Get Started

This section covers repository configuration, and installation.

System requirements

To properly build components, you must have a system with the following requirements:

  • Linux (Ubuntu Preferred) Version: 20.04 or Above Mac(Apple Silicon or Intel) Version: Big Sur or Above Windows : Windows 10 or Above

  • 4 vCPU, 4 GB Memory at minimum

  • 4 GB of space minimum for zbox build components and storage allocation.

Install zboxcli

Linux Installation

  1. Download the latest linux zboxcli archive release from here.

  2. Open terminal and extract the downloaded archive to a specified directory using the command below.

tar -xzf zbox-linux.tar.gz --directory /usr/local/bin

  1. Provide execution privileges to the zbox executable.

chmod +x /usr/local/bin/zboxx

4. Navigate to the extracted directory path 

cd /usr/local/bin

  1. Run the zbox executable type by using the command below.

./zbox

On successful installation you will see a help section similar to response below:

zbox is a decentralized storage application written on the 0Chain platform.                    

Usage:
  zbox [command]

Available Commands:
  add                Adds free storage assigner
  alloc-cancel       Cancel an allocation

6. Configure zbox network

7. .Create a Storage Allocation

Windows Installation

  1. Download the latest windows zboxcli archive release from here.

  2. Extract the executable from the archive zbox-windows.zip

  3. Now run the executable zbox.exe in windows command prompt.

  4. On successful installation, you will see a help section similar to response below :

zbox is a decentralized storage application written on the 0Chain platform.
                        

Usage:
  zbox [command]

Available Commands:
  add                Adds free storage assigner
  alloc-cancel       Cancel an allocation
  alloc-fini         Finalize an expired allocation

5. Configure zbox network

6. Create a Storage Allocation

macOS Installation

  1. Download the latest mac zboxcli archive release from here.

  2. Open terminal and extract the downloaded archive to a specified directory using the commands below:

tar -xzf zbox-macos.tar.gz --directory /usr/local/bin

3. Provide execution privleges to the zbox executable.

chmod +x /usr/local/bin/zbox

  1. Navigate to extracted directory path .

cd /usr/local/bin

  1. Run the zbox executable using the command below.

./zbox

On successful installation you will see a help section :

zbox is a decentralized storage application written on the 0Chain platform.
                        Complete documentation is available at https://docs.0chain.net/0chain/

Usage:
  zbox [command]

Available Commands:
  add                Adds free storage assigner
  alloc-cancel       Cancel an allocation
  alloc-fini         Finalize an expired allocation

6. Configure zbox network

7. Create a Storage Allocation

Building zboxcli

Building zboxcli for Windows

Windows 64bit (tested with Windows 11)

  1. Installing msys2 from here.

  2. Open MSYS2 MINGW64 shell from the windows start menu. The MINGW64 shell window should look similar to screenshot below.

  1. Install the following libraries:

pacman -S base-devel git gcc make

  1. Install clang, go for mingw64 and unzip

pacman -S  mingw-w64-x86_64-clang mingw-w64-x86_64-go unzip

Note: Restart mingw64 shell for Go to make changes.

  1. Set environment variables

export GOROOT=/mingw64/lib/go
export GOPATH=/mingw64
export PATH=$PATH:$GOROOT/bin

# use clang as a default compiler for CGO
go env -w "CC=/mingw64/bin/clang.exe"

  1. Clone zboxcli

git clone https://github.com/0chain/zboxcli.git

  1. Navigate to zboxcli directory and run the following command :

cd zboxcli
make install

  1. Download necessary dll files as zip from here.

  2. Unzip and copy dll's to zboxcli directory. The zboxcli directory will be available at the following path C:\msys64\home\<your_windows_username>\zboxcli if cloned under mingw64 shell.

  3. Now run the ./zbox command under zboxcli directory 

./zbox

On a successful build you will see a help section.

11. Configure zbox network

12. Create a Storage Allocation

Building zboxcli for Mac and Linux

1. Go Binaries

Installation instructions for Mac and Linux can be found here.

2. Build-Essential(Only required for linux)

The build essential package is required to build and make the zbox application. It includes the necessary GCC/g++ compilers and other essential critical libraries and utilities.

