Intro / Preface

This article has been months in the making. If you are one of few people in my discord server who has had to listen to me b!tch and moan over these last few months... I am sorry and also thank you because without you all I wouldn't be posting this article today!

⁉️⁉️ Who am I?⁉️⁉️

I go by many names...

Cherokee4Life

The Cherokee4Life account was created 5 years ago for the sole purpose of playing Splinterlands. Fast forward some and I had an impossible job of getting my keys out of the hands of the Splinterlands team...

TrocProcLock

So I created a 2nd account called TrocProcLock because that was the username I was going by online at this time. Well shortly after creating this account... I was able to regain control of my cherokee4life account and had no real use for this account (except I already started playing Rising Star with this account and still do).

Fast forward to 2025, I use TrocProcLock for Rising Star and that is it's only purpose. Yes it sucks but we lay in the bed we made right?

Cherokee4Life (main account) = https://hiveblocks.com/@cherokee4life
TrocProcLock (secondary but rarely used) = https://hiveblocks.com/@trocproclock
Witness4All (Only for Hive Witness Node) = https://hiveblocks.com/@witness4all

Where it all started

I have been around the block a few times at this point. I have done CPU mining, GPU mining, and everything else and in-between. I have a Blockchain Node setup for 2 other blockchains currently running as well. So I am not new to this Node concept or setup (or so I thought).

But what got me intrigued into running a Hive Witness Node was a post by Engrave, specficially this post!

I work in IT professionaly and I also have some older Enterprise grade servers in my basement. Some are powered off because I am not paying to run a 12U Server Chassis with 8 blades. I would go broke from the electric bill. Others though I have running 24/7 for my homelab. So I thought to myself if people can get a node running on such small hardware footprint, I can spin one up no problem.

#foreshadowing 😉

Getting Started / Proof of Concept

I didn't have any mini Dell PC's laying around though but I did have a massive 8U SuperMicro laying around with a bunch of headroom just waiting for me to throw something at it. So I did! I spun up a Ubuntu VM with minimal specs and started to play around.

Let's just say I lost count at how many VM's I spun up and deleted over the weeks. Each time I learned something new and made changes, and because I didn't want to build a Witness Node on top of old data or file structures I started a new server. My fear was that when I made a change like changed root permissions to a subfolder that days later when I wanted to start over I would be basically trying to battle issues and permissions from 2 or 3 node attempts ago and it would cause me more problems. So I would just start over. And spinning up a new VM could be done in 30 minutes (including Ubunutu install) so it was better that way.

Well after countless attempts and hours reading guide after guide and trying building it from code, deploying from block_log files, using Docker, I thought I finally had my node the way I wanted. Or so I thought.

1 good thing I did though was that I had the foresight to create a new account to be used 100% for my Witness Node and it be separate from my Hive accounts that I actually use to interact with the blockchain on a day to day basis.

I want to clarify that I am not a Hive expert. I am not even a Hive Novice. I am just a guy who loves tech and who loves Hive and I am trying to contribute as much as I possibly can to this awesome blockchain. There are people here that could run circles around me when it comes to IT, or tech in general, let alone anything Hive related. But that was a big part of WHY I wanted to do this.

I wanted a node that was being run and active and online contributing to the network that wasn't run by someone with ties to this project or that project. I wanted to see more Nodes run by everyday people. People who are invested in the blockchain and want to help it even without any skin in the game so to speak.

I am going to screw things up. I may even take my node offline from time to time because I screwed up a upgrade or this or that. But I also will always work to bring it back so that Hive can be more decentralized. Because that is something I want, and I hope that is something you all want as well. This should go without saying but I am not knocking any node ran by someone who also runs projects on Hive. Shoot, I even vote for a lot of them to be witnesses because I like the work those people are doing and want to support it. I just also want to help out and this is the start of my way of helping out!

Back to my Proof of Concept

On my SuperMicro I am running TrueNas Scale because for me it's the best at what it does.

If you care about the specs of it, I will indulge you because I care too ;)

CPU: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X5680 @ 3.33GHz (there are 2 CPU's)
RAM: 80GB of DDR3 1333MHz
HHD: 28 TB in various RAID configurations (60 TB of actual Hard Drives in total)

Yes, this runs on 3.5" spinning disks but it is a proof of concept after all. I wanted to make sure I could do it before I invested more time and money into this side project and hoping to turn it into a proper project of mine.

To those who don't know and are curious.. Spinning Disks is tech term for just normal 3.5 inch wide Hard Drives. They are cheap and they are great but they are not as good for I/O as SSD drives or nvme drives. SSD and NVME drives do not have a spinning metal disk inside of them so they are less prone to failure and other issues and last longer and have better Read/Write abilities than the older Hard Drive type disks.

And for something like a Node for the Hive blockchain that has blocks constantly, having a normal Hard Drive be the data storage for it is not ideal. It is doable because I am doing it right now but it is not ideal or 'best practice' as they say.

The VM that is running my Node at time of me writing this out are as follows:

CPU: 2 Core and 4 vCPU's
RAM: 16GB
HD: 2TB of storage (yes on spinning disks)

I am going to touch on this last screenshot later but this is the entire network traffic for my SuperMicro that is running my Node and other things... It's not a lot!

Disclaimer: I don't care about showing screenshots and such about my current Node because by the time this article is live and you are reading this than I have already transitioned over to my Proper Node and this VM will be blown away and I will spin up a completely new one setup how I have learned it should be with all the bells & whistles setup properly.

