PSA: Add a Full Node for just $19/year!

[allgoodthings1]

Last week I added three bitcoin network nodes and the process was EASY!  I just opened an account with weloveservers.net (WLS), added each server, and got Morblias to set them up the nodes for me.

For months now, I've wanted to run a full node to support the network; but I don't have a good way to run Bitcoin Core on my home network, and I lack the expertise to set up a VPS node myself.  This made it 'oh, so easy!'

Morblias does a minimalistic setup so that the node runs at peak efficiency.  He takes donations which he uses to set up more nodes on his own, as well.  He's a *Hero Member* of this forum and contributor on reddit, as well.  I couldn't be happier with his help getting these nodes set up for me.

Here's all there is to do this yourself:

* Go to http://lowendbox.com/blog/black-friday-weloveservers-19year-1gb-and-7month-3gb-openvz-vps-in-five-locations/  At the end of the presentation for “LEB 1GB” (left side of page), click on the “Order” link. That will open a service specification page for your new weloveservers account.

* Provide a Hostname of your choosing, select 'Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, 64 Bit' for your Operating System, and select a Location.

* Click the “add to cart & checkout” button, to go to your order summary.  Fill out your personal account details and follow the instructions to pay for this first service.  Within a few moments, you'll get three or four emails, the last of which (New VPS Server Information) has a section called SSH Access Information, which has all you need to get into your server and set up your node.

When you get your SSH Access Information, send it to Morblias (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=58076) in a personal message and ask him to set it up for you.  Often he can get that done VERY quickly, and he'll send you back the links to monitor your new node.  See these for one of my nodes:
http://192.227.139.229/
http://192.227.139.229/vnstat/

Note: Once you've arranged for your first VPS for $19, you can add as many others as you want.  Just open your WLS account page and (in a new tab) go to the lowendbox promotion page mentioned above.  Now when you click on the Order link, it will take you directly to adding another service on your same WLS account.

Of course, you can use the loendbox promotion and set up your own nodes; and Morblias might help you set up nodes on another service, too.  But this is what worked for me.  I thought.. I could commit to $5/month to run a full node for the network.  Now I have three for even less.  What a deal!

[1715143298]

1715143298

[Morblias]

As you all know, the total number of bitcoin nodes is declining. I want to set up as much nodes as I possibly can to help out the Bitcoin network. If you do not want to create any accounts, I also take donations and will do all of the work for you to set up more nodes. 100% of donations will be put towards creating more nodes.

Donation Address: 1Morb18DsDHNEv6TeQXBdba872ZSpiK9fY

[cypherdoc]

As you all know, the total number of bitcoin nodes is declining. I want to set up as much nodes as I possibly can to help out the Bitcoin network. If you do not want to create any accounts, I also take donations and will do all of the work for you to set up more nodes. 100% of donations will be put towards creating more nodes.

Donation Address: 1Morb18DsDHNEv6TeQXBdba872ZSpiK9fY

Current Nodes:
http://107.170.116.161/
http://172.245.58.26/
http://192.227.139.229/
http://192.3.30.206/
http://107.161.179.92/
http://192.227.135.216/
http://128.199.208.104/
http://188.226.161.128/
http://23.249.170.118/
http://107.161.156.135/

questions:

1.  can you address this post by Sipa that says 8 connections is better than >>8 connecitons?:
http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/8109/how-does-one-attain-1-000-connections-like-blockchain-info

2.  how long have you had this service?  i know that Digital Ocean and Budget VM stopped service to these setups a few months ago.

3.  is the 1 GB RAM enough?

4.  does the above example require ordering a control panel?

[allgoodthings1]

4.  does the above example require ordering a control panel?

I'll let Morblias take 1-3. He's the real expert here. I'm just the tech-challenged bitcoin enthusiast who was very grateful to find his services.

You don't need to order a control panel for your WeLoveServers account; they give you one with the account.  It has usage bars and stats for Bandwidth, Memory, VSwap and Disk; and buttons for executing Reboot, Shutdown, Boot, Reinstall, Serial Console and Log.  Not that I've used any of the function buttons, since Morblias takes care of my nodes.  But the bars and stats are well presented and interesting.  That's good enough for me.

[Morblias]

1) I am not 100% sure, but I think he might be talking about not adding a ton of nodes using -addnode command (outgoing connections). I don't use -addnode to connect to anyone. I change -maxconnections to 100 (incoming connections). I usually see around 50-70 connected peers on average on each VPS.

2) I have had a node on DigitalOcean for over a year, WeLoveServers for about a month, and a couple other VPS for about 2 weeks. Never had a problem with any of these.

3) 1GB is enough RAM, but I always make sure the VPS allows swap so the out of memory killer does not kill bitcoind. I had a problem running a 768MB RAM VPS with no swap last week: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=570819 All of the VPS I look for now I want 1GB RAM and vSwap.

4) No control panel required, everything is done in ssh terminal.

