Quote from: DireWolfM14 on October 13, 2024, 07:27:01 PM

Starlink is the best option for one of the properties I own (and lived in until recently.) Again, no issues downloading the blockchain or running the node once it's synchronized. Your hard drive choice will have more impact on the sync speed than your bandwidth.

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There's nothing wrong with Ubuntu, but I prefer Debian. Debian is lighter, and unlike Ubuntu it's 100% open source. Ubuntu is built on Debian, so unless it has specific features you need (which it won't for your purposes) there's no reason to choose the more bulky OS. YMMV.

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If you don't have a lot of experience with Linux or Bitcoin, it may be best for you to start with an Umbrel sysetem. They are easy to set up, can be run on a Raspberry Pi, and one click installation of an SPV server and blockchain explorer. Once you understand what you need then you can research how to build a node the hard way.

Appreciate your insights. I just put the hardware together today, installed the OS, cloned bitcoin, compiled/ran the core and it's now downloading the blocks and verifying. Decided to stick to what I know (Ubuntu Server LTS)... hopefully I don't regret it later, but I guess I could always just rebuild if it comes to that.

Quote from: nc50lc on October 14, 2024, 05:48:59 AM

Quote from: JuxtaposeLife on October 13, 2024, 07:01:51 PM

Any advice on potential pitfalls, better component choices, or tips for managing a full node with advanced analytics would be appreciated!

Based from your plan, overriding these settings' default may be needed:

Code:

txindex=1
maxmempool=1248

"txindex" will enable some features of RPC commands like getrawtransaction which aren't available to nodes without a full transaction index.
Enabling it before the "Initial Block Download" will make sure that the database is built while syncing, that could take hours if enabled later.
"maxmempool" will set your node's mempool size from the default 300MB to your preferred size.
This is useful to your user-case to be able to keep most of the unconfirmed transactions since the default isn't enough during "peak" seasons.

You may also increase your node's database cache with dbcache=<size in megabytes> for it to utilize more of your memory.

Thanks so much for this, looks like those will really help me, I put them into the config before I ran the core for the first time and started downloading/verifying

Quote from: LoyceV on October 14, 2024, 07:13:31 AM

Quote from: DireWolfM14 on October 13, 2024, 07:27:01 PM

Quote from: JuxtaposeLife on October 13, 2024, 07:01:51 PM

Hardware Bottlenecks: Are there any obvious weak points in this build for running full node operations and handling data-intensive tasks like blockchain analytics? I'm especially interested in potential memory or storage issues.

The system is fine. If anything, it's overkill. One of my full nodes runs a Dell mini-pc, i5, 32gb of ram, and a 2TB nvme.

For a node, I agree. For blockchain analytics, I'd say the more RAM the better.

@OP: before you do a lot of extra work, have you seen Bitcoin block data? It includes daily dollar prices.

I'll look for deals in the coming months, and see if I can upgrade to 64 of 128. Also thanks for the link, I'll check it out. I'm happy to stand up a node to help broaden the security of the network...and I'm sure having it all local will make processing easier, as I'm planning to do some complex indexing and datasets. At least I have ideas in mind... will need to see if any of them pan out. For now, whie I'm waiting for the sync this gives me something to look at

Quote from: ABCbits on October 14, 2024, 08:36:08 AM

Quote from: JuxtaposeLife on October 13, 2024, 07:01:51 PM

Hardware Bottlenecks: Are there any obvious weak points in this build for running full node operations and handling data-intensive tasks like blockchain analytics? I'm especially interested in potential memory or storage issues.

If your software (which perform analytic) could utilize GPU, you should know GT 1030 is old and low-end GPU. So you probably want to get something faster. More RAM could allow faster analytic since you could store more data on RAM rather than accessing it from the SSD.

Quote from: JuxtaposeLife on October 13, 2024, 07:01:51 PM

Software: I plan to use Ubuntu Server. Is this a solid choice for running a full node and developing analytics tools, or are there other distributions better optimized for this kind of work?

By default, Ubuntu server doesn't include GUI. You probably want to use Ubuntu 24.04 LTS instead.

Quote from: JuxtaposeLife on October 13, 2024, 07:01:51 PM

Future Expansion: I'm looking to scale this setup to handle machine learning models on the blockchain data in the future. Should I anticipate the need for more advanced GPUs or additional hardware as I expand the complexity of my models?

I don't know about machine learning or AI field, but your build should support 4 RAM and 2 GPU. And FWIW, marketplace which rent GPU or high-end computer exist.

I guess I'll find out when I get into the heavy processing. I'm developing from scratch, so we'll see if I get frustrated with the limitations of the system and incorporate a GPU. If nothing else this is my attempt at learning something new and stretching my development skills. I am energized by projects where I can ultilize pervious experience into new problems. Not exactly sure what I would call a problem here, I'm just tinkering with the modeling for now... looking for something that might be of use to everyone as I go. I've developed full stack, and really enjoy the visualizations on the front end. Or making useful interactions with data.

Cheers. Appreciate all the help so far. I'm sure I'll have questions soon