documentation updates

README.md

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 # ThunderCloud - Lightning in the Cloud!
-This project makes it really easy (or at least as easy as it can be) to run a lightning node *cheaply* in the cloud. It contains a CDK (https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cdk/latest/guide/home.html) stack that sets up the required networking and an EC2 instance to run your node, and a setup script that installs and configures LND using neutrino as the backend. The EC2 instance used is a `t4g.micro`, an ARM-based instance with a gig of memory and two cores which runs just over $6/month, or just below $4/month if you commit to a year through a Reserved Instance (https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/reserved-instances/). So for ~$6 a month you can run a lightning node and now worry about hardware, power, networking, etc. Or if you want to run it for 2 weeks to try some experiment or something, you can and then just tear it down and stop the meter!
+This project makes it really easy (or at least as easy as it can be) to run a lightning node *cheaply* in the cloud. It contains a CDK (https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cdk/latest/guide/home.html) stack that sets up the required networking and an EC2 instance to run your node, and a setup script that installs and configures LND using neutrino as the backend. The EC2 instance used is a `t4g.micro`, an ARM-based instance with a gig of memory and two cores which runs just over $6/month, or just below $4/month if you commit to a year through a Reserved Instance (https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/reserved-instances/). So for ~$6 a month you can run a lightning node and not worry about hardware, power, networking, etc. Or if you want to run it for 2 weeks to try some experiment or something, you can and then just tear it down and stop the meter!
 
 ## Things you need to do first
 - Install the AWS CLI (https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/install-cliv2.html) and set it up with AWS creds.
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@ You can use `lncli` to open channels, create invoices, do all the fun lightning
 There is no step 2. You can also go find the stack in CloudFormation and delete it there. either way works.
 
 ## Stuff to look at and customize
+- You'll want to change the node alias. Either set the right line in `lib/configure-node.sh` before you run `cdk deploy`, or update `~/.lnd/lnd.conf` and restart lnd on the instance. either works.
 - Want to see the CFn template that CDK creates? do `cdk synth` from the project root and it'll spit out the yaml template that Cloudformation will use to create the resources.
 - When your node first boots, it'll execute `lib/configure-node.sh` as root. This is where lnd gets downloaded and configured. Feel free to tweak it to your needs.
 - All the infrastructure is defined in `lib/lightningnode-stack.ts`. You can add/remove/change things there to your liking. doing a `cdk deploy` will update the stack. Changing some instance properties will result in the node being deleted and recreated. Be careful changing the instance.

lib/configure-node.sh

@@ -1,11 +1,14 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 
+# Download and unpack the latest lnd. 
 wget https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd/releases/download/v0.13.1-beta/lnd-linux-arm64-v0.13.1-beta.tar.gz
+# TODO: verify signatures on the download
 tar xf lnd-linux-arm64-v0.13.1-beta.tar.gz
 mkdir /home/ec2-user/bin
 cp lnd-linux-arm64-v0.13.1-beta/* /home/ec2-user/bin/
 rm -rf lnd-linux-arm64-v0.13.1-beta*
 
+# Write lnd config. Feel free to customize this to your liking. You'll want to change the node alias
 mkdir /home/ec2-user/.lnd
 PUBLIC_IPV4=$(curl http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/public-ipv4/)
 cat << EOF > /home/ec2-user/.lnd/lnd.conf
@@ -140,8 +143,12 @@ routerrpc.penaltyhalflife=6h0m0s
 routing.assumechanvalid=1
 
 EOF
+
+# Generate a random password for the lnd wallet. 
+# Note: YOU should still be the one to run `lnd create` so that you can write down the seed backup
 openssl rand -hex 21 > /home/ec2-user/.lnd/wallet_password
 
+# Write a systemd script so it starts up at boot or restarts if it dies
 cat << EOF > /etc/systemd/system/lnd.service
 [Service]
 Environment=HOME=/home/ec2-user
@@ -160,6 +167,7 @@ WantedBy=multi-user.target
 
 EOF
 
+# Setup bos. currently kind of broken. npm gets installed though
 curl -sL https://rpm.nodesource.com/setup_14.x | sudo bash -
 yum install -y nodejs
 mkdir /home/ec2-user/.npm-global
@@ -167,10 +175,13 @@ npm config set prefix '/home/ec2-user/.npm-global'
 echo 'PATH=/home/ec2-user/.npm-global/bin:$PATH' >> /home/ec2-user/.bashrc
 npm install -g balanceofsatoshis
 
+# make sure the user owns everything we just did
 chown -R ec2-user: /home/ec2-user/.lnd
 chown -R ec2-user: /home/ec2-user/.npm-global
 chown -R ec2-user: /home/ec2-user/bin
 
-
+# ensure the wallet is unlocked by unlocking it every 5 minutes
 echo '*/5 * * * * ec2-user /home/ec2-user/.npm-global/bin/bos unlock /home/ec2-user/.lnd/wallet_password' >> /etc/crontab
+
+# Start lnd!
 systemctl start lnd.service