Polkadot/Kusama Validator Resource Database

Chris | Vegas Life
3 min readJun 7, 2021

--

I have compiled a list of resources for people running Validators on Polkadot and Kusama networks.

Digital Ocean Server Setup

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/initial-server-setup-with-ubuntu-20-04

Video instructions for Setting up Secure Validator Node

Setting up your node for Polkadot and Kusama Validators nodes using Secure Validator Setup great videos by Paradox | ParaNodes.io.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFKZ1X8bIqSYZbSuXJOQgVTZgS11sVy8K

Securing your server

Network Security for Substrate

https://youtu.be/UaCGimsqLpg

Securing SSH access to your server

https://medium.com/bld-nodes/securing-ssh-access-to-your-server-cc1324b9adf6

How to Harden your Ubuntu 18.04 Server

https://medium.com/@BaneBiddix/how-to-harden-your-ubuntu-18-04-server-ffc4b6658fe7

Port Forwarding Tester

https://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/open-ports/

Stuff you need to know about ThousandValidator Programme on Polkadot and Kusama — by Paradox

Thousand Validator — Onboarding video — Part 1 https://youtu.be/eSSfXuKPuak

Thousand Validator — Onboarding video — Part 2 https://youtu.be/Z9ojU-Jtd58

Setting up monitoring for your Validator

Global Monitoring Infrastructure for Polkadot and Kusama

https://medium.com/certhum/global-monitoring-infrastructure-for-polkadot-and-kusama-ccd06a05ee9b

Monitoring Substrate node (Polkadot, Kusama, parachains) — Validator guide

https://medium.com/bld-nodes/monitoring-substrate-node-polkadot-kusama-parachains-validator-guide-922734ea4cdb

Securing Prometheus between your Prometheus Instance and your Polkadot / Kusama Validators

https://medium.com/certhum/securing-prometheus-between-your-prometheus-instance-and-your-polkadot-kusama-validators-9044fc21c2a4

A simple exporter that scrapes the thousand node validator API every few minutes, and exposes that data as a Prometheus endpoint.

https://github.com/blockpane/1kv-exporter

Additional rules for the Alert Manager

https://gitlab.parity.io/parity/substrate/-/blob/master/.maintain/monitoring/alerting-rules/alerting-rules.yaml

PANIC for Polkadot is a lightweight yet powerful open-source monitoring and alerting solution for Polkadot nodes by Simply VC.

https://github.com/SimplyVC/panic_polkadot

A tool to deploy a Monitoring System for your Substrate based Nodes in a Kubernetes cluster.

https://github.com/ironoa/polkadot-k8s-monitor

Database backup for fast sync and restore

A repository of Polkadot node database snapshots — regularly updated and fast to download from anywhere in the world.

https://polkashots.io/

Automated Backup of Polkadot and Kusama Chain Database to Azure Blob

https://medium.com/certhum/automated-backup-of-polkadot-and-kusama-chain-database-to-azure-blob-fb3bfedb3320

Validator Payout

This simple tool enables you to create a batch of payout transactions for a given list of validators and/or nominators — automating the process of gathering unclaimed rewards.

https://github.com/emostov/staking-payouts

A simple command-line application to control the payouts of Substrate validators (Polkadot and Kusama among others).

https://github.com/stakelink/substrate-payctl

Updates

This tool monitors Paritytech/Polkadot for new releases and updates binaries automatically after validating SHA-256 and PGP Signature/Signer.

https://github.com/ManifestDemocracy/polkaRelCheck

Here is my little script for setting more automated upgrades or downgrades of Secure Validator. (Make sure to test on Non-Production Environment)

https://github.com/ccris02/Polkadot_upgrade-downgrade

Tool to verify your Session keys by Paradox | ParaNodes.io

https://paranodes.io/SessionKeys

Element Monitoring Chat Bots

@kusama_1kv_bot (only for members Thousand Validator Programme)

@polkadot_1kv_bot (only for members Thousand Validator Programme)

