How to install Bitcoin Classic Full Node on Amazon Linux EC2 (also valid for RHEL and CentOS)

These are installation instructions (with compilation) for Bitcoin Classic (Full Node) under Amazon Linux 2016.03.0
They should also work on Red Hat RHEL and CentOS.


- Make sure your box is up to date:

__|  __|_  )        _|  (     /   Amazon Linux AMI       ___|\___|___| https://aws.amazon.com/amazon-linux-ami/2016.03-release-notes/ sudo yum update

- Install all this:

(This command is a single line)

sudo yum install git boost boost-devel autoconf automake gcc-c++ libtool openssl openssl-devel libevent libevent-devel

- Add PUIAS repository (needed for Berkeley DB when compiling the Bitcoin Wallet):

* Create this file:

sudo vim /etc/yum.repos.d/puias-computational.repo

* And add this content to it and save:

[puias-computational]

name=PUIAS Computational

baseurl=http://puias.math.ias.edu/data/puias/computational/6/x86_64/

enabled=1

gpgcheck=0

- Install DB48

sudo yum install db48 db48-devel

- Download Bitcoin Classic latest version from GitHub:

cd /usr/src

sudo git clone -b v0.12.0cl1 https://github.com/bitcoinclassic/bitcoinclassic.git

cd bitcoinclassic/

Note: Using label v0.12.0cl1 to avoid issues with lib-boost-1.55 (a 0.12.1 requisite)

- Configure:

sudo ./autogen.sh

sudo ./configure

Expected output:

