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Setup a new host on Windows
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Windows

This guide will walk you through setting up hostd on Windows. At the end of this guide, you should have the following:

  • Installed Sia hostd software
  • Functional hostd Node
  • Created a hostd wallet

Pre-requisites

  • Network Access: hostd interacts with the Sia network, so you need a stable internet connection and open network access to connect to the Sia blockchain.
  • Operating System Compatibility: Ensure your Windows version is compatible with the hostd software. Check releases supported by Windows versions.
  • System Updates: Ensure that your Windows is up to date with the latest system updates, as these updates can contain important security fixes and improvements.

{% hint style="warning" %} Your machine must meet the minimum requirements for hosting on Sia. Not meeting these requirements may result in not receiving contracts from renters or risk losing Siacoins as a penalty. Hosting on Sia is a commitment that requires some technical knowledge and a stable setup as such:

  • Windows 10 or 11
  • A quad-core CPU
  • 8GB of RAM
  • An SSD with at least 100GB of free space.
  • Additional storage space to rent out {% endhint %}

Getting hostd

{% hint style="info" %} You may need to run this step in administrative mode, so right-click Command Prompt and select Run as administrator. {% endhint %}

  1. Download the latest version of hostd for your operating system from the official website. For this guide, we'll be downloading the Windows version of hostd .
  2. Now that we have downloaded hostd, you may need to unzip it.
    • Right-click the downloaded hostd zip file and select Extract All to unzip it if it hasn't done so automatically. Select an accessible destination to extract the file.
    • Click on the newly unzipped directory.
  3. Finally, for good practice, create a folder on the home drive. This folder will be utilized specifically to store data related to the hostd software. Open the Command Prompt and run the following command:
mkdir C:\Users\<your_username>\hostd

Running hostd

  1. Right-click the hostd.exe in the unzipped directory, and select Run as administrator to start hostd.

You will be prompted to input both:

  • password - You choose this password, which can be anything you want. It will be used to unlock the hostd UI via your browser and API. This should be something easy to remember and at least 4 characters.
  • seed phrase - The seed phrase is the 12-word phrase. Type it carefully, with one space between each word, or copy and paste it.

If you do not have a seed phrase, type seed to generate one. A new 12-word recovery phrase will be generated, so please copy and store it in a safe place, as you will need this phrase to recover your wallet.

These values are not stored anywhere and will be requested every time you start hostd.

{% hint style="warning" %} If you lose this phrase, you will lose access to your wallet and funds. Read more about the importance of your seed. {% endhint %}

{% hint style="info" %} You can also set the HOSTD_SEED and HOSTD_API_PASSWORD environment variables so you do not have to re-enter the values every time. {% endhint %}

Running hostd and generating a new seed

  1. After entering your desired password and seed phrase, hostd will start.

{% hint style="warning" %} Windows Defender may flaghostdas a virus. This is a false positive, and you can Allow access. You can also add an exception to Windows Defender and read more about it here. {% endhint %}

Starting hostd

  1. You can now access the hostd UI by opening a browser and going to http://localhost:9980.

{% hint style="warning" %} Remember to leave the command prompt open whilehostd it is running. If you close the command prompt window, hostd stop. {% endhint %}

hostd Login UI

Enter your API password you created in the previous step to unlock hostd.

{% hint style="success" %} Congratulations on successfully setting up hostd and taking a significant step towards renting storage space on the Sia network. {% endhint %}

Updating

It is essential to keep your host up to date. New versions of hostd are released regularly and contain bug fixes and performance improvements.

To update:

  1. Download the latest version of hostd from the official website.
  2. Stop the hostd service with Crtl+C.
  3. Unzip and replace hostd with the new version.
  4. Restart hostd.