Run apt update command to update the packages

sudo apt update

Get build-essential package

sudo apt-get install build-essential

  1. Clone the zboxcli repository using the command

git clone https://github.com/0chain/zboxcli.git

  1. Navigate into zboxcli directory using

cd zboxcli

  1. Use the make install command to compile the source code .

make install

This might take a minute. Here is a sample response of successful make install command:

  1. Start the Zbox by navigating back to the zboxcli directory usingcd zboxcli and type

./zbox

On a successful build you will see a help section.

7. Configure zbox network

8. Create a Storage Allocation

Configure Zbox network

Configuration for the Züs network by default is stored in network/config.yaml file of the zbox github repo which we will copy to a new config.yaml file in our local system .

  1. Make a new .zcn folder in the home directory of your system 

mkdir $HOME/.zcn

Note: For windows create a folder named .zcn at `C:\Users\<windows_username>`path. 2. Copy config.yaml from zboxcli repo to .zcn directory

cp network/config.yaml $HOME/.zcn/config.yaml

  1. Open the config.yaml file located at $HOME/.zcn path of your system.The contents should be similar to the file below.

---
block_worker: https://demo.zus.network/dns
signature_scheme: bls0chain
min_submit: 50
min_confirmation: 50
confirmation_chain_length: 3
max_txn_query: 5
query_sleep_time: 5
# # OPTIONAL - Uncomment to use/ Add more if you want
# preferred_blobbers:
#   - http://one.devnet-0chain.net:31051
#   - http://one.devnet-0chain.net:31052
#   - http://one.devnet-0chain.net:31053

Zbox connects to the Züs network using the block_worker field. These network details are automatically fetched from the blockWorker's network API. Preferred Blobbers are also present which you can uncomment for using specified storage providers for handling your files.

Note: In case you are configuring zbox network for setting up blockchain locally the block_worker in config file above should be set to http://198.18.0.98:9091/

Creating a Storage Allocation

The section assumes you have successfully build zbox. zbox provides a long list of components to use. Let's begin with the allocation of storage space on the 0Chain decentralized network.

For creating a storage allocation using Zbox. You need to have a wallet with tokens available for performing allocations.

  1. Create and get test tokens into your wallet using the zwallet CLI tool. If you have not installed zwallet CLI check instructions for installation and creating a wallet .

  2. Once the wallet is created and has an available balance, you can create a storage allocation by using the Zbox newallocationcommand. To understand the syntax type

./zbox newallocation --help

This will output the mandatory and optional flags that need to be added with the newallocationcommand. Here are the parameters :

Parameter
Description
Default
Valid Values

allocationFileName

local file to store allocation information

allocation.txt

file path

cost

returns the cost of the allocation, no allocation created

flag

data

number of data shards, effects upload and download speeds

2

int

expire

duration to allocation expiration

720h

duration

free_storage

free storage marker file.

file path

owner

owner's id, use for funding an allocation for another

string

owner_public_key

public key, use for funding an allocation for another

string

lock

lock write pool with given number of tokens

float

mcct

max challenge completion time

1h

duration

parity

number of parity shards, effects availability

2

int

read_price

filter blobbers by read price range

0-inf

range

size

size of space reserved on blobbers

2147483648

bytes

usd

give token value in USD

flag

write_price

filter blobbers by write price range

0-inf

range

  1. For getting started we can create a basic allocation with default types. This will only require essential specifiers such as lock float. We will add a float value of 0.5 which will lock 0.5 tokens with the allocation. The complete command for creating an allocation would be:

./zbox newallocation --lock 0.5

​ Successful Response will create an allocation with allocation ID:

If you are not able to create allocation and getting errors, check error causes in TIps and Troubleshooting Section.

7. Verify the allocation by using the command.

./zbox listallocations

  1. Download necessary dll files as zip from here.

  2. Unzip and copy dll's to zboxcli directory. The zboxcli directory will be available at the following path C:\msys64\home\<your_windows_username>\zboxcli if cloned under mingw64 shell.

  3. Now run the ./zbox command under zboxcli directory

PreviousZbox CLINextCreating and Managing Allocations

Last updated