Steem Pressure #2 - toys for boys and girls
So you want to play with Steem?
Let's prepare a proper environment for our playground.
First, the hardware.
If you’ve read the previous episode of Steem Pressure, you know that Steem is growing (and that’s awesome!). Today, we’ll choose proper hardware to run our nodes.
Network
A low-latency network with at least 100Mbps bandwidth in both directions is a recommended minimum, even if you are running “just” a seed node.
Please note that it is not enough to have a fast network card or an ISP that claims to provide 1Gbps connection. You need a decent network connectivity across the globe.
CPU
Virtually any modern, x86-64 CPU with at least 2 cores will be ok.
Currently, you will not benefit from multiple cores as much as from a faster single-core performance.
Most likely a CPU with 4 cores at 3GHz will perform better than a CPU with 8 cores at 2GHz.
RAM
A good choice for a consensus node is 24-32GB of RAM.
For a full node, it is 128-256GB of RAM.
Of course, if you can afford to put everything in RAM, just do it.
Storage backend
Size
Currently, we need over 65GB of data to hold the block_log file itself.
Additionally, you’ll need over 25GB to keep shared_memory.bin for the simplest node, up to 260GB for a fully featured API node with all the bells and whistles.
So I would say for now, it’s 100GB for a consensus node and 400GB for a full node.
That’s true at the time I’m writing this post, so by the time you read it, these parameters may no longer be enough.
Performance
Your storage backend needs to be not only large enough to hold your data but also fast enough to deliver data on time. If your node runs out of RAM and starts using swap (in case of tmpfs setup) or if it runs out of buffers/cache, the workload will put a lot of strain on your storage. You need to make sure that it can handle a lot of random reads and writes with minimum latency. Low latency is the key. That renders most of HDD setups unusable.
Trivial benchmark
Run dd if=/dev/zero of=tst.tmp bs=4k count=10k oflag=dsync in a directory where you are going to keep your shared_memory.bin file.
It will be either the value of shared-file-dir, or if undefined, the value of data-dir (-d)
The result will be a very rough guesstimate on how well your storage backend will be able to handle workload caused by steemd accessing its shared memory file.
Is your storage backend fast enough?
Check how long it will take to complete that command. Less is better.
- Less than 1 second is perfect.
- Up to 10 seconds is good.
- Up to 30 seconds is so-so.
- Up to 60 seconds is uh-oh.
- Anything more is a no-no.
Of course, the answer is not definitive, accurate, or even always true ;-)
Even if it is a minute or two, you still can play with your steemd toy without a purpose and waste your time.
Or maybe you should do something more productive and use your disks to play the “Imperial March” instead?
(Shoutout to @lordvader)
Oh, and by the way:
Blindly copying & pasting snippets is dangerous.
DO NOT EVER RUN ANYTHING YOU DON’T FULLY UNDERSTAND
So what does that command do?
It writes zeros to a temporary file in 4096-byte blocks. It does that ten thousand times, each time synchronizing I/O to get caching out of the equation.
Usually your drive, even if it is an old HDD, can write large chunks of data in bursts very effectively, but that’s not what will be happening with your shared_memory.bin file.
That command writes only 40MB of data.
Shared memory file for a consensus node is 600x bigger than that.
Oh, and that’s not all.
The shared memory file for a full API node is 10x bigger than the one for the consensus node.
Dedicated or virtual?
It doesn’t matter, but keep in mind that high quality does.
With VPS it’s more tricky because it’s usually hard to tell what real performance you can expect, how resources are shared, how much baseline resources are guaranteed, if the “SSD” drives are local or network attached, what your I/O limits are, etc.
What’s next?
In the next episode, I will show you step by step how to set up a machine from scratch for a basic consensus node, how to configure it, and how it performs in the real battlefield environment.
If you believe I can be of value to Steem, please vote for me (gtg) as a witness on Steemit's Witnesses List or set (gtg) as a proxy that will vote for witnesses for you.
Your vote does matter!
You can contact me directly on steemit.chat, as Gandalf
Steem On
helpful informations here
I hope so :-)
yeah... just carry on with your job..you will get more support that I believe
Would've loved to participate. Too bad I'm no techie🙁
On Steem there's no need to be techie, you can participate by creating high quality, original content. Also, please consider voting for witnesses.
