Old instructions: Quick sync (recommended)

Start your Axelar node and download the blockchain.

Prerequisites

• 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.

Choose a keyring password

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.

Join the Axelar network

Clone the axelerate-community repo:

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

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

./scripts/node.sh -a v0.13.6 -n 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 your secret keys

BACKUP and DELETE the validator account secret mnemonic:

~/.axelar/validator.txt

~/.axelar_testnet/validator.txt

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

~/.axelar/.core/config/priv_validator_key.json

~/.axelar_testnet/.core/config/priv_validator_key.json

View logs

View the streaming logs for your Axelar node:

In a new terminal window:

tail -f ~/.axelar/logs/axelard.log

tail -f ~/.axelar_testnet/logs/axelard.log

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

Stop your node, delete your blockchain data

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:

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

Delete your data directory:

rm -r ~/.axelar/.core/data

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:

• quicksync.io
• staketab.com | instructions

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:

lz4 -dc —no-sparse {SNAPSHOT_FILE
| tar xfC - ~/.axelar/.core

lz4 -dc —no-sparse {SNAPSHOT_FILE
| tar xfC - ~/.axelar_testnet/.core

Resume your node

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

./scripts/node.sh -n mainnet

./scripts/node.sh -n testnet

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

Test whether your blockchain is downloaded

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:

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.

Next steps

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

Learn what you can do with Axelar:

• Basic node management