Flux Light Node Setup — As easy as it gets !!

Ali Malik
17 min readNov 21, 2021

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“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler”
By Albert Einstein

Welcome to the Official Flux LightNode Setup Guide

Setup & monitor your Flux Nodes on both ZelCore Mobile or Desktop versions

Flux Light Node Setup Video Tutorial Guide

https://youtu.be/oKl3TelzYgY

What are FluxNodes ??

FluxNode operators supply dedicated computing power, which generates rewards in Flux for powering the network. There are multiple options for supplying computing power, including renting from a VPS provider, renting a dedicated server to host multiple FluxNodes, or purchasing a server outright and hosting it in a data center or well-equipped home/office.

Flux-Node Structure

There are three tiers of FluxNodes with different levels of required collateral and hardware specifications, outlined below

Current Requirements

The FluxTiered Node

FluxNodes are not like any other masternode in the space. Infact, it’s unfair to even call it a masternode.

There are three tiers of Fluxnodes (Cumulus|Nimbus|Stratus). Each provides massive amounts of computing and storage power that is fully decentralized in both ownership and geographic location around the world. When compared to other projects, where master nodes only process transactions. FluxNodes will be running Flux dApp backends, smart contracts, and sidechains for asset layers, among other uses we haven’t even thought of yet. All this will be possible because of the sheer amount of resources available before being absolutely needed.

How much is the ROI?

The rewards & ROI will depend heavily on the total VPS cost, FluxNode Tier & the price of Flux!! To help you understand better, we have created a “FluxNode dashboard” to help you make that decision & choose what is right for you. You can easily navigate & find the total enabled nodes, daily, monthly, and yearly rewards, revenue, ROI & much much more…

Click on the banner below for details;

⚠️Is FluxNode For You? Do I really need this ??

If you are not confident running Fluxnode or you feel like it’s too complicated. We do offer staking “Flux in Coinmetro Exchange” (Min. 500 Flux)

We have established a first-class partnership with them, and many users have invested in Flux there. Over 7+Million Flux has been staked so far

.If you are interested, Click on the link below, you will also receive free XCM (Coinmetro’s token) + Free Flux when registering with the link below

https://coinmetro.com/?ref=fluxnodes

1. Get on the exchange & buy FLUX ??

CoinMetro Exchange

Click on the link below to sign up for CoinMetro and get FREE XCM & FLUX! Receive $5 worth of XCM, CoinMetro’s native token + receive $5 worth of FLUX once the token is successfully listed on CoinMetro! Simply deposit €40 ($50 approx) and trade €200 volume ($250 approx).

https://coinmetro.com/?ref=fluxnodes

Kucoin Exchange

If you haven’t bought flux yet, visit these exchanges below to purchase FLUX.

Click on the link below to go to the exchange

https://www.kucoin.com/ucenter/signup?rcode=2747MaN

https://www.kucoin.com/ucenter/signup?rcode=2747MaN

Gate Exchange

Click on the Link below to get 40% commision reward

https://www.gate.io/signup/4371722

Exchanges you can buy FLUX

2a. Migrating Existing Full-Node FluxNodes to Light-Node Wallet (Optional)

If you are planning to migrate your FluxNode from a Full-Node wallet to a Light-node wallet, please follow the steps below;

FullNode Wallet

  1. Hover on the 3 dots on the FluxNode & scroll down to the delete. Confirm to delete. This will restart your daemon and the collateral will be unlocked to spend
  2. Send exactly the required collateral amount to the Light-Node Wallet address depending on the Tier

LightNode Wallet

  1. Once the amount is received on the light-node wallet, it will automatically be added to the “flux node”
  2. This will generate the Node Private Keys, TX id & Output
  3. Copy the command below & paste it by “clicking the right mouse button” on the VPS
  4. Start with executing
  5. bash -i <(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/RunOnFlux/fluxnode-multitool/master/multitoolbox.sh)

6. Select option (8) "Flux Daemon Reconfiguration"

7. Now, it will prompt you to input IP address, Node Pvt keys, collateral id & Output index. Enter all information here..

8. Daemon will then restart

9. Once the setup is finished, check the benchmarks again. Confirm that your benchmark passes & it’s reflecting the type of node you will be running. In my case, I will be running CumulusNode, therefore, if my benchmarking has passed it will display “CUMULUS” on the status

Check Benchmarks: fluxbench-cli getbenchmarks

10. Start the node once the confirmations have reached 100

2b. Deterministic FluxNode Install Guide

This guide will be using the install script on the VPS platform. We have a few recommended service providers that are reliable and relatively cheaper. I am not in any way affiliated with them

Please do your research before you commit. As a side note, benchmarking is an important criterion & must meet minimum specs, uptime requirement: > 97%

Let’s Begin !!

