
      "tx_index": "on",
      "rpc_address": "tcp://127.0.0.1:10003"
    }
  },
  "SyncInfo": {
    ...
  },
  "ValidatorInfo": {
    ...
  }
}

All we need is

The id which in our example is a118197af3c66781faa0299633cc59a1622d27e3
The host name and its listening port (listen_addr) which here is: tcp://0.0.0.0:26656

Join the network

Since we are running it on our local machine, the Ip address is 0.0.0.0 which refers to localhost we can use either localhost or 127.0.0.1. For me even 0.0.0.0 worked!

Now let's run the following command to join the network:

archwayd --home ./node2 start --p2p.seeds [email protected]:26656

Using `Gex` to visualize the network status

GEX is a real time in-terminal explorer for Cosmos SDK blockchains. Gex displays blocks, transactions, validator, network status, and more information. Use the GEX block explorer to see the status of peers, connection, version, and other useful information to have a quick peek into your own node.

Let's quickly install Gex to see the status of our node.

go install github.com/cosmos/[email protected]

To launch a GEX in your terminal window, type:

gex

Please, head over to this link for more information: https://github.com/cosmos/gex

Now, before connecting to the main-node, our gex looks like this:

As you can see the number of peers is zero. Now we run execute the join network command and it should look like this:

So now we successfully joined a running network.