Help Center/ Web3 Node Engine Service/ FAQs/ Staking Nodes/ How Do I Use a Certificate and an Authentication Credential to Access a Node?
Updated on 2024-05-10 GMT+08:00

How Do I Use a Certificate and an Authentication Credential to Access a Node?

You can perform the following operations to use a certificate and an authentication credential to access a node.

Prerequisites

  • You have created a full node.
  • You have obtained a key on Staking Launchpad. For details, see NES User Guide (Staking Nodes).
  • You have downloaded a validator client. Check the Prysm Documentation or Lighthouse Documentation to download a client as required.

Procedure

  1. Create and obtain an authentication credential.

    1. On the NES console, choose Dedicated > Authentication Credential and click Create Credential.
    2. Describe the credential and set the access policy.
      Figure 1 Creating a credential
    3. Click OK. The credential is created and then automatically downloaded as a ZIP package.

      Each credential can be downloaded only once. Change the credential periodically for security.

    4. Decompress the package and open the credential.csv file to obtain the credential.

  2. Start a staking node.

    1. Click a node ID.
      Figure 2 Node ID
    2. Obtain the node information.

      For a Prysm client, you can obtain its gRPC Endpoint and Node TLS Certificate.

      For a Lighthouse client, you can obtain its HTTP Endpoint and Node TLS Certificate.
      Figure 3 Node details of a Prysm client
    3. Paste the key and TLS certificate to the hardware machine installed with the script.
      For a Prysm client, run the following command to import the key to the keystore:
      ./prysm.sh validator accounts import --keys-dir=<YOUR_FOLDER_PATH> --< NETWORK >

      NETWORK is the staking network and YOUR_FOLDER_PATH is the actual key file path.

      For a Lighthouse client, run the following command to import the key to the keystore:

      lighthouse --network < NETWORK > account validator import --directory < YOUR_FOLDER_PATH >

      NETWORK is the staking network and YOUR_FOLDER_PATH is the actual key file path.

    4. After the key is imported, perform the following operations for a Prysm client and Lighthouse client, respectively.
      For a Prysm client, run the prysm.sh file, configure the following parameters, and start the staking node.
      • beacon-rpc-provider: the value of gRPC Endpoint
      • grpc-headers: the authentication credential
      • tls-cert: the relative path of Node TLS Certificate

      Example:

      ./prysm.sh validator --beacon-rpc-provider=xx.xx.xx.xx:30002 --grpc-headers=credential=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx --tls-cert=ca.crt

      For a Lighthouse client, run the lighthouse vc command, configure the following parameters, and start the staking node.

      • network: the staking network
      • suggested-fee-recipient: the suggested fee recipient
      • beacon-nodes-tls-certs: the relative path of Node TLS Certificate
      • beacon-nodes: the HTTP endpoint or credential information
      lighthouse vc --network < **NETWORK** > --suggested-fee-recipient <**YourFeeRecipientAddress** > --beacon-nodes-tls-certs ca.pem --beacon-nodes https://xx.xx.xx.xx:30000/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

      These parameters are mandatory for interconnecting Huawei Cloud nodes. Check the Prysm Documentation and Lighthouse Documentation to learn other parameters.

  3. Monitor a staking node.

    Click a node ID and click the Node Status tab page.
    Figure 4 Node status

    You need to monitor and perform O&M on the validator client where a staking node has been started. You can also enter the key on a page similar to the following to check the client execution.