$ sudo ./configure checking build system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu checking host system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c checking whether build environment is sane... yes checking for a thread-safe mkdir -p... /bin/mkdir -p checking for gawk... gawk checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes checking whether make supports nested variables... yes checking whether to enable maintainer-specific portions of Makefiles... yes checking whether make supports nested variables... (cached) yes checking for g++... g++ checking whether the C++ compiler works... yes checking for C++ compiler default output file name... a.out checking for suffix of executables...  checking whether we are cross compiling... no checking for suffix of object files... o checking whether we are using the GNU C++ compiler... yes checking whether g++ accepts -g... yes checking for style of include used by make... GNU checking dependency style of g++... gcc3 checking for g++... g++ checking whether we are using the GNU Objective C++ compiler... no checking whether g++ accepts -g... no checking dependency style of g++... gcc3 checking how to print strings... printf checking for gcc... gcc checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... none needed checking dependency style of gcc... gcc3 checking for a sed that does not truncate output... /bin/sed checking for grep that handles long lines and -e... /bin/grep checking for egrep... /bin/grep -E checking for fgrep... /bin/grep -F checking for ld used by gcc... /usr/bin/ld checking if the linker (/usr/bin/ld) is GNU ld... yes checking for BSD- or MS-compatible name lister (nm)... /usr/bin/nm -B checking the name lister (/usr/bin/nm -B) interface... BSD nm checking whether ln -s works... yes checking the maximum length of command line arguments... 1572864 checking whether the shell understands some XSI constructs... yes checking whether the shell understands "+="... yes checking how to convert x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu file names to x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu format... func_convert_file_noop checking how to convert x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu file names to toolchain format... func_convert_file_noop checking for /usr/bin/ld option to reload object files... -r checking for objdump... objdump checking how to recognize dependent libraries... pass_all checking for dlltool... no checking how to associate runtime and link libraries... printf %s\n checking for ar... ar checking for archiver @FILE support... @ checking for strip... strip checking for ranlib... ranlib checking command to parse /usr/bin/nm -B output from gcc object... ok checking for sysroot... no checking for mt... no checking if : is a manifest tool... no checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E checking for ANSI C header files... yes checking for sys/types.h... yes checking for sys/stat.h... yes checking for stdlib.h... yes checking for string.h... yes checking for memory.h... yes checking for strings.h... yes checking for inttypes.h... yes checking for stdint.h... yes checking for unistd.h... yes checking for dlfcn.h... yes checking for objdir... .libs checking if gcc supports -fno-rtti -fno-exceptions... no checking for gcc option to produce PIC... -fPIC -DPIC checking if gcc PIC flag -fPIC -DPIC works... yes checking if gcc static flag -static works... no checking if gcc supports -c -o file.o... yes checking if gcc supports -c -o file.o... (cached) yes checking whether the gcc linker (/usr/bin/ld -m elf_x86_64) supports shared libraries... yes checking whether -lc should be explicitly linked in... no checking dynamic linker characteristics... GNU/Linux ld.so checking how to hardcode library paths into programs... immediate checking whether stripping libraries is possible... yes checking if libtool supports shared libraries... yes checking whether to build shared libraries... yes checking whether to build static libraries... yes checking how to run the C++ preprocessor... g++ -E checking for ld used by g++... /usr/bin/ld -m elf_x86_64 checking if the linker (/usr/bin/ld -m elf_x86_64) is GNU ld... yes checking whether the g++ linker (/usr/bin/ld -m elf_x86_64) supports shared libraries... yes checking for g++ option to produce PIC... -fPIC -DPIC checking if g++ PIC flag -fPIC -DPIC works... yes checking if g++ static flag -static works... no checking if g++ supports -c -o file.o... yes checking if g++ supports -c -o file.o... (cached) yes checking whether the g++ linker (/usr/bin/ld -m elf_x86_64) supports shared libraries... yes checking dynamic linker characteristics... (cached) GNU/Linux ld.so checking how to hardcode library paths into programs... immediate checking for ar... /usr/bin/ar checking for ranlib... /usr/bin/ranlib checking for strip... /usr/bin/strip checking for gcov... /usr/bin/gcov checking for lcov... no checking for java... /usr/bin/java checking for python... /usr/bin/python checking for genhtml... no checking for git... /usr/bin/git checking for ccache... no checking for xgettext... no checking for hexdump... /usr/bin/hexdump checking for readelf... /usr/bin/readelf checking for c++filt... /usr/bin/c++filt checking for pkg-config... /usr/bin/pkg-config checking pkg-config is at least version 0.9.0... yes checking whether byte ordering is bigendian... no checking if compiler needs -Werror to reject unknown flags... no checking for the pthreads library -lpthreads... no checking whether pthreads work without any flags... no checking whether pthreads work with -Kthread... no checking whether pthreads work with -kthread... no checking for the pthreads library -llthread... no checking whether pthreads work with -pthread... yes checking for joinable pthread attribute... PTHREAD_CREATE_JOINABLE checking if more special flags are required for pthreads... no checking for PTHREAD_PRIO_INHERIT... yes checking for special C compiler options needed for large files... no checking for _FILE_OFFSET_BITS value needed for large files... no checking whether strerror_r is declared... yes checking for strerror_r... yes checking whether strerror_r returns char *... yes checking whether the linker accepts -Wl,--large-address-aware... no checking for __attribute__((visibility))... yes checking for __attribute__((dllexport))... no checking for __attribute__((dllimport))... no checking for library containing clock_gettime... none required checking whether C++ compiler accepts -fPIC... yes checking whether C++ compiler accepts -Wstack-protector... yes checking whether C++ compiler accepts -fstack-protector-all... yes checking whether C++ preprocessor accepts -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2... yes checking whether C++ preprocessor accepts -U_FORTIFY_SOURCE... yes checking whether the linker accepts -Wl,--dynamicbase... no checking whether the linker accepts -Wl,--nxcompat... no checking whether the linker accepts -Wl,-z,relro... yes checking whether the linker accepts -Wl,-z,now... yes checking whether C++ compiler accepts -fPIE... yes checking whether the linker accepts -pie... yes checking endian.h usability... yes checking endian.h presence... yes checking for endian.h... yes checking sys/endian.h usability... no checking sys/endian.h presence... no checking for sys/endian.h... no checking byteswap.h usability... yes checking byteswap.h presence... yes checking for byteswap.h... yes checking stdio.h usability... yes checking stdio.h presence... yes checking for stdio.h... yes checking for stdlib.h... (cached) yes checking for unistd.h... (cached) yes checking for strings.h... (cached) yes checking for sys/types.h... (cached) yes checking for sys/stat.h... (cached) yes checking sys/select.h usability... yes checking sys/select.h presence... yes checking for sys/select.h... yes checking sys/prctl.h usability... yes checking sys/prctl.h presence... yes checking for sys/prctl.h... yes checking for library containing getaddrinfo_a... -lanl checking for library containing inet_pton... none required checking whether strnlen is declared... yes checking whether le16toh is declared... yes checking whether le32toh is declared... yes checking whether le64toh is declared... yes checking whether htole16 is declared... yes checking whether htole32 is declared... yes checking whether htole64 is declared... yes checking whether be16toh is declared... yes checking whether be32toh is declared... yes checking whether be64toh is declared... yes checking whether htobe16 is declared... yes checking whether htobe32 is declared... yes checking whether htobe64 is declared... yes checking whether bswap_16 is declared... yes checking whether bswap_32 is declared... yes checking whether bswap_64 is declared... yes checking for MSG_NOSIGNAL... yes checking for visibility attribute... yes checking for Berkeley DB C++ headers... /usr/include/db4/ checking for main in -ldb_cxx-4.8... yes checking miniupnpc/miniwget.h usability... no checking miniupnpc/miniwget.h presence... no checking for miniupnpc/miniwget.h... no checking miniupnpc/miniupnpc.h usability... no checking miniupnpc/miniupnpc.h presence... no checking for miniupnpc/miniupnpc.h... no checking miniupnpc/upnpcommands.h usability... no checking miniupnpc/upnpcommands.h presence... no checking for miniupnpc/upnpcommands.h... no checking miniupnpc/upnperrors.h usability... no checking miniupnpc/upnperrors.h presence... no checking for miniupnpc/upnperrors.h... no checking for QT... no checking for QT... no configure: WARNING: Qt dependencies not found; bitcoin-qt frontend will not be built checking whether to build Bitcoin Classic GUI... no (Qt5) checking for boostlib >= 1.20.0... yes checking whether the Boost::System library is available... yes checking for exit in -lboost_system... yes checking whether the Boost::Filesystem library is available... yes checking for exit in -lboost_filesystem... yes checking whether the Boost::Program_Options library is available... yes checking for exit in -lboost_program_options-mt... yes checking whether the Boost::Thread library is available... yes checking for exit in -lboost_thread... yes checking whether the Boost::Chrono library is available... yes checking for exit in -lboost_chrono-mt... yes checking whether the Boost::Unit_Test_Framework library is available... yes checking for dynamic linked boost test... yes checking for SSL... yes checking for CRYPTO... yes checking for EVENT... yes checking for EVENT_PTHREADS... yes checking for ZMQ... no configure: WARNING: libzmq version 4.x or greater not found, disabling checking openssl/ec.h usability... yes checking openssl/ec.h presence... yes checking for openssl/ec.h... yes checking whether to build bitcoind... yes checking whether to build utils (bitcoin-cli bitcoin-tx)... yes checking whether to build libraries... yes checking if ccache should be used... no checking if wallet should be enabled... yes checking whether to build with support for UPnP... no checking whether to build test_bitcoin... yes checking whether to reduce exports... no checking that generated files are newer than configure... done configure: creating ./config.status config.status: creating libbitcoinconsensus.pc config.status: creating Makefile config.status: creating src/Makefile config.status: creating share/setup.nsi config.status: creating share/qt/Info.plist config.status: creating src/test/buildenv.py config.status: creating qa/pull-tester/run-bitcoind-for-test.sh config.status: creating qa/pull-tester/tests_config.py config.status: creating qa/pull-tester/rpc-tests.py config.status: creating src/config/bitcoin-config.h config.status: executing depfiles commands config.status: executing libtool commands === configuring in src/secp256k1 (/usr/src/bitcoinclassic/src/secp256k1) configure: running /bin/sh ./configure --disable-option-checking '--prefix=/usr/local'  '--disable-shared' '--with-pic' '--with-bignum=no' '--enable-module-recovery' --cache-file=/dev/null --srcdir=. checking build system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu checking host system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c checking whether build environment is sane... yes checking for a thread-safe mkdir -p... /bin/mkdir -p checking for gawk... gawk checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes checking whether make supports nested variables... yes checking how to print strings... printf checking for style of include used by make... GNU checking for gcc... gcc checking whether the C compiler works... yes checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out checking for suffix of executables...  