Let's get all the necessary hardware parts and prepare some passwords.

Table of contents

• Hardware requirements
• Write down your passwords
• Secure your home network and devices
• The command line

Hardware requirements

This guide builds on the readily available personal computer. Although using orchestrators such as Docker Swarm or Kubernetes the same principles can be applied in a multihost environment, this scenario is considered out-of-scope.

You need the following minimal hardware:

• Personal Computer with x86_64 CPU and 4+ GB RAM
• Internal storage: 2+ TB, an SSD is recommended
• Pen drive: 4+ GB
• Temporary monitor screen or television
• Temporary keyboard USB/PS2

You should get the following recommended hardware:

• Personal Computer with x86_64 CPU and 8+ GB RAM
• Primary internal storage for OS: 64+ GB, an SSD is recommended
• Secondary internal or USB3 storage for data: 2+ TB, an SSD is recommended
• Pen drive: 4+ GB
• Temporary monitor screen or television
• Temporary keyboard USB/PS2

You might also want to get this optional hardware:

• UPS (uninterruptible power supply)
• Temporary mouse USB/PS2 (for the installation phase)

❗ It is highly recommended to have the secondary storage for data (Docker objects such as images, containers, networks and volumes with all the related data - e.g. timechain, Fulcrum database, etc...). This configuration will simplify portability and restore of all the Docker services in the event of a migration to a new PC, or operating system / primary disk issues.

💡 If you want to start with a single storage, and then install the secondary storage later, you can follow this bonus guide.

⚠️ UPS is totally optional, but if you intend to implement the lightning node, please consider getting it.

Write down your passwords

You will need several passwords, and it's easiest to write them all down in the beginning, instead of bumping into them throughout the guide. They should be unique and very secure, at least 12 characters in length. Do not use uncommon special characters, spaces, or quotes (‘ or “).

• [ A ] Master user password
• [ B ] LND wallet password
• [ C ] BTC-RPC-Explorer password (optional)
• [ D ] ThunderHub password
• [ E ] Cloud backup password

If you need inspiration for creating your passwords: the xkcd: Password Strength comic is funny and contains a lot of truth. Store a copy of your passwords somewhere safe (preferably in an open-source password manager like KeePassXC), or whatever password manager you're already using, and keep your original notes out of sight once your system is up and running.

Secure your home network and devices

While the guide will show you how to secure your node, you will interact with it from your computer and mobile phone and use your home internet network. Before building your MobyBolt, it is recommended to secure your home network and devices. Follow Parts 1 and 2 of this "How to Secure Your Home Network Against Threats" tutorial by Heinrich Long, and try to implement as many points as possible (some might not apply to your router/device).

The command line

We will work on the command line of the PC, which may be new to you. Find some basic information below. It will help you navigate and interact with your PC.

You enter commands and the PC answers by printing the results below your command. To clarify where a command begins, every command in this guide starts with the $ sign. The system response is marked with the > character.

Additional comments begin with # and must not be entered.

In the following example, just enter ls -la and press the enter/return key:

$ ls -la
> example system response
# This is a comment, don't enter this on the command line

• Auto-complete commands: You can use the Tab key for auto-completion when you enter commands, i.e., for commands, directories, or filenames.

• Command history: by pressing ⬆️ (arrow up) and ⬇️ (arrow down) on your keyboard, you can recall previously entered commands.

• Common Linux commands: For a very selective reference list of Linux commands, please refer to this guide.

• Use admin privileges: Our regular user has no direct admin privileges. If a command needs to edit the system configuration, we must use the sudo ("superuser do") command as a prefix. Instead of editing a system file with nano /etc/fstab, we use sudo nano /etc/fstab.

• Using the Nano text editor: We use the Nano editor to create new text files or edit existing ones. It's not complicated, but to save and exit is not intuitive.

  • Save: hit Ctrl-O (for Output), confirm the filename, and hit the Enter key
  • Exit: hit Ctrl-X

• Copy / Paste: If you are using Windows and the PuTTY SSH client, you can copy text from the shell by selecting it with your mouse (no need to click anything), and paste stuff at the cursor position with a right-click anywhere in the ssh window.

  In other Terminal programs, copy/paste usually works with Ctrl-Shift-C and Ctrl-Shift-V.