Full-node software implementing the Terra protocol

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Table of Contents

• What is Terra?
• Installation
  • Binaries
  • From Source
• terrad
• Node Setup
  • Join the mainnet
  • Join a testnet
  • Run a local testnet
  • Run a single node testnet
• Set up a production environment
  • Increase maximum open files
  • Create a dedicated user
  • Port configuration
  • Run the server as a daemon
  • Register terrad as a service
  • Start, stop, or restart service
  • Access logs
• Resources
• Community
• Contributing
• License

What is Terra?

Terra is a public, open-source blockchain protocol that provides fundamental infrastructure for a decentralized economy and enables open participation in the creation of new financial primitives to power the innovation of money.

The Terra blockchain is secured by distributed consensus on staked asset Luna and natively supports the issuance of price-tracking stablecoins that are algorithmically pegged to major world currencies, such as UST, KRT, and SDT. Smart contracts on Terra run on WebAssembly and take advantage of core modules, such as on-chain swaps, price oracle, and staking rewards, to power modern DeFi apps. Through dynamic fiscal policy managed by community governance, Terra is an evolving, democratized economy directed by its users.

Terra Core is the reference implementation of the Terra protocol, written in Golang. Terra Core is built atop Cosmos SDK and uses Tendermint BFT consensus. If you intend to work on Terra Core source, it is recommended that you familiarize yourself with the concepts in those projects.

Installation

Binaries

The easiest way to get started is by downloading a pre-built binary for your operating system. You can find the latest binaries on the releases page.

From Source

Step 1. Install Golang

Go v1.17+ or higher is required for Terra Core.

If you haven't already, install Golang by following the official docs. Make sure that your GOPATH and GOBIN environment variables are properly set up.

Step 2: Get Terra Core source code

Use git to retrieve Terra Core from the official repo and checkout the main branch. This branch contains the latest stable release, which will install the terrad binary.

git clone https://github.com/terra-money/core/
cd core
git checkout main

Step 3: Build Terra core

Run the following command to install the executable terrad to your GOPATH and build Terra Core. terrad is the node daemon and CLI for interacting with a Terra node.

# COSMOS_BUILD_OPTIONS=rocksdb make install
make install

Step 4: Verify your installation

Verify that you've installed terrad successfully by running the following command:

terrad version --long

If terrad is installed correctly, the following information is returned:

name: terra
server_name: terrad
version: 0.5.0-rc0-9-g640fd0ed
commit: 640fd0ed921d029f4d1c3d88435bd5dbd67d14cd
build_tags: netgo,ledger
go: go version go1.17.2 darwin/amd64

terrad

NOTE: terracli has been deprecated and all of its functionalities have been merged into terrad.

terrad is the all-in-one command for operating and interacting with a running Terra node. For comprehensive coverage on each of the available functions, see the terrad reference information. To view various subcommands and their expected arguments, use the $ terrad --help command:

        

        $ terrad --help

        Stargate Terra App

        Usage:
          terrad [command]

        Available Commands:
          add-genesis-account Add a genesis account to genesis.json
          collect-gentxs      Collect genesis txs and output a genesis.json file
          debug               Tool for helping with debugging your application
          export              Export state to JSON
          gentx               Generate a genesis tx carrying a self delegation
          help                Help about any command
          init                Initialize private validator, p2p, genesis, and application configuration files
          keys                Manage your application's keys
          migrate             Migrate genesis to a specified target version
          query               Querying subcommands
          rosetta             spin up a rosetta server
          start               Run the full node
          status              Query remote node for status
          tendermint          Tendermint subcommands
          testnet             Initialize files for a terrad testnet
          tx                  Transactions subcommands
          unsafe-reset-all    Resets the blockchain database, removes address book files, and resets data/priv_validator_state.json to the genesis state
          validate-genesis    validates the genesis file at the default location or at the location passed as an arg
          version             Print the application binary version information

        Flags:
          -h, --help                help for terrad
              --home string         directory for config and data (default "/Users/$HOME/.terra")
              --log_format string   The logging format (json|plain) (default "plain")
              --log_level string    The logging level (trace|debug|info|warn|error|fatal|panic) (default "info")
              --trace               print out full stack trace on errors

        Use "terrad [command] --help" for more information about a command.
        

Node Setup

Once you have terrad installed, you will need to set up your node to be part of the network.

Join the mainnet

The following requirements are recommended for running a columbus-5 mainnet node:

• 4 or more CPU cores
• At least 2TB of disk storage
• At least 100mbps network bandwidth
• An Linux distribution

For configuration and migration instructions for setting up a Columbus-5 mainnet node, visit The mainnet repo.

Terra Node Quick Start

terrad init nodename
wget -O ~/.terra/config/genesis.json https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/QmZAMcdu85Qr8saFuNpL9VaxVqqLGWNAs72RVFhchL9jWs
curl https://network.terra.dev/addrbook.json > ~/.terrad/config/addrbook.json
terrad start

Join a testnet

Several testnets might exist simultaneously. Ensure that your version of terrad is compatible with the network you want to join.