checking whether we are cross compiling... no checking for suffix of object files... o checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... none needed checking dependency style of gcc... gcc3 checking for a sed that does not truncate output... /bin/sed checking for grep that handles long lines and -e... /bin/grep checking for egrep... /bin/grep -E checking for fgrep... /bin/grep -F checking for ld used by gcc... /usr/bin/ld checking if the linker (/usr/bin/ld) is GNU ld... yes checking for BSD- or MS-compatible name lister (nm)... /usr/bin/nm -B checking the name lister (/usr/bin/nm -B) interface... BSD nm checking whether ln -s works... yes checking the maximum length of command line arguments... 1572864 checking whether the shell understands some XSI constructs... yes checking whether the shell understands "+="... yes checking how to convert x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu file names to x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu format... func_convert_file_noop checking how to convert x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu file names to toolchain format... func_convert_file_noop checking for /usr/bin/ld option to reload object files... -r checking for objdump... objdump checking how to recognize dependent libraries... pass_all checking for dlltool... no checking how to associate runtime and link libraries... printf %s\n checking for ar... ar checking for archiver @FILE support... @ checking for strip... strip checking for ranlib... ranlib checking command to parse /usr/bin/nm -B output from gcc object... ok checking for sysroot... no checking for mt... no checking if : is a manifest tool... no checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E checking for ANSI C header files... yes checking for sys/types.h... yes checking for sys/stat.h... yes checking for stdlib.h... yes checking for string.h... yes checking for memory.h... yes checking for strings.h... yes checking for inttypes.h... yes checking for stdint.h... yes checking for unistd.h... yes checking for dlfcn.h... yes checking for objdir... .libs checking if gcc supports -fno-rtti -fno-exceptions... no checking for gcc option to produce PIC... -fPIC -DPIC checking if gcc PIC flag -fPIC -DPIC works... yes checking if gcc static flag -static works... no checking if gcc supports -c -o file.o... yes checking if gcc supports -c -o file.o... (cached) yes checking whether the gcc linker (/usr/bin/ld -m elf_x86_64) supports shared libraries... yes checking dynamic linker characteristics... GNU/Linux ld.so checking how to hardcode library paths into programs... immediate checking whether stripping libraries is possible... yes checking if libtool supports shared libraries... yes checking whether to build shared libraries... no checking whether to build static libraries... yes checking whether make supports nested variables... (cached) yes checking for pkg-config... /usr/bin/pkg-config checking pkg-config is at least version 0.9.0... yes checking for ar... /usr/bin/ar checking for ranlib... /usr/bin/ranlib checking for strip... /usr/bin/strip checking for gcc... gcc checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... (cached) yes checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... (cached) none needed checking dependency style of gcc... (cached) gcc3 checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E checking whether gcc and cc understand -c and -o together... yes checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... (cached) none needed checking if gcc supports -std=c89 -pedantic -Wall -Wextra -Wcast-align -Wnested-externs -Wshadow -Wstrict-prototypes -Wno-unused-function -Wno-long-long -Wno-overlength-strings... yes checking if gcc supports -fvisibility=hidden... yes checking for __int128... yes checking for __builtin_expect... yes checking for x86_64 assembly availability... yes checking for CRYPTO... yes checking for main in -lcrypto... yes checking for EC functions in libcrypto... yes checking whether byte ordering is bigendian... no configure: Using assembly optimizations: x86_64 configure: Using field implementation: 64bit configure: Using bignum implementation: no configure: Using scalar implementation: 64bit configure: Using endomorphism optimizations: no configure: Building ECDH module: no configure: Building Schnorr signatures module: no configure: Building ECDSA pubkey recovery module: yes checking that generated files are newer than configure... done configure: creating ./config.status config.status: creating Makefile config.status: creating libsecp256k1.pc config.status: creating src/libsecp256k1-config.h config.status: executing depfiles commands config.status: executing libtool commands === configuring in src/univalue (/usr/src/bitcoinclassic/src/univalue) configure: running /bin/sh ./configure --disable-option-checking '--prefix=/usr/local'  '--disable-shared' '--with-pic' '--with-bignum=no' '--enable-module-recovery' --cache-file=/dev/null --srcdir=. checking whether make supports nested variables... yes checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c checking whether build environment is sane... yes checking for a thread-safe mkdir -p... /bin/mkdir -p checking for gawk... gawk checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes checking build system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu checking host system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu checking how to print strings... printf checking for style of include used by make... GNU checking for gcc... gcc checking whether the C compiler works... yes checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out checking for suffix of executables...  checking whether we are cross compiling... no checking for suffix of object files... o checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... none needed checking dependency style of gcc... gcc3 checking for a sed that does not truncate output... /bin/sed checking for grep that handles long lines and -e... /bin/grep checking for egrep... /bin/grep -E checking for fgrep... /bin/grep -F checking for ld used by gcc... /usr/bin/ld checking if the linker (/usr/bin/ld) is GNU ld... yes checking for BSD- or MS-compatible name lister (nm)... /usr/bin/nm -B checking the name lister (/usr/bin/nm -B) interface... BSD nm checking whether ln -s works... yes checking the maximum length of command line arguments... 1572864 checking whether the shell understands some XSI constructs... yes checking whether the shell understands "+="... yes checking how to convert x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu file names to x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu format... func_convert_file_noop checking how to convert x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu file names to toolchain format... func_convert_file_noop checking for /usr/bin/ld option to reload object files... -r checking for objdump... objdump checking how to recognize dependent libraries... pass_all checking for dlltool... no checking how to associate runtime and link libraries... printf %s\n checking for ar... ar checking for archiver @FILE support... @ checking for strip... strip checking for ranlib... ranlib checking command to parse /usr/bin/nm -B output from gcc object... ok checking for sysroot... no checking for mt... no checking if : is a manifest tool... no checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E checking for ANSI C header files... yes checking for sys/types.h... yes checking for sys/stat.h... yes checking for stdlib.h... yes checking for string.h... yes checking for memory.h... yes checking for strings.h... yes checking for inttypes.h... yes checking for stdint.h... yes checking for unistd.h... yes checking for dlfcn.h... yes checking for objdir... .libs checking if gcc supports -fno-rtti -fno-exceptions... no checking for gcc option to produce PIC... -fPIC -DPIC checking if gcc PIC flag -fPIC -DPIC works... yes checking if gcc static flag -static works... no checking if gcc supports -c -o file.o... yes checking if gcc supports -c -o file.o... (cached) yes checking whether the gcc linker (/usr/bin/ld -m elf_x86_64) supports shared libraries... yes checking dynamic linker characteristics... GNU/Linux ld.so checking how to hardcode library paths into programs... immediate checking whether stripping libraries is possible... yes checking if libtool supports shared libraries... yes checking whether to build shared libraries... no checking whether to build static libraries... yes checking for g++... g++ checking whether we are using the GNU C++ compiler... yes checking whether g++ accepts -g... yes checking dependency style of g++... gcc3 checking how to run the C++ preprocessor... g++ -E checking for ld used by g++... /usr/bin/ld -m elf_x86_64 checking if the linker (/usr/bin/ld -m elf_x86_64) is GNU ld... yes checking whether the g++ linker (/usr/bin/ld -m elf_x86_64) supports shared libraries... yes checking for g++ option to produce PIC... -fPIC -DPIC checking if g++ PIC flag -fPIC -DPIC works... yes checking if g++ static flag -static works... no checking if g++ supports -c -o file.o... yes checking if g++ supports -c -o file.o... (cached) yes checking whether the g++ linker (/usr/bin/ld -m elf_x86_64) supports shared libraries... yes checking dynamic linker characteristics... (cached) GNU/Linux ld.so checking how to hardcode library paths into programs... immediate checking that generated files are newer than configure... done configure: creating ./config.status config.status: creating Makefile config.status: creating pc/libunivalue.pc config.status: creating pc/libunivalue-uninstalled.pc config.status: creating univalue-config.h config.status: executing depfiles commands config.status: executing libtool commands Fixing libtool for -rpath problems. $

