The twister P2P Book

Remote node running is useful in cases where you want to access twister from a mobile device or support the network by launching a public peer with a web UI.

Setup with CLI tool

The simplest way to get started on Debian systems is by using the twister-cli-installer script. It provides guiding questions that helps you to build the twister-core, twister-html, and set up a self-signed TLS certificate for secure connection.

Manual setup

Login to the remote server as root with SSH:

ssh root@hostname

Firewall configuration

Open 28332 port for the external access:

ufw allow from EXPECTED_REMOTE_IP to any port 28332

• replace EXPECTED_REMOTE_IP with your value
• the port 28332 may be different if you are running twisterd with a custom -rpcport argument value

Enable the firewall:

ufw enable

Check firewall status:

ufw status

System

Create system user

Create separated system user for twisterd process:

useradd -m twister

Create systemd unit

It is useful to operate remote twisterd process with systemd. Let's create its configuration file:

[Unit]
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=twister
Group=twister
# this option is not necessary
WorkingDirectory=/home/twister
# provide real path or additional arguments here if wanted
# * please note that `ExecStart` contains the `-printtoconsole` option, 
#   which directs the debug output to `StandardOutput` instead of the `debug.log` file, 
#   then disables it by setting to the `null` value
ExecStart=/home/twister/twister-core/twisterd -printtoconsole
# where to save the logs
StandardOutput=file:/home/twister/twisterd-debug.log
StandardError=file:/home/twister/twisterd-error.log
# you may remove this option to capture the failure event
Restart=on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

• systemctl daemon-reload - apply systemd update
• systemctl enable twister - launch twisterd on system startup

Now login to the system user created:

su twister

• navigate to the home directory by using the cd command without arguments

User environment setup

Install twister-core

Build twisterd from the twister-core sources inside this home, or simply copy the twisterd binary to /home/twister/twister-core/twisterd directory (as expected in the ExecStart option above).

chmod +x path/to/twisterd

Generate self-signed certificate

openssl req -x509\
            -newkey rsa:4096\
            -keyout /home/twister/.twister/key.pem\
            -out /home/twister/.twister/cert.pem\
            -days 365 -nodes

• with the example above, you will want to create a new certificate after 365 days!

Setup RPC authorization

Edit your /home/twister/.twister/twister.conf file:

rpcallowip=EXPECTED_REMOTE_IP
rpcuser=RPC_USER_NAME
rpcpassword=RPC_PASSWORD
rpcsslcertificatechainfile=/home/twister/.twister/cert.pem
rpcsslprivatekeyfile=/home/twister/.twister/key.pem
rpcssl=1

• replace EXPECTED_REMOTE_IP, RPC_USER_NAME, RPC_PASSWORD with your values;
• if you have a dynamic client IP, you may use * as the rpcallowip value, but this option is not recommended without additional firewall rules!
• when using a connection setup with SSL enabled, in some cases, try launching twisterd with the -rpcssl argument instead of defining it in the twister.conf file.

Now exit from the current user session:

exit

Launch twisterd

From the current root session, launch our newly created systemd service (which will start the twisterd process from the twister user):

systemctl start twister

• systemctl status twister - check if everything is working

Testing remote connection

Web UI

1. Open following address in your browser: https://SERVER_IP:28332/
   • or use http if the TLS certificate is not in use
2. Enter your RPC_USER_NAME and RPC_PASSWORD on the authorization dialog

RPC API

For the RPC API, use the same RPC_USER_NAME and RPC_PASSWORD for SERVER_IP:28332 as you would when using the HTTP protocol; also, provide the actual scheme to connect.

Final tips

Setup host alias

You can access the remote node using hostname alias instead of the IP address by appending the following line to /etc/hosts:

REMOTE_HOST_IP twister

• replace REMOTE_HOST_IP with actual IP, then open web UI with http://twister:28332

SSH login without password

You can simply log in to the remote host account using your SSH key instead of the system user password.

Run from the client host:

ssh-copy-id twister@REMOTE_HOST_IP

• where REMOTE_HOST_IP is the host IP of your remote twister node
• provide the -p argument if your host is configured to use a non-default SSH port (other than 22)

Improve security

Use strong RPC credentials

Do not use the default user:pwd for the remote twister node. Consider using random, strong RPC login credentials when any of your ports are open to external connections.

Run public peer with secure options

If you do not plan to use a remote node with an account, run twisterd with the -public_server_mode argument to restrict unsafe commands (e.g., wallet operations). For more details about this option, see bitcoinrpc.cpp, ~227 line.

Install fail2ban

If you are running a public peer server with remote control through SSH, consider installing the fail2ban daemon, which will block connections to port 22 (or another port) after an invalid login attempt (for 15 minutes by default).

Randomize ports

Use a non-default SSH port to confuse bots and prevent your logs from growing.

Prioritize using a firewall

Configure firewall/iptables rules to restrict access by using only whitelisted values.

Remote host administration

Refer to the Administration page for a useful collection of CLI recipes!