Can you provide more information on Contabo's Bitcoin Node image?

Contabo's Bitcoin Node image is based on the Bitcoin Core v25.0 (https://bitcoincore.org/bin/).

The Bitcoin Image does not come with synchronized chain data, the sync starts after the image is installed, this can take up to 12-48h depending on the available nodes.

What is the data path structure of Contabo's Bitcoin Node image?

• Chain data: /var/lib/bitcoind
• bitcoind config: /etc/bitcoin/bitcoin.conf
• bitcoin-cli config: /home/bitcoin/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf

How do I switch to the Bitcoin user?

To access the bitcoin-cli command, you should switch to the bitcoin user. You can do this with the following command:

sudo -u bitcoin -i

How do I find the P2P network info:

You can run the following command:

bitcoin-cli getnetworkinfo 

You should get a response like this:

"networkactive": true,
"connections": 13,
"connections_in": 3,
"connections_out": 10,

How do I find the Blockchain (sync status) info:

You can run the following command:

bitcoin-cli getblockchaininfo 

You should get a response like this:

{
"chain": "main",
"blocks": 170260, <-- Highest synced block
"headers": 813630, <-- Highest block on the network
"bestblockhash": "0000000000000049ec54c7c6df79fce11e724b4b56103e005e03fa8e8c2a4a09",
"difficulty": 1496978.595025569,
"time": 1331249860,
"mediantime": 1331245089,
"verificationprogress": 0.002915741002688988, <---- 0.29% synced
"initialblockdownload": true,
"chainwork": "00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000df7e38ad4228191c1",
"size_on_disk": 1234406989,
"pruned": false,
"warnings": ""
}

To note the syncing can take up to 48h, depending on available nodes. 

Also, the field verificationprogress never reaches 1.00 even at fully synced it will be around 0.9999.

How do I check if the Bitcoin Node is running?

You can run the following command:

systemctl status  bitcoind.service 

How do I restart the bitcoind server:

You can run the following command:

systemctl restart bitcoind.service

How do I read logs?

You can run the following command:

tail -n 100  /var/lib/bitcoind/debug.log 

How do I edit  the bitcoind config file:

You can run the following command:

nano /etc/bitcoin/bitcoin.conf

To note, you will need to restart your node to apply new configurations.

How do I access the data directory of bitcoin service:

You can run the following command:

/var/lib/bitcoind 

How do activate the firewall:

You can run the following command:

sudo apt install ufw
sudo ufw default deny incoming
sudo ufw default allow outgoing
sudo ufw allow ssh # If you're using SSH
sudo ufw allow 8333 # Allows Bitcoin network connections
sudo ufw enable

Extra rules:

sudo ufw allow 8332 # For JSON-RPC for remote wallet

sudo ufw allow 28332 # Zero MQ for listening
sudo ufw allow 28333 # Zero MQ for listening

sudo ufw allow 8443 # Lightning Terminal

Here are some common used plugins application for Bitcoin Nodes which you may find helpful:

• BTC Payserver
• Lightning Network Node
• Lightning Terminal