Download the latest ZelCore Wallet. Go to zelcore.io & choose your platform..

3. The Login Screen

Existing users can login OR if you haven’t logged in for a long time, click on the “add existing account”

If you are a brand new user or haven’t never used the wallet ever, then “register new account”. It will also give you a option of “Create recovery password mechanism” which is great to recover lost password in case you ever forget your login credentials.

4. Access to Zelcore +

Flux Node collateral will automatically qualify you for free zelcore+. No need to deposit 5000k FLUX anymore.

5. Enabling d2Fa & adding Assets (Optional)

💡 Although not required for the node setup. However, it’s a good practice to enable Decentralized Two-factor authentication (d2FA) as an extra step, added to the log-in process.

It helps verify your identity and prevent cybercriminals from accessing your private information. d2FA offers an extra level of security that cyberthieves can’t easily access, because the criminal needs more than just your username and password credentials.

Note: Enabling d2Fa requires a small amount of 0.0002 Flux to be present in your wallet in order to broadcast a d2Fa enable transaction. Your d2Fa pin will be set after the transaction is confirmed on the blockchain & you have to re-login. This will be a one time transaction.

Click on the Apps > ZelId > d2Fa to enable the decentralized two way factor authentication

Click on the “+ sign” to add Flux & other assets you like to see and use.

5. Enter Main Portfolio

Get yourself familiarized with the main portfolio page. Every zelcore account comes with (6) Wallet addresses for your convenience. These wallets have different addresses for all assets. You can rename the wallet names if you like.

By default, they have named Payments, Income, Mining, Investments, Retirements & Scholarships

You can send the node collateral to any of the zelcore wallets (payments, income…). You can use either one wallet to set up all your nodes or distribute among other wallets if you like. Totally your choice !!

These are also referred to as light wallet addresses. Simply, your blockchain is always synced 100% unlike in a full-node wallet where you have to wait to get the chain synced.

Now, click on the choice of your wallet and click on “manage asset” & then click on “+ assets” to add FLUX or other coins/tokens of your choice

Click on “receive” & copy the addresses and either write down or save it somewhere. We would be needing the address shortly to transfer the collateral

Now, click on FLUX and hit more. You will see more options there. One of the options there is FluxNodes. Go ahead and click on FluxNodes. You can also go to Apps > FluxNodes as well

6. Transfer of Collateral for Flux Light Node Setup

Note: If you are confused about any of the steps below, there is a help button on the top right “How It Works?” which will provide you with more information…

Since we don't have any existing flux nodes & we don’t have the node collateral we don’t see anything there.

Now, send it exactly

1,000 FLUX for Cumulus Node

12,500 FLUX for Nimbus Node

40,000 FLUX for Stratus Node

setup for one of your Zelcore Flux Wallets where you want to run the FluxNode, it can be any wallet (Payments, Income, Mining…). Don’t worry about the fees since they will be automatically deducted from your balance. Fees are very minimum”

Once you have sent your collateral, you will see the following output as seen below. Remember, min. 100 confirmations (3.5hrs) are required to start the node

After you send your collateral. Go again back to FluxNode but this time you will see your node appears automatically with offline status. Also, you may notice a small notification window on the right below as well as a confirmation

7. Configuring fluxNode

Go ahead & click on > and it will expand the menu as shown above. You will notice that the confirmations are also being displayed. Next, click on “edit”

Provide your NodeName & IP and press save. Usually, IP is been provided by your VPS service provider or if you are planning to host your node from home using Servers/PC e.t.c put your public IP information here..

8a. Choosing the right service provider

⚠️FluxNode can be run on any Home PC/Servers, ARM devices, or VPS

It is recommended to keep it more decentralized and not rely on one centralized location.

The below requirements are the minimum that a node provider must have to overcome the benchmarking system. If a node owner provides more resources than the above, the network will use all the resources that can be found on the specific server.

