Old instructions: Quick sync (recommended)

Start your Axelar node and download the blockchain.

💡

Tip: These instructions synchronize your Axelar node quickly by downloading a recent snapshot of the blockchain. If instead you prefer to synchronize your Axelar node using the Axelar peer-to-peer network then see Genesis sync

  • Operating system: MacOS or Ubuntu (tested on 18.04)
  • Hardware: 4 cores, 8-16GB RAM, 512 GB drive, arm64 or amd64. Recommended 6-8 cores, 16-32 GB RAM, 1 TB+ drive.
  • Software:
    • Install jq.
    • Install lz4: MacOS | Ubuntu
    • Increase the maximum number of open files on your system. Example: ulimit -n 16384. You may wish to add this command to your shell profile so that you don’t need to execute it next time you restart your machine.
  • You have configured your environment for axelard CLI commands as per Configure your environment.

Your Axelar keyring is encrypted with a password you choose. Learn more about keyring passwords at Keyring backend.

In what follows you will execute a shell script node.sh to join the Axelar network. Your keyring password is supplied to node.sh via a KEYRING_PASSWORD environment variable. The script node.sh enforces an 8-character minimum for your keyring password.

Clone the axelerate-community repo:

Terminal window
git clone https://github.com/axelarnetwork/axelarate-community.git
cd axelarate-community

Launch a new Axelar mainnet node with version 0.10.7 of axelar-core:

Terminal window
./scripts/node.sh -a v0.10.7 -n mainnet

Your Axelar node will initialize your data folder ~/.axelar

Launch a new Axelar testnet node with version 0.13.6 of axelar-core:

Terminal window
./scripts/node.sh -a v0.13.6 -n testnet

Your Axelar node will initialize your data folder ~/.axelar_testnet

To recover your secret keys from mnemonics, use -t path_to_tendermint_key -m path_to_validator_mnemonic -r (-r is to reset the chain). These flags work only on a completely fresh state.

Then your Axelar node will begin downloading blocks in the blockchain one-by-one.

BACKUP and DELETE the validator account secret mnemonic:

Terminal window
~/.axelar/validator.txt
Terminal window
~/.axelar_testnet/validator.txt

BACKUP but do NOT DELETE the Tendermint consensus secret key (this is needed on node restarts):

Terminal window
~/.axelar/.core/config/priv_validator_key.json
Terminal window
~/.axelar_testnet/.core/config/priv_validator_key.json

View the streaming logs for your Axelar node:

In a new terminal window:

Terminal window
tail -f ~/.axelar/logs/axelard.log
Terminal window
tail -f ~/.axelar_testnet/logs/axelard.log

You should see log messages for each block in the blockchain that your node downloads.

You will not download the entire blockchain in this way. Instead you will stop your node and swap in a recent snapshot of the entire blockchain.

Stop your currently running Axelar node:

Terminal window
kill -9 $(pgrep -f "axelard start")

Delete your data directory:

Terminal window
rm -r ~/.axelar/.core/data
Terminal window
rm -r ~/.axelar_testnet/.core/data

Download the latest Axelar blockchain snapshot

Download the latest Axelar blockchain snapshot for your chosen network (testnet or mainnet) from a provider:

The following instructions assume you downloaded the default snapshot from quicksync.io.

Let {SNAPSHOT_FILE} denote the file name of the snapshot you downloaded. Example file names:

  • Testnet: axelartestnet-lisbon-2-default.20220207.2240.tar.lz4
  • Mainnet: axelar-dojo-1-default.20220207.2210.tar.lz4

Decompress the downloaded snapshot into your data directory:

Terminal window
lz4 -dc --no-sparse \{SNAPSHOT_FILE
| tar xfC - ~/.axelar/.core
Terminal window
lz4 -dc --no-sparse \{SNAPSHOT_FILE
| tar xfC - ~/.axelar_testnet/.core

Resume your Axelar node with the latest version of axelar-core:

Terminal window
./scripts/node.sh -n mainnet
Terminal window
./scripts/node.sh -n testnet

Your Axelar node will launch and resume downloading the blockchain. You should see log messages for new blocks.

Eventually your Axelar node will download the entire Axelar blockchain and exit catching_up mode. At that time your logs will show a new block added to the blockchain every 5 seconds.

You can test whether your Axelar node has exited catching_up mode:

Terminal window
curl localhost:26657/status | jq '.result.sync_info'

Look for the field catching_up:

  • true: you are still downloading the blockchain.
  • false: you have finished downloading the blockchain.

Congratulations! You joined the Axelar network and downloaded the blockchain.

Learn what you can do with Axelar:

Edit on GitHub