Secure. Super Light. Web3.

Diode Network Relay Node

Relay nodes are at the heart of Diodes decentralized infrastructure network. Each node helps devices to communicate securely and efficiently through the Diode network. More nodes in more regions mean more available bandwidth for a growing network.

When deploying a node it should be setup on publicly reachable interfaces with a public IP. If the Node is not reachable from other nodes it might eventually get blocked and not receive any traffic. Nodes are gaining reputation over time when they stay up and available.

Getting Started

To get started with the diode node install the latest snap release:

sudo snap install diode-node

Snap Configuration

After installation all configuration values are available via the snap config system:

sudo snap get diode-node

For WireGuard exit (interface + automatic peer NAT via iptables), connect:

sudo snap connect diode-node:network-control
sudo snap connect diode-node:firewall-control
sudo snap restart diode-node.service

If you do not connect firewall-control, set WIREGUARD_AUTO_NAT=0 and configure NAT on the host (e.g. scripts/setup-wg-nat.sh).

Snap commands

Besides the background service, the snap installs several commands. Arguments you pass after the command name are forwarded to the node (for example diode-node.rpc Diode.Cmd.status runs bin/run elevated rpc Diode.Cmd.status inside the snap).

Command	Description
diode-node.service	Relay node daemon (managed with snap services)
diode-node.info	Print node status (wallet, uptime, peers, epoch score)
diode-node.rpc	Run any RPC expression on the running node
diode-node.flush	Clear in-memory caches
diode-node.env	Print effective environment variables
diode-node.shell	Attach a remote console to the running node

Service control:

sudo snap services diode-node
sudo snap start diode-node.service
sudo snap stop diode-node.service
sudo snap restart diode-node.service

Status and built-in RPC helpers (no extra arguments needed for flush, info, and env):

diode-node.info
sudo diode-node.flush
sudo diode-node.env

Generic RPC — pass any Elixir expression as arguments (rpc, flush, env, and shell require sudo because they run as the snap superuser):

sudo diode-node.rpc Diode.Cmd.status
sudo diode-node.rpc 'Diode.Cmd.configure()'
sudo diode-node.rpc 'IO.inspect(Diode.wallet())'

Remote console:

sudo diode-node.shell

After changing snap configuration, apply settings and restart if needed:

sudo snap set diode-node host=203.0.113.1
sudo snap set diode-node log-level=debug
sudo diode-node.rpc 'Diode.Cmd.configure()'
sudo snap restart diode-node.service

Snap config keys use lowercase with hyphens (environment variables use underscores), for example wireguard-listen-port maps to WIREGUARD_LISTEN_PORT. List current values with sudo snap get diode-node.

Linux Kernel optimization

To optimize Linux for maximum network performance we advise to enable tcp bbr:

net.core.default_qdisc=fq
net.ipv4.tcp_congestion_control=bbr

tcp_bbr

And then reboot or

sudo modprobe tcp_bbr 
sudo sysctl --system

Operations

Backup and restore

Before planned maintenance, flush caches and create a snap snapshot:

sudo diode-node.flush
sudo snap stop diode-node
sudo snap save diode-node

When you remove the snap (sudo snap remove diode-node), the remove hook automatically archives critical node files (identity and wallet database) to /var/backups/diode-node/diode_node_backup_<timestamp>.tar.gz. The backup-dir system-files plug must be connected for this path to work; otherwise rely on snap saved within 31 days.

To restore from an automatic backup after reinstalling:

sudo snap install diode-node
sudo snap connect diode-node:backup-dir
sudo snap stop diode-node.service
sudo snap run --shell diode-node -c 'bin/restore_snap_backup /var/backups/diode-node/diode_node_backup_YYYY-MM-DD_HHMMSS.tar.gz'
sudo snap start diode-node.service

See last service restart reason

When running the snap installation then it's a two step process to see the last service restart reason:

1. Get the timestamp of the last service restart
2. Read the logs around that timestamp

> systemctl show -p ActiveEnterTimestamp snap.diode-node.service.service
ActiveEnterTimestamp=Mon 2024-12-30 02:57:06 UTC
> journalctl -u snap.diode-node.service.service --since "2024-12-30 02:50:00"