It has been a LONG time since I posted with this account and that is for a few reasons that I feel like I owe an explanation for. Previously I asked for support for my Hive Witness Node and some of you voted for me and because of that I feel a sense of responsibility that I have not been living up to. Hence this post!
Short History
I am a computer nerd and always have been. So after coming back to hive in late December '24 and getting more and more acquainted with everything HIVE has to offer I figured it was time to build a node. I have ran previous nodes before so figured it couldn't be that hard.
Fast Forward a few stressful nights and countless hours watching an entire blockchain get synced up, my witness node was finally alive and ready to produce blocks. It would take a while to see the fruits of my labor but I was happy I figured it out and got it running.
Well 1 day I was in my garage doing some wood working and such when I blew a fuse. No biggy right? I will just go flip the breaker. Well what I didn't realize at the time is that unbeknownst to me there was an outline downstairs in my basement that was on the same circuit as the garage circuit...
I mean really though? Idiots.
Well let's just say when I was redoing my house, I took that 1 outlet and added another onto it. So my 3D printer and my SuperMicro NAS were both on the garage circuit. So when I blew my breaker in the garage it powered down my 3D printer AND my NAS..
You see where this is going?
Well my Hive Node was running as a VM on my NAS. So in the middle of processing blocks live, I basically yanked the power cable. Which ended up corrupting the log files and needed a total redo of my entire node (or so I thought at the time).
What Changed ?
So I started to puts around with getting the node back up. When around the same time I changed positions in my company. Which mean more responsibility but it also meant that I had a bunch more training and certs I had to complete. And A LOT more travel I had to do for work.
I moved over to the AI Factory team at my company and have been thrust into everything AI related ever since. And since that is what I like to do in my free time it has consumed my professional and personal lives.
So while I have started numerous times on getting my node back up and running, I also thought it was a perfect time to mess around and try to streamline the process and change how I was setting up the node to be the most efficient possible.
And keep in mind that each time the node is running on spinning disk Hard Drives are not Solid State Drives so what should take 1 day to get back up and running would take days..
Then also add in a few brown-outs at the WORST possible times and having to start over again and again, I sort of just put the Hive Witness Node on the back burner so to speak.
Where am I now ?
Work has finally calmed down a lot and I have more free time like I used to. And so I figured I needed to stop putting this off and put my money where my mouth is!
I really want to revisit setting up a Intel NUC as my main witness node. But in order to do that I have a few problems.
Problem 1) I still need to fine tune my entire config.ini and trim the excess out of it. Having too many plugins for example can unneedy increase the overhead on the Server. So I need to sort through that.
Problem 2) I need to buy a new Intel NUC because since the time my original node went down, I reset my original Intel NUC as a Home Lab node. It is running a few applications for my HomeLab and I rather not move them to another system at this point. And since I have more time to research I realized that the Intel NUC I already have is way too low powered for what I want.
- Intel NUC7i3BNH
- Intel Core i3-7100U 2.4GHz
- 16GB RAM
- 256GB NVME SSD boot drive
- 1TB SSD blockchain data drive
Problem 3) My entire Home Lab is a mess and I need to really sit down and figure out the best course of action and what to run where and what my long term plans are going to be. Even as simple as deploying a Naming Scheme for all my various servers, pc's, nodes, etc.
Problem 4) The prices of 2TB SSD's and NVME's, and SO-DIMM RAM are stupid expensive. I was checking out various places and it is incredibly cheaper to buy a "for parts" laptop with say 2x8GB RAM and a 1TB SSD then it is to buy the individual parts even used.
Current Testing Strategy
After going back through and rereading a BUNCH of articles posted by you all on Hive and also the actual GitLab repository, I realized how far off my initial Witness Node was (and every other VM I spun up to test). I understand now why everyone was so impressed that I got my Node up running on Spinning Disks before. The initial sync is a killer.
There have been a lot of new features released since I started this journey and with the Hard Fork coming any day now, I know I need to step up my game.
So I decided to spin up a new VM (yes on Hard Disks) and test out a few things and document the process. It will enable me to put together my own "How To" guide and then adjust it as I run through the install and make changes. Then spin up a new VM with the updated steps and try again. So that is what I am doing right now!
I will also note that I did jump the gun and already purchased a new Intel NUC to be used as my Witness Node once I verify all these steps work. It is a Intel NUC8i3BELS which is a barebones kit that doesn't come with RAM or Storage, but it has a Intel Core i3-8140U which should be more than enough for a Witness Node... I hope.
Future Node Ambitions
So the Intel NUC8i3BELS I already talked about is the end goal right. But it's more than that. I am using this time and testing period to not rush trying to get my node up as soon as possible. I am using it to rinse and repeat my steps so that I have a very detailed User Guide on how to setup a Hive Witness Node from start to finish. A lot of the guides I have come across are either not full guides or they assume the reader is a seasoned Linux admin and thereby skip over a lot of things that a everyday Hive user may have no idea about.
My Intel NUC Specs:
Hardware:
- Processor: 8th Gen Intel Core i3-8140U (2 Cores - 4 Threads, Base Clock 2.1 GHz, Turbo 3.9 GHz, 4MB Cache, 15W TDP)
- Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics 620 integrated GPU
- Memory: Supports up to 32 GB DDR4 RAM (two SO-DIMM slots, DDR4-2400 MHz)
- Storage: Single M.2 2242/2280 slot for NVMe SSD; Single 2.5" drive bay for SATA HDD or SSD
Connectivity:
- Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 9560 (802.11ac)
- Bluetooth 5.0
- Intel Gigabit Ethernet port
- Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C)
- Multiple USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports (Type-A and Type-C)
- Display: Single HDMI 2.0a ports (supporting 4K at 60Hz)
- Power: 12-19V DC input, 28W TDP processor
- Other: TPM 2.0 support, ACPI compliant power management, fan speed and temperature control
What I use is a Logitech K400 Plus keyboard which is PERFECT for these Intel NUCs. I have multiple of them for all my Home Lab servers (which are just older PC's not physically connected to a monitor but have 1 around in case I need to troubleshoot).
My Apology
This is where the rubber hits the road. Originally I had lofty ambitions and goals. I spun up a Witness Node and asked you all to vote for me as a node. That was not something I was comfortable doing. I don't like to ask people for things. I like people to ask me for things! :) I just never want to feel lower-than, or like someone asking for a handout. I work for what I got and I am proud of that. But with Witness Nodes.. you need votes for your node to actually matter.
And then shit hit the fan in my home-lab, web3, IRL work, and I dropped the ball.
So to everyone who voted for my Witness Node. I am sorry. I do not blame you if you unvote for me and never vote for me again, regardless of if I have a active node or not. I broke the trust and that's my bad. I own that.
Now I have learned from my mistakes and which is why this post is not a "hey I have a active node again post". This post is me working through the problems I had, addressing them and troubleshooting them and fixing them. So that when I come out the other end I have a dependable, online, active, Hive Witness Node!
So stay tuned 😁