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XEN Install Guide

Download ​

You can download the latest version of the XEN on the Download page.

Installation​

Linux Archive Distribution ​

The archive file consists of the executable binary and the configuration file structured as follows.

Note: Do NOT alter the file structure or file name. If you change it, the node may not function correctly.

- bin
  |- xen
  |- xend
- conf
  |- xend.conf
  |- genesis.json
File NameFile Description
bin/xenXEN executable file
bin/xendXEN start/termination script file
conf/xend.confXEN configuration file
conf/genesis.jsonXEN genesis.json file

The installation is the uncompression of the downloaded package where you want to install the package.

$ tar zxf xen-vX.X.X-linux-amd64.tar.gz

The other sections assume that the path is added to the variable.

Installed Location ​

The installed files are located as follows.

File NameLocation
xen/usr/bin/xen
xend.conf/etc/xend/conf/xend.conf
xend.conf/etc/xend/conf/genesis.json

Configuration ​

The EN configuration is to create a data directory and to set up the environment variables on the configuration file xend.conf.

  1. Create the EN data directory.
  2. Configure the XEN with xend.conf.

XEN Data Directory Creation ​

Considering the fact that the size of Xphere blockchain data keeps increasing, it is recommended to use a big enough storage. You need to create the directory on your desired path.

$ sudo mkdir -p ~/xen_data

Then, initialize the blockchain data using xen init​

$ ./xen init --datadir ~/xen_data/ ../conf/genesis.json

Update the Configuration File ​

Configuration File Location:

  • For the archive distribution, the config directory location defaults to $INSTALL_PATH/xen-linux-amd64/conf/.
  • For the package distribution, the config directory defaults to /etc/xend/conf/.

Add Data Directory ​

You should update the the data directory environment variable $DATA_DIR on the configuration file xend.conf.

DATA_DIR=~/xen_data

Startup the Xend ​

You can start or stop the Endpoint Node using the following commands.

start

$ xend start
Starting xend: OK

stop

$ xend stop
Shutting down xend: Killed

status

$ xend status
xend is running

Testing the Installation ​

It is time to check that X Endpoint Node is successfully installed and it is working as expected after installation.

Process Status ​

It is possible to check the status of XEN's process using the status commands systemctl and xend.

systemctl ​

systemctl is installed along with the RPM, and the status of XEN can be checked as follows.

$ systemctl status xend.service
● xend.service - (null)
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/rc.d/init.d/xend; bad; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (running) since Wed 2025-03-05 11:42:39 UTC; 1 months 4 days ago
     Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)
  Process: 29636 ExecStart=/etc/rc.d/init.d/xend start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 29641 (xen)
   CGroup: /system.slice/xend.service
           └─29641 /usr/local/bin/xen --networkid 20250217 --datadir /xend_home --port 44322 --srvtype fasthttp --metrics --prometheus --verbosity 3 --txpool.global...

systemd[1]: Starting (null)...
xend[29636]: Starting xend: [  OK  ]
systemd[1]: Started (null).

You can check the current status such as Active: active (running) in the example above.

xend ​

xend is installed along with the package, and the status of EN can be checked as follows.

$ xend status
xend is running

Logs ​

The log is stored in xend.out file located in the path defined in the LOG_DIR field of the xend.conf file. When the node works properly, you can see that each block is imported per second as follows.

Example:

$ tail xend.out
INFO[03/05,11:52:58 +09] [5] Inserted a new block                      number=208163 hash=09d12c…7e2b27 txs=0 gas=0 elapsed=1.862ms      processTxs=250ns     finalize=231.833µs validateState=38.583µs  totalWrite=977.25µs     trieWrite=240.25µs
INFO[03/05,11:52:59 +09] [51] Commit new mining work                    number=208164 hash=df58fa…94e3c4 txs=0 elapsed=355µs        commitTime=217.917µs finalizeTime=130.875µs
INFO[03/05,11:52:59 +09] [25] received a quorum of the messages and change state to prepared  msgType=1 prepareMsgNum=3 commitMsgNum=0 valSet=4
INFO[03/05,11:52:59 +09] [24] Committed                                 number=208164 hash=612653…bfd9ba address=0xB54da36969A54362D0EDbA4E8c38eE199471eB9F
INFO[03/05,11:52:59 +09] [51] Successfully sealed new block             number=208164 hash=612653…bfd9ba
INFO[03/05,11:52:59 +09] [51] Successfully wrote mined block            num=208164 hash=612653…bfd9ba txs=0 elapsed=597.416µs
INFO[03/05,11:53:00 +09] [51] Commit new mining work                    number=208165 hash=105c7a…ecf460 txs=0 elapsed=2.503ms      commitTime=496.125µs finalizeTime=1.987ms
INFO[03/05,11:53:00 +09] [25] received a quorum of the messages and change state to prepared  msgType=2 valSet=4
INFO[03/05,11:53:00 +09] [24] Committed                                 number=208165 hash=be0cc2…80878c

Queries ​

xen console ​

Xphere provides a CLI client: xen console. Another way of using the client is to connect to the process via IPC (inter-process communication). The IPC file xphere.ipc is located in the DATA_DIR path on an XEN.

Please execute the following command and check out the result.

$ xen attach --datadir /var/xend/data
Welcome to the Xphere JavaScript console!

instance: Xphere/vX.X.X/XXXX-XXXX/goX.X.X
 datadir: root/xen_data
 modules: eth:1.0 net:1.0 rpc:1.0  xp:1.0
 >

You can check the usable commands

The useful APIs to check the status of XEN:

  • xp.blockNumber (to get the latest block number)
  • net.peerCount (to get the number of the connected Xphere nodes currently)

xp.blockNumber ​

You can get the latest block number to see if blocks are propagated properly.

> xp.blockNumber
1

net.peerCount ​

> net.peerCount
6

The above command line returns the number of nodes that the XEN connects to.