Install core (full node) using Docker

Goal

This article will guide you to install Hathor core using Docker.

Hathor core is the official and reference client for operating a full node in Hathor Network.

Requirements

Hardware

For production environment:

• CPU: 2 vCPU
• Memory: 16 GB
• Disk: 20 GB
• Bandwidth: 10 Gbps

Reference machine: AWS EC2 type r6g.large

Software

Platform: Docker $\ge$ v25.0.1

Step-by-step

1. Set up the environment.
2. Start the containerized application.

Step 1: set up the environment

1. Start a shell session.
2. Change the working directory to where you want to store the application — mostly the database.
3. Create the directory data, to store the application database (mainly the blockchain).

Step 2: start the containerized application

Start the containerized application:

docker run \
  -it -p 8080:8080 -v ${PWD}/data:/data \
  hathornetwork/hathor-core \
  run_node --testnet --data /data --status 8080 --wallet-index

-v maps the location <working_directory>/data of the host file system onto /data of the container. --data defines that the application database will be stored into the directory /data of the container.

The previous command will launch a container based on the image tagged as latest, originated from the hathornetwork/hathor-core repository at Docker Hub, and available in your Docker local environment. If there is no image available from this source, it automatically pulls the latest one.

Your full node will connect to other peers of Hathor Network testnet and will start syncing its ledger with theirs — i.e., all blocks and transactions ever recorded in Hathor blockchain testnet.

Task completed

In the browser, you can use the URL http://localhost:8080/v1a/status/ to monitor the status of your full node.

You now have a running instance of full node on Hathor Network testnet, which will listen to API requests on port 8080 of localhost. Note that your full node cannot receive API requests or participate in network consensus while it is not synced with its peers. Syncing is an ongoing process that is part of the operations of a full node. However, reaching synchronization with Hathor Network starting from an empty ledger (from genesis block) takes on average 10 hours for testnet and 24 hours for mainnet. If you want to expedite this process, see How to bootstrap with a snapshot.

Finally, here we used the minimal configuration to have an operational full node. To set up your full node according to your environment and use case, see Configuration at Full node pathway.

What's next?

• Highlighted configurations: some useful configurations for full node operation.

• Bootstrap the full node with a snapshot of the ledger: to expedite the synchronization of the full node with its peers.

• Hathor core CLI: for the comprehensive documentation on how to configure your full node.

• Full node pathway: to know how to operate this application.