Managing Your Node

Monitor status • Update software • Systemd & tmux commands • Security & backups

Day-to-Day Operations

Learn how to monitor, maintain, and optimize your Reality Network validator node. From checking status to performing updates and backups.

Monitoring Your Node

Check your node's health and understand what it's doing

Quick Status Check

Run this command to see your node's current state:

curl http://YOUR_SERVER_IP:9000/node/info

Replace YOUR_SERVER_IP with your actual server IP. This returns JSON with your node information. Look for the "state" field - it tells you exactly what your node is doing right now.

What Your Node State Means

Your node is always in one of these states. Here's what each one means and what you should do:

Everything is Good

If you see any of these states, your node is healthy and working correctly. No action needed!

"Observing"

Your node is syncing with the network. This is normal after startup and can take 5-30 minutes.

"Ready"

Perfect! Your node is fully synced and participating in the network. This is what you want to see.

"Waiting"

Your node is synced and waiting for its turn to participate. This is normal - the network assigns roles deterministically.

"RedownloadInProgress"

Your node detected inconsistent data and is re-syncing. This is a built-in safety feature, not an error.

Action Needed

"ReadytoJoin"

Your node is synced but hasn't joined the cluster yet. You need to connect to a bootstrap node.

What to do: Follow the Join Cluster instructions to connect using one of the bootstrap nodes.

Warning Signs

"SessionStarted" (stuck for 10+ minutes)

If you've been in this state for more than 10 minutes, your node might have connectivity issues.

What to do:

Restart your node (see commands below)
Try connecting to additional bootstrap nodes
Check the FAQ troubleshooting section for detailed help

"Offline"

Your node isn't running or can't be reached.

What to do: Check if your node service is running:

sudo systemctl status reality-node

If it's not running, start it with: sudo systemctl start reality-node

Managing Your Node

Commands for both systemd and tmux methods. Use the section that matches how you set up your node.

Managing with Systemd

Commands for production deployments using systemd service

Production • Recommended

Check Node Status

sudo systemctl status reality-node

Shows if the service is active, running, and recent log entries

View Logs

Follow logs in real-time:

journalctl -u reality-node -f

View last 100 lines:

journalctl -u reality-node -n 100

View logs from today:

journalctl -u reality-node --since today

Start, Stop, and Restart

Stop the node:

sudo systemctl stop reality-node

Start the node:

sudo systemctl start reality-node

Restart the node:

sudo systemctl restart reality-node

Disable Auto-Start on Boot

sudo systemctl disable reality-node

To re-enable: sudo systemctl enable reality-node

Managing with tmux

Commands for testing deployments using tmux sessions

Testing • Quick Setup

View Node Logs

tmux attach -t reality

Press Ctrl+B, then D to detach again

Stop Your Node

tmux attach -t reality
# Press Ctrl+C to stop the node

Restart Your Node

Attach to the session, stop the node (Ctrl+C), then run the java command again:

tmux attach -t reality
# Press Ctrl+C to stop
# Then run your java command again

List All tmux Sessions

tmux ls

Kill a tmux Session

tmux kill-session -t reality

Updating Your Node

How to update to a new version

Always check the GitHub Releases page for update instructions and breaking changes.

Update Process

1. Stop your node:

sudo systemctl stop reality-node

2. Backup your keystore:

cp ~/reality-node/node.p12 ~/reality-node/node.p12.backup

3. Download new JARs:

cd ~/reality-node

# Get latest version
LATEST_RELEASE=$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/reality-foundation/linux-server/releases/latest | grep '"tag_name":' | sed -E 's/.*"([^"]+)".*/\1/')
echo "Latest version: $LATEST_RELEASE"

# Download new JARs
CORE_JAR=$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/reality-foundation/linux-server/releases/latest | grep "browser_download_url.*core-assembly.*\.jar" | cut -d '"' -f 4 | head -n 1)
KEYTOOL_JAR=$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/reality-foundation/linux-server/releases/latest | grep "browser_download_url.*keytool-assembly.*\.jar" | cut -d '"' -f 4 | head -n 1)
WALLET_JAR=$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/reality-foundation/linux-server/releases/latest | grep "browser_download_url.*wallet-assembly.*\.jar" | cut -d '"' -f 4 | head -n 1)

wget $CORE_JAR
wget $KEYTOOL_JAR
wget $WALLET_JAR

4. Start your node:

sudo systemctl start reality-node

5. Verify it's running:

sudo systemctl status reality-node

Security & Backups

Protect your node and data

Backup Your Keystore

Critical!

Your keystore (node.p12) is your node's identity. Losing it means losing your node permanently.

# Copy to a safe location
scp root@YOUR_SERVER_IP:~/reality-node/node.p12 ~/backups/

# Or download via SFTP using FileZilla, WinSCP, etc.

Keep Your System Updated

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo reboot  # If kernel updates were installed

Run this monthly to keep your system secure

Firewall Best Practices

Only open required ports:

sudo ufw status

Should show: 22 (SSH), 9000 (HTTP), 9001 (P2P), 9002 (CLI)

SSH Security

Consider using SSH keys instead of passwords:

• Generate SSH key pair on your local machine
• Copy public key to server: ssh-copy-id user@server
• Disable password authentication in /etc/ssh/sshd_config
• Restart SSH: sudo systemctl restart sshd

Quick Command Reference

Check node status:curl http://IP:9000/node/info

View systemd logs:journalctl -u reality-node -f

Restart node:sudo systemctl restart reality-node

Attach to tmux:tmux attach -t reality

Check disk space:df -h