Usage » Administration

Disk

Custom profile location

By default, twisterd will create a profile directory on the same drive where it is launched.

If you are using a single-board device to run twisterd with default startup options, this could lead to many overwrite operations on the built-in SSD storage and reduce its lifespan. To resolve this, launch ./twisterd with the -datadir=DATA argument, where DATA is an absolute path to your custom profile data location. For example, you can specify a location on an external drive (like a USB flash drive) mounted that is easy to replace or extend in size.

External drive

caution

Following example requires partial root access; an incorrect drive path identification may cause partition damage, data loss, and make your system unbootable!

  1. connect your drive then run parted -l or fdisk -l to find its location (e.g. /dev/sda or /dev/mmcblk0)
  2. navigate to the partition manager for this device using the command parted /dev/sda
  3. mklabel gpt - set partition format
  4. mkpart logical ext4 0% 100% - to use all available space
  5. print free check if everything fine here
  6. quit - save and exit
  7. mkfs -t ext4 /dev/sda1 - format partition created (replace /dev/sda1 with your value)
  8. lsblk -o PATH,SIZE,RO,TYPE,MOUNTPOINT,UUID,MODEL - get partition UUID
  9. nano /etc/fstab - persist on startup

warning

Before making the following changes, keep in mind that modifying /etc/fstab may cause the system to not boot properly if some related external drive is detached!

# <file system>                      <mount point> <type> <options>                    <dump> <pass>
...
UUID=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxx /mnt/sda1     ext4  defaults,noatime,rw,user,auto 0      2
  • save and exit
  1. mv /home/twister/.twister /mnt/sda1/.twister - move profile data from the root as mounded by this user
  2. chown -R twister:twister /mnt/sda1/.twister - since you have copied files as the root, make sure the twister user has permission to access this directory when launching twisterd
  3. ./twisterd -datadir=/mnt/sda1/.twister - now run twisterd as its regular user

Free additional space

Before continuing with the options below, try to search for large files inside the user profile under which you are running the twister-core service:

  1. su twister - login to your twister-core account
  2. find ~/.twister -type f -size +50M - search for files larger than 50 MB
  3. watch for .log files in results to clean up and prioritize their management
  4. repeat steps 2-3 for the /var/log/* location

Clean up the profile cache

note

This action is not recommended, as it drops peer exchange metadata and is useful only when you want to free up disk space without deleting the entire ~/.twister directory with the blockchain and wallet data!

In this case, you can try to remove the contents of the ~/.twister/swarm folder (after running systemctl stop twister-core), as it may grow over time and take up a lot of disk space on older service nodes.

Memory

Extend memory by using a swap file

note

The permanent use of a swap file is not recommended, especially for single-board devices with integrated SSD storage; use this solution only if you want to extend the existing memory limits temporarily (e.g., to build something) without disabling the active twisterd process.

warning

Some commands below require root access: be careful not to overwrite existing swap files!

  1. fallocate -l 1G /swapfile - creates new swapfile in the filesystem root
  2. chmod 600 /swapfile - give the valid permissions
  3. mkswap /swapfile - format
  4. swapon /swapfile - enable
  5. free -h or swapon --show or htop - make sure the memory has been extended

tip

To make the swap file automatically enabled on system startup, add the following line to /etc/fstab:

[!WARNING] Before making the following changes, keep in mind that modifying /etc/fstab may cause the system to not boot properly if the external drive is detached!

# <file system>   <mount point>   <type>   <options>   <dump> <pass>
/swapfile         none            swap     sw          0      0

If the swapfile is no longer in use, you can safely remove it:

  1. swapoff /swapfile - await to continue
  2. free -h or swapon --show or htop - make sure the swapfile was disabled
  3. rm /swapfile - free disk by removing swapfile created in the previous steps

Limit memory usage for the twisterd process

note

Low memory values may cause twisterd to become unresponsive to RPC requests or render your public peer unhelpful for the network!

To forcefully restrict memory resources for twisterd process, add the following options to the systemd service:

[Service]
MemoryHigh=256M
MemoryMax=512M
MemorySwapMax=512M
  • save and exit
  • systemctl daemon-reload - do not forget to reload systemd configuration
  • systemctl restart twister - restart service (where twister is the actual service name)

Useful CLI tools

  • sensors (apt install lm-sensors) - show current CPU temperature (useful for miners)
  • htop, btop - system totals monitor
  • df -h - show disk usage summary
  • find / -type f -size +50M - find large files (provide your path and size)
Generated at: 2025.04