Launching the relay node

Set up cardano-node as a systemd service so it runs in the background and survives reboots.

Running cardano-node as a systemd service is the recommended approach for production servers. The node starts automatically on boot and restarts on failure.

Create the systemd service

cat <<EOF | sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/cardano-node.service
[Unit]
Description=Cardano Relay Node
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=cardano
Group=cardano
WorkingDirectory=/home/cardano/cnode
ExecStart=/home/cardano/.local/bin/cardano-node run \\
    --config /home/cardano/cnode/config/config.json \\
    --topology /home/cardano/cnode/config/topology.json \\
    --database-path /home/cardano/cnode/db \\
    --socket-path /home/cardano/cnode/sockets/node.socket \\
    --host-addr 0.0.0.0 \\
    --port 3001
KillSignal=SIGINT
RestartKillSignal=SIGINT
StandardOutput=journal
StandardError=journal
SyslogIdentifier=cardano-relay
LimitNOFILE=1048576
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

Enable and start

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable cardano-node.service
sudo systemctl start cardano-node.service

creating and enabling cardano node as system service

Verify the node is running

journalctl -u cardano-node.service -f -o cat

Your first relay is running. Repeat this process on your second relay server.

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Architecture overview

A stake pool requires a minimum of 2 servers:

Role	Purpose
Relay nodes (1-2)	Publicly reachable, connect to the Cardano network, shield the BP from direct exposure
Block producer (1)	Mints blocks, connected only to your relays
Offline machine	Air-gapped computer for generating and storing cold keys and signing transactions

Recommended: 2 relay nodes per block producer.

---

Topology: connecting relays to your BP

After you set up your block producer, edit topology.json on each server so they know about each other.

On each relay — add your BP as a local root peer

Edit ~/cnode/config/topology.json and add your BP's private IP in the localRoots section:

{
  "bootstrapPeers": [
    { "address": "backbone.cardano.iog.io", "port": 3001 },
    { "address": "backbone.mainnet.emurgornd.com", "port": 3001 },
    { "address": "backbone.mainnet.cardanofoundation.org", "port": 3001 }
  ],
  "localRoots": [
    {
      "accessPoints": [
        { "address": "YOUR_BP_PRIVATE_IP", "port": 3001, "description": "my BP" },
        { "address": "YOUR_OTHER_RELAY_IP", "port": 3001, "description": "my relay 2" }
      ],
      "advertise": false,
      "trustable": true,
      "hotValency": 2
    }
  ],
  "publicRoots": [
    { "accessPoints": [], "advertise": false }
  ],
  "useLedgerAfterSlot": 128908821
}

On the BP — add your relays only

Set useLedgerAfterSlot to -1 so the BP only connects to your relays and never discovers random peers. Remove bootstrapPeers entries:

{
  "bootstrapPeers": [],
  "localRoots": [
    {
      "accessPoints": [
        { "address": "YOUR_RELAY1_IP", "port": 3001, "description": "relay 1" },
        { "address": "YOUR_RELAY2_IP", "port": 3001, "description": "relay 2" }
      ],
      "advertise": false,
      "trustable": true,
      "hotValency": 2
    }
  ],
  "publicRoots": [
    { "accessPoints": [], "advertise": false }
  ],
  "useLedgerAfterSlot": -1
}

hotValency — number of peers the node actively maintains connections to. Set it to the number of nodes in the group.

trustable: true — use for your own infrastructure (BP and relays). For external pool peers, use false.

useLedgerAfterSlot: -1 on the BP prevents it from connecting to random peers.

After editing topology, restart the node:

sudo systemctl restart cardano-node

Never generate wallet or stake pool keys on your online servers. Use an offline (air-gapped) machine or a hardware wallet (Trezor/Ledger). Anyone with access to your keys has full control over your pool and funds.