Install a Node

This guide builds STRATO from source and starts a node with strato-up. Check the requirements first.

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/strato-net/strato-platform
cd strato-platform

Releases are tagged MAJOR.MINOR, for example 19.1. To build a specific release, check out its tag:

git checkout 19.1

2. Install dependencies

./install_deps.sh

On Linux, activate the new docker group membership in your shell, then confirm that Docker works without sudo:

newgrp docker
docker ps

3. Build

make

For a Nix-based build, use NIX=true make instead.

Run as a regular user, not root

Do not run make or any strato-* command as root or with sudo.

make does three things:

1. It compiles the STRATO executables, including strato-setup, convoke and the node processes. It installs them and the strato-* scripts to ~/.local/bin.
2. It installs a BIP-39 word list to ~/.local/share/strato/.
3. It builds the node's Docker images: nginx, apex, smd, postgrest, prometheus, app-backend, app-ui, local-auth, bridge and tracking.

If ~/.local/bin is not on your PATH, make prints a note. Run source ~/.profile or open a new terminal.

4. Store your OAuth credentials

Skip this step if you will run the node with --localAuth.

Run strato-login once:

strato-login

It prompts for three values:

Prompt	Value
OAuth Discovery URL	Press Enter for the default, https://keycloak.blockapps.net/auth/realms/mercata/.well-known/openid-configuration
OAuth Client ID	The client ID you received from support.blockapps.net
OAuth Client Secret	The client secret

The credentials are saved to ~/.secrets/strato_credentials.yaml with mode 600. strato-setup copies them into each new node directory. To replace them, run strato-login --force.

Note

Don't pass OAuth client credentials as environment variables. strato-login is the supported path.

5. Start the node

Mainnet (upquark)Testnet (helium)

strato-up mynode --sslDir=/path/to/ssl --snapshot

strato-up mynode --network=helium --sslDir=/path/to/ssl --snapshot

Notes on the command:

• Node directory. mynode is the node directory. It must be the first argument.
• Network. --network defaults to upquark, the production mainnet. See Networks.
• Snapshot. --snapshot restores the latest published snapshot for the network, so the node doesn't replay the chain from genesis. This is recommended. To pick a specific snapshot, add a timestamp: --snapshot=YYYYMMDD-HH:mm:ssZ.
• Flag format. Write flags as --flag=value. strato-up reads --network=<name> in that form to choose which snapshot to restore.
• Other flags. For every other flag, see Configuration.

Flags only apply to a new node directory

Flags only take effect when the node directory is created. If mynode already exists, strato-setup ignores the flags and strato-up ignores --snapshot. Both print a warning.

What strato-up does

1. Setup. strato-setup creates mynode/ and fills it with the generated files:

   • .ethereumH/ethconf.yaml
   • secrets/
   • docker-compose.yml
   • commands.txt
   • genesis.json
   • the data directories

   It also fetches the node's key from the Vault, creating the key if none exists. Finally it records mynode as the default node, so strato-ps and strato-down work without arguments. 2. Snapshot restore (with --snapshot). strato-snapshot downloads the archive over HTTPS from the public strato-snapshots bucket. It verifies the archive's SHA-256 checksum, then loads the archive into the node. 3. Start. convoke starts in the background. It runs docker compose -p strato up -d --wait, then launches the node processes listed in commands.txt. Its output goes to mynode/logs/convoke.log.

With --localAuth, strato-up then creates the first admin user:

• It prompts for a password.
• It asks you to generate or restore a BIP-39 recovery phrase. That phrase also restores the node's operator identity, so write it down.

See Identity and Vault.

6. Verify

Node status

strato-ps

strato-ps shows sync progress, then each processing layer's block position:

• sequencer
• vm
• indexed
• cirrus
• world, the highest block your peers report

After that it lists the Docker containers and the processes run by convoke. The sync line reads Sync: syncing, N% ... until it changes to Sync: synced.

Health endpoint

curl -s https://<host>/health

Check these fields:

• healthStatus: one of HEALTHY, SYNCING, UNHEALTHY or SYNC STALLED.
• lastBlock.number: the node's latest block.
• nodeAddress: the node's address.
• pbftData.is_validator: whether this node is currently a validator.

Network identity

curl -s https://<host>/strato-api/eth/v1.2/metadata
curl -s -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"eth_chainId","params":[]}' \
  https://<host>/rpc

The metadata response includes networkName, networkID, chainId and isSynced. eth_chainId returns 0x7030addddcf2 on mainnet and 0xb165855668ca on testnet.

Web interfaces

• The STRATO app: https://<host>/
• The STRATO Management Dashboard (SMD): https://<host>/smd/

Next steps

• Operations: logs, stop and start, upgrades and troubleshooting
• Configuration: all strato-up flags and environment variables