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Raspberry Pi configuration for Astar node

This is a simple readme containing main steps to setup a Raspberry Pi running an Astar node.

Requirements:

  • Raspberry Pi 4 with 2 Gb RAM minimum, recomended 4 Gb
  • A USD hard drive (preferably SSD) of 1 Tb
  • Internet connection (Wifi is fine)
  • A SD Card

Setup Raspberry Pi to boot from USB disk​

Raspberry Pi natively loads OS from MicroSD card. As we need a hard drive to store the blockchain database, we start by configuring the Raspberry to boot OS from USB disk.

Download Raspberry Pi Imager: https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/

Insert the SD card

Start RPi imager

Choose OS > Misc Utility Images > Bootloader > USB Boot

Choose storage > select the SD card

Write

Insert the SD card into the Raspberry Pi

Plug the Pi and wait for 10-20 seconds after the green light blinks constantly

Turn off the Pi and remove the SD card

Install OS​

Plug the USD hard drive

Start RPi imager

Choose OS > Other general-purpose OS > Ubuntu > Ubuntu Server 22.04.2 LTS (64-bit)

Choose storage > select the USB disk

If advance menu doesn't show up, open it with Ctrl + Shift + X

Set hostname, enable SSH, user and wireless LAN

Write

Plug the USB drive on the Pi and turn it on

Configure the Raspberry Pi​

SSH to the Pi from your computer

  • On Linux/Mac: ssh user@pi_name.local
  • On Windows, you will need a SSH client like PuTTY

Check that partition / uses the full size of the disk: lsblk

Update and upgrade the OS with latest packages: sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

Install package required: sudo apt install -y adduser libfontconfig1

To prevent Out Of Memory issues, create a swap file

sudo fallocate -l 4g /file.swap
sudo chmod 600 /file.swap
sudo mkswap /file.swap
sudo swapon /file.swap

Add swap file to fstab so that swap will be loaded on reboot: echo '/file.swap none swap sw 0 0' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab

Install Astar node​

Get the aarch64 binary link from Astar release page: https://github.com/AstarNetwork/Astar/releases

Download and unarchive ARM binary (example here with v5.21.0)

wget https://github.com/AstarNetwork/Astar/releases/download/v5.21.0/astar-collator-v5.21.0-ubuntu-aarch64.tar.gz && tar -xf astar-collator*.tar.gz

Create a dedicated user for the node and move the node binary:

sudo useradd --no-create-home --shell /usr/sbin/nologin astar
sudo mv ./astar-collator /usr/local/bin
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/astar-collator

Create a dedicated directory for the chain storage data:

sudo mkdir /var/lib/astar && sudo chown astar:astar /var/lib/astar

Create the Astar service file changing the name {NODE_NAME}

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/astar.service

    [Unit]
    Description=Astar Archive node

    [Service]
    User=astar
    Group=astar
    
    ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/astar-collator \
    --state-pruning archive \
    --blocks-pruning archive \
    --name {NODE_NAME} \
    --chain astar \
    --base-path /var/lib/astar \
    --telemetry-url 'wss://telemetry.polkadot.io/submit/ 0' \
    -- \
    --state-pruning 100 \
    --blocks-pruning 100 \
    --sync warp

    Restart=always
    RestartSec=10

    [Install]
    WantedBy=multi-user.target

Save the file: Ctrl+O > Yes

Start the service: sudo systemctl start astar.service

Check the node log to ensure proper syncing: journalctl -f -u astar.service -n100

Enable the service: sudo systemctl enable astar.service

Extra​

Polkadot node management​

The Astar client embeeds an Astar node and a Polkadot node.

To pass commands to the Polkadot node, you need to add -- in between, just like we did in the service file above where we are passing a different pruning mode for the Polkadot node (this node doesn't need to be an archive as we only use its current state) and a warp sync mode (only possible on a full node, doesn't apply to an archive node).

Database location​

In case you want to change the database mode, you need to stop the node, delete the database, then restart the node.

Astar db is located in /var/lib/astar/chains/astar/db.

Polkadot db is located in /var/lib/astar/polkadot/chains/polkadot/db.

Example: delete the Polkadot db after stopping the node:

sudo rm -rf /var/lib/astar/polkadot/chains/polkadot/db