Hello,
I am trying to set-up a nym-node in mixnode mode. I am planning to write a blog post about how to set-up such a node to explain it to a wider audience.
I get somewhere, but I am not sure if this is now working.
The IP address of my Ubuntu 24.04 VPS instance is 94.143.231.195 and it is a VPS S instance from here: https://avoro.eu/de/vps.
Its IPv6 address is 2a0d:5940:81:11::/64.
Originally, I started to create the binaries by compiling them from source and used the master branch as indicated in the documentation (v1.2.1).
I ran into some issues with it and later switched to the binary download Nym Binaries v2025.1-reeses that is a pre-release ahead of the master branch (v1.3.1).
You can have a look at the API endpoint here: http://94.143.231.195:8080/api/v1/swagger/#/.
Here is the output of curl -X 'GET' 'http://94.143.231.195:8080/api/v1/build-information' -H 'accept: application/json':
{
"binary_name": "nym-node",
"build_timestamp": "2025-01-16T11:54:17.079662337Z",
"build_version": "1.3.1",
"commit_sha": "5ab164d229f85bd2dd27ec6e38292c281df2f678",
"commit_timestamp": "2025-01-16T12:51:53.000000000+01:00",
"commit_branch": "HEAD",
"rustc_version": "1.84.0",
"rustc_channel": "stable",
"cargo_profile": "release",
"cargo_triple": "x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu"
}
And here is the output of curl -X 'GET' 'http://94.143.231.195:8080/api/v1/description' -H 'accept: application/json':
{
"moniker": "",
"website": "",
"security_contact": "",
"details": ""
}
I orignally followed the VPS Configuration with the ufw set-up, but noticed that later running the network_tunnel_manager.sh (or here) caused the deinstallation of the ufw package.
I configured my node via:
nym-node run --init-only --write-changes --mode mixnode --public-ips "94.143.231.195" --hostname "weisser-zwerg-nym-node.duckdns.org" --http-bind-address 0.0.0.0:8080 --mixnet-bind-address 0.0.0.0:1789 --verloc-bind-address 0.0.0.0:1790 --location DE --wireguard-enabled true --expose-system-hardware false --expose-system-info false
In addition I modified the announce_port settings in ~/.nym/nym-nodes/default-nym-node/config/config.toml to announce_port = 1789 for the mixnet section and to announce_port = 1790 for the verloc section.
Just as a side remark: what does this
verlocdo and is it necessary?
Then I run the node via:
nym-node run --mode mixnode --public-ips "94.143.231.195" --hostname "weisser-zwerg-nym-node.duckdns.org" --http-bind-address 0.0.0.0:8080 --mixnet-bind-address 0.0.0.0:1789 --verloc-bind-address 0.0.0.0:1790 --location DE --wireguard-enabled true --expose-system-hardware false --expose-system-info false --accept-operator-terms-and-conditions
Running curl -X 'GET' 'http://94.143.231.195:8080/api/v1/auxiliary-details' -H 'accept: application/json' gives:
{
"location": "DE",
"announce_ports": {
"verloc_port": 1790,
"mix_port": 1789
},
"accepted_operator_terms_and_conditions": true
}
There is only a single err when starting the node:
2025-01-19T12:42:32.150873Z ERROR gateway/src/node/mod.rs:197: this gateway (n1t37ajkn703defjhh569r6ey6xhjk3txv29l4vg) has insufficient balance for possible zk-nym redemption transaction fees. it only has 0unym available.
Running nym-node bonding-information gives:
Identity Key: E67dRcrMNsEpNvRAxvFTkvMyqigTYpRWUYYPm25rDuGQ
Host: weisser-zwerg-nym-node.duckdns.org
Custom HTTP Port: you might want to set it if your node won't be accessible on any of the ports: 80/443/8080
You can find my bonding transaction here: 333C6303FD528D7FD54EE969BBE4E54A259BB3608BBFEC228C8D1448D595A323. And my wallet address is n127c69pasr35p76amfczemusnutr8mtw78s8xl7.
I get log messages like the following, which seem to indicate that the node is doing its job:
2025-01-19T12:54:25.705335Z INFO nym-node/src/node/metrics/console_logger.rs:93: ↑↓ Packets sent [total] / sent [acks] / received [mix] / received [gw]: 5.7k (8.8/s) / 2.8k (4.5/s) / 0 (0/d) / 5.6k (8.9/s)
But I cannot find it in the harbourmaster or the mainnet network explorer neither when looking for my identity key: E67dRcrMNsEpNvRAxvFTkvMyqigTYpRWUYYPm25rDuGQ nor when looking for my owner account: n127c69pasr35p76amfczemusnutr8mtw78s8xl7. Also in the wallet under ‘Check more stats of your node on the explorer’ I get a 404 This page could not be found.
Is my node now working or not? And if it is not working, how can I analyse and fix the problem?
Other questions I have, but I simply might not have looked hard enough in the documentation is what the values Amount, Operating cost and Profit margin mean and what are good values to use?
And if I would change my mind and would want to change these values, how could I do that? Do I need to “unbond” and “rebond”?
Thanks a lot!
Christian
