GitHub - giovantenne/awning: A dockerized Bitcoin + LND node. Something like Umbrel but lighter and portable. Something like RaspiBolt but easier and automated. Bitcoin/Lightning-Network oriented with no frills.

A dockerized Bitcoin + LND + BTCPay node

Something like Umbrel but lighter and portable. Something like RaspiBolt but easier and automated. Bitcoin/Lightning-Network oriented with no frills.

Awning doesn't install anything on your PC, making it lightweight, customizable and portable. It is a plain/vanilla Docker setup.

Disclaimer

This open-source project is provided 'as-is' without any warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. The developers are not liable for any damages or losses arising out of the use of this software.

Please read the full disclaimer before using this project.

Prerequisites

• git
• curl
• docker
• docker-compose (or docker compose plugin)

$ sudo apt-get install -y docker.io docker-compose-v2 git curl

Run your BTC / LN / BTCPay node (the easy way):

1. Clone this repository
2. Run the awning.sh utility script

$ git clone https://github.com/giovantenne/awning.git
$ cd awning
$ ./awning.sh

You can run the ./awning.sh utility script every time you want to interact with your node.

... or manually setup your node instead:

If you want to have full control you can manually setup your node in 6 steps.

Please follow this guide if you don't want to preface the docker and the docker-compose commands with sudo. In this guide sudo will be always omitted. All the commands need to be run on the Awning root directory.

Here is the steps:

1. Clone this repository
2. Create a Github repository for storing the LND Static Channel Backups (SCB)
3. Edit and customize the .env file
4. Start the Docker containers
5. Authorize SCB to be uploaded on Github
6. Create o restore a LND wallet

You can also add your BTCPay Server eventually.

Before you begin

Clone or download this repository and enter the project directory.

$ git clone https://github.com/giovantenne/awning.git
$ cd awning

LND channel backups preparation

The Static Channels Backup (SCB) is a feature of LND that allows for the on-chain recovery of lightning channel balances in the case of a bricked node. Despite its name, it does not allow the recovery of your LN channels but increases the chance that you'll recover all (or most) of your off-chain (local) balances.

Awning will automatically upload a copy of your channel.backup every time it changes on a Github repository you own, so you will need to create one and provide upload credential later.

Create a GitHub repository

• Go to GitHub, sign up for a new user account, or log in with an existing one.

• Create a new repository: https://github.com/new

  • Choose a repository name (eg. remote-lnd-backup)
  • Select "Private" (rather than the default "Public")
  • Click on "Create repository"
  • Annotate your SSH repository address. You will need this later.

Edit and understand the .env file

The .env file contains some Awning setup parameters that you can/need to customize. Just make a copy of the sample file and edit it.

How to begin

The docker-compose.yml file contains the Awning docker services that your node will run.

Since you are not using the ./awning.sh utility script, just make a copy of the sample file.

$ cp docker-compose-sample.yml docker-compose.yml

Run the following command:

$ docker-compose up -d --build

This will spin-up the following services/containers in background:

• Bitcoin Core
• Electrs
• LND
• RTL (Ride The Lightning)
• TOR
• Nginx (used as reverse-proxy)
• SCB (Automatic static channel backups)

The first time it will take some time to build all the images from scratch (especially compiling the Electrs binary can take up to one hour).

After all the images are built, “bitcoind” should start, begin to sync and validate the Bitcoin blockchain. If you already downloaded the blockchain somewhere else, you can just copy the data to the ./data/bitcoin directory before the docker-compose up -d --build command.

Check the status of the bitcoin daemon that was started with the following command. Exit with Ctrl-C

$ docker logs -f awning_bitcoin

Those services open the following TCP ports on your host:

Finish the setup

Once you first start the containers there are still a couple of steps to complete:

Authorize SCB to be uploaded on Github

Run this command:

$ docker logs awning_scb 2> /dev/null | grep -o 'ssh-rsa.*' | head -1

• Go back to the GitHub repository webpage
• Click on "Settings", then "Deploy keys", then "Add deploy key"
• Type a title (e.g., "SCB")
• In the "Key" box, copy/paste the string generated above starting (e.g. ssh-rsa 5678efgh... scb@28ba58e278da)
• Tick the box "Allow write access" to enable this key to push changes to the repository
• Click "Add key"

Create or restore the LND wallet

If you are migrating from Umbrel or from an existing LND node just copy your data to the ./data/lnd directory before the docker-compose up -d --build command and skip the rest of this step, otherwise run this command:

$ docker exec -it awning_lnd lncli create

Enter your password as wallet password (it must be exactly the same you stored in .env as LND_PASSWORD).

