🖥 Kusama Validator Node Setup

This brief tutorial will go over the steps on creating your very own Kusama Validator that can be used to either:

1. Join the Kusama Thousand Validators Program
2. Become your own Validator.
   If you have enough KSM to self-stake or plan to advertise your node to get others to nominate your Validator Node.
3. Run your own Kusama Archive, Full, or Pruned node.
   Remove the --validator argument from the service description below. Skip steps that deal with accounts and session keys.

For our tech advance readers (DevOps peeps) here’s a repo that will interest you: https://github.com/w3f/polkadot-secure-validator

https://polkaview.network/ksm

Overview

1. Planning
2. VPS & software install & configuration
3. Account setup
4. Maintenance & support

💭 #1 Planning

Running a KSM Validator Node is serious business!
KSM funds are at stake. Not only your own, but anyone that nominates your validator. Nobody wants to get their funds slashed. A properly planned node with a disaster recovery plan will keep everyone, including yourself, happy. 👌

1. Review the requirements
2. Find VPS Providers
3. Compare Costs

Running a Validator costs money. You do not want to skimp out on costs here. Though being cost-efficient is important as well! Let me share my experience with costs in regards to AWS & Digital Ocean.

I’ve been running two validator nodes for two months now within AWS. I utilized the m5.large EC2 instance. Pretty decent specifications. Nothing too fancy. It can compile Kusama’s Substrate source code (written in Rust) in ~42 minutes. That can’t touch my Ryzen 2700x 8 core/16 thread server at home, but let’s face it — Texas electricity & internet providers aren’t known for 99.99999% uptime.

Let’s talk costs with AWS.