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Setup a new host on Linux

This guide will walk you through setting up hostd on Linux. At the end of this guide, you should have the following:

• Installed Sia hostd software

• Functional hostd Node

• Created a hostd wallet

Pre-requisites

To ensure you will not run into any issues with running hostd it is recommended your system meets the following requirements:

• Operating System Compatibility: hostd is supported on the following Linux versions:

  • Trixie (Debian 13)

  • Bookworm (Debian 12)

  • Bullseye (Debian 11)

  • Plucky (Ubuntu 25.04)

  • Noble (Ubuntu 24.04)

  • Jammy (Ubuntu 22.04)

• System Updates: Ensure that your Linux system is up to date with the latest system updates, as these updates can contain important security fixes and improvements.

• Hardware Requirements: A stable setup that meets the following specifications is recommended. Not meeting these requirements may result in fewer contracts from renters or the loss of collateral.

  • A quad-core CPU

  • 8GB of RAM

  • 256 GB SSD for hostd

    • 10 GB per 1 TB hosted for database storage

  • At least 4TB of HDD storage for renter data

• Network Access: hostd requires a stable internet connection and open network access to store and retrieve data on the Sia network.

Install hostd

Download the latest version of hostd for your operating system from the official website. For this guide, we'll be downloading the Linux version of hostd.

1. Open a terminal and download the latest version of hostd for your operating system.

AMD64

wget https://sia.tech/downloads/latest/hostd_linux_amd64.zip

ARM64

1. Now that we have downloaded hostd, we can unzip and extract the hostd binary to our /usr/local/bin directory

AMD64

unzip -j hostd_linux_amd64.zip hostd &&\
sudo mv -t /usr/local/bin hostd &&\
rm -rf hostd_linux_amd64.zip

ARM64

1. Create a new folder called hostd. This will hold all the runtime files hostd generates and uses.

   mkdir /path/to/hostd/folder

Configuring hostd

hostd uses BIP-39 12-word recovery phrases. It does not support legacy 28/29-word siad seeds.

1. Before running the hostd configuration wizard, make sure to cd into the hostd runtime folder you created in the last section. Then run the hostd configuration wizard. This will generate a hostd.yml file that is used by hostd on start-up.

   cd /path/to/hostd/folder
   hostd config

Start hostd

1. Once you have completed the configuration wizard, you can now start hostd.

   cd /path/to/hostd/folder
   hostd

   

Accessing the UI

For users with a desktop environment, you can open a browser to http://localhost:9980 to access the hostd UI.

If you do not have a desktop environment:

1. Find your server's LAN IP using ip addr, ifconfig, etc.

2. Switch to another computer in your LAN and open the browser

3. Type your LAN IP followed by :9980 in the address bar (e.g. http://192.168.1.50:9980)

hostd login

Updating

It is very important to keep your host up to date. New versions of hostd are released regularly and contain bug fixes and performance improvements.

To update:

1. Stop hostd.

2. Download the latest version of hostd.

AMD64

wget https://sia.tech/downloads/latest/hostd_linux_amd64.zip

ARM64

1. Unzip and replace hostd with the new version.

AMD64

unzip -j hostd_linux_amd64.zip hostd &&\
sudo mv -t /usr/local/bin hostd &&\
rm -rf hostd_linux_amd64.zip

ARM64

1. Start hostd.

   cd /path/to/hostd/folder
   hostd

Congratulations, you have successfully updated your version of hostd!