enabling Hive-Engine witness node after year long slumber, step 1 - app update

It's been eight months since my Hive-Engine witness node has last signed the block. An eternity in blockchain world. After last autumn's #hivefest in Split I promised to myself and some friends that I will reawaken it. Well, it took me another half of year to get to it.

Today, after a message from my hosting provider that I need to pay the bill for next year's lease, I finally started enabling it. It was the proverbial kick in the butt and awakening call.

As you can see from this screenshot (@primersion's excellent tool for Hive-Engine witnesses overview and management) my node was inactive for 8 months, is stuck at some ancient block, yet is already upgraded to latest witness node version, to v2.0.2.

I am glad that my tiny upgrade procedure is still working. With it, it was a matter of minutes to bring it up to latest version. Here it is:

-- go to local top level directory for witness nodes
cd /var/witness/
 
-- get latest node software, it's v2.0.2
git clone --recursive --branch he_v2.0.2 https://github.com/hive-engine/hivesmartcontracts.git he202
 
-- go into newly created directory
cd he202
 
-- compile it
npm ci
 
-- copy over config and environment files
cp ../he20/config.json .
cp ../he200/.env .
 
-- stop node app, delete it, run it anew
pm2 stop app
pm2 delete app
pm2 start app.js
pm2 logs
 
-- it's working! chain is 6134480 blocks ahead

Ps: hopefully, config didn't change. I'll check it later.

Next steps

• download latest snapshot of light version of database, import it
• wait for node to catch up with the chain
• enable witness, start participating in block production
• go to discord server and tell the guys I am back
• distribute my votes - it's not much - 907 $WORKERBEE
• lobby and plead for votes to get to top 20 witnesses

The last step will be the hardest 😂

Why am I doing this?

• because I want to contribute to community
• yes, server and hosting cost money yet there is small compensation for it - if I reach top 20 witnesses
• because I can & it's fun in a nerdy sort of way

Tagging some friends to announce the begging for votes part:
@primersion @louis88 @ph1102 @liotes @kanibot @forykw - Danke, thank you, obrigado, hvala.

better and better
:ervin :lemark

#2025 46/365