### This article is a technical article intended for those administrating STEEM servers, including seed nodes, witnesses, and RPC nodes. In layman terms, this article is explaining a piece of software written by myself designed to assist others with setting up STEEM servers.

<center>![](https://i.imgur.com/XOsLHJQ.png)</center>
<center>Cardboard Box by Hay Kranen / Public Domain</center>

Many people use my docker image, [Steem-in-a-box](https://steemit.com/steem/@someguy123/steem-in-a-box-deploy-a-new-seed-witness-or-rpc-server-with-a-one-liner) for deploying their STEEM servers, and it's changed a little since it was first introduced.

Steem-in-a-box uses Docker to isolate the STEEM client, preventing version conflicts, and also allowing for binaries which work on any Linux distribution, since it runs within a compact Ubuntu16.04 docker container.

**DISCLAIMER: Sysadmins, If you have any custom iptables rules, Docker can and WILL interfere with them. [Read about it here](https://fralef.me/docker-and-iptables.html)**

In this article, I will explain

1. Installing Steem-in-a-box
2. Using it for a SEED
3. Using it for a Witness
4. Upgrading existing Steem-in-a-box installs

# Installation

Installation is the same as the original, except now we have a binary image.

**Be aware that docker is a virtualisation technology, which means it's completely safe to run each command as root, since the container will be fully isolated from your system once it's running.**

First, install docker if you don't already have it:

```
apt update && apt install curl git
curl https://get.docker.com | sh
```

Now, download Steem-in-a-box from my Github:

```
git clone https://github.com/Someguy123/steem-docker.git
cd steem-docker
```

The core of Steem-in-a-Box is `run.sh`. This is a *BASH* script which abstracts all of the docker magic, making it easy to deploy a docker-ized STEEM container, without needing to fully understand docker.

Run the following command to download the latest copy of STEEM from my DockerHub:

```
./run.sh install
```

Now you should have a ready-to-go Steem-in-a-box. Let's configure it

# Configure for a seed

A seed is a type of STEEM node which distributes blocks, and broadcasts transactions to other nodes on the network. It's similar to a *Bitcoin Full/Supernode*.

Steem-in-a-box comes preconfigured as a seed, and will automatically attempt to expose PORT 2001 to the world.

**Optional: Change the Steem-in-a-box seed port**

If for some reason, you don't want to use 2001, you can change this. Edit the file `data/witness_node_data_dir/config.ini`, and change 2001 to some other port, let's say 2005

```
p2p-endpoint = 0.0.0.0:2005
```

You'll also need to create a file in the same directory as `run.sh`, called `.env`, this is a file used by Steem-in-a-box to determine custom settings for docker. Put the following in the file:

```
PORTS=2005
```

This tells it to forward port 2005 from docker, to your public IP address.

#  Configure for a Witness

A witness is a special type of STEEM node which produces blocks, similar to a *miner*. You can read more about what a witness does in my article: [Seriously, what is a STEEM witness? Why should I care? How do I become one? (Answer)
](https://steemit.com/witness-category/@someguy123/seriously-what-is-a-witness-why-should-i-care-how-do-i-become-one-answer)


To start, create a file in the same directory as `run.sh`, called `.env`, this is a file used by Steem-in-a-box to determine custom settings for docker. Put the following in the file:

```
PORTS=
DOCKER_NAME=witness
```

By leaving the PORTS blank, this prevents it attempting to forward any P2P ports. We also change the name of the docker container, this prevents confusion when you're managing both a seed and a witness, as the container will be correctly name "witness".

By setting up a witness, I assume that you're aware of the security concerns, and basic procedures for running a witness, so I will explain them only lightly.

Edit `data/witness_node_data_dir/config.ini`, disable the p2p-endpoint, and fill out your witness details. **By default I already disable account_history and all of the other plugins/apis not useful for witnesses/seeds**

```
# p2p-endpoint = 
witness = "someguy123"
private-key = 5JiHZCzXmAhyezYrvSdBu8587YVPPvAnCp5Nx14tJPzGx6MDg4M
```

# Starting Steem-in-a-box

Once you've configured Steem-in-a-box to your requirements, you may start the node with:

```
./run.sh start
```

You can check the status of it with `./run.sh status`, and `./run.sh logs`

You should see the node syncing in the logs. Once it's fully synced, you're ready to go!

# Upgrading an existing Steem-in-a-box

If you're running an older version of Steem-in-a-box, you'll need to pull in the latest changes. Back up your `config.ini` before doing this, as it may get damaged.

```
cd steem-docker
git pull
```

Once you've pulled in the latest changes, you can then upgrade the docker image:

```
./run.sh install
```

Once your docker image is upgraded, you will need to stop the existing node

```
./run.sh stop
```

Destroy the original image, so that it may be replaced by the updated version of STEEM. The default container is called `seed`, regardless of whether it's a seed, witness or an rpc node. If you've got a customized `.env` file, or you've modified `run.sh`, take that into account.

```
docker rm seed
```

Now that you've cleaned up, you can start the system again:

```
./run.sh start
```

Make sure it's syncing with

```
./run.sh logs
```

Once it's done syncing, you can enter the wallet to confirm the version:

```
./run.sh wallet

new >>> about

{
  "client_version": "v0.15.0",
  "steem_revision": "3379b5be8fa1567ece35beab1c8af1761d5d4e00",
  "steem_revision_age": "4 days ago",
  "fc_revision": "636d4530e3ac9e37040d43f1a1ff56caffb38166",
  "fc_revision_age": "33 days ago",
  "compile_date": "compiled on Nov  6 2016 at 02:33:51",
  "boost_version": "1.58",
  "openssl_version": "OpenSSL 1.0.2g  1 Mar 2016",
  "build": "linux 64-bit"
}
```

If you see the updated version, this means you've successfully upgraded your STEEM node :)

#### Steem-in-a-box is an open source project, released under the GNU AGPL 3.0, available at https://github.com/Someguy123/steem-docker
#### Golos-in-a-box is also available, and works exactly the same, but for the GOLOS (голос) network, https://github.com/Someguy123/golos-docker

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