Before proceeding, Heimdall should be installed on both the sentry and validator machines.
Installing Bor
Bor is the sidechain operator that acts as the block production layer, which syncs with Heimdall to select block producers and verifiers for each span and sprint.
Copy the files and scripts from the launch directory to the node directory:
Setting up the network directories:
Run this section both on the sentry and validator machines.
Setting up Heimdall
Change to the node directory:
Run the setup script:
Setting up Bor
Change to the node directory:
Run the setup script:
Setting Up the Services:
Run this section both on the sentry and validator machines.
Navigate to the node directory:
Run the setup script:
Copy the service file to the system directory:
Configuring the Validator Node
Set the owner and signer key
On Ramestta, you should keep the owner and signer keys different. Generate New wallet, and use its private key in next step as POLYGON_PRIVATE_KEY
Signer — the address that signs the checkpoint transactions. The recommendation is to keep at least 1 MATIC on the signer address.
Owner — the address that does the staking transactions. The recommendation is to keep the RAMA tokens on the owner address.
Generating a Heimdall private key
You must generate a Heimdall private key only on the validator machine. Do not generate a Heimdall private key on the sentry machine.
To generate the private key, run:
where
POLYGON_PRIVATE_KEY — your Polygon wallet’s private key.
This will generate priv_validator_key.json. Move the generated JSON file to the Heimdall configuration directory:
Generating a Bor keystore file
You must generate a Bor keystore file only on the validator machine. Do not generate a Bor keystore file on the sentry machine.
To generate the private key, run:
where
POLYGON_PRIVATE_KEY — your Polygon wallet’s private key.
When prompted, set up a password to the keystore file.
This will generate a UTC-<time>-<address> keystore file.
Move the generated keystore file to the Bor configuration directory:
Add password.txt
Make sure to create a password.txt file then add the Bor keystore file password right in the ~/.bor/password.txt file.
mv password.txt ~/.bor/password.txt
Add your Polygon address
Open for editing.
In metadata, add your Polygon address. Example: VALIDATOR_ADDRESS=0xca67a8D767e45056DC92384b488E9Af654d78DE2.
Save the changes in metadata.
mv metadata /etc/rama/
Starting the Validator Node
At this point, you must have:
The Heimdall service on the sentry machine syncs and is running.
The Bor service on the sentry machine running.
The Heimdall service and the Bor service on the validator machine configured.
Your owner and signer keys configured.
Starting the Heimdall service
You will now start the Heimdall service on the validator machine. Once the Heimdall service syncs, you will start the Bor service on the validator machine.
Start the Heimdall service:
Start the Heimdall rest-server:
Start the Heimdall bridge:
Check the Heimdall service logs:
Check the Heimdall rest-server logs:
Check the Heimdall bridge logs:
Check the sync status of Heimdall:
In the output, the catching_up value is:
true — the Heimdall service is syncing.
false — the Heimdall service is synced.
Wait for the Heimdall service to fully sync.
Starting the Bor service
Once the Heimdall service on the validator machine syncs, start the Bor service on the validator machine.
Start the Bor service:
Check the Bor service logs:
Service to Auto Start After Server Crash/Reboot
Next Steps: Staking
Now that you have your sentry and validator nodes are health-checked, proceed to the Staking guide to start backing the network.