Setting up custom networks

Custom Autonity networks

To connect your node to a custom Autonity network, you will need the network’s:

See Local Autonity Network configuration in the Genesis reference for how to create these files.

A new node must connect to at least one known peer to discover additional peers and begin syncing.

To configure bootnodes for a custom network:

  1. Obtain candidate enode addresses from one or more of the following sources:

    • public RPC providers, using admin_nodeInfo where enabled,
    • validator dashboards,
    • chain state queries,
    • trusted node operators.

  2. Verify TCP reachability:

    nc -vz <ip> 30303

    Optionally, verify UDP reachability:

    nc -vzu <ip> 30303

    Nodes with UDP port 30303 open support more complete peer discovery.

  3. Configure one or more reachable peers using either of the following methods:

    • add the enode addresses to a static-nodes.json file and place it in the chaindata directory, as described in Setting up custom networks,
    • pass a comma-separated list of enode addresses using the --bootnodes option when starting the client.

  4. Start the node. The node connects to the specified peer and expands its peer table. For best results, use a peer with both TCP and UDP port 30303 open.

Example

nc -vzu 125.181.215.22 30303
Connection to 125.181.215.22 port 30303 [udp/*] succeeded!

nc -vz 125.181.215.22 30303
Connection to 125.181.215.22 port 30303 [tcp/*] succeeded!
Caution

Note that the client provides a command-line option for connecting to the Autonity Bakerloo Testnet --bakerloo. The node will not run if you specify both genesis and bootnodes for a custom network and a testnet flag. The client will create a genesis block for the custom network’s genesis configuration and the node’s local store will then have an incompatible genesis with the testnet.

  1. Install Autonity in a working directory and create an autonity-chaindata sub-directory as described in Running a node, Install Autonity.

  2. Create and copy the bootnode file into the autonity-chaindata sub directory:

cp ./<PATH>/static-nodes.json ./autonity-chaindata/
  1. Create and copy the genesis file into the working directory:
cp ./<PATH>/genesis.json ./
  1. Run the node as described in Running a node, Run Autonity, specifying your custom network by the options:
    • --genesis: to provide the genesis file.
    • --networkid: to provide the network identifier. This is typically the same value as the chainId file in the genesis configuration file, but may be different.
    An example run command for a local development network on localhost could be:
autonity \
        --datadir ./autonity-chaindata \
        --genesis ./genesis.json \
        --networkid 65110000 \
        --http \
        --http.addr 0.0.0.0 \
        --http.api aut,eth,net,txpool,web3,admin \
        --http.vhosts * \
        --ws \
        --ws.addr 0.0.0.0 \
        --ws.api aut,eth,net,txpool,web3,admin \
        --nat extip:<IP_ADDRESS>
        ;