Super Node Guide

Run your own PC2 gateway infrastructure.

⚠️

Advanced: Running a super node requires server administration experience and ongoing maintenance.

What is a Super Node?

Super nodes provide infrastructure services:

Web Gateway — HTTPS termination, subdomain routing
Boson DHT — Distributed hash table bootstrap
Active Proxy — NAT traversal relay

Requirements

Hardware

Spec	Minimum	Recommended
CPU	2 vCPU	4+ vCPU
RAM	4 GB	8+ GB
Storage	40 GB SSD	100+ GB NVMe
Network	100 Mbps	1 Gbps
IP	Static public IP	Static + IPv6

Software

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
Node.js 20+
Caddy (for SSL)
Domain with wildcard DNS

Installation

1. Server Setup

# Update system
apt update && apt upgrade -y
 
# Install Node.js
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_20.x | sudo -E bash -
apt install -y nodejs
 
# Install Caddy
apt install -y debian-keyring debian-archive-keyring apt-transport-https
curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/caddy/stable/gpg.key' | gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/caddy-stable-archive-keyring.gpg
curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/caddy/stable/debian.deb.txt' | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/caddy-stable.list
apt update && apt install caddy

2. Clone Gateway Repository

git clone https://github.com/Elacity/pc2-supernode
cd pc2-supernode
npm install

3. Configure Gateway

Create config.json:

{
  "gateway": {
    "domain": "yourdomain.com",
    "httpPort": 4100,
    "httpsEnabled": true
  },
  "dht": {
    "port": 39001,
    "bootstrapNodes": [
      "69.164.241.210:39001"
    ]
  },
  "proxy": {
    "port": 8090,
    "maxConnections": 1000
  }
}

4. Configure Caddy

Edit /etc/caddy/Caddyfile:

*.yourdomain.com {
    tls {
        dns cloudflare {env.CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN}
    }
    reverse_proxy localhost:4100
}

Wildcard SSL requires DNS validation. Caddy supports multiple DNS providers.

5. Configure DNS

At your DNS provider:

Record	Type	Value
`yourdomain.com`	A	YOUR_SERVER_IP
`*.yourdomain.com`	A	YOUR_SERVER_IP

6. Create Services

Web gateway service:

cat > /etc/systemd/system/pc2-gateway.service << 'EOF'
[Unit]
Description=PC2 Super Node Gateway
After=network.target
 
[Service]
Type=simple
User=root
WorkingDirectory=/root/pc2-supernode
ExecStart=/usr/bin/node dist/gateway.js
Restart=on-failure
Environment=NODE_ENV=production
 
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

DHT service:

cat > /etc/systemd/system/pc2-dht.service << 'EOF'
[Unit]
Description=PC2 Boson DHT
After=network.target
 
[Service]
Type=simple
User=root
WorkingDirectory=/root/pc2-supernode
ExecStart=/usr/bin/node dist/dht.js
Restart=on-failure
 
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

Active Proxy service:

cat > /etc/systemd/system/pc2-proxy.service << 'EOF'
[Unit]
Description=PC2 Active Proxy
After=network.target
 
[Service]
Type=simple
User=root
WorkingDirectory=/root/pc2-supernode
ExecStart=/usr/bin/node dist/proxy.js
Restart=on-failure
 
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

7. Start Services

systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable pc2-gateway pc2-dht pc2-proxy caddy
systemctl start pc2-gateway pc2-dht pc2-proxy caddy

8. Configure Firewall

ufw allow 22      # SSH
ufw allow 80      # HTTP
ufw allow 443     # HTTPS
ufw allow 39001/udp  # DHT
ufw allow 8090    # Active Proxy
ufw enable

Verification

Check Services

systemctl status pc2-gateway
systemctl status pc2-dht
systemctl status pc2-proxy
systemctl status caddy

Test Gateway

curl https://test.yourdomain.com/health

Test DHT

# From another machine
nc -vuz YOUR_SERVER_IP 39001

Test Proxy

nc -vz YOUR_SERVER_IP 8090

Registering with Network

Contact the Elacity team to add your super node to the official bootstrap list.

Email: hello@ela.city

Include:

Server IP
Domain
Location
Contact info

Monitoring

Logs

journalctl -u pc2-gateway -f
journalctl -u pc2-dht -f
journalctl -u pc2-proxy -f

Metrics

The gateway exposes metrics at /metrics:

curl http://localhost:4100/metrics

Maintenance

Updates

cd /root/pc2-supernode
git pull
npm install
npm run build
systemctl restart pc2-gateway pc2-dht pc2-proxy

Backups

Backup the DHT data:

tar -czf dht-backup-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz data/

Running a super node helps decentralize the PC2 network. Thank you for contributing!

NAT Traversal API Reference