@gtg Yeah I vote for a few. But which others do you suggest?
No, you are not voting for witnesses currently.
@gtg what can I say than you are awesome
Hey @desmonddesk. You gonna exhaust the nodes on that kid. I hope @gtg has enough RAM o supply him
Hahaha. I am sure @gtg got him.
I like that awesome gif, so I'll upvote it lol
I'm curious if it makes financial sense for people to buy machines specifically to "mine" Steem.
Do you have an approximate cost of a machine to run a node?
You can take a look at above requirements and calculate cost of such setup by yourself.
Steem is a DPoS, not PoW, so there's no classic mining here.
Hardware is cheap. It’s people and their skills that cost money. You can be technically a witness just by running a Steem witness node, but block production rewards depends on how high you are on the witness list and that depends on power of votes that were cast on you... and votes depends on your engagement in the platform. So it's not really a passive income where hardware works for you.
But Steem is special in many ways.
As they say "Blogging is the new mining"(TM) ;-)
A successful blogger can earn more rewards than a successful witness.
Steem is the best growing digital currency. No rushing,steady moving upwardly everyday. I think it deserves proper monitoring and must be maintained carefully. Any steemian with lot of steem is a wealthy man or woman already.
Definitely because Steem is growing faster and faster! Steem On!
thx, for this very intrresting info
Best post, but can you mining steem?
You can take a look at my answer to similar question.
I remember when I first got my interest in Steemit witnesses. Not running one myself though, as it was something completely outside of my knowledge and skills. I noticed how quite many witnesses at least at that time seemed to have low end hardware for witnesses.
In general, I think people who try to run Steemit witness with as little as possible are not showing they care for the platform enough.
Very true. I hope that my series would help to improve the quality of various nodes across our platform, including witness nodes. There are many people around that treat witness position as a classical PoW mining: fire and forget. It's so wrong. But it's not their fault. It's ours if we vote for them.
Well I can imagine it's same with witness votes for most people: vote and forget.
Users (including me) have kept some witnesses with the votes just as long the limit of 30 votes is not full yet.
For some, it seems that's the first moment when they even consider removing some votes from other witnesses.
But thank you, I appreciate the post series already.
INFORMING THE MASSES - A short list of some of the abuses against @Noganoo by Satanic whales on Steemit.
For those of you who are unaware @Noganoo was sexually abused when he was 5 years old. Bernie Sanders learned this from Fyrstikken whom Noganoo trusted and confided in and then was betrayed and slandered by Fyrstikken whom Noganoo brought to Steemit. Noganoo only requested that Fyrstikken send back the 10 Bitcoins he stole from SatoshiHorizon through his “altcoin investment fund.” Noganoo stood up against Bernie's flag abuse towards SeaBlue which caused the war that you are seeing today. Bernie swore to destroy Noganoo because Noganoo defended the helpless minnows on Steemit. Below are just a few of the terrible insults they have spoken against this Christian man. Please visit @Noganoo's blog and support and encourage him through these demonic attacks as his old friends have forsaken him. Not only do these people verbally attack Noganoo but they antagonize him until he responds in anger, then they sent the FBI to his house for "threatening." Noganoo has requested to all of the whales on steemit directly for them to speak to these 2 fraudsters and tell them to stop. Not a word was said in one year and now he is resorting to further action. The abuse will stop. If you have any information as to the identity or whereabouts of BernieSanders or Pfunk please contact [email protected]. There is a substantial reward and you can remain anonymous. Noganoo is unable to file a restraining order against these 2 until he finds their identity. BernieSanders is a pedophile and should not be rewarded with upvotes on Steemit.
First of all let's go back to before this all started. Noganoo was investigating the fraud and theft of 10s of millions of dollars of rewards by Donkeypong, Gavvet, HanshotFirst, Kevinwong, The-Alien, JrCornel, Sweetsssj and Knozaki2015 with their organization called "SteemGuild" where they used the Steemit Co-founder Ned's account to vote for themselves instead of the "minnows" they claimed to be supporting. Go look at all of their current account values and you can see that over 1 year ago Noganoo was right! They paid themselves multi-millions for only a couple months of curating on Steemit. Something the rest of us do for free. You can see that these people and their friends are the only people who have ever attacked Noganoo. They are trying to cover up their theft. If you go back on the blockchain you can see Noganoo's accounts previously supported most of these authors with his thousand bot voters early on in the platforms launch. https://steemd.com/@sweet-banana?page=17 Then Noganoo called out The-Alien for his common use of the word "Motherfucker" in his fiction stories that were upvoted by their "Steemguild" to number one on trending every day to "raise money for the guild." Fact is they stole millions of dollars. This rebuke prevented Noganoo from ever getting an upvote from that guild which controlled over 30% of the voting power on Steemit at the time.
