Using systemd for the Validator Node
You can run your validator as a systemd process so that it will automatically restart on server reboots or crashes (and helps to avoid getting slashed!).
Before following this guide you should have already set up your validator by following the How to validate article.
First create a new unit file called polkadot-validator.service in /etc/systemd/system/.
touch /etc/systemd/system/polkadot-validator.service
In this unit file you will write the commands that you want to run on server boot / restart.
[Unit]
Description=Polkadot Validator
[Service]
ExecStart=PATH_TO_POLKADOT_BIN --validator --name SHOW_ON_TELEMETRY
Restart=always
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
To enable this to autostart on bootup run:
systemctl enable polkadot-validator.service
Start it manually with:
systemctl start polkadot-validator.service
You can check that it's working with:
systemctl status polkadot-validator.service
You can tail the logs with journalctl like so:
journalctl -f -u polkadot-validator
Wireguard systemd configuration
You can automatically restart your VPN tunnel between your validator and its sentries using the configuration you have already created in the Set Up a Sentry Node - Public Node guide.
Create a file called wireguard.service in /etc/systemd/system.
touch /etc/systemd/system/wireguard.service
Write the commands needed to auto-start wireguard previously configured as wg0 into the wgo.conf
file in the /etc/wireguard/ directory.
[Unit]
Description=Wireguard VPN
[Service]
Type=forking
ExecStart=PATH_TO_WG-QUICK_BIN up wg0
Restart=always
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
The path to the wg-quick binary on Debian based distributions is usually: /usr/bin/wg-quick. If in
doubt, run whereis wg-quick. To enable this to autostart on boot:
systemctl enable wireguard.service
Start it manually with:
systemctl start wireguard.service
You can check that it's working with:
systemctl status wireguard.service
You can tail the logs with journalctl like so:
journalctl -f -u wireguard