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                                   lite

🚀 Join the Dandelion Network!

Join the Dandelion Network as a DNO (Dandelion Node Operator) for helping students and developers to jump into building with ease and help us decentralize Cardano dapps and services further

DNOs will be incentivized in the future, we are actively working on modular, and client side revenue channels and alternative compensation methods for your efforts. For now please support us on Catalyst to walk our first steps together:

❤️ Support the Dandelion Network on Catalyst

What's this?

Dandelion is a community-supported project led by GimbaLabs and operated by La PEACEpool Cardano repsist₳nce. Every Cardano API available. From bottom to top, from testnet to mainnet.

Dandelion Lite is a convenient way of deploying your own local Cardano Node and a set of Dandelion APIs. It uses docker-compose, podman and handy scripts to ease the setup and reduce node syncronization times by using volume snapshots for backup and restore procedures. Dandelion Lite is a fork of Koios Lite, extending it beyond Koios, created by GameChanger Finance and M2Tec teams.

Components

This setup includes several key components:

• cardano-node-ogmios: Runs the Cardano node plus the lightweight bridge interface Ogmios.
• cardano-db-sync: Synchronizes the blockchain data to a PostgreSQL database.
• haproxy: A high-performance proxy to distribute network traffic among various components.
• postgres: The PostgreSQL database, storing the synchronized blockchain data.
• koios: RESTful API for Cardano, based on PostGREST.
• cardano-graphql: Official GraphQL API for Cardano.
• cardano-token-registry: Official Token Registry API for Cardano.
• dandelion-postgrest: Dandelion PostGREST API for Cardano, a RESTful API for querying the blockchain data stored in PostgreSQL
• cardano-sql: (MVP - WIP) PosgreSQL-over-HTTP API gateway wrapping several services such as
  • ogmios
  • cardano-db-sync
  • cardano-graphql
  • koios
  • dandelion-postgrest
  • cardano-token-registry
  • more..
• manifest: JSON information of deployed Dandelion Lite Node, required for client applications and for joining the Dandelion Network of decentralized nodes
• home: HTML landing website of deployed Dandelion Lite Node

Each service is containerized and managed via Docker, ensuring easy deployment and scalability.

Hardware Requirements (10-10-2024):

Suggested setup for concurrent Cardano Mainnet and Preproduction Testnet with volume backups consists on

• 128GB RAM (DDR4 ECC RAM)
• 2TB M2 NVME for storage
• Dual Intel Xeon E5 2680 v4 (LGA 2011-3 motherboard)

Volume sizes

These are sizes of the volumes used by the containers of recent production deployments.

Using: $ ./scripts/docker/list-volume-sizes.sh

Last updated: 10/10/2024

Cardano Mainnet

25G     gc-node-mainnet_db-sync-data
445M    gc-node-mainnet_dbless-cardano-token-registry-data
187G    gc-node-mainnet_node-db
8.0K    gc-node-mainnet_node-ipc
512G    gc-node-mainnet_postgresdb
8.0K    gc-node-mainnet_unimatrix-data

Total   724.43 GB

Cardano Pre-Production Testnet

3.9G    gc-node-preprod_db-sync-data
41M     gc-node-preprod_dbless-cardano-token-registry-data
8.8G    gc-node-preprod_node-db
8.0K    gc-node-preprod_node-ipc
16G     gc-node-preprod_postgresdb
8.0K    gc-node-preprod_unimatrix-data

Total   28.74 GB

Volume Backup Sizes

These are sizes of compressed backups of container volumes on recent production deployments. Is not estrictly required to take these disk space lists into consideration for hardware adquisition but is adviced as working without snapshots can delay node syncing times even for more than a week.

Full volumes backup and restore procedures can be run manually by helper scripts or using the menu on $ ./scripts/dandoman.sh.

Last updated: 10/10/2024

Cardano Mainnet

17G     db-sync-data.tar.gz
377M    dbless-cardano-token-registry-data.tar.gz
97G     node-db.tar.gz
4.0K    node-ipc.tar.gz
12K     pgadmin-data.tar.gz
4.0K    portainer-data.tar.gz
137G    postgresdb.tar.gz
4.0K    unimatrix-data.tar.gz

Total   250G

Cardano Pre-Production Testnet

1.7G    db-sync-data.tar.gz
16M     dbless-cardano-token-registry-data.tar.gz
3.8G    node-db.tar.gz
4.0K    node-ipc.tar.gz
12K     pgadmin-data.tar.gz
4.0K    portainer-data.tar.gz
3.8G    postgresdb.tar.gz
4.0K    unimatrix-data.tar.gz

Total   9.3G

Software Requirements (10-10-2024):

Reported to be working on:

• Ubuntu Server version 24.04 (normal, not minimal install)

Deployment

Base system install

As a base system we use ubuntu-server version 24.04. We use the normal install not the minimal one. Also install OpenSSH server to allow for system administration.

