Have you been wondering where the ARK public Testnet for all developers, hobbyists, and bug hunters is? Want to help test core upgrades, make your own upgrades/tests, or just play with test ARK? The Testnet is now called DEVNET (Development Network).

The coin/token used on DEVNET is called DARK (DѦ) — these are test tokens that can only be used on DEVNET.

This guide will help you get your DEVNET node up and running in no time!

REMEMBER : THIS GUIDE IS FOR DEVNET AND NOT MAINNET! ALL TOKENS ON DEVNET ARE FOR TESTING PURPOSES AND DON’T HOLD ANY MONETARY VALUE, NOR WILL ANY MAINNET TOKENS WORK ON DEVNET. You will also need ARK Desktop Wallet 1.3 or later to follow this guide, for switching networks and creating DARK addresses. You can download the latest version from here: https://github.com/ArkEcosystem/ark-desktop/releases

If you are looking for the MainNet guide, please use this:

How to set up node for MainNet

#1 Setting Up Node for DEVNET

Start by getting a VPS(Virtual Private Server).

Minimum requirements for running a DARK node VPS (active or relay):

— 1 dedicated CPU core, x86 or x64 architecture (the higher the CPU clock speed, the better) — KVM virtualization as opposed to OpenVZ

—1 GB RAM (the more the better, we suggest at least 2GB),

— Ubuntu 16.04.x (this is optimal, and this guide is written for it)

— 10GB free space (we recommend SSD/m.2, as opposed to traditional HDD drives, and we suggest at least 20GB).

Recommended VPS/Cloud providers:

— DigitalOcean

— Vultr

— OVH

Connect to your newly created VPS with the IP and password from your provider:

username : root

password : xxx (sent in email)

IP : xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (sent in email)

SSH port : 22 (this is default)

Windows : use any SSH client. For our example, we will use Putty, an open-source client you can download here : download Putty.

use any SSH client. For our example, we will use Putty, an open-source client you can download here : download Putty. MAC OS : open Terminal. To start Terminal, go to your Mac’s Applications folder => click on the Utilities folder => then click on Terminal.

open Terminal. To start Terminal, go to your Mac’s Applications folder => click on the Utilities folder => then click on Terminal. Linux : depending on your distribution, you can usually open a terminal shell by pressing a combination of “Ctrl + Alt + T” keys.

For terminal in Linux / MAC OS you can connect to the VPS with this command:

ssh user@<your-server-ip>

for example in Linux / MAC OS the command would be:

ssh root@138.197.206.43

Starting an SSH session in Putty:

If you are connecting for the first time to Putty, it will tell you about host key — click ‘Yes’.

An SSH session will open:

Login as: root

Password: (enter your pass received from your VPS provider)

All bash commands will be in code boxes for this tutorial.

like this

Some VPS providers require you to immediately change the root password. If not prompted to do so, changing your root password is still recommended. Use the command:

passwd

On the first run, we recommend running update and upgrade options to get the latest security patches and core updates for Ubuntu 16.04.x . Use the commands:

apt-get update

apt-get dist-upgrade

#2 Setting Up Regular User With Sudo Privileges

Now it is time to create a new regular user with sudo privileges. Sudo privileges allow a user to perform certain administrative tasks.

How to add new regular user:

adduser <yourusername>

Example:

adduser dark

Enter a new password, enter it again, and press [enter] 6 times to accept all of the default values.

Now that you have successfully created a regular user with the username dark (you can choose any username you want except root), it is time to assign this regular user sudo privileges.

Adding sudo privileges to our newly created regular user:

usermod -a -G sudo <yourusername>

Example:

usermod -a -G sudo dark

Now reboot the server, and reconnect as the newly created user. Connect as you new name(we are using dark for example) and not root. Type :

reboot

Your Putty session will close. Reopen Putty and connect again with your IP.

#3 Connecting Using Your New User

Now, instead of logging in as root, login as the new user (in our case dark).

For terminal in Linux / MAC OS you can connect with this command:

ssh yourusername@<your-server-ip>

In Linux / MAC OS this would be:

ssh dark@138.197.206.43

#4 Installing the DARK Node (DEVNET Node)

Now that our server is ready, it is time to install DARK — development network node. First, download the DARK installer called “DARKcommander” by running this command:

and execute it with:

bash DARKcommander.sh

DARKcommander will start. You will be prompted to enter your sudo password — the “dark” user password not the initial “root” password.

Now press enter and a system check will be performed on your server. All updates and prerequisites will be installed. This may take a few minutes.

After the updates are finished, you will see this:

type:

sudo reboot

Now reconnect to the server with your sudo user, and again execute:

bash DARKcommander.sh

Again, provide your user password to enter the DARKcommander menu.

DARKcommander menu will open — press ‘1’, and then, ‘ENTER’, to start the installation process. Now the DARK node installation will begin— this will take several minutes!

Please note: when using the DARKcommander menu, letters must be entered as Uppercase.

Upon completion, you will get a message that ARK node was installed. It will ask you to provide the Secret Key — since we don’t have it yet, press ’N’ and ‘enter’ for now.

You have now successfully installed DARK node — congrats! Since we don’t want to wait to sync the blockchain from block zero (takes hours), we have an option to sync from a snapshot (takes minutes).

#5 Syncing Blockchain From a Snapshot

After you are done with the installation, you will be returned to the DARKcommander menu. To sync from a snapshot, we are going to use command 4. Rebuild Database.

A message will be shown:

Would you like to download the latest devnet snapshot? (Y/n)

press ‘Y’ and ‘enter’ to download the latest official devnet snapshot.

Next, you will be asked:

Would you like to restore the snapshot now? (Y/n)

press ‘Y’ and ‘enter’ to restore from the snapshot you just downloaded. This will take a few minutes. Next you will see ‘Current snapshot has been restored’ and DARK node will start. Press ‘enter’ to return to the menu.

#6 Checking If You Are Synced

After this, we can check to see if your node is successfully synced to the blockchain. Once back in the menu, press ‘L’ to view the log.

You should see messages like this “New block received” about every 8 seconds.

If you see this, your node is all ready and synced — it currently acts as a relay node (since it is not set up to forge yet). Press ‘CTRL’ + ‘C’ to close the log and return to the DARKcommander menu.

P.S. : If you don’t want to be a delegate and just needed your own node to play with you can stop here, else continue.

Your node is now ready, and it is time to get a DARK address and register a delegate. You can leave the Putty or terminal session running since we will be returning. We still have more to do if you are going to be running a forging node.

#7 Creating Your Own DARK Address

Now that we have our node ready it is time to take care of some other things.

You will now need ARK Desktop Wallet 1.3 or later to follow this guide. You can download and install latest version from here:

After you are done with the install, start the ARK Client. In the upper right menu you will see a network icon (shown in the image below) .

Click on in to show available networks. Since we are using the development network now we are going to click on DEVNET(DARK), which will result in the ARK Client being restarted and connected to development network — you will notice that it switches and there won’t be any accounts (since this is not the same network as the main ARK blockchain).