CryptoLab

@cryptolab_kusama_bot

@cryptolab_polkadot_bot

Ryabina

@kusama_bot

@Polkadot_Ryabina_bot

Telemetry

https://telemetry.polkadot.io/

https://telemetry.w3f.community/

Thousand Validators Leaderboard

Official

https://thousand-validators.kusama.network/#/leaderboard

Unofficial

https://vegas1kv.com/my creation, let me know what you think

https://www.cryptolab.network/

https://1k.hirish.net/

https://polkachu.com/kusama/thousand_validators

Chat rooms

Kusama Chat Rooms

Kusama Announcements

https://app.element.io/#/room/#kusama-announce:matrix.parity.io

Kusama Direction

https://app.element.io/#/room/#kusama:matrix.parity.io

Kusama Validator Lounge

https://app.element.io/#/room/#KusamaValidatorLounge:polkadot.builders

Kusama Watercooler

https://app.element.io/#/room/#/!HfRYKXBoPmDBCAWUEJ:polkadot.builders

Kusama Cycling Squad

https://app.element.io/#/room/!lICLHvPQfcvVidwtTF:web3.foundation

Polkadot Chat rooms

Polkadot Announcements

https://app.element.io/#/room/#polkadot-announcements:matrix.parity.io

Polkadot Direction

https://app.element.io/#/room/#polkadot-direction:matrix.parity.io

Polkadot Validator Lounge

https://app.element.io/#/room/#polkadotvalidatorlounge:web3.foundation

Polkadot Watercooler

https://app.element.io/#/room/#polkadot-watercooler:web3.foundation

Polkadot Network Status

https://app.element.io/#/room/#polkabot:matrix.org

Polkadot / Kusama Nominator Lounge

https://app.element.io/#/room/#nominator-lounge:matrix.parity.io

Also, check out Polkadot and Kusama's Official Chat room on Discord.

Older Videos just for reference and to get a better understanding of the network.

Polkadot validator node setup with Joe Petrowski and Will Pankiewicz (Video for reference on how to use Terraform)

https://youtu.be/ejgPSwdLj5o

Running a Kusama Full Node — Crash Course

https://youtu.be/31DdfcxbAVs

Running a Validator on Polkadot

https://youtu.be/uPEenumacAE

Solving the NPoS Problem with Phragmen — Substrate Seminar 25 February 2020

https://youtu.be/MjOvVhc1oXw

VPC

Digital Ocean https://m.do.co/c/21046a4e502d

Linode — https://cloud.linode.com/linodes

OVH — https://www.ovh.com.au/

Vultr— https://www.vultr.com/?ref=8877798

Let me know if you have any questions, found some interesting resources that could be added, or if there are any issues with this database.

Use the resources at your own risk. Verify your configuration in a non-production environment.

Support our Validators.

Polkadot — VEGAS LIFE/1 149riLdwAVzXg7Cm88RcXhbuFi3zUgwrGsJSSPjC47PRxHQW

Kusama — VEGAS_LIFE_MAIN Dq97kmsJXGTciU1eMXZMAp4D41Y9e7kQ4hmFBfZW7YD4CCf

Kusama — VEGAS_LIFE_MAIN/2 GnqygxyvFN7npYbMUv6t7avBnLrVB37topoDbhPVnBeeuxa

Polkadex — VEGAS_LIFE esnagrZi6HSSn3Wt8Cqq1PSEdVx6iwHQdVFsKq2UG5Dy5HChA
esmNhmRBUZLVNCCg32qeNzNo4HyMJQQvk41BEZXyRvTjbk3im
esngf9hzvHV7sBLRbLosc4xuna1XUiWPvjWVLF4CzqdP7BRBy
espytALuuTLHZVWDTnc4VY6Qeemc7d8hUwLLwDdoiwUcxv8EP

--

--

Chris | Vegas Life

Decentralize the internet by running Validators Nodes on Polkadot and Kusama.