Lava Dockerized

Requirements

• Docker and Docker Compose (Tested on Linux only)

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Initialize settings

Create required external network and volume, which will be shared between different instances of nodes and providers

docker network create lava && docker network create public && docker volume create lava && docker volume create lava_binaries

Create acme.json file to store certificates

touch traefik/acme.json && chmod 600 traefik/acme.json

Copy environment file sample to .env and set your configs.
Most users only need to edit ACCOUNT_NAME and MONIKER_NAME

cp .env.sample .env

run below command and follow the instructions to import your wallet or create a new one.
if you intend to create a new wallet, you keys will be displayed on screen only one time!
Don't forget to backup your newly generated account keys. Store it somewhere safe

docker compose run --rm validator init

this will also create a new priv_json_validator.json file, if you want to import your previous validator copy it into the volume as follow :

1. inside the repository directory, create a folder called backup_validator_keys, then put your priv_json_validator.json and node_key.json inside it
2. run the copy helper command

./helpers.sh node:restore

otherwise make a backup from newly generated files and keep them safe

THESE KEYS CANNOT BE RESTORED USING MNEMONIC so make a backup from these too

./helpers.sh node:backup

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A note on running lavad commands

Generally, to run any lavad commands, prefix it like this:

docker compose exec [service name] lavad [command args]

where service name can be either validator or rpcprovider. based on which docker-compose.yml file you are working with

for example to test our lava rpc using our own node, inside the rpc provider directory:

cd providers/lava
docker compose exec rpcprovider lavad test rpcprovider --node tcp://validator:26657 --from foo --endpoints "lava.example.com:443,LAV1"

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Run a Node / Validator

To a run node inside root directory of project, run this:

docker compose up -d validator

check logs

docker compose logs -f --tail 300 validator

Become a validator

Request test token

get test tokens from faucet using your public address

Setup Validator

Wait for your node to catch up with the rest of network before you proceeding. you can check validator's current info by running this:

docker compose exec validator /opt/helpers.sh validator:sync-info

When catching_up became false then proceed.

Verify that your account has funds in it in order to perform staking

docker compose exec validator /opt/helpers.sh wallet:balance

Sign a transaction to become a validator

docker compose exec validator /opt/helpers.sh validator:connect

Delegate to validator

first get the valoper address:

docker compose exec validator /opt/helpers.sh node:valoper

then use the valoper address and amount in ulava , e.g to delegate 325ulava:

docker compose exec validator /opt/helpers.sh validator:delegate VALOPER_ADDRESS_HERE "325ulava"

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Run RPC Providers

Lavavisor Workaround

The newly released lavavisor heavily depends on systemd which is not available in containers. so i did some nasty things to achieve something like auto-update feature of lavavisor. i explain it shortly :

1. lavavisor container which periodically scans for new versions of lavap and download if any is available. the binaries are shared amongst all RPC services.
2. a supervisor setup with 2 process for each RPC service. one runs the lavap service as normal, and a watcher process, which detects new installed versions of lavap and restarts the sibling RPC service accordingly

Run Providers/Consumers

WARNING I didn't test Consumer yet. maybe it doesn't work

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Each directory inside the providers directory represents only ONE rpc service. lava provider included by default.

copy .env.sample to .env modify RPC_CONTAINER_LABEL and RPC_URL, ACCOUNT_NAME in .env file also if you are running a node using this repository, leave LAVA_NODE as it is, otherwise set public node url.

IMPORTANT
The given rpc.yml example files assumes you are running you own lava node. if you are not running your own node, make sure to change all node_urls in rpc.yml to a public node url

cd providers/lava
cp .env.sample .env

Set desired configs in rpc.yml file then run:

docker compose up -d

That's it. your rpc provider is up and running, fully isolated from other process. traefik will automatically detect this container and generates a certificate using lets encrypt and routes all traffic from RPC_URL to this container. just don't forget stake lava token your provider.

To test your provider :

docker compose exec rpcprovider lavap test rpcprovider --node tcp://validator:26657 --from ACCOUNT_NAME_HERE --endpoints "lava.example.com:443,LAV1"

Add more providers

To add more providers/consumers, clone this lava directory with a new name. repeat the same steps