8b. Configure your router to work with Flux (For Home/PC Server/Raspberry/Jetson/ARM Hosting Only)

1- Connect to your router and set up port forwarding on both TCP/UDP port ranging from (16124–16129) and range (30000–39999) for your Home/PC Server

2- If you want to be able to SSH to your FluxNode Home/PC Server from a connection outside your LAN you need to set a port forward for port 22 TCP, this will enable you to SSH your FluxNode (optional)

3- On some routers, port forwarding does not work properly, if you have problems on the benchmark with flux disconnected status I suggest you remove port forwarding on your router and try setting DMZ for your Home/PC Server local IP.

Open Port Check Tool

https://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/open-ports/

9. Setup FluxNode on Raspberry/Jetson/Arm Devices

Official Guide:

Home PC/Servers Minimum Requirements

10. New Self-Hosting Options (Starting March 12th, 2022)

New Self-Hosted Flux Node Setup Guide

11. New VPS Host Setup Requirments (Starting March 12th, 2022)

You can use any VPS provider of your choice to Host Flux nodes. You can also use Home PC Computer as well as long as you meet the min. specification.

Although, we are not affiliated with any VPS providers, here is the list of recommended VPS providers our Flux Node owners use. Please do your research on what is best for you.

✅Please choose Ubuntu 20.04 from the providers who give the OS selection option…

13. Using SSH in Putty (Windows)

Putty is a free SSH & telnet client for windows and UNIX platform which can be used to make an SSH connection to your server. You would need this client to access your VPS server

You can download the latest client from the link below:

https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/latest.html

Putty

Enter your connection settings:

Host Name (Or IP address) — Your VPS assigned IP address

Saved Sessions — Name your session or simply put whatever you want to call

Hit Save & Click Open to launch the Putty

14. Use Root Credential

First step is to log in as “root”. Use the password provided by your VPS Provider

💡 You can always change your root password by typing “passwd” after logging in as root.

Root Credentials

15. Benchmarking VPS Hosts (Optional)

Sysbench is used for benchmarking purposes.

  • Sysbench can be installed via:\

curl -s https://packagecloud.io/install/repositories/akopytov/sysbench/script.deb.sh | sudo bash
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apt install sysbench

Instructions are courtesy of haydenjames

Sysbench also has many possible tests. We will be using the utility to test the CPU performance. Prime number search tests the outright speed of the CPU and does not utilize things like hardware-accelerated encryption, making it a suitable performance test.

Built-in Linux data duplicator (dd) utility is used to test drive speed and overall write times.

Benchmarking performed using Ubuntu 16.04 | Sysbench v1.0.16

Sysbench

  • Command: sysbench — test=cpu — threads=1 — cpu-max-prime=60000 — time=20 run
  • Check: events per second (EPS)
  • Multiply the result by 16 for Stratus, 8 for Nimbus, 4 for Cumulus tiers and check if meet the requirements

These specs are for Sysbench v1.0.16. Installation instructions are above.

DD (data duplicator)

  • Command: dd if=/dev/zero of=sb-io-test bs=64k count=16k conv=fdatasync; rm -rf sb-io-test
  • Check: Drive speed

“Contabo is notorious for providing low I/O speeds & you need to contact customer support & ask them to increase the SSD speeds. They are fast in responding & would re-adjust accordingly..”

Note: SSD/Nvme speeds should be better w/ I/O speeds > 180 MB/s in order to pass Cumulus and Nimbus Benchmarks > 400MB/s to pass Stratus. The node will fail otherwise..

16. The Famous Kamil (X4) FluxNode Script

This is by far the easiest way to setup FluxNode created & developed by our team member XK4MiLX and others. This Multitoolbox script is used by everyone, novice or professional due to its simplicity & step by step procedure.

Setting up a FluxNode or troubleshooting your node, this script would help you resolve issues

17. Docker Install

Note: This script needs to be run on the root. Make sure you are on the root before you start the process. You can switch to by typing: su -

Option 1 : Install Docker & Option 2: Install FluxNode.

Before we start the script. It’s important to type the commands below. Go ahead and press enter

sudo apt-get install curl

sudo apt-get install npm -y

17b. FluxNode Install Script

Copy the command below & paste it by “clicking the right mouse button” on the VPS

Start with executing

bash -i <(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/RunOnFlux/fluxnode-multitool/master/multitoolbox.sh)

Option 1: Install Docker — Select 1 on your keyboard. This will start the docker install process…

Type in the same username you entered for flux node inside zelcore wallet & press “Enter”. Type the password you want & confirm by entering the password again. The Docker will start the install process. It will take couple of minutes to complete.

