How to create a Caasiope Network node?

In this article, we are going to see how to build and run a node on the Caasiope network. Unfortunately, the node is currently only running on Windows. For IOS or Linux users, you can use a virtual machine to run Windows and follow the steps.

Preparation

We need to download some softwares and tools listed. Refer to the links to download them: Visual Studio IDE 2017, Microsoft .NET Framework 4.7.2 , MySQL Server, MySQL Workbench and MySQL connector/NET 6.9.12.

Clone the repository

After the environment setup, go to GitHub to clone the caasiope project.

Click clone to copy the project link and type below command in your Git.

git clone https://github.com/caasiope/caasiope-blockchain.git

Restore packages

After cloning the project, we need to restore packages for the project by following steps.

1. Open the helios.sln in project/solution of Visual Studio which the path is “caasiope-blockchain\helios-common\Helios.Common\helios.sln” .

Step 2: Open the Package Manager Console using the Tools > NuGet Package Manager > Package Manager Console command and Click the Restore button.

Step 3: Click Build > Build Solution to make sure there is no error in Output.

Step 4: Set Caasiope.Wallet.CommandLineConsole as startup project for caasiope-blockchain.

1. Open caasiope-blockchain.
2. Select Caasiope.Wallet.CommandLineConsole in Solution Explorer of Visual Studio.
3. Right Click to Set as StartUp Project.

Step 5: We also need to Restore the packages for caasiope-blockchain.sln. The steps are same as the way we did for helios.sln. Refer to Step 2 to Step 4.

4. Setup the database

Now we are going to make the project connect to the MySQL Server in your local.

Step 1: Open MySQL workbench and connect to the MySQL Server.

Step 2: Create a new schema to store the blockchain.

Step 3: Open sql_schema.sql using File>Open SQL Script>Open SQL Script command from the project which path is “caasiope-blockchain/SqlScripts” .

Step 4: Select the blockchain schema and run the sql_schema.sql script.

Step 5: Change the connection string in the App.config to update the user name and password, as well as the name of the schema.

5. Run the node

Once everything is setup correctly, you can click Start in Visual Studio to start the node of Caasiope network.

The node should connect to the network and start synchronizing. You can check that you are connected to other peers using the getpeers command.

Congratulations, you have successfully joined of the Caasiope test-network ! Now you can try different instructions with the help command, and play with the advanced functionalities.

How to make your node available for everyone?

If you want your node be found by others, you need to have a public IP address, forward a port and setup a configuration file as following steps.

1.Be aware of your public IP address.

Your internet service should already provide you a public IP. If you don’t have it, go to buy it from a internet service. You can find it by visiting whatismyip.com while on your network.

2. Forward a port.

You may need to connect to your router to setup the port forwarding. You can refer to the link to open a TCP port.

3. Add the Forwarded port to your node server configuration.

After your forwarding a port, you need to add the port to the node configuration file which is in the project and the path is “caasiope-blockchain\Caasiope.Node\config\zodiac\node_server.txt” .

Assuming the port you opened is 2030, then set the field “ForwardedPort” to “ForwardedPort=2030”.

4. Add a rule for windows firewall if it required.

Once you set up the port forwarding on the router level, there is a possibility that you may need to add a firewall rule for the port your opened on your computer.

5. Run the node and be found by others.

Congratulations! Now you can run the node and then your node can be found by others.

Note :

1. If you are using windows 10, you may have a problem with TLS certificates. You can find a way to fix the problem as this Github link or you can also run Visual Studio with Admin mode.
2. The version of MySQL connector MUST be mysql-connector-net-6.9.12.msi.
3. Check the content of network.txt before you run the code, it should be “zodiac” which is the name of the public test-network.

Want to contribute ? Join us on github or on www.caasiope.net !