Step-By-Step: How I built a Virtual Node on World's Smallest Mini PC

[petkomiko994]

Only if the service that is running is vulnerable itself in this case
9433 9334 - p/vNode
8545, 30303 - Ethereum CLI (geth)

[Joe_Moffett]

Does anyone know the official minimum latest specs needed for a computer to run as a node?

These are the node specs from Feb 2020:

Processor	4 - core 1.5Ghz quad-score Intel Celeron J3455 Apollo Lake (Goldmont), 4C/4T, 1.5 - 2.3 GHz, 14nm,2 MB L2, 10W TDP
Memory	4GB DDR3L-1600/1866 1.35V SO-DIMM
Storage	512GB SSD PCIe-Gen2. SATA3 6Gb/s
Communications	Wifi (Intel Dual Band Wieless-AC 3168) Ethernet (1x Realtek RTL8168/8111 Gigabit LAN)

I found a mini computer on amazon with the same processor and I think the specs should be good to match the pnode, the storage is the where a lot is left to be desired. It can be expanded, but would it be possible to run it with only 64GB at all?

Specs of the mini computer:

of Cores: 4

of Threads: 4

OS: Windows 10 (64-bit); Support Linux
Processor: Intel Celeron J3455 (2M Cache, up to 2.3GHz)
Processor Base Frequency: 1.5 GHz
Burst Frequency: 2.3 GHz
Processor Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 500
Thermal Design Power(TDP): 10W
Capacity: 6GB RAM + 64GB eMMC.
Expand storage: 1 x M.2 2242 SATA SSD (up to 2TB,SATA 3.0 6.0Gb/s); 1 x SD Card(up to 128GB)
Ethernet: 1000Mbps LAN
WiFi: IEEE 802.11a/b/g/b, 2.4+5G

If all things are equal besides the hard disk space is it possible to set this up as a node?

Would the storage need to be expanded? If so, would these specs work with an increased storage capacity of 512GB?

[Stradimarius]

Hi, yes it is enough to run one node.

[Joe_Moffett]

The storage is enough? 64gb

[Mike_Wagner]

@ning

I believe we’re currently at about 40 GB. Re lifespan estimates, I’ll defer to @hungngo.

Technically … yes – per the quoted post.

However keep in mind that the current blockchain database would be using 63% of your eMMC storage. That’s not accounting for the host OS. Add another ~8GiB for 18.04 LTS and you are using 75% of your eMMC storage.

That does not allow for much future blockchain growth.

In short – I would recommend starting with more storage. Anything less than 256GiB will likely become full long before the CPU ages out.

EDIT: eMMC is a rather pokey flash medium.

[source]

eMMC may bottleneck database performance during committee participation. This will become a consideration once slashing is live on mainnet. Validators with slow eMMC may be slashed from committee because they may not maintain consensus due to the slow read/write performance.

[ning]

I made an edit for clarity:

@ning

Edit for clarity: the fullnode (assigned to all 8 shards for the past year) is at about 52 GB. how much data per pNode would depend on random assignment (40 GB is a somewhat realistic but probably quite unhelpful estimate in retrospect).

Your point still stands!

[walkonwayvs]

Wow this is amazing. I’m lucky to have stumbled upon this article I don’t remember how I got here but I’m glad that I did lol. I have 2 pNodes up and running right now. Unfortunately both of them are being fronted by the Incognito team which means I’m not getting the exact amount of PRV rewards that I might be getting otherwise, so this is a very attractive looking option.

I love the idea of passive crypto rewards and will definitely bookmark this for some more exploration. I’ve spent dozens of hours trying to get my raspberry pi up and running for something crypto related to absolute frustration and no results so this trying this seems very promising - especially considering you seem to not be super tech savvy like myself lol xD

EDIT: Damn the LarkBox seems fairly difficult to get a hold of. Looks like it’s over $300 in most places and EU shipping mostly In Canadian dollars, where I’m from, this would be able $500 CAD which is about what I paid for my pNode’s at the end of the day as well. So hmmmmmm!!!