"Sorry, I should have said "Go fuck your cousin." (again)
Here is Pfunk attacking Noganoo's girlfriend.
Here Bernie tries to twist the truth and calls him an "incestuous criminal." Bernie is trying to convince the unknowing public that Noganoo is a sex criminal.
I'll save you a spot beside me in hell to torment you with incestuous dick art for all eternity.
I'm pretty sure (noganoo) was molested by somone in the church.
Incestuous Scumbag, I bet the abuse never even happened and you are trying to gain sympathy
Here is Pfunk 2 years ago violently attacking an article Noganoo wrote about Christianity, Pfunk at the time had no idea Noganoo wrote this! Pfunk is a hater of true Christians but aligns himself with the fake Christians so he can get more witness votes and doesn't lose support. Pfunk proceeded to individually message everyone that upvoted Noganoo and slander him and threaten them with loss of support if they continue to upvote his articles. Pfunk, Berniesanders and Ausbitbank costed Noganoo over 50,000 dollars in losses last year. Ausbitbank attacked Noganoo to impress his witness friends when Noganoo is the one who brought him to Steemit. He brought Noganoo’s reputation from 68 down to zero with stolen Steempower provided by JamesC
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. - John 1:5
Rule #1: Spammers lie.
Luckily neither you or I need to run a full Steem node then :)
This play ground is full of heavy arsenal. So much input @gtg
Thats what you get to see over and over again on steemit.
O boy!!!!
gdybym tylko cos z tego rozumiala .. ;)
... to byś siedziała przy komputerze zamiast zwiedzać Afrykę ;-)
Ale przynajmniej video fajne, nie? :-)
kingsajz :)
ech .. i tak siedze przy kompie.. zwiedzanie bedzie w marcu.
@gtg
Words cannot explain your awesomeness. I love how you took time to explain everything. I appreciate you from the two sides of my kidney. 👍👍👍👍
ah ah ah ha @kdkwrites how about the third side of your kidney? Your feedback ket me rolling. I just have to give you an upvote.
Thank you, take care of your kidneys ;-)
Hello,
Do you guys review products or promote other author's posts? for a fee of course.
How is that related to this post? :-)
I can do a review of a product for a fee if it is on a topic. So for example if someone is going to give me
Intel Core i9-7980XEorIntel Xeon Gold 6154I will be happy to feature it in Steem Pressure series :-DToo many technical terms that might be a little off for non tech like me but in all I got the message. Looking forward to the next article. There is so much to learn from you.
Thanks @gtg
@iamjimmy
Nice post @gtg
Good luck for your steam 😉
I am waiting for your support. For me last post 😊
Thank you so much. Good evening 😊
Ohhh woww, i didn't know that is possible to mine Steem. One my friend has a Bitcoin farm and he argued with me that it's possible with Steem. I will show him tomorrow your post! Hahaaaa i can only imagine his face 😁😂😂😂. Thanks a lot my Polish friend for such a priceless info!
Please take a look at my comment or yet another clarification :-)
Because "Blogging is the new mining"(TM), you've just "mined" some Steem with your comment ;-)
I read it several times but still don't understand all this technical stuff 😁😂😂😂. So i suppose, everybody can mine Steem by writing posts and comments?
Maybe that's not a strict definition of mining but in the end you receive parts of STEEM for that, so pretty much yes ;-)
(Most of the newly created STEEM goes to authors and curators)
Ohhh now it's getting clear. Thanks a lot for explanation! 😉😉😉😊
My pleasure :-)
nice post!
Seriously? That's why you wrote two "nice post!" comments and upvoted yourself, but wasn't nice enough to upvote this nice post?
nice post!