1. When install is completed do ip -br a to get the ip address of your newly installed server
2. From you local system. So not on your server do ssh-copy-id USER_NAME@SERVER_IP This will copy your ssh keys to the server to allow easy login
3. Do ssh USER_NAME@SERVER_IP

To deploy or run Dandelion Lite:

1. Clone the repository to your local machine.$ git clone https://github.com/GameChangerFinance/dandelion-lite.git
2. Change current directory $ cd dandelion-lite
3. Run ./scripts/dandoman.sh --podman-install to install podman. Exit your user session with $ exitand log back in with ssh or your preferred method.
4. Run Admin Tool scripts/dandoman.sh for setting up an initial .env file and installing dependencies such as Docker Compose and Podman. Exit the gui by menu or CTRL-C. Exit your user session with $ exit and log back in with ssh or your preferred method.
5. Edit/configure the environment variables the .env file. You can base it on the provided env.example.<NETWORK>.
6. Run scripts/dandoman.sh > Docker->Docker Up/Reload on Admin Tool or docker compose up -d to start the services.
7. Monitor that node has reached tip and scripts/dandoman.sh > Docker->Docker Status to ensure none of the containers are DOWN or UP (unhealthy) state.
8. Once on tip, execute scripts/dandoman.sh > Setup->Initialise Postgres to deploy custom RPCs and test via PostgREST/HAProxy endpoints using curl:

# Check if the node is synced using docker
docker inspect --format "{{json .State.Health }}" dandolite-preprod-cardano-node-ogmios-1 | jq

# Check if db-sync is ready 
docker inspect --format "{{json .State.Health }}" dandolite-preprod-cardano-db-sync-1 | jq

# Koios tip check
curl http://127.0.0.1:8050/koios/v1/tip

Remember to secure your deployment according to best practices, including securing your database and API endpoints.

Autostart

To auto run on system start:

1. Execute scripts/dandoman.sh > Setup->Run on system start and follow steps.

Run a Full Deploy Backup

Syncing #Cardano node and databases can take even more than a week, it is adviced for you to take compressed snapshots or backups of your databases after 2 or 3 of months at least.

1. Set the BACKUP_DIR environment variable on .env file with the location on where you want to store the files, like BACKUP_DIR="/home/${USER}/backups/${NETWORK}/". Check Volume Backup Sizes for estimating the required size.
2. Execute scripts/dandoman.sh > Setup->Full backup and follow steps.

Run a Full Deploy Restore

This will WIPE ALL YOUR DEPLOYMENT DATA and will restore a previous backup:

1. Set the BACKUP_DIR environment variable on .env file with the location from where you want to read the stored files, like BACKUP_DIR="/home/${USER}/backups/${NETWORK}/". Check Volume Backup Sizes for estimating the required size.
2. Execute scripts/dandoman.sh > Setup->Full restore and follow steps.

SSL

You can terminate your connections with SSL encryption by setting up SSL certificate on Haproxy

1. Place your server.pem file on config/ssl/. You can create a self signed certificate like this $ ./scripts/ssl/keygen.sh <domain> <file-prefix>"
2. Uncomment SSL line and comment the default one on config/haproxy/haproxy.cfg, like this:

frontend app
  # for non SSL encription termination
  # bind 0.0.0.0:8053
  ## If using SSL, comment line above and uncomment line below
  bind 0.0.0.0:8053 ssl crt /etc/ssl/server.pem no-sslv3

Dynamic DNS

You can run an IP updater cron job for making your dynamic IP available using a DNS domain name.

For DuckDNS:

1. Uncomment and setup your .env lines to something unique like this (AVOID TICKER AND NAME COLLISIONS!):

NODE_NAME="MyOwnCardanoNode01"
NODE_TICKER="node1"
NODE_GROUPS='[]' # for offering node for decentralizing Cardano dapps and services

DUCKDNS_DOMAINS="${NODE_TICKER}-dandelion-node"
DUCKDNS_TOKEN="<API_TOKEN>"

Admin tool

A simple script to interact with the all the components of a Dandelion Lite Node: Admin Tool Documentation

>scripts/dandoman.sh --help

Dandelion Lite Administration Tool Help Menu:
------------------------------------

Welcome to the Dandelion Lite Administration Tool Help Menu.

Below are the available commands and their descriptions:

--about: 			     Displays information about the Koios administration tool.
--install-dependencies:  Installs necessary dependencies.
--check-podman: 		 Checks if Podman is running.
--podman-install: 		 Installs Podman. 
--check-docker: 		 Checks if Docker is running.
--docker-install: 		 Installs Docker.
--handle-env-file: 		 Manage .env file.
--reset-env: 			 Resets the .env file to defaults.
--docker-status: 		 Shows the status of Docker containers.
--docker-up: 			 Starts Docker containers defined in docker compose.yml.
--docker-down: 			 Stops Docker containers defined in docker compose.yml.
--enter-node: 			 Accesses the Cardano Node container.
--logs-node: 			 Displays logs for the Cardano Node container.
--gliveview: 			 Executes gLiveView in the Cardano Node container.
--cntools: 			     Runs CNTools in the Cardano Node container.
--enter-postgres: 		 Accesses the Postgres container.
--logs-postgres: 		 Displays logs for the Postgres container.
--enter-dbsync: 		 Accesses the DBSync container.
--logs-dbsync: 			 Displays logs for the DBSync container.
--enter-haproxy: 		 Accesses the HAProxy container.
--logs-haproxy: 		 Displays logs for the HAProxy container.