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ParaTime Node

info

These instructions are for setting up a ParaTime node which participates in one or more ParaTime compute committees. If you want to run a ParaTime client node instead, see the instructions for running a ParaTime client node. If you want to run a validator node instead, see the instructions for running a validator node. Similarly, if you want to run a non-validator node instead, see the instructions for running a non-validator node.

caution

For a production setup, we recommend running the ParaTime compute/storage node separately from the validator node (if you run one).

Running ParaTime and validator nodes as separate Oasis nodes will prevent configuration mistakes and/or (security) issues affecting one node type from affecting the other one.

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If you are looking for some concrete ParaTimes that you can run, see the list of ParaTimes and their parameters.

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Oasis Core refers to ParaTimes as runtimes internally, so all configuration options will have runtime in their name.

This guide will cover setting up your ParaTime compute node for the Oasis Network. This guide assumes some basic knowledge on the use of command line tools.

Prerequisites​

Before following this guide, make sure you've followed the Prerequisites and Run a Non-validator Node sections and have:

  • Oasis Node binary installed and configured on your system.
  • The chosen top-level /node/ working directory prepared. In addition to etc and data directories, also prepare the following directories:
    • bin: This will store binaries needed by Oasis Node for running the ParaTimes.
    • runtimes: This will store the ParaTime bundles.
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Feel free to name your working directory as you wish, e.g. /srv/oasis/.

Just make sure to use the correct working directory path in the instructions below.

  • Genesis file copied to /node/etc/genesis.json.
tip

Reading the rest of the validator node setup instructions may also be useful.

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To speed up bootstraping your new node, we recommend copying node's state from your existing node or syncing it using state sync.

Stake Requirements​

To be able to register as a ParaTime node on the Oasis Network, you need to have enough tokens staked in your entity's escrow account.

Current minimum staking requirements for a specific ParaTime are listed on the Contribute to the Network section—Run a ParaTime Node page. Should you want to check the staking requirements for other node roles and registered ParaTimes manually, use the Oasis CLI tools as described in Common Staking Info.

Finally, to stake the tokens, use our Oasis CLI tools. If everything was set up correctly, you should see something like below when running oasis account show command for your entity's account (this is an example for Testnet):

oasis account show oasis1qrec770vrek0a9a5lcrv0zvt22504k68svq7kzve --show-delegations
Address: oasis1qrec770vrek0a9a5lcrv0zvt22504k68svq7kzve
Nonce: 33

=== CONSENSUS LAYER (testnet) ===
  Total: 972.898210067 TEST
  Available: 951.169098086 TEST

  Active Delegations from this Account:
    Total: 16.296833986 TEST

    Delegations:
      - To:     oasis1qz2tg4hsatlxfaf8yut9gxgv8990ujaz4sldgmzx
        Amount: 16.296833986 TEST (15000000000 shares)
  Debonding Delegations from this Account:
    Total: 5.432277995 TEST

    Delegations:
      - To:       oasis1qz2tg4hsatlxfaf8yut9gxgv8990ujaz4sldgmzx
        Amount:   5.432277995 TEST (5432277995 shares)
        End Time: epoch 26558

  Allowances for this Account:
    Total: 269.5000002 TEST
    Allowances:
      - Beneficiary: oasis1qqczuf3x6glkgjuf0xgtcpjjw95r3crf7y2323xd
        Amount:      269.5 TEST
      - Beneficiary: oasis1qrydpazemvuwtnp3efm7vmfvg3tde044qg6cxwzx
        Amount:      0.0000002 TEST

=== sapphire PARATIME ===
Balances for all denominations:
  6.9995378 TEST
caution

The stake requirements may differ from ParaTime to ParaTime and are subject to change in the future.

Register a New Entity or Update Your Entity Registration​

danger

Everything in this section should be done on the localhost as there are sensitive items that will be created.

  1. If you don't have an entity yet, create a new one by following the Initialize Entity instructions for validators.

  2. If you will be running the ParaTime on a new Oasis node, also initialize a new node by following the Starting the Oasis Node instructions for validators.

  3. Now, list your node ID in the entity descriptor file nodes field.

  4. Register the updated entity descriptor.

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You will configure the node to automatically register for the roles it has enabled (i.e. storage and compute roles) via the worker.registration.entity configuration flag.

No manual node registration is necessary.

