Node Provider Onboarding

Learn how to be accepted by the NNS as a node provider and onboard your nodes to the IC.

Requirements

Node Hardware Requirements
Network Requirements
Hardware wallet
NitroKey HSM (Optional, legacy—not recommended)
11 ICP (10 of which are to be staked for the NNS proposal deposit)
Basic understanding of neurons, staking, and governance proposals. For instance, understanding what it means to stake a neuron for 8 years.

Note: Please allocate at least 0.5 day for going through the node provider NNS registration (steps 1-9). It may even take a couple of days, depending on how quickly the community votes on your NNS proposals. Additionally, there is a fair amount of complexity and technical knowledge that needs to be absorbed in order to complete these steps, but this only needs to be done once.

Once the node provider NNS registration is complete, you can move on to step 10: Onboard nodes. This step involves you going to the DC and onboarding your nodes. It is much quicker than the node provider NNS registration (estimate to spend ~15 minutes per machine). Also, multiple machines can be brought up in parallel.

1. Install the required tools

A. Install ic-admin

ic-admin is the tool used to create and submit NNS proposals.

MacOS

Retrieve the file

$ curl "https://download.dfinity.systems/ic/7445081734e6d896d090295967d50710975c4f25/openssl-static-binaries/x86_64-darwin/ic-admin.gz" -o - | gunzip > ./ic-admin
$ chmod +x ./ic-admin

Verify the binary

$ diff <(shasum -a 256 ./ic-admin | cut -d' ' -f1) <(echo 3f75026d2f28f171068e332a42c82a2795c93fbf5ab351baef30b30eb901cdba) && echo "ic-admin checksum matches" || echo "***ERROR***: ic-admin checksum does not match"

Linux

NOTE: The instructions below have been tested with the Ubuntu 20.04 release.

Retrieve the file

$ curl "https://download.dfinity.systems/ic/7445081734e6d896d090295967d50710975c4f25/openssl-static-binaries/x86_64-linux/ic-admin.gz" -o - | gunzip > ./ic-admin
$ chmod +x ./ic-admin

Verify the binary

$ diff <(shasum -a 256 ./ic-admin | cut -d' ' -f1) <(echo e29bb9cc462e800b8b960ad49c412e5f5fdbb5ae2ae9fde0c13058422ba32802) && echo "ic-admin checksum matches" || echo "***ERROR***: ic-admin checksum does not match"

B. Install dfx

dfx is used to generate neuron hotkeys, among other things

$ sh -ci "$(curl -fsSL https://smartcontracts.org/install.sh)"

Verify that dfx is up to date.

$ export PATH=$HOME/bin:$PATH
$ dfx upgrade
$ dfx --version

Create an identity for the Node Provider Hotkey

$ dfx identity new node-provider-hotkey

Created identity: "node-provider-hotkey".


$ dfx --identity node-provider-hotkey identity get-principal

xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxx
# example node-provider-hotkey: wuyst-x5tpn-g5wri-mp3ps-vjtba-de3xs-w5xgb-crvek-tucbe-o5rqi-mae

You will need the node provider hotkey in the next steps.

Note: The node provider hotkey is NOT the node provider principal. This is the hotkey that is used for the NNS proposal submissions only.

2. Create and Manage Neuron via NNS Frontend Dapp and Internet Identity

Setup your hardware wallet: https://medium.com/dfinity/integrating-ledger-nano-with-the-nns-front-end-dapp-user-manual-9c5600925e16
Send at least 11 ICPs to the hardware wallet address.
Navigate to Neurons tab and create a Neuron by staking at least 10 ICP from your hardware wallet. Staking more ICP works as well, but 10 is the minimum.
IMPORTANT! Confirm the transaction on your hardware wallet.
After the Neuron has been created successfully, confirm to "Add NNS Dapp as hotkey" in the dialogue and on your hardware wallet, and close the dialog after the action completes.
Set the dissolve delay to at least 6 months, and confirm the choice in the dialogue and on your hardware wallet. After the action completes, you can close the "Follow Neurons".
You will now see a Neuron listed with its ID. Copy the Neuron ID, since you will need it in the next steps to place the necessary proposals.

3. Add hotkeys

Select the Neuron you just created to open Neuron management view and press “Add hotkey” button.
A dialog will pop up where you can enter the hotkey you generated in step 2 (output from command dfx --identity node-provider-hotkey identity get-principal). This will allow you to submit NNS proposals using ic-admin and will not be used for anything else.

Press the confirm button and confirm the transactions on your hardware wallet.
Get the Ledger Hardware Wallet Principal Id: Navigate back to ICP page and select your Ledger hardware wallet account. You will need to use this Ledger Hardware Wallet principal as the Node Provider principal in order to get the rewards directly into the secure hardware wallet.

Copy and save this Node Provider principal by clicking on the copy icon after the principal id. You'll need it in the next steps.

