Debian

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

Installed the renterd software
Created a renterd wallet

Pre-requisites

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

Network Access: renterd needs a stable internet connection and open network access in order to store and retrieve data on the Sia network.
Operating System Compatibility: renterd is supported on the following Debian versions:
- Bookworm (Debian 12)
- Bullseye (Debian 11)
- Buster (Debian 10)
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
- 8 GB of RAM
- An SSD with at least 128GB of free space.

To ensure proper functionality, we are recommending 8 GB RAM. This is because renterd will keep full slabs in memory when uploading. A full slab is 120MB, and a single upload may hold two or three slabs in memory. However, it is possible to run renterd with less RAM than this, and it may work fine depending on the use case.

Install `renterd` Using the `apt` repository

Before you install renterd for the first time on a new machine, you need to set up the Sia apt repository. Afterward, you can install and update renterd 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/debian/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/debian $(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME") main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/siafoundation.list
sudo apt update

If you use a derivative distro, such as Kali Linux, you may need to substitute the part of this command that prints the version codename with the corresponding Debian release:

$(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME")

Replace this part with the codename of the corresponding Debian release, such as bookworm.

2. Install renterd

sudo apt install renterd

3. Verify renterd was installed successfully

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

renterd version

Configure `renterd`

After installing renterd, 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/renterd
cd /var/lib/renterd
sudo renterd 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 `renterd`

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

sudo systemctl start renterd

Updating `renterd`

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

To update:

Stop the renterd service.

sudo systemctl stop renterd

Upgrade renterd using the apt package manager.

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade renterd

Start renterd service.

sudo systemctl start renterd

Next Steps

Now that you have renterd 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 renterd on a remote machine or a server, you will need to create an SSH tunnel to access the web interface.