- Make:

sudo make

(At this point taking a coffee is advised)


- Install:

sudo make install

- Run:

This time in our folder and with our user (no sudo).

cd

nohup bitcoind -externalip=`wget --quiet -O- http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/public-ipv4` &

head -50 .bitcoin/debug.log

Notes:
-externalip is used to tell bitcoind which Public IP to advertise on the Bitcoin network. This is extremely important when running a full-node in EC2.
- To obtain the Public IP of our node we use a standard EC2 Meta-Data API call. It can be used as shown on this example. No adjustments needed. You can learn more about EC2 Meta-Data in here.

2016-04-13 13:31:36 Bitcoin version v0.12.0.0-84d82a8 (2016-04-06 12:21:13 +0100) 2016-04-13 13:31:36 InitParameterInteraction: parameter interaction: -externalip set -> setting -discover=0 2016-04-13 13:31:36 InitParameterInteraction: parameter interaction: -whitelistforcerelay=1 -> setting -whitelistrelay=1 2016-04-13 13:31:36 Using OpenSSL version OpenSSL 1.0.1k-fips 8 Jan 2015 2016-04-13 13:31:36 Using BerkeleyDB version Berkeley DB 4.8.30: (February 21, 2011) 2016-04-13 13:31:36 Default data directory /home/ec2-user/.bitcoin 2016-04-13 13:31:36 Using data directory /home/ec2-user/.bitcoin 2016-04-13 13:31:36 Using config file /home/ec2-user/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf 2016-04-13 13:31:36 Using at most 125 connections (1024 file descriptors available) 2016-04-13 13:31:36 Using 4 threads for script verification 2016-04-13 13:31:36 scheduler thread start 2016-04-13 13:31:36 HTTP: creating work queue of depth 16 2016-04-13 13:31:36 No rpcpassword set - using random cookie authentication 2016-04-13 13:31:36 Generated RPC authentication cookie /home/ec2-user/.bitcoin/.cookie 2016-04-13 13:31:36 HTTP: starting 4 worker threads 2016-04-13 13:31:36 Using wallet wallet.dat 2016-04-13 13:31:36 init message: Verifying wallet... 2016-04-13 13:31:36 CDBEnv::Open: LogDir=/home/ec2-user/.bitcoin/database ErrorFile=/home/ec2-user/.bitcoin/db.log 2016-04-13 13:31:36 Bound to [::]:8333 2016-04-13 13:31:36 Bound to 0.0.0.0:8333 2016-04-13 13:31:36 Cache configuration: 2016-04-13 13:31:36 * Using 2.0MiB for block index database 2016-04-13 13:31:36 * Using 32.5MiB for chain state database 2016-04-13 13:31:36 * Using 65.5MiB for in-memory UTXO set 2016-04-13 13:31:36 init message: Loading block index... 2016-04-13 13:31:36 Opening LevelDB in /home/ec2-user/.bitcoin/blocks/index 2016-04-13 13:31:36 Opened LevelDB successfully 2016-04-13 13:31:36 Using obfuscation key for /home/ec2-user/.bitcoin/blocks/index: 0000000000000000 2016-04-13 13:31:36 Opening LevelDB in /home/ec2-user/.bitcoin/chainstate 2016-04-13 13:31:36 Opened LevelDB successfully 2016-04-13 13:31:36 Using obfuscation key for /home/ec2-user/.bitcoin/chainstate: 0000000000000000 ...

Reference: https://github.com/bitcoinclassic/bitcoinclassic/blob/develop/doc/build-unix.md

How to transfer your DNS configuration to AWS Route 53

These are the steps for a simple DNS migration to AWS Route 53.

For our convenience, we have previously migrated our Internet Domain registration to Route 53 using these instructions (optional).

1- Create Hosted Zone

- On the Route 53 Console, click on "Create Hosted Zone" button.

- Enter your domain name (domenech.org in this example) and press "Create" button.

After a successful creation, the Zone Details will appear on screen and also the Name Servers for our domain. They will play an important role later on.

2- Obtain Zone File

There are three ways to populate our Hosted Zone: Route 53 API, Console and Import Zone File:

1. Importing a zone using API is for advanced users and is suggested for big DNS configurations. There are some tools out there to facilitate this task (Official documentation).
2. Importing a zone manually using Route 53 Console is easy but only for small DNS configurations.
3. Importing a zone using "Import Zone File" option on the Route 53 console is easy but relies on our ability to obtain the list of your current DNS server configuration.

A DNS Zone File is a plain text list of your current DNS configuration with all records and their values.

Import Zone File is the method we are going to use in this example. It ensures that no typos are introduced in the migration process and is a easy repeatable method.

Here below my DNS server configuration obtained from my current ISP using a Plesk Control Panel. There are all sorts of Control Panels and Service Providers. I suggest you to send a support request to your current ISP to get that information.