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ParaTime rewards for running the compute node will be sent to your entity address inside the ParaTime. To access the rewards on the consensus layer, you will need to withdraw them first. Use the oasis account withdraw command, for example:

oasis account withdraw 10

The ParaTime Bundle​

In order to run a ParaTime node you need to obtain the ParaTime bundle that needs to come from a trusted source. The bundle (usually with an .orc extension that stands for Oasis Runtime Container) contains all the needed ParaTime binaries together with the identifier and version metadata to ease deployment.

When the ParaTime is running in a trusted execution environment (TEE) the bundle will also contain all the required artifacts (e.g. SGXS version of the binary and any enclave signatures).

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Like the genesis document, make sure you obtain these from a trusted source.

caution

Compiling the ParaTime Binary from Source Code​

In case you decide to build the ParaTime binary from source yourself, make sure that you follow our guidelines for deterministic compilation to ensure that you receive the exact same binary.

When the ParaTime is running in a TEE, a different binary to what is registered in the consensus layer will not work and will be rejected by the network.

Install Oasis Core Runtime Loader​

For ParaTimes running inside Intel SGX trusted execution environment, you will need to install the Oasis Core Runtime Loader.

The Oasis Core Runtime Loader binary (oasis-core-runtime-loader) is part of Oasis Core binary releases, so make sure you download the appropriate version specified the Network Parameters page (Mainnet, Testnet).

Install it to bin subdirectory of your node's working directory, e.g. /node/bin/oasis-core-runtime-loader.

Install ParaTime Bundle​

For each ParaTime, you need to obtain its bundle and install it to the runtimes subdirectory of your node's working directory.

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For example, for the Cipher ParaTime, you would have to obtain the cipher-paratime.orc bundle and install it to /node/runtimes/cipher-paratime.orc.

Install Bubblewrap Sandbox (at least version 0.3.3)​

ParaTime compute nodes execute ParaTime binaries inside a sandboxed environment provided by Bubblewrap. In order to install it, please follow these instructions, depending on your distribution. Also note that in case your platform is using AppArmor, you may need to update the policy (see AppArmor profiles).

sudo apt install bubblewrap

Ensure you have a new enough version by running:

bwrap --version
caution

Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (and earlier) provide overly-old bubblewrap. Follow Other Distributions section on those systems.

Setting up Trusted Execution Environment (TEE)​

If a ParaTime requires the use of a TEE, then make sure you set up TEE as instructed in the Set up trusted execution environment (TEE) doc.

Configuration​

In order to configure the node create the /node/etc/config.yml file with the following content:

mode: compute
common:
    data_dir: /node/data
    log:
        format: JSON
        level:
            cometbft: info
            cometbft/context: error
            default: info

consensus:
    # The external IP that is used when registering this node to the network.
    # NOTE: If you are using the Sentry node setup, this option should be
    # omitted.
    external_address: tcp://{{ external_address }}:26656
    listen_address: tcp://0.0.0.0:26656

genesis:
    file: /node/etc/genesis.json

# The IAS section is required for ParaTimes which are running inside the
# Intel SGX Trusted Execution Environment.
ias:
    proxy_addresses:
        # List of IAS proxies to connect to.
        # NOTE: You can add additional IAS proxies to this list if you want.
        - {{ ias_proxy_address }}

p2p:
    # External P2P configuration.
    port: 9200
    registration:
        addresses:
            # The external IP that is used when registering this node to the
            # network.
            - {{ external_address }}:9200
    seeds:
        # List of seed nodes to connect to.
        # NOTE: You can add additional seed nodes to this list if you want.
        - {{ seed_node_address }}

registration:
    # In order for the node to register itself, the entity ID must be set.
    entity_id: {{ entity_id }}

runtime:
    paths:
        # Paths to ParaTime bundles for all of the supported ParaTimes.
        - {{ runtime_orc_path }}
    # The following section is required for ParaTimes which are running inside
    # the Intel SGX Trusted Execution Environment.
    sgx_loader: /node/bin/oasis-core-runtime-loader

Before using this configuration you should collect the following information to replace the variables present in the configuration file:

  • {{ external_address }}: The external IP you used when registering this node.
  • {{ seed_node_address }}: The seed node address in the form ID@IP:port.
    • You can find the current Oasis Seed Node address in the Network Parameters page (Mainnet, Testnet).
  • {{ entity_id }}: The node's entity ID from the entity.json file.
  • {{ runtime_orc_path }}: Path to the ParaTime bundle of the form /node/runtimes/foo-paratime.orc.
    • You can find the current Oasis-supported ParaTimes in the Network Parameters page (Mainnet, Testnet).
  • {{ ias_proxy_address }}: The IAS proxy address in the form ID@HOST:port.
caution

Make sure the consensus port (default: 26656) and p2p.port (default: 9200) are exposed and publicly accessible on the internet (for TCP and UDP traffic).

