Can you provide more information on Contabo's Bitcoin Node image?

Contabo's Bitcoin Node image is based on the Bitcoin Core v25.0 (https://bitcoincore.org/bin/).

The Bitcoin Image is not provided with synced chain data, the syncing start once the image installed, this can take up to 12-48h depending on the available nodes.

What is the data path structure of Contabo's Bitcoin Node image?

• Chain data: /var/lib/bitcoind
• bitcoind config: /etc/bitcoin/bitcoin.conf
• bitcoin-cli config: /home/bitcoin/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf

How do I switch to the Bitcoin user?

For accessing bitcoin-cli command you should switch to bitcoin user, which is created for security reasons. You can do this with the following command:

sudo -u bitcoin -i

How do I find the P2P network info:

You can run the following command:

bitcoin-cli getnetworkinfo 

You should get a response like this:

"networkactive": true,
"connections": 13,
"connections_in": 3,
"connections_out": 10,

How do I find the Blockchain (sync status) info:

You can run the following command:

bitcoin-cli getblockchaininfo 

You should get a response like this:

{
"chain": "main",
"blocks": 170260, <-- Highest synced block
"headers": 813630, <-- Highest block on the network
"bestblockhash": "0000000000000049ec54c7c6df79fce11e724b4b56103e005e03fa8e8c2a4a09",
"difficulty": 1496978.595025569,
"time": 1331249860,
"mediantime": 1331245089,
"verificationprogress": 0.002915741002688988, <---- 0.29% synced
"initialblockdownload": true,
"chainwork": "00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000df7e38ad4228191c1",
"size_on_disk": 1234406989,
"pruned": false,
"warnings": ""
}

To note the syncing can take up to 48h, depending on available nodes. 

Also to note the field verificationprogress never reaches 1.00 even at fully synced it will be around 0.9999.

How do I check if the Bitcoin Node is running?

You can run the following command:

systemctl status  bitcoind.service 

How do I restart the bitcoind server:

You can run the following command:

systemctl restart bitcoind.service

How do I read logs?

You can run the following command:

tail -n 100  /var/lib/bitcoind/debug.log 

How do I edit  the bitcoind config file:

You can run the following command:

nano /etc/bitcoin/bitcoin.conf

To note you will need to restart your node to apply new configurations.

How do I access the data directory of bitcoin service:

You can run the following command:

/var/lib/bitcoind 

How do activate the firewall:

It is best to do this when first setting up your Bitcoin Node image. 

You can run the following command:

sudo apt install ufw
sudo ufw default deny incoming
sudo ufw default allow outgoing
sudo ufw allow ssh # If you're using SSH
sudo ufw allow 8333 # Allows Bitcoin network connections
sudo ufw enable

Extra rules:

sudo ufw allow 8332 # For JSON-RPC for remote wallet

sudo ufw allow 28332 # Zero MQ for listening
sudo ufw allow 28333 # Zero MQ for listening

sudo ufw allow 8443 # Lightning Terminal

Here are some common used plugins application for Bitcoin Nodes which you may find helpful:

• BTC Payserver
• Lightning Network Node
• Lightning Terminal