Right now I have a decent network all day providing less than 100kb/s.
How do you think I'd be able to match the steem pressure toy.
Besides, how about 50GB for a consensus node and 300GB for a full node. Wouldn't that still be okay?
I have a remote desktop server plan with Aweber and Google Cloud is there any positivity to make use of either option @gtg?.... Oooops! You just gained another follower.
You better save your (and ours) bandwidth and avoid posting copied content on Steem. @cheetah was after you multiple times. That's not good sign for your future. Original, high quality content is the key.
Good luck.
you nailed it, took time to explain it all, i appreciate that from the bottom of my brain. keep up, thanks
gtg , you came out of nowhere and you are killing it in Steem with stunning content. This truly shows that when one is dedicated success does not take long to follow.
gtg is a straight shooter and I am glad to see that he continues to give solid advice.
At first read, it does sound like Greek, but here's my fifth read and it is making sense; my little techie sense kicking in.
And like you said in a reply, I can bring on quality to steemit by producing quality content and voting for witnesses.
Well, I can handle that without feeling lost in Steem!
Good luck! :-)
Thanks!
Very good
Very cool
Many thanks,gtg,for all the information on steem pressure! More grease to yoyr elbows!!
Yeah..Steemit is growing more faster then would be awesome in blockchain @gtg. You've nicely explained what's choose proper hardware to run of your nodes. I interesting to learn how to create witness category. Nice to decided I'm following you. Excellent post.
Thank you. Please also consider voting for witnesses, you can chose 1 to 30.
This is my first comment to your self @gtg. Very informative details entire. Need to learn more about witness post. But have some idea how to create witness project. Waiting to learn more.
Nice post keep it up i am following you
Well I don't understand much of this at all but that video was AWESOME!
Also of curse I have been voting for you as witness for over a year and a half!
SteemOn Gandalf~*~
Thank you for your support! :-)
No, really thank you. You deserve the support for witness you have done a lot for this community and thats just a little bit of what I even know about. Also you are a kind and good person in RL on top of your contributions to this platform.
Glad to know you and have you as part of the community!
Nice post keep it up...@gtg (65)
Steem.
Do you have an approximate cost of a machine to run a node?
I just provided info about recommended specs for nodes, so depending on a type of node you are willing to run you can check the prices in your local store.
great informative post.i think it is important for us.many many thanks for sharing..
please carry on your post....
These informations are really helpful.More people are sufferung form these bandwith problem.So,you got solve and system req.Thanks mate! and Good luck also
Actually that's not related. Bandwidth issues that some people are experiencing are by design limitations that prevent spamming the blockchain. We are trying to figure out more user friendly algorithm (while still preserving that precious feature) but it would take some time.
Each Steem user has Steem Power that represent their shares in the platform. It is used not only for determining how big is your impact while deciding about rewards allocation but also how much of a whole platform bandwidth is available for you to use.
So when the platform is heavily utilized, those who have very little Steem Power have to wait a bit before they can transact (post, vote, etc). One simple solution (other than waiting or making less actions on site) is to increase your share by getting more Steem Power.
it is true that people who try to run Steemit's witnesses with as little as possible do not show they care about the platform enough.
amazing post..... good luck and thank you so much for information
Its a nice toys... hope every one can play....thanks for sharing...
Congratulations @gtg, this post is the second most rewarded post (based on pending payouts) in the last 12 hours written by a Superhero or Legend account holder (accounts hold greater than 100 Mega Vests). The total number of posts by Superhero and Legend account holders during this period was 36 and the total pending payments to posts in these categories was $3085.64. To see the full list of highest paid posts across all accounts categories, click here.
If you do not wish to receive these messages in future, please reply stop to this comment.
I want to follow this and there's a fair chance I'll forget so here's a comment so I can find it again.
Also, thank you for doing this!
My pleasure.
Nyc Post
Very great information
Good choice, my friend
You are a really successful person
ATLEAST $100K NEEDED TO SAVE PREMATURE BABIES IN OUR COMMUNITY HOSPITAL..jpeg)
We urgently need steemers to contribute steem dollars to save the life of premature babies in our community hospital. Transfers can made to @gangas . If you can not assist with steem dollars, atleast upvote to this comment, your upvote is donation too. God bless the hand that gives. Thanks.
