Step-by-step instructions for deploying a Blockstack API node on Debian or Ubuntu are below.
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Step 1: Make sure you have Blockstack Core running locally (see instructions).
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Step 2: Make sure you have virtualenv installed. Then, setup the API:
$ sudo apt-get install -y python-pip memcached rng-tools python-dev libmemcached-dev zlib1g-dev libgmp-dev libffi-dev libssl-dev $ sudo service memcached start $ sudo pip install virtualenv $ sudo npm -g install aglio $ virtualenv api && source api/bin/activate $ git clone https://github.com/blockstack/blockstack-core.git $ cd blockstack-core/ $ pip install . $ pip install -r api/requirements.txt $ blockstack setup_wallet $ blockstack api start $ deactivate $ ./build_docs.sh public_api
Search Subsystem
If you want to enable the search subsystem in your installation, you can follow the instructions here.
Nginx Deployment
For a production deployment we recommend using nginx and uwsgi:
- Step 1: Install nginx and uWSGI:
$ sudo apt-get install -y nginx $ sudo pip install uwsgi - Step 2: Copy this sample nginx sites file to
/etc/nginx/sites-available/blockstack_api
and edit the paths depending on the uwsgi blockstack_api socket directory (defaults to /tmp/blockstack_api.sock) You can test your nginx settings:
$ sudo nginx -t
- Step 3: Copy this sample systemd service file to
/etc/systemd/system/blockstack_api.service
and edit the service user and blockstack paths depending on where your blockstack repo is located, and where your virtualenv is located.
Note: The following sed commands will work if the virtualenv is currently active and your shell is in the repo’s root directory.
$ sudo sed -i "s/User\=USER/User\=$USER/" /etc/systemd/system/blockstack_api.service
$ sudo sed -i "s#/path/to/blockstack#$PWD#" /etc/systemd/system/blockstack_api.service
$ sudo sed -i "s#/path/to/virtualenv#$VIRTUAL_ENV#" /etc/systemd/system/blockstack_api.service
- Step 4: Get a security certificate from Let’s Encrypt.
$ git clone https://github.com/certbot/certbot.git $ cd certbot/ $ ./certbot-auto --nginx -d <your_domain>
And copy the cert files to the path given in the nginx sites file earlier.
- Step 5: Start nginx and the Blockstack API uwsgi server:
sudo systemctl restart blockstack_api sudo systemctl restart nginx
If you run into any issues, please submit a Github issue and we’ll update these instructions.