$ NODE_PROVIDER_PRINCIPAL=xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxx   
# Input ledger Hardware Wallet principal, from the NNS FrontEnd dapp https://nns.ic0.app/

# example: $ NODE_PROVIDER_PRINCIPAL=fharn-5vyi2-4xb4a-64yyi-3jpmj-pga23-mxy25-d5uim-fqcro-eoefh-tae

4. Choose onboarding path (HSM vs no HSM)

Onboarding without a NitroKey HSM is the recommended onboarding path. If you will not be using a NitroKey HSM, continue to the next step.

If the legacy procedure is necessary, follow the NitroKey HSM onboarding instructions and return to step 7.

5. Setup the Node Operator keys

Ensure dfx is at least version 0.14. Node Operator keys created with older versions of dfx will fail to join the IC. Run:
```
$ dfx upgrade
$ dfx --version
```

Create a new principal with dfx:

$ dfx identity new --storage-mode=plaintext node_operator

Confirm node_operator identity was created successfully:
```
$ dfx identity list
```
This list should contain node_operator.

Copy new key to a known location:

$ cp ~/.config/dfx/identity/node_operator/identity.pem ./node_operator_private_key.pem

6. Get the node operator principal

Get the principal:

$ NODE_OPERATOR_PRINCIPAL=$(dfx --identity node_operator identity get-principal)
$ echo $NODE_OPERATOR_PRINCIPAL

uqquy-76uhn-2mys5-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxx

You will need the node operator principal in the next steps.

7. Register your node provider principal to the network

In the next codeblock:

Replace the NODE_PROVIDER_NAME value with the name of the entity that will provide the nodes.
Replace the NODE_PROVIDER_PRINCIPAL value with the Ledger Hardware Wallet principal that you got from the NNS Frontend DAPP (step 3.4)
Replace the NEURON_ID value with your neuron ID from the NNS Frontend Dapp (step 2.7)

IMPORTANT: Please make sure that you also update the --summary and include a link to the forum discussion, your company's web page, and/or to another place that can convince the voting community that you are making a legitimate request. This way you will avoid the community voting NO to your proposal and you losing your staked ICPs.

Create the Proposal

$ NODE_PROVIDER_NAME="My Company"
$ NODE_PROVIDER_PRINCIPAL=xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxx
$ NEURON_ID=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
$ ./ic-admin \
        --nns-url https://ic0.app \
        -s ~/.config/dfx/identity/node-provider-hotkey/identity.pem \
    propose-to-add-or-remove-node-provider add \
        --proposer $NEURON_ID \
        --proposal-title "Register a node provider '${NODE_PROVIDER_NAME}'" \
        --summary "Register a node provider '${NODE_PROVIDER_NAME}', in line with the announcement and discussion at https://forum.dfinity.org/t/..." \
        --node-provider-pid "$NODE_PROVIDER_PRINCIPAL"

Find the proposal on https://dashboard.internetcomputer.org/governance and wait until it is executed before proceeding to next step.

8. Ensure that your datacenter is registered in the network

Search for your data center on https://dashboard.internetcomputer.org/centers.
- If you found the datacenter that is hosting your nodes, remember its ID, and skip the following section. Otherwise, proceed with the registration of a new DC record.

Create a data center record for a new DC

In the next block of code:

Replace the NEURON_ID value with your neuron ID from the NNS Frontend Dapp (step 2.7)
Replace the JSON fields from the –data-centers-to-add argument and their corresponding values in --summary:
- "id" represents the city that your datacenter is in and is formulated as a combination of two letters representing the city and an incrementing number. Search data center IDs on https://dashboard.internetcomputer.org, and find a combination of two letters and a number that’s not yet registered. Examples:
  - dl1 (Dallas, no IDs with “dl” prefix)
  - zh10 (Zurich, numbers 0-9 are already registered)
- "region" represents the local region of a datacenter and is formulated as a three-part string divided by commas. The three parts making the string are continent, country code, and region, in the given order. Examples:
  - North America,US,Florida
  - Europe,DE,Bavaria
  - Asia,SG,Singapore
- "owner" The entity that provides your datacenter facilities.
  - Search https://dashboard.internetcomputer.org for existing data center providers.
  - If there’s match, make sure you use the same exact some name for your datacenter.
  - Otherwise, name the data center owner to your best knowledge.
- "gps" GPS coordinates.
  - Find your datacenter on https://www.google.com/maps/.
  - Right click on location, and select the GPS coordinates (first item in the menu) in order to copy them.

Create the proposal:

$ NEURON_ID=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
$ ./ic-admin \
        --nns-url https://ic0.app \
        -s ~/.config/dfx/identity/node-provider-hotkey/identity.pem \
    propose-to-add-or-remove-data-centers \
        --summary "Register a Flexential datacenter as dl1 in North America,US,Texas" \
        --skip-confirmation \
        --proposer $NEURON_ID \
        --data-centers-to-add '{
            "id": "dl1",
            "region": "North America,US,Texas",
            "owner": "Flexential",
            "gps": [
                33.00803, -96.66614
            ]
        }'

Remember to replace all the values of both the arguments –data-centers-to-add and --summary

Find the proposal on https://dashboard.internetcomputer.org/governance and wait until it's executed before proceeding to next step.

9. Create a node operator record