Zone file:

$ORIGIN domenech.org. $TTL 1h *.webmail.domenech.org. CNAME mail.domenech.org. blog.domenech.org. CNAME ghs.google.com. domenech.org.      A 46.17.142.13 domenech.org.      MX (10) mail.domenech.org. domenech.org.      MX (20) relay.celingest.es. domenech.org.      TXT v=spf1 include:celingest.es a mx ~all ftp.domenech.org.  CNAME domenech.org. imap.domenech.org. CNAME mail.domenech.org. ipv4.domenech.org. CNAME domenech-1821931935.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com. ipv6.domenech.org. CNAME dualstack.domenech-1821931935.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com. mail.domenech.org. A 46.17.142.13 pop.domenech.org.  CNAME mail.domenech.org. pop3.domenech.org. CNAME mail.domenech.org. smtp.domenech.org. CNAME mail.domenech.org. webmail.domenech.org. CNAME mail.domenech.org. www.domenech.org. CNAME domenech.org.

The file format is simple: Three columns with DNS entry name + entry type + values separated by spaces.

Notice the two special fields at the beginning of the list: $ORIGIN and $TTL. I had to introduce them manually.

$ORIGIN is our Internet Domain Name followed by "."

$TTL 1h is the default TTL we plan to use for each entry. You can easily change that value later for individual entries using the console where necessary.

No SOA or NS records: They have to be deleted from our list. They are already present in the Hosted Zone configuration.

3- Import Zone File

- Select the newly created Zone and click on "Go to Records Sets" button.

- Click on "Import Zone File" button and Paste the contents of your Zone File.

- Press "Import" button.

You will get a successful message after a couple of seconds. Otherwise, the console will tell you what was the error and on which line number was produced.

3- Test

The new Hosted Zone and their DNS entries are ready to use.

This is a concept that could be difficult to wrap our head around it: Route 53 is replicating all those changes in realtime across our DNS servers and this configuration is ready to use by anyone.

But, we haven't changed our Internet Domain configuration and therefore no one is connecting to our new DNS servers. That gives us a chance to properly test the transfer result before going Live.


Where are my new DNS servers?

Open your Hosted Zone using Route 53 console. Your new DNS servers for are under the Type: NS.

Use dig command to query your "old" and your "new" DNS servers and compare the result.

First, lets send the request to Internet to get our current Live configuration:

$ dig mail.domenech.org ; <<>> DiG 9.8.3-P1 <<>> mail.domenech.org ;; global options: +cmd ;; Got answer: ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 46712 ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0 ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;mail.domenech.org. IN A ;; ANSWER SECTION: mail.domenech.org. 59 IN A 46.17.142.13

In this example the DNS query was "mail.domenech.org" and the answer is IP 46.17.142.13

Next we perform the same query but this time we instruct dig to ask only to one of our new DNS servers (previously obtained from the Console):

$ dig mail.domenech.org @ns-1322.awsdns-37.org ; <<>> DiG 9.8.3-P1 <<>> mail.domenech.org @ns-1322.awsdns-37.org ;; global options: +cmd ;; Got answer: ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 64064 ;; flags: qr aa rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 4, ADDITIONAL: 0 ;; WARNING: recursion requested but not available ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;mail.domenech.org. IN A ;; ANSWER SECTION: mail.domenech.org. 3600 IN A 46.17.142.13 ;; AUTHORITY SECTION: domenech.org. 172800 IN NS ns-1322.awsdns-37.org. domenech.org. 172800 IN NS ns-1615.awsdns-09.co.uk. domenech.org. 172800 IN NS ns-238.awsdns-29.com. domenech.org. 172800 IN NS ns-912.awsdns-50.net.

The answer is a bit different but the key value, the IP address, is the same. That indicates that this DNS entry has been successfully transferred.

Also notice that the TTL is 59 seconds in the first query and 3600 seconds (1h) in the second query. That is because we have specified $TTL 1h in our Zone File and all the imported entries in Route 53 have this default value. You could change it on each entry manually using the Console or repeat the import process again with a different default TTL value.

4- Rollback plan before changing Live configuration

On the next step we will change our Internet Domain DNS configuration and tell Internet to use our new DNS servers. Before doing that it is suggested to lower our NS entry TTL to 1 hour.

- Access to your Hosted Zone, select the NS entry for your domain and click on the 1h Hour button (the value will be translated to 3600 seconds) and click on "Save Record Set" button.

This instructs other DNS servers connecting to ours to come back an hour later in order to find out if the Route 53 DNS servers are still valid. This give us the option to undo this configuration in the case something goes wrong. In the worst case scenario, the issue will last an hour (the TTL value).

5- Change Internet Domain configuration and bring Route 53 Live

This is the step where all the previous configuration is set in motion.

- Access to Route 53 Registered Domains, select the Internet Domain we plan to modify and click on "Add/Edit Name Servers".

- Write down the current DNS servers list in order to rollback this change if necessary.

- Introduce your new DNS servers obtained on step #3 (These shown here below are and example. Your servers names will probably differ) and click on the "Update" button.

A couple of minutes later (depending on the TTL set up on your former DNS servers) the change can be tested using dig.

$ dig domenech.org NS ; <<>> DiG 9.8.3-P1 <<>> domenech.org NS ;; global options: +cmd ;; Got answer: ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 29759 ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 4, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0 ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;domenech.org. IN NS ;; ANSWER SECTION: domenech.org. 3600 IN NS ns-1615.awsdns-09.co.uk. domenech.org. 3600 IN NS ns-912.awsdns-50.net. domenech.org. 3600 IN NS ns-1322.awsdns-37.org. domenech.org. 3600 IN NS ns-238.awsdns-29.com.

The new Route 53 servers are there and being used by anyone connection to our Internet Domain.

6- Post configuration tasks

Once we are happy and with everything tested we could bring up the TTL values. A higher TTL will improve our users experience and reduce Route 53 cost.

- Access to the NS entry and click twice on the "1d button" to select 172800 seconds (2 days).

7- Rollback

In case something went wrong we could set our former DNS servers in the Internet Domain configuration. Repeat step #5 but this time select your old DNS server list. This will bring your DNS configuration to the initial point once the TTL expires (1 hour in this example).

