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Is it possible to run two separate bitcoind instances on one system at the same time, one for mainnet, other for testnet?

ThePiachu
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3 Answers3

2

Yes, you can. Just be sure to specify different data directories and configure them to use different ports.

David Schwartz
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0

I don't see any reason why not. I've read somewhere in this thread that people run various instances of multicoin for similar purposes.

jtimon
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I am running two nodes in the same server just as you wanted, you can follow below steps:
1. create two separate config files: bitcoin_mainnet.conf and bitcoin_testnet3.conf in ~/.bitcoin

2. make the rpc port and datadir different from each other
sample conf:
testnet 

# This config should be placed in following path:
# ~/.bitcoin/bitcoin_testnet3.conf

# [core]
# Specify the location of the configuration file. To use non-default location, create a default location config file containing this setting.
conf=~/.bitcoind/bitcoin_testnet3.conf
# Specify a non-default location to store blockchain and other data.
datadir=/mnt/bitcoin

# [debug]
# Run this node on the Bitcoin Test Network.
testnet=1

# [rpc]
# Accept command line and JSON-RPC commands.
server=1
# Accept public REST requests.
rest=1
# RPC user
rpcuser=rpcuser
# RPC password
rpcpassword=rpcpass
# RPC allow ip (allow all)
rpcallowip=0.0.0.0/0
# RPC bind
rpcbind=0.0.0.0
# get all transaction
txindex=1

mainnet 

# This config should be placed in following path:
# ~/.bitcoin/bitcoin_mainnet.conf

# [core]
# Specify the location of the configuration file. To use non-default location, create a default location config file containing this setting.
conf=~/.bitcoind/bitcoin_mainnet.conf
# Specify a non-default location to store blockchain and other data.
datadir=/mnt/bitcoin/mainnet

# [debug]
# Run this node on the Bitcoin Test Network.
#testnet=1

# [rpc]
# Accept command line and JSON-RPC commands.
server=1
# Accept public REST requests.
rest=1
# RPC user
rpcuser=rpcuser
# RPC password
rpcpassword=rpcpass
# RPC allow ip (allow all)
rpcallowip=0.0.0.0/0
# RPC bind
rpcbind=0.0.0.0
# get all transaction
txindex=1

3. use below commands to get the node up: bitcoind -conf=/root/.bitcoin/bitcoin_testnet3.conf -daemon bitcoind -conf=/root/.bitcoin/bitcoin_mainnet.conf -daemon

4. now you can use rpc to interactive testnet & mainnet in different port.

5. this approch has a downside, that is when using CLI to interactive you can only connect to one network,you can check which network you are connecting with by:
bitcoin-cli getblockchaininfo which will returns info something like below. "chain": "test" means it's testnet. 

{
  "chain": "test",
  "blocks": 1443057,
  "headers": 1443057,
  "bestblockhash": "00000000000000e9f4078f12d44ee643fd9711e93ad4ddaab5af1977741ce053",
  "difficulty": 11974980.94624031,
  "mediantime": 1542001244,
  "verificationprogress": 0.9999998425668387,
  "initialblockdownload": false,
  "chainwork": "0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000d119525c684f1418b3",
  "size_on_disk": 22997637713,
  "pruned": false,
  "softforks": [
    {
      "id": "bip34",
      "version": 2,
      "reject": {
        "status": true
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "bip66",
      "version": 3,
      "reject": {
        "status": true
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "bip65",
      "version": 4,
      "reject": {
        "status": true
      }
    }
  ],
  "bip9_softforks": {
    "csv": {
      "status": "active",
      "startTime": 1456790400,
      "timeout": 1493596800,
      "since": 770112
    },
    "segwit": {
      "status": "active",
      "startTime": 1462060800,
      "timeout": 1493596800,
      "since": 834624
    }
  },
  "warnings": "Warning: unknown new rules activated (versionbit 28)"
}

6. to avoid this downside, you can create two user in liunx and make bitcoind instant run by different linux users, I have done it before, it works.

Shiming
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