Aligned Layer

My Guide to Installing an Aligned Layer Node

I recently decided to set up an Aligned Layer node, and here's what I managed to do. Sharing my experience:

Preparation

First, I made sure my server met the minimum requirements:

• Ubuntu 22.04

• 4 CPU cores

• 8 GB RAM

• 500 GB SSD

Step 1: System Update

I started by updating the system:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Step 2: Installing Dependencies

I installed the necessary tools:

sudo apt install make curl git wget jq build-essential -y

Step 3: Installing Go

Go is needed for compilation. I used version 1.21.5:

ver="1.21.5"
wget "https://golang.org/dl/go$ver.linux-amd64.tar.gz"
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/go
sudo tar -C /usr/local -xzf "go$ver.linux-amd64.tar.gz"
echo "export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin:$HOME/go/bin" >> $HOME/.bash_profile
source $HOME/.bash_profile

Step 4: Cloning and Building the Node

I struggled a bit here, but eventually got it working:

cd $HOME
git clone --depth 1 --branch v0.0.2 https://github.com/yetanotherco/aligned_layer_tendermint
cd aligned_layer_tendermint/cmd/alignedlayerd
go build

After building, I made the binary executable and moved it:

chmod +x alignedlayerd
sudo mv alignedlayerd /usr/local/bin/

Step 5: Initializing the Node

I chose a name for my node - "MyAlignedNode":

alignedlayerd init MyAlignedNode --chain-id alignedlayer

Step 6: Configuring Settings

I downloaded the genesis and addrbook files:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/yetanotherco/aligned_layer/main/genesis.json -O $HOME/.alignedlayer/config/genesis.json
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/yetanotherco/aligned_layer/main/addrbook.json -O $HOME/.alignedlayer/config/addrbook.json

Step 7: Setting Up Peers

I added a few peers that I found on the forum:

PEERS="peer1address:26656,peer2address:26656"
sed -i -e "s|^persistent_peers *=.*|persistent_peers = \"$PEERS\"|" $HOME/.alignedlayer/config/config.toml

Step 8: Creating a Service

I created a system service for auto-starting the node:

sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/alignedlayerd.service > /dev/null <<EOF
[Unit]
Description=My Aligned Layer Node
After=network-online.target

[Service]
User=$USER
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/alignedlayerd start
Restart=on-failure
LimitNOFILE=4096

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

Step 9: Starting the Node

Finally, I started the node:

sudo systemctl enable alignedlayerd
sudo systemctl start alignedlayerd

Step 10: Monitoring

To keep an eye on the node's operation, I use this command:

journalctl -u alignedlayerd -f