Can I use back my existing Bitcoin Node for my new Raspberry Pi 4 device? \ stacker news ~bitcoin

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Can I use back my existing Bitcoin Node for my new Raspberry Pi 4 device?

540 sats \ 10 comments \ @nivek 10 Jul 2023 bitcoin

Hi Guys,

Need some help or advice on whether I can use back my existing up and running Bitcoin node for my new device - Raspberry Pi 4 (8gb). I am currently running my Bitcoin node on my old Macbook Pro (4mb ram) on Linux Ubuntu which I find quite impossible for me to try explore into running a Lightning Node. If I can re-use the node then I don't have to download the node all over again (which took me almost a month). Thanks in advance.

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15 sats \ 1 reply \ @nullcount 10 Jul 2023

https://nullcount.com/how-to-migrate-an-umbrel-lnd-node-without-closing-channels/

This guide is for migrating umbrel to another umbrel but you can adapt the commands to your situation.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @nivek OP 11 Jul 2023

Thanks @nullcount Will try it out

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 10 Jul 2023

I think you mean is it possible to avoid redownloading the blockchain again. It is. First you should decide what node package you you are gonna use on your Pi. Are you installing everything yourself or going with Umbrel or Raspiblitz or something Luke that. Once you know that you should be able to find out where the blockchain and chain state are stored. It is common to find them at ~/.bitcoin on most linux systems. Now this will be a new node but thats OK. You can avoid a lot of time waiting for the chain to sync.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @itsrealfake 10 Jul 2023

I've been wanting to do this for myself, but haven't knuckled down on it yet.

The process should be similar to what you would do if you were upgrading the HDD on your old node.

Under the standard linux install, the blocks are in a ~/.bitcoin subdirectory. I think it's a matter of moving the raw data from that place to whatever your new place is (your new raspy 4).

After moving the block data, my guess is that the new node will need to re-validate the block data.

Would love to hear more about your experience on this, or any links that you find along the way.

Good luck

100 sats \ 0 replies \ @nullcount 10 Jul 2023

https://nullcount.com/how-to-migrate-an-umbrel-lnd-node-without-closing-channels/

0 sats \ 4 replies \ @WeAreAllSatoshi 10 Jul 2023

I think you can move the blockchain from one machine to another, though I don’t have specifics available

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @nivek OP 10 Jul 2023

I did watched some of the installation videos on YouTube and all of them are installing it from scratch. It also require the SSD to be plug in to the Rspi before installing Umbrel. This will flash the entire SSD. I'm planning to use a new SSD for this initial part and stop Umbrel after Bitcoin Core has been installed. Then I will replace my old SSD with the full node to try it out. Hopefully it works. Just not sure is this the proper way of doing it.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 10 Jul 2023

Search for how to copy to blockchain on Umbrel. Ive done it. You can do it from the commandline.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @WeAreAllSatoshi 10 Jul 2023

I think in theory it comes down to finding where your full blockchain is saved now, and configuring bitcoin core on your new machine to persist the blockchain wherever you moved it to. I would expect this to “detect” that the blockchain is already downloaded and pick up where it left off. Unfortunately I don’t know how to configure Bitcoin core to tell it where to source/store the blockchain.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @nivek OP 10 Jul 2023

I in fact did tried once to re-installed the Umbrel in the same laptop after I remove it. It actually works. I just replaced the new bitcoin folder to the one with my full node. Just not sure it works if I am using a different device this time. Anyway, thanks for your feedback.