Rule #1: Spammers lie.
(here's your well deserved flag)
Thanks for this awesome infromation.it seems like with slow conection I can't mine steem??§§ I can afford just 8 Mgb isn't it enough to solve some bloacks everyday??
Please read other comments here, I already clarified it. TL;DR: there's no such mining on Steem as most people think.
gorgeous post. Every people would help from this post.
This is 4 generation hardware material
And still you think that your comment is worth more than my post, right? :-)
Thanks god..
I got to know today..!
Thanks for the information
well thought. how can i get out of this😰😰
GOOD MY DEAR FRIENDS, THIS WONDER IS THIS POTS. FOLLOW THIS BLOG THAT HAS GOOD CONTENT. PASS THROUGH MY BLOG THAT BRING CONTENT OF NUTRITION AND EXERCISES. BESITOS <3 @nutri-active
Please don't spam. This is unrelated to this post at all.
Also, you might want to find some help on #myshiftgotstuck.
Good support and educative
@fenmark
Thank you :-)
I am pleased by your decision to give me one of your inhabitant's "shout outs". It is further evidence that you are indeed one of the wisest of your planet's inhabitants. There will be a place for you when the Empire arrives next week.
Dennis! Get in here! How do I edit out that last par...
WHat an awesome write! With instructions like these I am quickly running out of excuses. Thanks so much for your awesome, benovolent piece.
Great post if i must say so myself.
I'm following Steem Pressure series, thanks for bringing that to us @gtg! As I said in the previous episode I was waiting for a series like that for a long time. @gtg I wonder if you authorize me to translate Steem Pressure episodes to Portuguese language? It would be very useful to our community since we have a growling number of newcomers every day, and a few old steemit dogs who are thinking to start run nodes. Just an idea. Thanks man, cya!
Thank you for following and for your offer, but please do not translate my posts. There are few reasons why I would like to avoid translations.
Hey @gtg, yes these are two good reasons...I agree with you! Don't worry I'll not translate it. Thanks man! steem on!
is important that nodes are of great quality thats what will make steem explode...
Gtg, Thank u for this amazing tutorial! I am really looking forward to see your next episode! Do u know what I really like about this post!? Your also explain people that they should never run smth they do not understand! Running smth u do not understand can be really bad for u.... Thank u one more time!
Ps: Może cholerka dodam, że nie zrozumiałam aż tak wiele, lecz próbuję :D
True, that part is valid in various scenarios, not only those related to Steem.
I'm glad you like it. :-)
Tak widziałam, że Paulinka jakoś próbuję też zrozumieć tą czarną magię ;D Nie chcę byc gorsza. Pozdrawiam @gtg @highonthehog
Upvote and resteem. GTG, almost a post which I can practically make use of. Keep on trying!
Thank you :-)
Keep up the good work!
I already voted for you as a witness!
(I hope this does not take long, and will soon be available. I hope that soon you will have time to show how it works, those who need it :))
although I'm not very much at it: 0 hahahah
know! you're cool! and thanks for the support always!
Thank you :-)
This post is so well crafted; that while it's above my tech-awareness, I read it completely, gleaning an understanding of how many facets are involved, behind the scenes, to keep the platforms secure.
For this reason, I've found a new witness to add to my list.
Best regards!
Peace.
Thank you :-)
✌!
I know steemit time up or time to make @Gtg, thank you for this amazing tutorial! I am really looking forward to seeing the next episode! Do you know what I love about this post!? You also explain to people that they should never lack for anything they do not understand! Running smth u do not understand can be very bad for you .... Thanks once again!
Are you serious? You have copied/rewrite another user's personal expression as your own comment?
What's the point?