I made the decision early on that if I was going to setup a Node I was going to set it up on the latest and greatest version, because I thought that it would give me the longest time in between updates where I would have more time to learn and grow and than be able to upgrade successfully when the time came. So because of that I went with Hive 1.27.10. Was this a mistake? Yeah probably haha but too late now.

Most of the guides I have seen are geared around 1.27.8 and honestly I should have gone with that version # because I think I wouldn't have run into as many problems if I had. But why make life easier for yourself? And honestly I would be lying if I said it wouldn't make me a little happy to know I am running a more up to date version than the big name Nodes out there running 1.27.8 ;)

When I first started to setup my Node (one of the first couple iterations at least) I ran into problem after problem. I even managed to screenshot a bunch of it for this exact moment..

Yeah I was overwhelmed when I started to say the least. Part of my issue was my pride. I wanted to figure this out without asking for help. I wanted to prove to myself I could do it. And ironically by the time I got around to asking for help because of the last issue I was running into.. turns out wasn't even an issue and I was already good to go. Ain't that Ironic!

But after attempt and attempt and configuring I don't know how many config.ini files and editing the cli_wallet who know how many times and testing and testing and soo many replaying of the blockchain I got a Node that appeared to be up and running.

I do want to take the time to shout out everyone who runs Nodes and runs awesome websites and tools surrounding Nodes. Arcange, you are a legend in my book my guy (or girl, I swear I need to stop assuming everyone online is a male)! This tool was awesome for 2 reasons.

https://hive.arcange.eu/schedule

1. Let me know what Block the blockchain is currently on.
2. Let me know what Nodes are in rotation for Block creation.

Obviously the official documentation is 'helpful':
https://developers.hive.io/nodeop/witness-node.html
https://github.com/openhive-network/hive

No idea who runs this but I love it! Hive Hub Dev!
https://hivehub.dev/@witness4all

Setting up a Proper Node

With all of that 'lovely' experience behind me it was time to get serious. So I set out on finding the perfect device to run my Node from full time. Yes my SuperMicro is on 24/7 but I wanted something with SSD's or better yet NVME drives in it. I won't get into the nitty gritty on what I chose and why versus what I didn't. But I did end up getting a Intel NUC.

A 7th generation Intel core i3 NUC to be exact!

And I got some goodies as well!

16GB of RAM
1TB SSD
256GB NVME

I would love to say that this is where everything went smoothly and I have my Witness Node up and running on my intel NUC. And why that would be the best outcome here sadly it is not the case. I got ahead of myself and started to playing around with the Rolling Block Log feature and other config.ini settings I came across.

So currently my intel NUC is syncing the blockchain again for about the 10th time 😉

And I also setup another VM and that is where my Witness Node is currently running on!

Next Steps

• I need to get my Witness Node FULLY operational on my Intel NUC
• I need to get a Price Feed setup
• I need to fine tune my Node to require less storage as well.

Current Issues and Roadblocks:

1. Internet Upgrade
   In the coming weeks I will be switching to Fiber Internet (again) and I can not wait... Port Forwarding and everything oh baby it can't come soon enough.

2. Price Feed Setup
   I will admit I have a lot to learn about setting this up but all I have is time so bring it on.

3. Minting my First Block
   As a witness with only 8.2k HP votes.... this one will take time haha But Damn it ONE DAY I will mint a block and that day will be GLORIOUS!

Planned Improvements:

1. Getting a 2nd NUC to have pure redundancy
   I have plans to purchase a 2nd NUC and have it setup and running 24/7 as a backup node, so that if I do an upgrade on my Node I can switch to my backup so that my 'node' will never go down.

2. External Website/App
   I am working on setting up a internal website with helpful information. A website that will hopefully be available to the public to use and bookmark. The idea is to be able to put in a few accounts to see their balances and also prices of various tokens (which will be changeable) and then Node information for specific nodes
   
   Obviously all this info in the screenshot is static BS info but you get the idea..

3. How to Guide for Beginners
   I have ideas.. I have thoughts.. This Node process was NOT easy for beginners and I want to (and am currently writing) create guides. I want to create guides that better explain the Hive blockchain for beginners. I want to create a guide on how to setup your own Node with actual step by step instructions on HOW to do each step in the process.

4. To Be Determined 😉

The End

So all of that being said. I hope you would at LEAST consider voting for my Witness Node. If you don't want to after you considered it, I do not blame you. I know I am relatively new to the Hive Blockchain and I still have trust to earn to be considered a valuable member of this community to be trusted to run a Node to secure said blockchain.

You can Vote here: https://peakd.com/me/witnesses (scroll way down until you find my account, at time of writing I am ranked #248)

IF you are someone who has physically setup a Node before and can offer detailed steps and help and want to give it. I have so many questions to ask you haha.

Thank you and have a good day!

I have a Discord Server where me and a few friends chat about Hive Blockchain things, WAX Blockchain things, Ways to Earn various Crypto, and just shoot the shit throughout the day. If you want to join you are more than welcome!

Clarification: This account while is a alt account run by me (@cherokee4life) I intend to only use it to post about HIVE Node things and various guides or articles. Each post will be set to 100% HP as a payout because this account is purely a Node account and hopefully maybe one day it will have enough HP that I can start to use it to curate and vote on other good quality content here on Hive to give back to you all! So follow for more fun stuff!

April 18th, 2025 update

I am still learning things everyday. Today I figured out how to create a URL link that is a link to vote for me as a Witness Node :)

Vote for Witness4All as a Witness Node!

It should popup a new webpage with a transaction that looks like this: