Choose the Right NaaS Provider: Optimizing Aethir Node Operations

Introduction

As a checker node owner, choosing the right method of running these nodes is crucial. Meticulous decision-making and selecting the right infrastructure partner are key to maximizing the returns on an Aethir Checker Node investment.

To assist you, we have conducted extensive research and number crunching to create this guide, aimed at helping you make an informed decision in choosing a node infrastructure provider. At Luganodes, as Node-as-a-Service (NaaS) providers, we have applied a similar approach to optimize our offerings, ensuring best-in-class value. This article also provides a fact-supported overview of the market, helping you choose what best suits your needs.

According to documentation, node holders can either run their own nodes or take advantage of a Node-as-a-Service (NaaS) provider. Let’s compare.

What are Aethir Checker Nodes?

Aethir Checker Nodes are a vital component of Aethir's decentralized GPU computing network. Checker nodes ensure the integrity and service quality of the Aethir network by verifying the Container and its service processes. This includes checking parameters such as liveness, capacity, and Quality of Service (QoS) through methods like heartbeat collection, benchmark testing, and link data analysis. Checker nodes are part of the Aethir architecture and count as one of its key node components.

Checklist for Choosing a Reliable NaaS Provider

Investing in Aethir Checker Nodes requires a long-term commitment. Therefore, choosing a reliable and sustainable NaaS provider is crucial to ensure consistent and optimal rewards. Reliable providers adhere to hardware requirements and offer sustainable pricing models.

• Reputation and Trust: A NaaS provider must possess substantial node-operation experience, industry-wide recognition, and established partnerships.
• Reliability: High uptimes and enterprise-grade infrastructure are essential to ensure that the nodes being operated are constantly monitored and are not penalized.
• Security and Compliance: To maintain the safety of funds, the provider must have security certifications and comply with international standards.
• Customer Support: Effective support and communication are vital for addressing any issues faced by node-holders throughout the process. Continuous support must be available through direct troubleshooting or via community groups to ensure seamless product usage.
• Value-added Services: For ease of investing, investment tracking, and addressing specific needs, a provider must offer services such as dashboards and other tools. These added efforts allow node-holders to monitor their investments, performance, and profits.

How does Luganodes NaaS Handle Infrastructure Operations?

Luganodes offers tailored solutions for different user needs, ensuring adherence to Aethir's hardware requirements and sustainable pricing.

For Users with Less Than 50 Licenses:

• Infrastructure: Utilizes AWS EC2 machines (e.g., t3.micro with 2 vCPUs, 1GB RAM).
• Scalability: Uses monitoring and alerting to scale servers based on subscription purchases.

For Users with More Than 50 Licenses:

• Contracts: Requires NDA and MSA agreements. Post that, our team shares burner addresses privately with clients to delegate their licenses.
• Infrastructure: Runs on top-notch bare metal servers (e.g., OVH, Cherry, Servers.com) to meet minimum hardware requirements.
• Example Configuration: Scale a5 OVH Server (128 threads) for running 100 licenses on one machine.

We leverage our custom-written code wrappers on top of Aethir CLI binary (private docker image) to push checker node metrics periodically (every 2 mins) to our centralized NoSQL database. The database is linked to Grafana (monitoring and alerting tool) as a data source to alert our Site Reliability Engineers and scale infrastructure as needed to ensure very high uptime and reliable operations.

Minimum Hardware Requirements for Running Checker Node Client

Aethir specifies certain hardware requirements necessary to successfully run an Aethir Checker Node:

Scaling

It is important to note that these hardware specifications apply to a single license only. These requirements scale linearly with the number of licenses being operated. For example, running 100 licenses will necessitate 100 times the amount of hardware listed above.

Furthermore, these specifications are the minimum requirements. Ensuring or exceeding these requirements is crucial for proper node operation. Failure to meet these requirements can result in licenses going offline, inaccurate task results, reduced rewards, or even banned licenses.

