Ubuntu

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

Installed the hostd software
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:

Network Access: hostd needs a stable internet connection and open network access in order to store and retrieve data on the Sia network.
Operating System Compatibility: hostd is supported on the following Ubuntu versions:
- Noble (Ubuntu 24.04)
- Mantic (Ubuntu 23.10)
- Jammiy (Ubuntu 22.04)
- Focal (Ubuntu 20.04)
System Updates: Ensure that Debian is up to date with the latest system updates, 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 preventing slabs from uploading and can lead to a loss of data.
- A quad-core CPU
- 8GB of RAM
- An SSD with at least 128GB of free space.

Install `hostd` Using the `apt` repository

Before you install hostd for the first time on a new machine, you need to set up the Sia apt repository. Afterward, you can install and update hostd using apt.

1. Set up the Sia apt repository by copying and pasting the following commands into your terminal:

sudo curl -fsSL https://linux.sia.tech/ubuntu/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/siafoundation.gpg
sudo chmod 644 /usr/share/keyrings/siafoundation.gpg
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/siafoundation.gpg] https://linux.sia.tech/ubuntu $(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME") main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/siafoundation.list
sudo apt update

2. Install hostd

sudo apt install hostd

3. Verify hostd was installed successfully

Run the following command to see the version of hostd that was installed:

hostd version

Configure `hostd`

After installing hostd, you will need to configure it with a wallet seed and a password to unlock the web interface. There is an interactive configuration process that you can start by running the following command.

sudo mkdir /var/lib/hostd
cd /var/lib/hostd
sudo hostd config

This will start an interactive configuration process. You will be asked to generate or recover a wallet seed and set a password to unlock the web interface.

You will not see anything when you type in your seed phrase or unlock password. Press enter after typing each one.

Start `hostd`

Now that you have installed and configured hostd, you can start it by running the following command:

sudo systemctl enable --now hostd

Updating `hostd`

New versions of hostd are released regularly and contain bug fixes and performance improvements.

To update:

Stop the hostd service.

sudo systemctl stop hostd

Upgrade hostd using the apt package manager.

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade hostd

Start hostd service.

sudo systemctl start hostd

Next Steps

Now that you have hostd installed and running, you can start using it to store and retrieve data on the Sia network. You can access the web interface by navigating to http://127.0.0.1:9980 in your web browser. If you installed hostd on a remote machine or a server, you will need to create an SSH tunnel to access the web interface.