Certificación de Amazon Web Services: SysOps Administrator - Associate

En el pasado Re:Invent 2014 tuve la oportunidad de obtener mi segunda certificación de AWS: SysOps Administrator - Associate y de realizar la beta de la nueva certificación: AWS DevOps Engineer - Professional.


En el último año el roadmap ha cambiado sustancialmente:

Novedades:

- Ya no se menciona la posibilidad de obtener una certificación de nivel Master (a diferencia del año pasado).

- El nivel Professional de Developer y SysOps se extingue para fusionarse en una sola certificación: AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional.

Examen para AWS Certified SysOps Administrator - Associate

Os invito a intentarlo. Incluso para ingenieros cuyo cometido es mayoritariamente trabajo de sistemas y que aun no se han puesto al día en scripting, OpsWorks y Cloud Formation. Es un examen asequible.

Mi consejo es utilizar nuestra cuenta de Kryterion (la que obtuvimos para examinarnos de Solution Architect) y contratar un examen de prueba por $20 para averiguar en que nivel nos encontramos.

Nueva certificación AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional

La beta estuvo disponible en Re:Invent 2014 y ahora debemos esperar a que la versión final sea lanzada, probablemente en Marzo 2015. Durante el proceso de beta, AWS prueba el examen con un nutrido grupo de usuarios de servicios AWS y empleados de la compañía con el fin de averiguar la nota de corte y las preguntas que son confusas o causan quejas de los examinados. Con esa información se elabora el examen final y se ofrece, más tarde, al público.

Es un examen difícil, como corresponde a un nivel Professional. Pero con el actual roadmap no cabe duda que debemos prepararnos para esta certificación si queremos seguir progresando como especialistas en la tecnología de AWS. Esperaremos al lanzamiento final para conocer el contenido final de esta certificación y que los servicios de ayuda on-line se pongan al día.

Nota: Para poder optar a esta certificación existe el requisito previo de estar en posesión de una certificación activa de Certified Developer o de Certified SysOps. Estas certificaciones expiran a los dos años de ser obtenidas. Tened esto en cuenta para vuestros planes de certificación.

How to transfer your Internet Domain to AWS Route 53

These are the steps to transfer an Internet domain (domenech.org in this example) to AWS Route 53.

This is not a DNS configuration migration. This is only to make AWS our Domain registrar. 

1- Check your current domain registration information

Make sure that your contact details are up to date and that you have all you need to administer your domain configuration (valid email addresses, the domain is not about to expire, the domain is not locked, etc.)

2- Request the Authorisation Code to your current Registrar

The goal of the whole process is to transfer the registrar authority from one registrar (your current) to a new one (AWS). The method to authenticate that this is an authorised request is the Authorisation Code. 

Each provider has a different method to obtain this code. I.e: These are the instructions for GoDaddy. 

3- Initiate the Transfer Domain Wizard

- On the Route 53 Console: Click on "Registered Domains" and "Transfer Domain" button.

- Type your Internet Domain name and select its TLD (domenech.org in this case).

4- Authorisation Code and your current DNS server

Enter here the Authorisation Code you have received from your current Registrar.

Enter here your current DNS servers names. There is room for 4 server but 2 servers is the minimum required.

Remember: These are your current DNS servers. No change here. We are migrating only the Internet Domain registrar of your domain.

5- Fulfil your contact details

6- Review & Purchase

7- noreply@domainnameverification.net email

The process has been initiated and now should be on pending status.

You can track it on the Route 53 Console Dashboard:

After a couple of days you will receive an email from noreply@domainnameverification.net asking you to approve the transfer. Follow those instructions.

8- Done. Your Internet Domain is now under Amazon Web Services control

9- Test

A good way to test that Internet got it right is to perform a "Who Is" from a public service like http://www.whois.net and query your domain.

Here below the current output of that query for domenech.org. Notice that my personal details are obfuscated by a third party registrar. AWS has delegated the domain registration to http://www.gandi.net/whois and this service includes information obfuscation without any additional cost.

Domain Name:DOMENECH.ORG Domain ID: D85970450-LROR Creation Date: 2002-04-25T19:34:26Z Updated Date: 2014-10-25T00:20:22Z Registry Expiry Date: 2016-04-25T19:34:26Z Sponsoring Registrar:Gandi SAS (R42-LROR) Sponsoring Registrar IANA ID: 81 WHOIS Server:  Referral URL:  Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited Registrant ID:JD10503-GANDI Registrant Name:Juan Domenech Registrant Organization: Registrant Street: Whois Protege / Obfuscated whois Registrant Street: Gandi, 63-65 boulevard Massena Registrant City:Paris Registrant State/Province: Registrant Postal Code:75013 Registrant Country:FR Registrant Phone:+33.170377666 Registrant Phone Ext:  Registrant Fax: +33.143730576 Registrant Fax Ext:  Registrant Email:a517c25f3bd3ea62979ed4e973f86c48-2042264@contact.gandi.net Admin ID:JD10502-GANDI Admin Name:Juan Domenech Admin Organization: Admin Street: Whois Protege / Obfuscated whois Admin Street: Gandi, 63-65 boulevard Massena Admin City:Paris Admin State/Province: Admin Postal Code:75013 Admin Country:FR Admin Phone:+33.170377666 Admin Phone Ext:  Admin Fax: +33.143730576 Admin Fax Ext:  Admin Email:254445e386172ccaea82940961ab1cf2-2042260@contact.gandi.net Tech ID:JD10504-GANDI Tech Name:Juan Domenech Tech Organization: Tech Street: Whois Protege / Obfuscated whois Tech Street: Gandi, 63-65 boulevard Massena Tech City:Paris Tech State/Province: Tech Postal Code:75013 Tech Country:FR Tech Phone:+33.170377666 Tech Phone Ext:  Tech Fax: +33.143730576 Tech Fax Ext:  Tech Email:0d4fec3c29117f4dd0034f2b144b1ee4-2042268@contact.gandi.net Name Server:NS1.CELINGEST.ES Name Server:NS2.CELINGEST.ES Name Server:NS3.CELINGEST.ES Name Server:  Name Server:  Name Server:  Name Server:  Name Server:  Name Server:  Name Server:  Name Server:  Name Server:  Name Server:  DNSSEC:Unsigned

Install Official Bitcoin Wallet On AWS EC2 Linux AMI (or RedHat / CentOS)

This article is now obsolete.