Original comment by @youngbuffalo:
Your comment
I apologize because it was Juan copied was not intentional.
awww this is awesome! Thanks for this informative post. I had no idea Got to Go! :)
Sueprize, huh? :-)
hahaha got to go got some JOKES! :)
What is the difference between a consensus node and a full node? From what I have been able to find so far, it looks like you only need to run a full node if you want to host a site like Steemit or DTube. Everyone else just needs to run a consensus node. How wrong am I? ;)
You are right to some extent. Consensus node can do all it needs for Steem platform to run. That's
steemdrunning with "low memory" settings, keeping in memory only things that are absolutely needed for Steem platform to work (that's getting newly produced blocks from the network, broadcasting transactions etc.). If you are looking for more, like the ability to respond to certain API calls you can add plugins for tags, follows, account history. For some callssteemdwith "low memory" is ok, but to be able to use all the API calls you need to connect to full node that has everything prepared to serve your requests.Thank you so much for your support :) and good information~~
I will follow you:D
I've read your writing and menvoten, very useful and interesting
very nice post ever i like and love it keep it up
From a few days I read through all guides on the subject of "Witness" and found out that it takes a lot of effort and knowledge. I have been thinking about it and decided to try it sometime in the future, if I have grown up on the platform and gain the necessary skills to trustingly run a Witness-Server.
You seem to definitely have these skill and I've been looking at your Witness thread, which is now 2 years old. Why don't you update this one? You're a place 4 Witness and that would help people understand your work better. My voice is not worth much, but I would probably vote for you if your Witness thread was more detailed what you did, do and have.
Thank you, probably you are right. I'm really bad at making MVP so in this case, instead of low quality update, I chose to not update at all.
But it's on my (rather long) TODO list.
I believe however, that those stakeholders that take this seriously, will take some time to lookup some info about witnesses to perform good choices.
I looked trough your posts just because the Witness post was not that informative, but I am sure you know what you are doing, else you would not the 4th witness anyway. But I fully understand that things like that bother you much. Reminds me somehow to Nicola Tesla
Oh wow, that is one hell of a compliment.
Nonetheless I'll do my best to update it ... someday.
Hi @gtg great post
@gtg , i found one of ur interesting post , regarding delageting steem power to newbies. I am new on steemit , i will be glad if u delegate steem power to my account. Thanks.
a topic I really wonder.
you have given wonderful information .. I am waiting for more curiously :)
@gtg, thank you for this series! I love learning about what goes on behind the scenes. And, yes, voting for the right witnesses is so important. Knowing what they have to do helps us figure out who we may want to vote for. I am not done voting yet. 😳
a very curious article. Thank you very much for the information. very useful information.
Steemit is growing so fast, and i'm proud to be a part of this movement. Steem on!
Nice,plz back vote & comment .Tnx
Thank you for supporting my post!
Your blog is also interesting me to follow your messages
Thank you for noticing my blog, it means a lot to me.
I voted you as a witness, @surpassinggoogle told me that you have done a lot for the community so thank you so much!
Thank you :-)
Thanks for sharing this @gtg, interesting to read the hardware the specs that you shared. I have a lot of hardware at home, because I am generally working on a lot of projects.. I think I actually have enough hardware free to become a witness!
I am not sure yet though, I have a lot of other projects going on so I may wait for a few weeks.
Currently, i am running a project called the Steemit Success Initiative. It is a project that aims to grow and develop Steemit as a platform, as well as develop its users. I have contacted Ned and he has said that he is open to talking, but I need community support first.
I am currently looking for support from witnesses that want to support the growth of Steemit, as well as the vertical integration of new users to become professional bloggers. If you are interested, let me know and I can tell you more about the project, or you can check out the posts on my page!
Hi @gtg, I am a relative newbie to Steemit, but already I use a lot of the tools that you have created and I find them extremely useful. Firstly I just want to say thank you to your commitment to such a great and revolutionary platform. I am fairly technical and work in the ICT space, but as a new user of the platform, getting your head around all the 'steem tools' available is a very steep learning curve and as you say they all offer value, but they can definitely do with some refinement and focus which will help the less technical users as they continue to come onto the platform.
upvoted. and i have voted you as my witness...
Thank you :-)
Thanks for the info, agreed, if you don’t what the snippet does, first find out.
Just another question, can we still do mining on steemit/steem? Thought you as a witness would know.
Please take a look at some of my comments to this post - there are some answers on that.
i have send you a sbd, please aupvote and follow me..tahmks
I'm doing my best to upvote high quality, original content. I'm not selling upvotes. Besides you are spamming with unrelated comment and posting plagiarized content. That's not a good way.
I have chosen @gtg as my witnes. Please support me in the world of steemit. Whether it is Motivation, Moral or material to smooth in posting a post. And please input and build suggestions to be more creative in writing. Thank you very much @gtg