The following guide assumes that you have a fresh installation of a Linux operating system with root access, or an account with sudo permissions.
This guide's steps have been validated on the following Linux server distributions:
Ubuntu 18.04 64-bit
Ubuntu 20.04 64-bit
Debian 10 64-bit
Debian 11 64-bit
DO NOT INSTALL AND RUN A SECURE/SUPER NODE UNDER THE ROOT USER. The guide details how to add a non-root user, under which the necessary processes will run.
It is expected from node operators that they are not just able to follow this guide to completion to run a node, but to keep up with regular security updates and Horizen software updates. Updates are made on a quarterly basis with some periodic interim updates to improve the security, features, performance and reliability of the network. Requirements will not stay static. An operator should also be able to perform system migration and to perform upgrades to support increasing requirements (such as available disk space IE).
If you're unfamiliar with Linux system administration, we recommend that you use one of our many hosting providers. The Horizen blockchain rewards node operators with a percentage of the block reward to run and maintain a quality, fast and reliable node.
