1️⃣Prepare Operating System

If you already have an available laptop/self-hosted node with an operating system, you can skip to Install Nodes section.

If you already have Bitcoin/Lightning Node installed, you can skip to Deploy Client section.

OS Setup

Once you've decided on a hardware/VPS and have login details. There's a bit of an infrastructure setup that's required to get the server production ready.

Note that there are always many ways to accomplish tasks and each sysadmin can have their own preference for tools, scripts and automation. This guide follows basic principles to help entry-level users.

Security

One of the most important things when running a live production system with funds on it is to keep it secure. By following common principles and best practices you can ensure you're protected from most hack attempts and at least make it difficult for bad actors to infiltrate your systems.

Disable Password Based Login

Generate ssh keys so that you can only login to your server with keys and never a clear-text password.

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "[e-mail]"

Add your public key to authorized_keys on the server

echo 'public key from previous step' >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Disable password based login on the server and restart sshd

vim /etc/ssh/sshd_config
PasswordAuthentication no

// once configuration is updated restart sshd
systemctl restart sshd

Install fail2ban

Fail2ban is a convenient access control daemon that can add bad actors that attack your system by brute forcing logins to a block list.

sudo apt-get install fail2ban

Setup Firewall

Your server should only have ports open that are crucial to the functioning of your nodes and your bridge.

sudo apt install ufw

Allow ports that are required for Bitcoin/Lightning nodes and client app.

ufw allow ssh
ufw allow 8333
ufw allow 9735
ufw allow 9008
ufw allow 9009
ufw enable

// if your BTC/LND is on linux but lnstxbridge client is on Docker
ufw allow from 172.0.0.0/8 to any port 8332
ufw allow from 172.0.0.0/8 to any port 10009

Install Docker

Install docker for your system if you're planning to use docker images to run the provider client.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install \
    ca-certificates \
    curl \
    gnupg \
    lsb-release
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/debian/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg

echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/debian \
  $(lsb_release -cs) stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
 
 sudo apt-get update
 sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io

Install Tor

sudo apt install tor

// configure tor to work with lnd
sudo vim /etc/tor/torrc
# add these two lines 
ControlPort 9051
CookieAuthentication 1

// restart tor
systemctl restart tor