Starting the Oasis Node​

You can start the node by running the following command:

oasis-node --config /node/etc/config.yml

Checking Node Status​

To ensure that your node is properly connected with the network, you can run the following command after the node has started:

oasis-node control status -a unix:/node/data/internal.sock

Troubleshooting​

See the general Node troubleshooting and Set up TEE troubleshooting sections before proceeding with ParaTime node-specific troubleshooting.

Too Old Bubblewrap Version​

Double check your installed bubblewrap version, and ensure is at least of version 0.3.3. For details see the Install Bubblewrap Sandbox section.

Bubblewrap Sandbox Fails to Start​

If the environment in which you are running the ParaTime node applies too restricted Seccomp or AppArmor profiles, the Bubblewrap sandbox that isolates each runtime may fail to start. In the logs you will see how the runtime attempts to restart, but fails with an bwrap error, like:

{"level":"warn","module":"runtime","msg":"bwrap: Failed to mount tmpfs: Permission denied","runtime_id":"000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000f80306c9858e7279","runtime_name":"sapphire-paratime","ts":"2023-03-06T10:08:51.983330021Z"}

In case of bwrap issues you need to adjust your Seccomp or AppArmor profiles to support Bubblewrap sandboxes. In Docker you can set or disable Seccomp and AppArmor profiles with parameters:

  --security-opt apparmor=unconfined \
  --security-opt seccomp=unconfined \

You can also configure an AppArmor profile for Bubblewrap.

Bubblewrap Fails to Create Temporary Directory​

If the /tmp directory is not writable by the user running the node, the Bubblewrap sandbox may fail to start the ParaTimes. In the logs you will see errors about creating a temporary directory, like:

{"caller":"sandbox.go:546","err":"failed to create temporary directory: mkdir /tmp/oasis-runtime1152692396: read-only file system","level":"error","module":"runtime/host/sandbox","msg":"failed to start runtime","runtime_id":"000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000a6d1e3ebf60dff6c","ts":"2023-11-09T14:08:50.554629545Z"}

The node might report in the status field that a runtime has not been provisioned yet, like:

oasis-node control status -a unix:/node/data/internal.sock | grep status
        "status": "waiting for hosted runtime provision",

This can happen, for example, in Kubernetes, when the readOnlyRootFilesystem setting in a Pod or container security context is set to true.

To resolve the issue, please make sure that the /tmp directory is writable by the user running the node. If you are running the node in Kubernetes, you can set the readOnlyRootFilesystem setting to false, or better yet, mount a dedicated volume into /tmp. It can be very small in size, e.g., 1 MiB is enough.

Stake Requirement​

Double check your node entity satisfies the staking requirements for a ParaTime node. For details see the Stake Requirements section.

Enclave panicked​

If there is a misconfiguration in the prerequisite BIOS settings, you can see an error in the logs reporting a problem when running SGX enclaves.

{"component":"ronl","level":"warn","module":"runtime","msg":"runtime execution failed: Enclave panicked: Enclave triggered exception: SgxEnclaveRun { function: EResume, exception_vector: 6, exception_error_code: 0, exception_addr: 0x0 }","runtime_id":"0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000","runtime_name":"cipher-paratime","ts":"2024-06-03T11:00:43.417403299Z"}

For example, this can happen if you forget to configure AES instruction set (i.e. the CPU AES: ENABLE BIOS setting). To see if your system supports AES instruction set in the CPU run:

 cpuid -1  | grep "AES"

and look for the following line:

AES instruction                         = true

If the AES instruction is set to false, you need to reconfigure you BIOS and set it to true. You can do similar inspection for other BIOS settings.

tip

You can use the attestation tool (at least version 0.3.4) that also checks if the AES instruction set is available.

See also​

📄️ Web3 Gateway

Web3 gateway for Emerald and Sapphire ParaTimes