Please refer to the newer version:

http://blog.domenech.org/2016/04/how-to-install-bitcoin-classic-on-amazon-linux-aws-ec2.html

Update 2014-04-09: Using bitcoin-0.9.1 with Heartbleed patch.

You should know that RedHat, CentOS or Amazon Linux AMI are not the best choice when it comes to use Bitcoin wallet or other Bitcoin related activities. If you are looking for the easy path you should use Ubuntu Linux or Microsoft Windows as platform. The community is much bigger there.

But if you are determined like me to have your Bitcoin Wallet in the Cloud here you have some instructions. They apply to RedHat and its branches like AWS Linux AMI and CentOS.

Launch a EC2 Instance using Amazon Linux AMI HVM. In this example is ami-b521dfc2 (Ireland). I suggest to use the HVM version to maintain compatibility among different EC2 Instance Types.

All command are executed using ec2-user


Update & Reboot

sudo yum update sudo reboot

PU_IAS6 Repository & Berkeley DB4.8

We will need Berkeley DB 4.8 but our OS comes with 4.7. Let's use PUIAS repository to get the RPMs with need.
Create the repository config file /etc/yum.repos.d/puias-computational.repo and paste into it the repository definition.

sudo vim /etc/yum.repos.d/puias-computational.repo

[puias-computational] name=PUIAS Computational baseurl=http://puias.math.ias.edu/data/puias/computational/6/x86_64/ enabled=1 gpgcheck=0

sudo yum install db48 db48-devel

Boost-Devel

sudo yum install boost-devel

OpenSSL

We need Elliptic Curve Encryption for Bitcoin to work. For some reason it is missing in RHEL distributions. We have to patch around that.

Download & Install OpenSSL source

wget https://www.openssl.org/source/openssl-1.0.1f.tar.gz tar xvfz openssl-1.0.1f.tar.gz cd openssl-1.0.1f export CFLAGS="-fPIC" ./config shared

Disable man pages

vim Makefile

Locate a line with this content "install: all install_docs install_sw" (Line #543) and remove "install_docs" command from it.
The final result should look like this:

... ... ...         @$(MAKE) TAR='$(TAR)' TARFLAGS='$(TARFLAGS)' tar dist_pem_h:         (cd crypto/pem; $(MAKE) -e $(BUILDENV) pem.h; $(MAKE) clean) install: all install_sw install_sw:         @$(PERL) $(TOP)/util/mkdir-p.pl $(INSTALL_PREFIX)$(INSTALLTOP)/bin \                 $(INSTALL_PREFIX)$(INSTALLTOP)/$(LIBDIR) \ ... ... ...

Make & Install

make depend make all sudo -E make install

If we are errors free, continue copying the following files:

sudo cp /usr/local/ssl/lib/pkgconfig/libssl.pc /usr/lib64/pkgconfig/ sudo cp /usr/local/ssl/lib/pkgconfig/libcrypto.pc /usr/lib64/pkgconfig/ sudo cp /usr/local/ssl/lib/libssl.so.1.0.0 /usr/lib64/ sudo cp /usr/local/ssl/lib/libcrypto.so.1.0.0 /usr/lib64/ cd

Bitcoin

Official Bitcoin download source & Install

cd wget https://bitcoin.org/bin/0.9.1/bitcoin-0.9.1-linux.tar.gz tar xvfz bitcoin-0.9.0-linux.tar.gz cd bitcoin-0.9.0-linux/src/ tar xvfz bitcoin-0.9.0.tar.gz cd bitcoin-0.9.0/ ./configure

If everything goes well you should have and output like this one:

