Solana Validation Manager – Advanced Manual

Node requirements
What does it do with your Validator Node exactly
How to install Ansible
How to configure Solana Validator Manager
How to use
Which functions are supported
How can you support this project
History
Roadmap

Node requirements

We have tested it only with Ubuntu 20.04, but every linux distro with apt and systemd should be supported.
Support for other Linux-Distributives will be implemented soon.
Check Solana Validator requirements

What does it do with your Validator Node exactly

Configure Ubuntu

Ubuntu role

that role configures your ubuntu node to be more performant and stable with validation

Create ansible user
Create solana user
Create swap file
Create ram disk for accounts db
Set cpu governor to performance
Configure firewall

Bootstrap Solana cli

Solana cli role

that role installs or updates solana cli

Configure node monitoring

monitoring

that role configures sending of validator and node metrics to our grafana dashboard

How to install Ansible

On macOS

brew update; brew install ansible

On Ubuntu

apt-get update; apt-get install ansible

On Windows

unfortunately ansible is not directly supported on Windows, we are working on a docker image which will directly provide a support for Solana Validator Manager, until that you can use ansible docker image on your own.

How to configure Solana Validator Manager

!only testnet configuration is supported now!

clone git repository git clone …
copy or rename inventory_example directory to directory named inventory
add to your inventory/hosts.yaml

validator name
ip-address of your validator node

all:
  children:
    local:
      vars:
        become: false
        ansible_connection: local
        ansible_python_interpreter: ""
      hosts:
        localhost
    remote:
      vars:
        ansible_user: root
      children:
        validator:
          vars:
            validator_name: <- HERE
#            keybase_username: ""
#            validator_homepage: ""
            upload_validator_keys: False <- Set it to True if you want to upload your keys
#            secrets_path: /home/solana/.secrets
#            set_validator_info: True
#            service_user: solana
#            ledger_path: /home/solana/ledger
#            lvm_enabled: False
#            lvm_vg: vg00
#            solana_validator_service: restarted <- Set it to stopped if you want to check your setup
#            swap_file_size_gb: 64
#            ramdisk_size_gb: 64
#            cluster_environment: testnet
#            cluster_rpc_address: https://api.testnet.solana.com
          hosts:
            0.0.0.0 <- HERE

in case you have already identity keys (the most of you will have at least a validator identity key)

copy your validator identity key, if any, into .secrets//solana
copy your vote account identity key, if any, into .secrets//solana
set upload_validator_keys to True

How to use

from local machine

make sure you have access to you validator node as a root user via ssh-key
configure hosts.yaml
start playbook

ansible-playbook install_validator.yaml -v

if you run an ubuntu server with more or less standard configuration than in few minutes your validator node should be up, and you can observe your metrics on our metrics dashboard

from Validator Node

coming soon!

Which functions are supported

Install Validator Node

ansible-playbook pb_install_validator.yaml -v

Update Solana Version

bump solana version in group_vars/all.yaml

...
validator:
  version: v1.6.7 <- set new version here
...

start ansible playbook

ansible-playbook pb_update_validator.yaml -v

Install or update Monitoring

if you just want to use monitoring
or want update monitoring library

How to install monitoring with ansible

ansible-playbook pb_install_monitoring.yaml -v

How to install monitoring manually

From server command line, user root, paste the whole command and run it:

/bin/bash -c “$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mfactory-lab/sv-manager/latest/install/install_monitoring.sh)”

sv-manager

Solana Validator Manager