Installing Etho Protocol Nodes with Alis
Alis is a node management solution from https://github.com/cryon-io/alis/
Please note! Setting up a node, requires having your ETHO on MAINNET.
Wrapped ETHO(ERC20) is not yet supported.
Alis is a virtualization based node management solution which supports several different node projects as well as running generic Docker images and even VMs from other providers. This allows you to take advantage of the full capacity of your VPS or physical server. Alis and its remote management application called Alis go hand-in-hand to bring node management to the masses.
Alis itself is a command line (CLI) utility which is installed directly on the Linux based VPS or the physical server that will run the Etho Protocol nodes. Alis has its own set of native commands to install, manage and monitor your nodes right from the CLI. You can look up the commands here: https://github.com/cryon-io/ami.etho.node.
This guide focuses on using Alis to connect to your Alis-enabled VPS or physical server. Alis is a graphical user interface (GUI) management utility for Alis. Alis allows you to manage nodes on your Linux based servers without having to know any CLI commands. You can run Alis on a remote computer or even on the server itself as long as it has a GUI installed and you have console access.
Alis has the ability to auto-update your Etho Protocol nodes, auto heal them in case the geth or ethoFS services crash and greatly increase the speed with which you can deploy and manage Etho Protocol nodes.

General Considerations
Running Alis has some prerequisites. Running multiple nodes has some considerations as well to ensure you have a good experience.
Running Alis has some prerequisites. Running multiple nodes has some considerations as well to ensure you have a good experience.
- You must run Alis on a fairly new Linux based Operating System (OS) with a recent kernel version. It will not run on cut rate providers. Some OpenVZ based providers for example run a very old kernel version which blocks your ability to use Alis.
- You must comply with all Etho Protocol node hardware requirements. You also must take into account the additional requirements of each virtual node when considering the capacity of your VPS or physical server. If you overload your VPS or physical server, your node software will crash, you may not receive all due rewards and the node network may suffer due to your node's inability to be a fully responsive participant.
- Just like with any server on the internet, with Etho Protocol nodes it's expected your public IP address will not change. Renting a VPS server or physical server with statically assigned public IP addresses is highly recommended. Users who want to run a node from home should be aware that each time your IP address changes, you will need to re-setup your server. Your Etho Protocol nodes will use a fairly large amount of data; if you're running them from home, make sure your ISP will not suspend you for this reason.

Etho Protocol Node Hardware Requirements
Public IP Addresses
There are 2 ways to host a server on the internet. You can connect a server right to the ISP in which case the server gets its own public IP address. You can also use your own router or firewall in which case the router/firewall device has your public IP address(es) and behind it you have computers and VMs which all have private IP address that look like: 10.0.0.0, 172.16.0.0, 192.168.0.0. The technology which allows all your local devices to share the same public IP address is called NAT (Network Address Translation).
The Etho Protocol node system cares about your public IP address. You will have to use you public IP if you use NAT for your Etho Protocol node. Using NAT requires you to manually map the publicly required ports for Etho Protocol service to your server's private IP. If you need help configuring NAT, go ahead and hop on the project's Discord server for assistance and general advice about NAT in the #nodes channel.
If you have multiple public IP addresses on your server, you will need to make sure these are all assigned to your OS. Alis is unable to use IP addresses which are not known to the base Linux OS. The secondary IP addresses can be added to your primary network interface, which will have a your primary IP address already assigned. If you need more help with this step, we invite you to hop on over to the project's Discord and ask for help in the #nodes channel
Service Ports
Regardless of how many public IP addresses you have assigned to your server or are currently NAT translating on your router, you need to make sure the required TCP and UDP ports are open which are required for the operation of Etho Protocol services. The following ports are required for the proper operation of Etho Protocol services
Etho Protocol Geth Ports
These ports are required for the proper operation of the Etho Protocol blockchain.
tcp/udp/30305
ethoFS Ports for Masternodes and Service Nodes
These ports are required for the proper operation of inter-ethoFS communication and synchronization.
tcp/4001
tcp/5001
ethoFS Ports for Gateway Nodes
These ports are required for the end-to-end operation of ethoFS including content serving to end users.
tcp/80
tcp/4001
tcp/5001
If you're unsure whether the ports are in use, you can check using the following commands. All should return nothing back, indicating the ports are not in use anywhere on your server
sudo lsof -i tcp:80 -s tcp:listen
sudo lsof -i tcp:4001 -s tcp:listen
sudo lsof -i tcp:5001 -s tcp:listen
sudo lsof -i tcp:30305 -s tcp:listen
sudo lsof -i udp:30305 -s udp:listen
You can host other supported nodes on Alis as long as they do not overlap with the Etho Protocol service ports on the same public IP address.
This guide will focus on using Alis to install Alis. If you don't like to use Alis, you can use the information provided and run the equivalent commands documented over at https://github.com/cryon-io/ami.etho.node .
Alis is installed on the computer which will manage the Etho Protocol node hosting server you rent on the internet or NAT through at your home or business.
- If you're using Windows simply run the Alis executable. If you're using Linux, make the downloaded file executable and double-click it.
- Once you open Alis, you will create an account and log into it. This account is only stored locally and is specifically for storing your account info and application profile securely on your local computer. If you lose these credentials, you will lose access to your Alis account; you will have to create a new account and re-add all your servers.
- Your Alis profile will be stored in your home directory. Make sure to save a copy in case you need to move it to a different computer or perform a restore operation.
Once you have your local Alis account set and logged into, you're ready to manage your VPS or physical server (server) with it. You will need your VPS/server root credentials to use with Alis. These credentials will be encrypted by Alis and will only be used for administering and monitoring your VPS/server. All your nodes will run under their own non-administrative credentials.
- Log into Alis with the credentials you established in the previous section
- Within Alis, navigate to the Machines menu