When prompted to switch to user account, press (Y)

Important: Save the Username & Password, You will need to use this to log in to your VPS moving forward

18. FluxInstall

Start with executing

bash -i <(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/RunOnFlux/fluxnode-multitool/master/multitoolbox.sh)

Option 2: Install FluxNode — Select 2 on your keyboard. This will start the installation process…

Enter the password of the FluxNode you created in the previous step & hit enter to continue. This will start the installation process…

19. Configuring fluxNode

Go back to your Zelcore Wallet & expand the menu by clicking more and then go to FluxNodes

Go ahead & click on > and it will expand the menu as shown above. You will notice that the confirmations are also being displayed. Next, click on “edit”

Please note the Node Private Key, Collateral TX id & Output Index as we will be needing these next…

Enter the above information on the VPS boxes when prompted as seen below

Copy the FluxNode PrivKey which was generated by your Zelcore light wallet & right click the mouse button to paste & hit “enter”

Copy the collateral txid & paste by clicking the right mouse button then press “enter” to continue..

Copy the output index, paste & hit enter

20. Bootstrap File

Hit “Enter” to download or choose your source. FluxTeam updates the bootstrap file from time to time, therefore it’s recommended to use “option 1”

This will start the bootstrap download process… This may take approximately “10 min~15 min” to complete…

21. The ZelId

Click on Apps > ZelTools > Zel Id > Copy or click the QR Code.

22. Flux Blockchain Sync and Status

Check the connections & failed connections. Ideally, failed blockchain sync should be zero. It does fail sometimes but as long as the syncing process is continuing. It should be OK

Track the progress of the left remaining blocks . This process may take longer & depending on how many blocks needs to be downloaded & synced with the current chain.

This process may take between “45 Mins ~ 60 Mins” to be completed. Please be patient…

23. Install Alert Notification (optional)

When asked for Discord Webhook follow this https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/228383668-Intro-to-Webhooks When asked for Discord User ID follow this https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/206346498-Where-can-I-find-my-User-Server-Message-ID-

Press “enter” to install alert notification for the FluxNode.

24. FluxNode Install Complete

Hooray !! If you have made it this far, then you have successfully configured FluxNode on your VPS.

25. Test Benchmark Pass/Fail

Confirm that your benchmark passes & it’s reflecting the type of node you will be running. In my case, I will be running CumulusNode, therefore, if my benchmarking has passed it will display “CIMULUS” on the status

Check Benchmarks: fluxbench-cli getbenchmarks

If your benchmark didn’t pass it will display status as “Failed” & you need to restart the benchmark process again. Use the following command:

Restart Benchmarks: fluxbench-cli restartnodebenchmarks

26. Final Checklist

Complete the following checklist. This will fix any steps you may have forgotten or missed.

✅ Verify the IP address

✅Verify the private key/Output TX ID/Output Index

✅ Confirm 100 Block confirmations

✅ Verify the transparent address

✅ Benchmarks Pass/Fail

27. Starting Node from ZelCore Light Node Wallet

Again, make sure you have 100 confirmations before you can start the node

Go ahead and click on “Start”. A window will pop up and you will be prompted with more information. Please re-check your benchmarks by following the instructions below. If your benchmarks have passed. Click on “Start FluxNode”

A new window will then open up and will display the status as “Starting”

After some time the status will change to “Confirmed” this means you have successfully started your FluxNode and expect to receive the first rewards in the next 48hrs. Nothing else is required

30. Deleting FluxNode & releasing the collateral (Optional)

If you ever decide to delete the FluxNode & wanted to unlock the collateral, please click on the flux node and expand by clicking >

You will see “delete”. Go ahead & delete the node to release the collateral. Whatever rewards you have received it’s yours to keep. There is no penalty on the rewards or on the collateral.

Confirm by clicking on “Yes, delete FluxNode”. Your collateral is now released for you to spend

31. Backing up your Private Keys (recommended)

You can backup your private keys by going to Settings > Private Keys> Select Wallet e.g. Payments, Investments, e.t.c > Show Private Key in WIF > Select Coin/Token > Copy Private Keys

Alternatively, You can copy the private keys for your entire portfolio wallet. Just make sure you choose the right wallet first by “selecting wallet” first. Private keys will then be displayed for you to copy…

😊If you find this guide helpful. Help out the Author a little😊

❤️ FLUX: t1RWYHhEbgwUdyirYkeqKi26xKHr7aSyzGW ❤️

BTC: 18dwHMpTich3P5oepE2CaD134df2obmYTV

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