[Jamie]

This LarxBox will require you to stake 1,750 PRV yourself. If you have that kind of PRV already, you might as well unstake your pNode and restake it with that PRV. From that moment on you will receive 100% of the earning rewards.

[Stradimarius]

Like Jamie said you will need the 1750/Vnodes. And LarkBox is very a not serious supplier. There are a lot of problem. I have bought two and got serious problems with both (power supply and Bios after installing Linux). I would prefer other mini PC from other brand and more powerfull but more expensive and run several node on them. Like this one I am planing to buy for running 2 to 4 nodes with an SSD upgrade

https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B08LZ34BRC/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=A1ZJU2PD27T3ZL&psc=1

[Inc]

One question I have about home made vnode.

If the pnode can be configured to work without port forwarding, why can’t we do the same thing for home-made vnode? Can an expert please look into this?

[Linnovations]

This is a great question @Inc , I too would like to know the answer as this step was a tricky part during this setup process.
If the Incognito team have a way to by-pass the need to configure the router to open ports that would awesome to know.

[Linnovations]

I’m glad you came across my article @walkonwayvs and thanks for your comments. This was my 1st attempt at running a Linux PC so it was a huge learning curve for me. I also never messed around with my router to open ports etc (another learning).

As for the Larkbox, please don’t limit yourself to this hardware, there are plenty of other mini PC out there.

One of the big reasons I chose to build it on a Larkbox was because they claimed to be the world’s smallest PC, so I thought why not use it to build the world’s smallest Incognito vNode.

Since I launched my vNode many months ago the earnings have been awesome. I was very lucky that my vNode was selected to be on the committee. I’ve more than paid for the hardware in a few months. But mind you I did need 1750 PRV upfront to stake on my Node to earn the full payouts.

All the best with getting your vNode up and running. The learning curve was steep but I have a lot of great help from many folks in this amazing community (as called out in my post).

[Thriftinkid]

Wait @Linnovations. You said you DIDN’T need the full 1750 PRV to stake your vnode? From my understanding, thats impossible. Or are you talking about a pNode you own from incog as well?

[Linnovations]

Hi @Thriftinkid, From my understanding, we are required to stake 1750 PRV on the vNode to earn the full reward when our vNode is selected.
Please refer to Step (4) as it is outlined in the article I’ve linked to in that step.
I hope this addresses any misunderstanding.

[Mike_Wagner]

EDIT: resolved

[Thriftinkid]

@Linnovations

But mind you I didn’t need 1750 PRV upfront to stake on my Node to earn the full payouts.

Correct. That’s why I did a double-take when I saw this in your comment.

[Linnovations]

Oops, my sincere apologies everyone, my comment had a typo, I meant to say
“But mind you I did need 1750 PRV…” but instead I slipped up and wrote “… didn’t need…” my bad.

[Linnovations]

Thanks for spotting my typo in my comment. I have corrected my comment.

What I was trying to elude to was the fact that my vNode has paid for itself via it’s earnings in a few months, but that does not include my initial stake of 1750 PRV.

Sorry for the confusion.

[Thriftinkid]

No biggie. Just wanted to clarify lol

[curmudgeon]

Is there a way to test whether a device has enough CPU to get by? I have an old mini pc that was basically doing nothing after having been used as a dumb terminal. It’s one of those Atom processors (4 core Intel Atom x5-Z8500 CPU @ 1.44GHz 4 GB RAM and 64GB EMMC).

I’ve started it just for fun and it seems to be working more or less fine - Incognito container bounces between 100% to 200% of a core, and the ethernet container less than 10%. Memory usage seems trivial, and it only downloaded 13G of data. Shows green in the app.

But is this going to keep up when it goes into rewards mode? I only turned it on about 24 hours ago. Is there a testnet where I could try that out or should I just wait until things happen and see the result?