To create a a new wallet, select n when asked if you have an existing cipher seed. Just press enter if asked about an additional seed passphrase, unless you know what you’re doing. A new cipher seed consisting of 24 words is created.

These 24 words is all that you need to restore the Bitcoin on-chain wallet. The current state of your channels, however, cannot be recreated from this seed.

🚨 This information must be kept secret at all times.

Write these 24 words down manually on a piece of paper and store it in a safe place.

Use Electrs (via TOR)

Run the following command from the Awning root directory to retrieve the Electrs TOR address to use in your wallet:

$ echo `cat ./data/tor/hidden_service_electrs/hostname`:50001

Accessing RTL web interface (local)

Ride The Lightining is accessible on both http and https with a self signed SSL certificate (so expect a warning message from your browser) using the password choosen on the .env file.

If you are running Awning on your PC you can access the web interface through these URLs:

• https://localhost:8081
• http://localhost:8082

Replace localhost with the IP of your node if you are running Awning on a different PC.

Connect Zeus to your node (via TOR)

• Download the Zeus app for your mobile phone.
• Open Zeus and tap on “GET STARTED”
• Tap on “Connect a node” and then tap on the “+” at the top right to add your node
• Enter a Nickname for your node (e.g., AwningNode)
• Click on “SCAN LNDCONNECT CONFIG” and, if prompted, allow Zeus to use the camera
• Scan the QR code generated with the following command. It will be a big QR code, so maximize your terminal window and use CTRL+- to shrink the code further to fit the screen

$ URI=`cat ./data/tor/hidden_service_lnd_rest/hostname` && docker exec awning_lnd lndconnect --host $URI --port 8080

• Click on “SAVE NODE CONFIG”. Zeus is now connecting to your node, and it might take a while the first time.

Useful comands

Directories structure

├── awning.sh
├── configs
│   ├── bitcoin.conf
│   ├── electrs.toml
│   ├── lnd.conf
│   ├── nginx-reverse-proxy.conf
│   ├── rtl.json
│   └── torrc
├── data
│   ├── bitcoin
│   ├── btcpay
│   ├── electrs
│   ├── lnd
│   ├── nbx
│   ├── postgres
│   ├── rtl
│   ├── scb
│   └── tor
├── docker-compose-sample.yml
├── dockerfiles
│   ├── Dockerfile.bitcoin
│   ├── Dockerfile.electrs
│   ├── Dockerfile.lnd
│   ├── Dockerfile.nbx
│   ├── Dockerfile.nginx
│   ├── Dockerfile.rtl
│   ├── Dockerfile.scb
│   ├── Dockerfile.tor
│   ├── entrypoints
│   │   ├── lnd.sh
│   │   └── scb.sh
│   └── files
│       └── nginx.conf
├── .env.sample
├── fragments
│   ├── bitcoin.yml
│   ├── btcpay.yml
│   ├── electrs.yml
│   ├── lnd.yml
│   ├── nginx.yml
│   ├── rtl.yml
│   ├── scb.yml
│   └── tor.yml
├── LICENSE
└── README.md

BTCPay Server (optional)

You can easily run your own self-hosted instance of BTCPay Server with Awning with just a few slight modification to a couple of files provided with this repository:

Run docker-compose down and then docker-compose up -d again.

BTCPay server will run 3 additionals containers (requred files and directories are already present on this repository):

• Postgres
• NBXplorer
• BTCPay-server

How to update Bitcoin/LND/Electrs version

If you wish to update Bitcoin/LND/Electrs version just edit the .env file and run the following commands to stop and rebuild the containers:

$ docker-compose down
$ docker-compose up -d

How to update Awning

If you wish to update Awning to the last version just run the following commands:

$ docker-compose down
$ git stash
$ git pull
$ git stash apply

Resolve any git conflicts and run the following command:

$ docker-compose up -d --build

Support

For any questions or issues you can join our Telegram support channel or open a Github issue.

Donations/Project contributions

If you would like to contribute and help dev team with this project you can send a donation to the following LN address ⚡cg@pos.btcpayserver.it⚡ or on-chain bc1qdx6r7z2c2dtdfa2tn9a2u4rc3g5myyfquqq97x

Enjoy!