To set up a node on the latest testnet, visit the testnet repo.

Run a local testnet

The easiest way to set up a local testing environment is to run LocalTerra, which automatically orchestrates a complete testing environment suited for development with zero configuration.

Run a single node testnet

You can also run a local testnet using a single node. On a local testnet, you will be the sole validator signing blocks.

Step 1. Create network and account

First, initialize your genesis file to bootstrap your network. Create a name for your local testnet and provide a moniker to refer to your node:

terrad init --chain-id=<testnet_name> <node_moniker>

Next, create a Terra account by running the following command:

terrad keys add <account_name>

Step 2. Add account to genesis

Next, add your account to genesis and set an initial balance to start. Run the following commands to add your account and set the initial balance:

terrad add-genesis-account $(terrad keys show <account_name> -a) 100000000uluna,1000usd
terrad gentx <account_name> 10000000uluna --chain-id=<testnet_name>
terrad collect-gentxs

Step 3. Run Terra daemon

Now you can start your private Terra network:

terrad start

Your terrad node will be running a node on tcp://localhost:26656, listening for incoming transactions and signing blocks.

Congratulations, you've successfully set up your local Terra network!

Set up a production environment

NOTE: This guide only covers general settings for a production-level full node. You can find further details on considerations for operating a validator node by visiting the Terra validator guide.

This guide has been tested against Linux distributions only. To ensure you successfully set up your production environment, consider setting it up on an Linux system.

Increase maximum open files

terrad can't open more than 1024 files (the default maximum) concurrently.

You can increase this limit by modifying /etc/security/limits.conf and raising the nofile capability.

*                soft    nofile          65535
*                hard    nofile          65535

Create a dedicated user

It is recommended that you run terrad as a normal user. Super-user accounts are only recommended during setup to create and modify files.

Port configuration

terrad uses several TCP ports for different purposes.

• 26656: The default port for the P2P protocol. Use this port to communicate with other nodes. While this port must be open to join a network, it does not have to be open to the public. Validator nodes should configure persistent_peers and close this port to the public.

• 26657: The default port for the RPC protocol. This port is used for querying / sending transactions and must be open to serve queries from terrad. DO NOT open this port to the public unless you are planning to run a public node.

• 1317: The default port for Lite Client Daemon (LCD), which can be enabled in ~/.terra/config/app.toml. The LCD provides an HTTP RESTful API layer to allow applications and services to interact with your terrad instance through RPC. Check the Terra REST API for usage examples. Don't open this port unless you need to use the LCD.

• 26660: The default port for interacting with the Prometheus database. You can use Promethues to monitor an environment. This port is closed by default.

Run the server as a daemon

Important:

Keep terrad running at all times. The simplest solution is to register terrad as a systemd service so that it automatically starts after system reboots and other events.

Register terrad as a service

First, create a service definition file in /etc/systemd/system.

Sample file: /etc/systemd/system/terrad.service

[Unit]
Description=Terra Daemon
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=terra
ExecStart=/data/terra/go/bin/terrad start
Restart=on-abort

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

[Service]
LimitNOFILE=65535

Modify the Service section from the given sample above to suit your settings. Note that even if you raised the number of open files for a process, you still need to include LimitNOFILE.

After creating a service definition file, you should execute systemctl daemon-reload.

Start, stop, or restart service

Use systemctl to control (start, stop, restart)

# Start
systemctl start terrad
# Stop
systemctl stop terrad
# Restart
systemctl restart terrad

Access logs

# Entire log
journalctl -t terrad
# Entire log reversed
journalctl -t terrad -r
# Latest and continuous
journalctl -t terrad -f

Resources

• Developer Tools

  • Terra developer documentation(https://docs.terra.money)
  • TerraWiki.org - The Terra community wiki.
  • SDKs
    • Terra.js for JavaScript
    • terra-sdk-python for Python
  • Faucet can be used to get tokens for testnets
  • LocalTerra can be used to set up a private local testnet with configurable world state

• Developer Forums

  • Terra Developer Discord
  • Terra DEveloper Telegram room

• Block Explorers

  • Terra Finder - Terra's basic block explorer.
  • Terrascope - A community-run block explorer with extra features.
  • Stake ID - A block explorer made by Staking Fund
  • Hubble - by Figment

• Wallets

  • Terra Station - The official Terra wallet.

  • Terra Station Mobile

    • iOS
    • Android

  • Falcon Wallet

  • Leap Wallet

  • XDeFi

  • Liquality

• Research

  • Agora - Research forum
  • White Paper

Community

• Offical Website
• Discord
• Telegram
• Twitter
• YouTube

Contributing

If you are interested in contributing to Terra Core source, please review our code of conduct.

License

This software is licensed under the Apache 2.0 license. Read more about it here.

© 2022 Terraform Labs, PTE LTD

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_{Powering the innovation of money.}