Cosmovisor

Cosmovisor is a process manager designed for Cosmos SDK–based blockchains that simplifies the management of binary (chain) upgrades. This guide provides step‐by‐step instructions to set up Cosmovisor for your Injective Network node.

Note: These instructions assume you already have an existing chain binary (e.g., injectived) and a working Go environment if you choose to install Cosmovisor from source. Adjust the names and paths as needed for your specific setup.

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Table of Contents

1. Installation

   • Installing via Go

2. Environment Variables

3. Directory Structure

4. Running Cosmovisor

5. Handling Chain Upgrades

6. Running Cosmovisor as a Systemd Service

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Installation

Installing via Go

If you have Go installed, you can install Cosmovisor with the following command:

go install cosmossdk.io/tools/cosmovisor/cmd/cosmovisor@v1.5.0

Tip: Ensure that your Go binary installation path (commonly $GOPATH/bin or $HOME/go/bin) is added to your system’s PATH. You can verify the installation by running:

which cosmovisor

Environment Variables

Set up the following environment variables so that Cosmovisor knows which binary to run and where to locate it:

• DAEMON_NAME The name of your chain’s binary (e.g., injectived).

• DAEMON_HOME The home directory for your node (e.g., ~/.injectived).

You can set these variables in your shell’s profile (like ~/.bashrc or ~/.profile) or export them directly in your terminal session:

export DAEMON_NAME=injectived
export DAEMON_HOME=~/.injectived

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Directory Structure

Cosmovisor expects a specific folder structure in your node’s home directory:

1. Create the Genesis Directory

   This directory holds the initial (genesis) binary.

   mkdir -p $DAEMON_HOME/cosmovisor/genesis/bin

2. Copy Your Current Binary

   Place your current chain binary (e.g., injectived) into the genesis folder. Make sure the file name matches the DAEMON_NAME value (see next section).

   cp $(which injectived) $DAEMON_HOME/cosmovisor/genesis/bin/injectived

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Running Cosmovisor

Instead of running your chain’s binary directly, start your node with Cosmovisor by executing:

cosmovisor run start

Cosmovisor will:

• Look for the binary in $DAEMON_HOME/cosmovisor/genesis/bin (or the appropriate upgrade folder).

• Start your node using that binary.

• Monitor for any on-chain upgrade signals and automatically switch binaries when needed.

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Handling Chain Upgrades

When an upgrade is announced on-chain, prepare the new binary so Cosmovisor can switch to it automatically:

1. Create an Upgrade Directory

   Use the upgrade name provided on-chain (e.g., v1.14.0):

   mkdir -p $DAEMON_HOME/cosmovisor/upgrades/<upgrade_name>/bin

2. Place the New Binary

   Compile or download the new binary, then copy it into the upgrade directory. Ensure the binary name matches DAEMON_NAME.

   cp /path/to/new/injectived $DAEMON_HOME/cosmovisor/upgrades/<upgrade_name>/bin
   cp /path/to/new/libwasmvm.x86_64.so $DAEMON_HOME/cosmovisor/upgrades/<upgrade_name>/bin

TIP: If you have downloaded the injectived binary package from GitHub, we copy libwasmvm.x86_64.so to the upgrade bin directory. An environment variable will be later added to the systemd service to add this directory to LD_LIBRARY_PATH.

1. Upgrade Process

   When the upgrade height is reached, Cosmovisor will detect the scheduled upgrade and automatically switch to the binary located in the corresponding upgrade folder.

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Running Cosmovisor as a Systemd Service

For production environments, it is common to run your node as a systemd service. Below is an example service file.

1. Create the Service File

   Create a file (e.g., /etc/systemd/system/injectived.service) with the following content. Adjust the paths and <your_username> accordingly:

   [Unit]
   Description=Injective Daemon managed by Cosmovisor
   After=network-online.target
   
   [Service]
   User=<your_username>
   ExecStart=/home/<your_username>/go/bin/cosmovisor run start
   Restart=always
   RestartSec=3
   Environment="DAEMON_NAME=injectived"
   Environment="DAEMON_HOME=/home/<your_username>/.injectived"
   Environment="PATH=/usr/local/bin:/home/<your_username>/go/bin:$PATH"
   Environment="DAEMON_ALLOW_DOWNLOAD_BINARIES=false"
   Environment="DAEMON_RESTART_AFTER_UPGRADE=true"
   Environment="UNSAFE_SKIP_BACKUP=true"
   Environment="LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/home/<your_username>/.injectived/cosmovisor/current/bin"
   
   [Install]
   WantedBy=multi-user.target

2. Enable and Start the Service

   sudo systemctl daemon-reload
   sudo systemctl enable injectived.service
   sudo systemctl start injectived.service

3. Check Logs

   Verify that your service is running smoothly:

   journalctl -u injectived.service -f

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