Basic node management

Start and stop your node, test whether your blockchain is downloaded. Backup your keys and chain data. Create an account, check your AXL balance, get AXL tokens from the faucet.

Prerequisites

• Configure your environment as per CLI configuration and Node configuration.
• Install lz4
• Ensure AXELARD_HOME variable is set in your current session. See https://docs.axelar.dev/node/config-node#home-directory (example AXELARD_HOME=“$HOME/.axelar”).

Start your Axelar node

You may wish to redirect log output to a file (your command will be launched in background):

$AXELARD_HOME/bin/axelard start --home $AXELARD_HOME >> $AXELARD_HOME/logs/axelard.log 2>&1 &

View your logs in real time:

tail -f $AXELARD_HOME/logs/axelard.log

Test whether your blockchain is downloaded

Eventually your Axelar node will download the entire Axelar blockchain and exit catching_up mode. At that time your logs will show a new block added to the blockchain every 5 seconds.

You can test whether your Axelar node has exited catching_up mode:

$AXELARD_HOME/bin/axelard status

Look for the field catching_up:

• true: you are still downloading the blockchain.
• false: you have finished downloading the blockchain.

Stop your Axelar node

Stop your currently running Axelar node:

pkill -f "axelard start"

Check your Axelar node status

ps aux | grep "axelard start"

No process should be running.

Backup and restore your node and validator keys

Each time you start your Axelar node axelard will look for the following files in $AXELARD_HOME/config:

• node_key.json : The p2p identity of your node. Back this up if this is a seed node.
• priv_validator_key.json : Validator’s Tendermint consensus key. Back this up if this is a validator node.

These files will be created if they do not already exist. You can restore them from a backup simply by placing them in $AXELARD_HOME/config before starting your node.

Backup your chain data

Backup your entire node’s state simply by copying the $AXELARD_HOME directory:

cp -r $AXELARD_HOME ${AXELARD_HOME}_backup.$(date +"%Y%m%d_%H%M%S")

Create an account

$AXELARD_HOME/bin/axelard keys add my_account --home $AXELARD_HOME

Learn your address

The public address of your account my_account was printed to stdout when you created it. You can display the address at any time:

$AXELARD_HOME/bin/axelard keys show validator -a --home $AXELARD_HOME

Check your AXL balance

Let {MY_ADDRESS} denote the address of your my_account account.

$AXELARD_HOME/bin/axelard q bank balances {MY_ADDRESS}

If this is a new account then you should see no token balances.

Get AXL tokens from the faucet

Testnets: Go to the Axelar testnet faucet and send some free AXL testnet tokens to {MY_ADDRESS}:

• Testnet Faucet