How to setup a Nethermind only Clique based chain

Prerequisites
Linux bash shell
Docker-compose
Docker
jq
sudo apt-get install -y docker-compose docker.io jq
Setup
In this setup we will create a private network of 3 Nethermind nodes running Clique consensus algorithm.
create separate directory where we will store all files
mkdir private-networking
cd private-networking
create folders for each node and genesis
mkdir node_1 node_2 node_3 genesis
download chainspec file with clique engine and place it in genesis folder (we will be using goerli chainspec in this example)
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NethermindEth/nethermind/09389fc28b37605acc5eaed764d3e973969fe319/src/Nethermind/Chains/goerli.json
cp goerli.json genesis/goerli.json
create subfolders in each node folder
mkdir node_1/configs node_1/staticNodes node_2/configs node_2/staticNodes node_3/configs node_3/staticNodes
create a static-nodes.json file and place it in node_1/staticNodes subfolders (do this for node_2 and node_3 as well)
cat <<EOF > node_1/staticNodes/static-nodes.json
[
​
]
EOF
create config.cfg file and place it in node_1/configs subfolders (do this for node_2 and node_3 as well)
cat <<EOF > node_1/configs/config.cfg
{
    "Init": {
        "WebSocketsEnabled": false,
        "StoreReceipts" : true,
        "EnableUnsecuredDevWallet": true,
        "IsMining": true,
        "ChainSpecPath": "/config/genesis/goerli.json",
        "BaseDbPath": "nethermind_db/clique",
        "LogFileName": "clique.logs.txt",
        "StaticNodesPath": "Data/static-nodes.json"
    },
    "Network": {
        "DiscoveryPort": 30300,
        "P2PPort": 30300,
        "LocalIp": "10.5.0.2",
        "ExternalIp": "10.5.0.2"
    },
    "JsonRpc": {
        "Enabled": true,
        "Host": "10.5.0.2",
        "Port": 8545
    },
    "KeyStoreConfig": {
        "TestNodeKey": "8687A55019CCA647F6C063F530D47E9A90725D62D853F4B973E589DB24CA9305"
    }
}
EOF
For each node you will need to change following items in configuration:
TestNodeKey should be a 64 character length alphanumeric string. Can be generated with pwgen tool for example.
LocalIp, ExternalIp and Host should have the same value and be incremented for each node e.g. 10.5.0.3, 10.5.0.4 and so on and so forth.
copy docker-compose file and place it in working directory
version: "3.5"
services:
​
    node_1:
        image: nethermind/nethermind:alpine
        command: --config config
        volumes:
            - ./genesis:/config/genesis
            - ./node_1/configs/config.cfg:/nethermind/configs/config.cfg
            - ./node_1/staticNodes/static-nodes.json:/nethermind/Data/static-nodes.json
            - ./node_1/db/clique:/nethermind/nethermind_db/clique
            - ./node_1/keystore:/nethermind/keystore
        ports:
            - 0.0.0.0:8547:8545
        networks:
            vpcbr:
                ipv4_address: 10.5.0.2
​
    node_2:
        image: nethermind/nethermind:alpine
        command: --config config
        volumes:
            - ./genesis:/config/genesis
            - ./node_2/configs/config.cfg:/nethermind/configs/config.cfg
            - ./node_2/staticNodes/static-nodes.json:/nethermind/Data/static-nodes.json
            - ./node_2/db/clique:/nethermind/nethermind_db/clique
            - ./node_2/keystore:/nethermind/keystore
        ports:
            - 0.0.0.0:8548:8545
        networks:
            vpcbr:
                ipv4_address: 10.5.0.3
​
    node_3:
        image: nethermind/nethermind:alpine
        command: --config config
        volumes:
            - ./genesis:/config/genesis
            - ./node_3/configs/config.cfg:/nethermind/configs/config.cfg
            - ./node_3/staticNodes/static-nodes.json:/nethermind/Data/static-nodes.json
            - ./node_3/db/clique:/nethermind/nethermind_db/clique
            - ./node_3/keystore:/nethermind/keystore
        ports:
            - 0.0.0.0:8549:8545
        networks:
            vpcbr:
                ipv4_address: 10.5.0.4
​
networks:
    vpcbr:
        driver: bridge
        ipam:
            config:
                - subnet: 10.5.0.0/16
run each node separately so that we can copy Enode and Node address for each node, we will use them later
docker-compose run node_1
Stop the node when Nethermind initialization completes Ctrl +C. Copy This node and Node address (without 0x prefixes) values to a text file. Continue with node_2 and node_3.
You can use Nethermind.Cli to fetch these values from nodes by executing the following.
Nethermind.Cli can be found in packages on Github Releases or Download Page.
node.switch("http://localhost:8547")
node.enode
node.address
the file should look similar to this:
SIGNER_1="b5bc4d9e63eb1cb16aeeb0fd08e8344283b45b0d"
STATIC_NODE_1="enode://2281549869465d98e90cebc45e1d6834a01465a990add7bcf07a49287e7e66b50ca27f9c70a46190cef7ad746dd5d5b6b9dfee0c9954104c8e9bd0d42758ec58@10.5.0.2:30300"
SIGNER_2="c4e3a14d33f765faaca31672bd90d0c325bfa0cf"
STATIC_NODE_2="enode://37878ec16a5ed87c9c80b4648e5428f5c768eddd79483be118319c49d11c4e535dac328b5216696cefe0792b7b64adc4de3aeb377550651e982590e62e5a500e@10.5.0.3:30300"
SIGNER_3="0076873eb11c627057834fdbdc7b391a33eb9f81"
STATIC_NODE_3="enode://6067f06d84c207e6233dacf1f3ef961bd7231f71d5425cbaf843cf19cfd5f7e13b024d234e4e5f6175bdb37c0bbccd14488b481b2280efb66d0631a20ae13ea3@10.5.0.4:30300"
copy & paste above variables into your terminal and create EXTRA_VANITY and EXTRA_SEAL variables
EXTRA_VANITY="0x22466c6578692069732061207468696e6722202d204166726900000000000000"
EXTRA_SEAL="0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000"
create EXTRA_DATA variable accordingly to https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-225
EXTRA_DATA=${EXTRA_VANITY}${SIGNER_1}${SIGNER_2}${SIGNER_3}${EXTRA_SEAL}
in goerli.json chainspec file, modify extraData property in genesis field
You can do this either manually or using below command
cat goerli.json | jq '.genesis.extraData = '\"$EXTRA_DATA\"'' > genesis/goerli.json
for each node modify previously created empty static-nodes.json files by appending Enodes to them
cat <<EOF > node_1/staticNodes/static-nodes.json
[
    "$STATIC_NODE_1",
    "$STATIC_NODE_2",
    "$STATIC_NODE_3"
]
EOF
remove databases for each node
sudo rm -rf node_1/db/clique node_2/db/clique node_3/db/clique
finally run docker-compose file
docker-compose up
You should see the private network working and nodes sealing blocks in Clique consensus algorithm 🎉 
Ethereum client - Previous
Private Networks
How to setup a Nethermind only Spaceneth based chain
Last updated 4 months ago