have to install the Tahoe software, as documented in <a
href="install.html">install.html</a>.</p>
- <p>The <cite>tahoe</cite> executable in the <cite>bin</cite> directory is
+ <p>The <cite>tahoe</cite> executable in the <code>bin</code> directory is
used to create, start, and stop nodes. Each node lives in a separate base
- directory, in which there is a configuration file named "tahoe.cfg". Nodes
- read and write files within that directory.</p>
-
- <p>A grid consists of a single introducer, one or more servers, and any
- number of clients. If you are creating a new grid, you'll need to create
- both an introducer and a server (and then invite other people to create
- their own servers and/or clients and join your grid). If you are joining an
- existing grid (such as <a
- href="http://allmydata.org/trac/tahoe/wiki/TestGrid">the public test
- grid</a>), the introducer will already be running, and you'll just need to
- create a client.</p>
+ directory, in which there is a configuration file named <code>tahoe.cfg</code>. Nodes
+ read and write files within this base directory.</p>
- <p>To construct an introducer, create a new base directory for it (the name
- of the directory is up to you), cd into it, and run
- "<cite><strong>path-to-the-tahoe-bin-directory</strong>/tahoe
- create-introducer .</cite>". Now start the introducer by running
- "<cite>tahoe start .</cite>". After it starts, it will write a file named
- <cite>introducer.furl</cite> in that base directory. This file contains the
- URL the other nodes must use in order to connect to this introducer.</p>
+ <p>A grid consists of a set of <em>nodes</em>, computers running
+ the tahoe code, each of these nodes functions as in one of the
+ following roles:</p>
+
+ <dl>
+ <dt>Storage Nodes (or Server Nodes)</dt><dd>are the computers
+ that actually store the data in a grid.</dd>
+ <dt>Client Nodes</dt><dd>talk to the storage nodes to put files
+ onto the grid and get them back off again.</dd>
+ <dt>Introducer Node</dt><dd>is responsible for getting everybody
+ talking to each other.</dd>
+ </dl>
+
+ <p>If you're getting started we recommend you try connecting to
+ the <a href="http://allmydata.org/trac/tahoe/wiki/TestGrid">the
+ public test grid</a> as you only need to create a client node.
+ When you want to create your own grid you'll need to create the
+ introducer and an initial storage nodes.</p>
- <p>To construct a node, run
- "<cite><strong>path-to-the-tahoe-bin-directory</strong>/tahoe
- create-client</cite>", which will create <cite>~/.tahoe</cite> to be the
- node's base directory. Acquire a copy of the <cite>introducer.furl</cite>
+ <p>To construct a client node, run
+ "<code><strong>path-to-the-tahoe-bin-directory</strong>/tahoe
+ create-client</code>", which will create <code>~/.tahoe</code> to be the
+ node's base directory. Acquire a copy of the <code>introducer.furl</code>
from the introducer and put it into this directory, then run
- "<cite><strong>path-to-the-tahoe-bin-directory</strong>/tahoe
- start</cite>". After that, the node should be off and running. The first
+ "<code><strong>path-to-the-tahoe-bin-directory</strong>/tahoe
+ start</code>". After that, the node should be off and running. The first
thing it will do is connect to the introducer and get itself connected to
- all other nodes on the grid. By default, a node will serve as a Storage
- Server, meaning that it offers its disk space to other nodes. To configure
+ all other nodes on the grid. By default, a node will serve as a storage
+ node, meaning that it offers its disk space to other nodes. To configure
other behavior, see <a href="configuration.txt">configuration.txt</a>.</p>
- <p>If you are behind firewall or NAT and want to run a server which clients
- can connect to even though they are also behind firewall or NAT, then see
- <a href="configuration.txt">configuration.txt</a> about the
- <cite>tub.location</cite> setting.</p>
+
+ <p>To construct an introducer, create a new base directory for it (the name
+ of the directory is up to you), cd into it, and run
+ "<code><strong>path-to-the-tahoe-bin-directory</strong>/tahoe
+ create-introducer .</code>". Now start the introducer by running
+ "<code>tahoe start .</code>". After it starts, it will write a file named
+ <code>introducer.furl</code> in that base directory. This file contains the
+ URL the other nodes must use in order to connect to this introducer.</p>
<p>To stop a running node run
- "<cite><strong>path-to-the-tahoe-bin-directory</strong>/tahoe
- stop</cite>".</p>
+ "<code><strong>path-to-the-tahoe-bin-directory</strong>/tahoe
+ stop</code>".</p>
+
+
+ <p>See <a href="configuration.txt">configuration.txt</a> for more
+ details about how to configure tahoe.</p>
+
+
+ <h2>A note about firewalls</h2>
+
+ <p>If your node is behind a firewall or NAT device and want other
+ clients to connect to it then you'll need to <em>open a port</em>
+ in your firewall. To do that you'll need to know which port tahoe
+ is listening on as, by default, it listens on an arbitrary port
+ number. To tell tahoe to listen to a fixed port, open the
+ <code>~/.tahoe/tahoe.cfg</code> file in your favourite text editor
+ and changing the <code>tub.port</code> line to something like the
+ following:</p>
+
+ <pre>tub.port = 8098</pre>
+
+ <p>This tells tahoe to always listen on port 8098 of your
+ computer. The next issue is that your computer may be behind a
+ NATing router and isn't directly connected to the internet but
+ goes through a router to get out. If that's the case then you'll
+ need to set the <code>tub.location</code> option so that tahoe
+ tells the introducer where you're really listening:</p>
+
+ <pre>tub.location = myserver.mydomain.org:8098</pre>
+
+ <p>or probably more likely</p>
+
+ <pre>tub.location = 123.456.789.012:8098</pre>
+
+ <p>The <a href="configuration.txt">configuration.txt</a> file contains more details</p>
<h2>Do Stuff With It</h2>
projects / tahoe-lafs / tahoe-lafs.git / commitdiff