$ ./configure  checking build system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu checking host system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c checking whether build environment is sane... yes checking for a thread-safe mkdir -p... /bin/mkdir -p checking for gawk... gawk checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes checking whether to enable maintainer-specific portions of Makefiles... yes checking whether make supports nested variables... yes checking for g++... g++ checking whether the C++ compiler works... yes checking for C++ compiler default output file name... a.out checking for suffix of executables...  checking whether we are cross compiling... no checking for suffix of object files... o checking whether we are using the GNU C++ compiler... yes checking whether g++ accepts -g... yes checking for style of include used by make... GNU checking dependency style of g++... gcc3 checking for gcc... gcc checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... none needed checking dependency style of gcc... gcc3 checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E checking how to run the C++ preprocessor... g++ -E checking for gcc... gcc checking whether we are using the GNU Objective C compiler... no checking whether gcc accepts -g... no checking dependency style of gcc... gcc3 checking for g++... g++ checking whether we are using the GNU Objective C++ compiler... no checking whether g++ accepts -g... no checking for a sed that does not truncate output... /bin/sed checking for ar... /usr/bin/ar checking for ranlib... /usr/bin/ranlib checking for strip... /usr/bin/strip checking for gcov... /usr/bin/gcov checking for lcov... no checking for java... /usr/bin/java checking for genhtml... no checking for git... no checking for ccache... no checking for xgettext... no checking for hexdump... /usr/bin/hexdump checking for pkg-config... /usr/bin/pkg-config checking pkg-config is at least version 0.9.0... yes checking for grep that handles long lines and -e... /bin/grep checking for egrep... /bin/grep -E checking for ANSI C header files... yes checking for sys/types.h... yes checking for sys/stat.h... yes checking for stdlib.h... yes checking for string.h... yes checking for memory.h... yes checking for strings.h... yes checking for inttypes.h... yes checking for stdint.h... yes checking for unistd.h... yes checking whether byte ordering is bigendian... no checking if compiler needs -Werror to reject unknown flags... no checking for the pthreads library -lpthreads... no checking whether pthreads work without any flags... no checking whether pthreads work with -Kthread... no checking whether pthreads work with -kthread... no checking for the pthreads library -llthread... no checking whether pthreads work with -pthread... yes checking for joinable pthread attribute... PTHREAD_CREATE_JOINABLE checking if more special flags are required for pthreads... no checking for PTHREAD_PRIO_INHERIT... yes checking for special C compiler options needed for large files... no checking for _FILE_OFFSET_BITS value needed for large files... no checking whether the linker accepts -Wl,--large-address-aware... no checking whether C++ compiler accepts -Wstack-protector... yes checking whether C++ compiler accepts -fstack-protector-all... yes checking whether C++ compiler accepts -fPIE... yes checking whether C++ preprocessor accepts -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2... yes checking whether C++ preprocessor accepts -U_FORTIFY_SOURCE... yes checking whether the linker accepts -Wl,--dynamicbase... no checking whether the linker accepts -Wl,--nxcompat... no checking whether the linker accepts -Wl,-z,relro... yes checking whether the linker accepts -Wl,-z,now... yes checking whether the linker accepts -pie... yes checking stdio.h usability... yes checking stdio.h presence... yes checking for stdio.h... yes checking for stdlib.h... (cached) yes checking for unistd.h... (cached) yes checking for strings.h... (cached) yes checking for sys/types.h... (cached) yes checking for sys/stat.h... (cached) yes checking for MSG_NOSIGNAL... yes checking for Berkeley DB C++ headers... /usr/include/db4/ checking for main in -ldb_cxx-4.8... yes checking miniupnpc/miniwget.h usability... no checking miniupnpc/miniwget.h presence... no checking for miniupnpc/miniwget.h... no checking miniupnpc/miniupnpc.h usability... no checking miniupnpc/miniupnpc.h presence... no checking for miniupnpc/miniupnpc.h... no checking miniupnpc/upnpcommands.h usability... no checking miniupnpc/upnpcommands.h presence... no checking for miniupnpc/upnpcommands.h... no checking miniupnpc/upnperrors.h usability... no checking miniupnpc/upnperrors.h presence... no checking for miniupnpc/upnperrors.h... no checking for boostlib >= 1.20.0... yes checking whether the Boost::System library is available... yes checking for exit in -lboost_system... yes checking whether the Boost::Filesystem library is available... yes checking for exit in -lboost_filesystem... yes checking whether the Boost::Program_Options library is available... yes checking for exit in -lboost_program_options-mt... yes checking whether the Boost::Thread library is available... yes checking for exit in -lboost_thread... yes checking whether the Boost::Chrono library is available... yes checking for exit in -lboost_chrono-mt... yes checking whether the Boost::Unit_Test_Framework library is available... yes checking for dynamic linked boost test... yes checking for SSL... yes checking for CRYPTO... yes checking for PROTOBUF... no configure: WARNING: libprotobuf not found; bitcoin-qt frontend will not be built checking whether to build bitcoind... yes checking whether to build bitcoin-cli... yes checking whether to build Bitcoin Core GUI... no (Qt) checking for operating system IPv6 support... yes checking if ccache should be used... no checking if wallet should be enabled... yes checking whether to build with support for IPv6... yes checking whether to build with support for UPnP... no checking whether to build test_bitcoin... yes configure: creating ./config.status config.status: creating Makefile config.status: creating src/Makefile config.status: creating src/test/Makefile config.status: creating src/qt/Makefile config.status: creating src/qt/test/Makefile config.status: creating share/setup.nsi config.status: creating share/qt/Info.plist config.status: creating qa/pull-tester/run-bitcoind-for-test.sh config.status: creating qa/pull-tester/build-tests.sh config.status: creating src/bitcoin-config.h config.status: executing depfiles commands $

If it does not, review all the previous steps and repeat.

Make, Install & Execute (Note "d" after bitcoin. We use Bitcoin wallet as daemon)

make sudo make install bitcoind

Expected output:

$ bitcoind Error: To use the "-server" option, you must set a rpcpassword in the configuration file: /home/ec2-user/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf It is recommended you use the following random password: rpcuser=bitcoinrpc rpcpassword=abcdabcdabcdabcdabcdabcdabcdabcdabcdabcdabcdabcd (you do not need to remember this password) The username and password MUST NOT be the same. If the file does not exist, create it with owner-readable-only file permissions. It is also recommended to set alertnotify so you are notified of problems; for example: alertnotify=echo %s | mail -s "Bitcoin Alert" admin@foo.com $

Bitcoind is telling us that we need a minimal configuration file to start with. With the first execution the .bitcoin folder is automatically created under our user directory.

cd cd .bitcoin vim bitcoin.conf

You can begin with this basic configuration file (Manual page).

server=1 daemon=1 rpcuser=<A LONG & UNIQUE USERNAME HERE> rpcpassword=<A VERY GOOD PASSWORD HERE>

Let's try again:

bitcoind

And the expected result on console:

Bitcoin server starting

and now the debug.log file should be moving. We can see the initialization process and messages like these:

2014-04-08 18:34:33 Pre-allocating up to position 0x100000 in rev00000.dat 2014-04-08 18:34:33 UpdateTip: new best=00000000839a8e6886ab5951d76f411475428afc90947ee320161bbf18eb6048  height=1  log2_work=33.000022  tx=2  da te=2009-01-09 02:54:25 progress=0.000000 2014-04-08 18:34:33 ProcessBlock: ACCEPTED 2014-04-08 18:34:33 UpdateTip: new best=000000006a625f06636b8bb6ac7b960a8d03705d1ace08b1a19da3fdcc99ddbd  height=2  log2_work=33.584985  tx=3  da te=2009-01-09 02:55:44 progress=0.000000 2014-04-08 18:34:33 ProcessBlock: ACCEPTED 2014-04-08 18:34:33 UpdateTip: new best=0000000082b5015589a3fdf2d4baff403e6f0be035a5d9742c1cae6295464449  height=3  log2_work=34.000022  tx=4  da te=2009-01-09 03:02:53 progress=0.000000 2014-04-08 18:34:33 ProcessBlock: ACCEPTED

This is our wallet loading and verifying all the Bitcoin blockchain. When the process is complete your wallet will become a node of the Bitcoin network and will help validating Bitcoin transactions. It could take more than 24 hours for the process to complete. You can learn more about this here.
There is a way to speed up this process by downloading a Torrent file. More details at the end of this post.

You can issue commands to interact with the daemon. For instance:

bitcoind getblockcount

to get the number of blocks imported so far. Type bitcoind help for the whole list.


Initializing Blockchain database using Torrent

bitcoind stop sudo yum install transmission-cli cd ~/.bitcoin transmission-cli https://bitcoin.org/bin/blockchain/bootstrap.dat.torrent bitcoind -loadblock=~/.bitcoin/bootstrap.dat

Torrent File ReadMe.txt

This article is now obsolete.

Please refer to the newer version:

http://blog.domenech.org/2016/04/how-to-install-bitcoin-classic-on-amazon-linux-aws-ec2.html