The date of the next, 21st HardFork, has been set, and it is approaching quickly.

There's plenty of info around the web on how to build a Steem node from scratch.
I also wrote a guide some time ago: Steem Pressure #3: Steem Node 101.
But the trouble is that such tutorials are getting old and obsolete.

My previous one was made for version 19 at its early development stages.
Now, we have version 21 released, so it is a good opportunity for an update.

^{Video created for Steem Pressure series.}

Hardware

Nothing fancy.
Actually we will use something reasonably modest and cheap.

Meet the mirabelle:
Intel Xeon CPU W3530 @2.80GHz
16GB DDR3 ECC 1333MHz RAM
2x 240GB SSD

Operating system

Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

Clean, basic server install.
No fancy tweaks or customizations.
/home is RAID0 because we need speed and space.
In the case of a failure, we just use a new one.

Let's Go

Few steps needs to be done as root:

Make sure that your system is up to date:

apt update && apt upgrade

Use ntp or chrony to keep your system clock in sync:

apt install ntp

Create an account for steem purposes:

useradd -s /bin/bash -m steem

Set appropriate values for open files limits needed by MIRA:

cat << 'EOF' >> /etc/security/limits.conf
steem soft nofile 65535 
steem hard nofile 65535
EOF

Install packages needed for building Steem:

apt install \
  automake \
  build-essential \
  cmake \
  doxygen \
  libbz2-dev \
  libboost-date-time-dev \
  libboost-chrono-dev \
  libboost-context-dev \
  libboost-coroutine-dev \
  libboost-filesystem-dev \
  libboost-iostreams-dev \
  libboost-locale-dev \
  libboost-program-options-dev \
  libboost-serialization-dev \
  libboost-system-dev \
  libboost-test-dev \
  libboost-thread-dev \
  libreadline-dev \
  libsnappy-dev \
  libssl-dev \
  libtool \
  ncurses-dev

Now we continue as a user steem:

su - steem

Clone the steem repository:

git clone https://github.com/steemit/steem

Checkout the latest release:

cd steem
git checkout v0.21.0

Create build directory:

mkdir ~/build

Configure steem build:

cd ~/build

cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
  -DLOW_MEMORY_NODE=ON \
  -DCLEAR_VOTES=ON \
  -DSKIP_BY_TX_ID=OFF \
  -DENABLE_MIRA=ON \
  -DSTEEM_STATIC_BUILD=ON \
  ../steem

Build steemd:

make -j4 steemd

Build cli_wallet:

make -j4 cli_wallet

Create local bin directory for convenience:

mkdir ~/bin

Copy steemd and cli_wallet binaries to local bin directory:

cp -v ~/build/programs/steemd/steemd ~/bin
cp -v ~/build/programs/cli_wallet/cli_wallet ~/bin

Congratulations!

~/bin/steemd --version

Now you have required binaries.
Time to configure and run your node.

Create proper directory tree:

mkdir -pv ~/.steemd/blockchain

Create minimalistic config file for consensus node:

cat << 'EOF' >> ~/.steemd/config.ini
plugin = witness
plugin = condenser_api network_broadcast_api block_api
webserver-http-endpoint = 127.0.0.1:8090
webserver-ws-endpoint = 127.0.0.1:8090
EOF

Yes, you really don't need more than that for a very basic node defaults are OK.

To speed up reaching the head block:

Download blocks from a trusted source:

wget https://gtg.steem.house/get/blockchain/block_log \
  -O ~/.steemd/blockchain/block_log

Now run:

~/bin/steemd --replay
and have fun!

This configuration is expected to reach the head block within 72 hours.

Footnotes:

• You might want to run above inside screen.
• Once it replays all the blocks from block_log, it will sync with Steem p2p network up to the head block and continue running.
• Next time start steemd without --replay. You need to do that only if your changes will affect the state (such as adding or re-configuring plugins).
• You might want to add account_by_key (for cli_wallet’s list_my_accounts feature) and account_history (to track your own account history) but in this guide I wanted to focus on a simplest case.
• You need to wait for replay to complete before you can use API endpoint.

Previous episodes of Steem Pressure series

Introducing: Steem Pressure #1
Steem Pressure #2 - Toys for Boys and Girls
Steem Pressure #3 - Steem Node 101
Steem Pressure: The Movie ;-)
Steem Pressure #4 - Need for Speed
Steem Pressure #5 - Run, Block, Run!
Steem Pressure #6 - MIRA: YMMV, RTFM, TLDR: LGTM
Stay tuned for next episodes of Steem Pressure :-)

---

^{If you believe I can be of value to Steem, please vote for me (gtg) as a witness on Steemit's Witnesses List or set (gtg) as a proxy that will vote for witnesses for you.
Your vote does matter!
You can contact me directly on steem.chat, as Gandalf}

Steem On