Cost and Reliability

Running nodes involves various costs, including network, compute, and additional backend services. Here's a breakdown of potential costs:

Please note:

• Choosing a high compute (vCPU) machine doesn't help with reducing the costs of Cloud Providers like AWS and GCP.
• Pricing can vary based on enterprise relationships, and reservation of servers for longer duration which providers can avail to get discounts on the server pricing.
• This is excluding storage, bandwidth, monitoring, alerting costs, and taxes as applicable.
• Please use these pricing calculators to verify the prices.
  • GCP Pricing Calculator: https://cloud.google.com/products/calculator
  • AWS Pricing Calculator: https://calculator.aws/#/createCalculator/ec2-enhancement
  • OVH Pricing Calculator: https://www.ovhcloud.com/asia/bare-metal/prices/

Estimating the Cost Per License Per Month

To estimate the cost per license per month, we can summarize the key components:

1. Network Costs: $3-4 (Variable depending on where the node is hosted)
2. Compute Costs: $3-10
3. Additional Costs:
   • Engineering: 2%
   • Payments Gateway Platform: 1%
   • Backend Services: Variable

Cost Analysis of Running Nodes

In conducting a cost analysis for running the minimum hardware as specified by Aethir, we can identify several options and associated expenses.

The most economical choice appears to be utilizing OVH with 4 vCPUs, which incurs a cost of approximately $1.50 to $2.00 per month per license for compute resources. However, this option includes an additional network cost of around $3.00 to $4.00 per month. Consequently, the total expenditure for this configuration is estimated to be approximately $5.00 per month.

Conversely, opting for a more reliable and robust solution, such as bare metal servers, presents a different cost structure. For instance, the Tempest configuration with 8 vCPUs incurs a compute cost of around $8.00 per month, with no network costs up to 1GB. Hence, the total cost for this configuration is approximately $8.00 per month.

In Luganodes’ node operation experience, bare-metal services tend to provide more control to the operator compared to other methods. This leads to better optimization, performance, and speed. There are many technical intricacies that lead to an overall smoother experience.

In summary, the minimum hardware cost to meet Aethir's specifications ranges from $5.00 to $8.00 per month. It is important to note that these figures exclude any additional operational costs.

Summary Table of Costs and Pricing

Conclusion

Sustainability Challenges

Luganodes operates transparently and in a long-term sustainable manner, adhering to the minimum hardware requirements specified by Aethir. Providers offering significantly lower prices may not be meeting the minimum hardware requirements, risking operational reliability and rewards.

• Operating at a Loss: Offering unsustainable pricing that isn't viable in the long run. (And ultimately the cost will likely come out of investor’s pockets)
• Non-Compliant: Failing to meet hardware requirements, cutting corners on infrastructure, compromising stability, and losing rewards for investors.

Aethir's documentation clearly encourages NaaS providers to follow hardware requirements and warns participants that failing to satisfy hardware robustness can lead to banned licenses or reduced rewards. Sustainable NaaS providers must ensure compliance to protect Aethir checker node license holders’ investments.

Aethir also mentions that in future releases, node operators would be required to pass minimum hardware checks before accepting license delegations.

Ensuring Optimal Returns through Responsible Management

As an investor in Aethir’s checker node licenses, it is your responsibility to know your NaaS (Node-as-a-Service) providers and understand how they intend to run and manage their infrastructure sustainably in the long run to ensure optimal returns.

By selecting reliable providers like Luganodes, you ensure that your investments are protected and that you benefit from a transparent, compliant, and sustainable operational framework. This commitment to sustainability not only safeguards your current investments, but also positions you for continued success in the evolving landscape of blockchain technology.

Note: The views expressed here are those of the individual LN Tech FZE ("Luganodes") personnel quoted and are not the views of Luganodes or its partners or affiliates. Certain information contained in this article has been obtained from third-party sources. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, Luganodes has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation. In addition, this content may include advertisements or reference to businesses; Luganodes does not endorse any advertising or businesses mentions contained therein. This content is provided for informational and educational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own accredited advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors, and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest in any services managed by Luganodes. Any investments or service provider companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in services managed by Luganodes, and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. Charts and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and should not be relied upon when making any investment decision. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Past fee structure is not indicative of future results. The content speaks only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects, and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others.

About Luganodes

Luganodes is a world-class, Swiss-operated, non-custodial blockchain infrastructure provider that has rapidly gained recognition in the industry for offering institutional-grade services. It was born out of the Lugano Plan B Program, an initiative driven by Tether and the City of Lugano. Luganodes maintains an exceptional 99.9% uptime with round-the-clock monitoring by SRE experts. With support for 45+ PoS networks, it ranks among the top validators on Polygon, Polkadot, Sui, and Tron. Luganodes prioritizes security and compliance, holding the distinction of being one of the first staking providers to adhere to all SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, and ISO 27001 standards as well as offering Chainproof insurance to institutional clients.