Here is my 'cheat sheet' that I use to set up each node in case anyone wants to do it themselves: http://pastebin.com/qbmSNhWK

Edit: updated pastebin 5/12/2014

[allgoodthings1]

COST EFFICIENCY
 
You know, especially the promotional price on this VPS makes it a far more cost effective alternative than running Bitcoin Core (bitcoind) on my own computer! I figured.. on my own computer..

* I have hardware cost, maintenance and upgrades -- and a full node takes its toll on the hard drive especially, with its heavy read/write for storage;

* I have electricity costs that are not insignificant -- from running the unit 24/7 at high usage of system resources; and,

* I have to pay extra for my home Internet connection, due to the high bandwidth requirement of the full node.

In my case, that would make the cost of running a full node on a computer at home SEVERAL times that of the single flat charge of the VPS.  It's their equipment, their electricity, and their bandwidth.

As I see it, the only thing really lost by us setting up a bunch of nodes on VPS services all over the world is the widest possible decentralization of this system.  More locations does give greater decentralization.  But I ask, at what cost to total network contribution.  And why not have it both ways?  Some folks will want to set up their own node(s) on home or office equipment; others will want to go with VPS services.  It's all good.

[Bit_Happy]

I'm thinking of using this host for a website, but the servers will be seriously slow since BTC is maxing out the CPU on so many of their nodes....?
They use OpenVZ which does not protect you from the "abuse" of other customers.
Thanks guys.   

[allgoodthings1]

If this information helps..
I just checked on the three $19 servers that Morblias set up for me.

According to my control panel, they are right now running at 25, 11, and 13% of bandwidth, respectively.
&
Looking at the top 10 days for total (i+o) traffic data after initial download of the blockchain, those run between 4 and 32 GB, with an average or median rate somewhere in the middle.

[namecoin]

Would you mind describe what this minimalistic setup is? 

[Morblias]

I modified my documents so it is more user friendly. I only install bitcoind, bitcoinrpc, apache2, and vnstat (vnstat really isn't necessary, but I like it to monitor bandwidth)

Steps to create a node on a VPS using ubuntu: http://pastebin.com/qbmSNhWK

Here is the workload on one of my nodes:


Edit: added updated pastebin 5/12/2014

[Bit_Happy]

I modified my documents so it is more user friendly. I only install bitcoind, bitcoinrpc, apache2, and vnstat (vnstat really isn't necessary, but I like it to monitor bandwidth)

Steps to create a node on a VPS using ubuntu: http://pastebin.com/MGu1iBkH

Here is the workload on one of my nodes:

That looks great, I would expect it to use a lot more CPU.
Thanks for helping people set these up. 

[forevernoob]

What is the hardware requirements for running a full node?
Don't you need to download the whole blockchain if you run a full node? Then my box is out of the question since it's just 5GB HDD.

[Morblias]

What is the hardware requirements for running a full node?
Don't you need to download the whole blockchain if you run a full node? Then my box is out of the question since it's just 5GB HDD.

Yeah you need the entire blockchain. At the moment I believe it is around 20GB. The VPS I get have 30+ GB on them. I also look for ones with at least 1GB RAM with vSwap.

[cypherdoc]

got it running  

thanks Morblias for excellent instructions.

edit:  who is Eric Meyer?

[Morblias]

edit:  who is Eric Meyer?

This dude: http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/css/reset/

[cypherdoc]

when you think about it, $19/yr is an amazing price.

[CoinDiver]

Yeah you need the entire blockchain. At the moment I believe it is around 20GB. The VPS I get have 30+ GB on them. I also look for ones with at least 1GB RAM with vSwap.

Damn, it was like 2 GB last time I bothered to look.

[Coelacanth]

created 2 nodes in US using WLS deal. Glad to donate for Bitcoin network.

[chek2fire]

I have try to setup and my cloud server but i dont know that is working. I have done everything in the guide but i dont think i have setup my server. In vnstat i dont see any bitcoin traffic

http://69.12.86.115/vnstat/

how can i see that bitcoin node is runing? And what i have to set in  RPCUSER, RPCPASSWORD, IP Address to /usr/local/bin/btc-update.py? My server password and adress or something else? Thx for any advice

edit: ok i see trafic now in vnstat i have change the eth0 with venet0 but i cant see bitcoin node interface. I have look with top and bitcoind is runnign and here when i write my adress

https://getaddr.bitnodes.io/

i see a green quote with 69.12.86.115:8333 /Satoshi:0.8.1/ but i dont know what that means

[Morblias]

You can check your RPCUSER/PASS at

Code:

vim ~/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf

You need those to match what is in the btc-update.py script.

Also, while ssh'ed into it, you can type this to view what bitcoind is doing (current connected peers, block height, etc)

Code:

bitcoind getinfo

I am not sure if that https://getaddr.bitnodes.io/ address is showing correct or not, but if so, you need to upgrade bitcoind. That shows you are on 0.8.1, the current version is 0.9.1