Xa-Miner Setup Guide
The Xa-Miner is the most accessible way to become an ScPrime storage provider. As a new provider it is recommended you read through the Storage Provider Information pages to gain an understanding of how provider earnings work, incentives, the SCP token etc.
Note: You do not access the Xa-Miner directly by plugging a monitor, mouse or keyboard into it. You might never need to access your Xa-Miner directly, as nearly everything can be handled from the web interface. Users will only need to access the device directly when they need tech support for the unit. Also note that only the rear USB ports are active, the front USB ports are disabled by design.
Note: Please ensure your Xa-Miner has enough SCP to cover the collateral costs of storage contracts. At current SCP prices, your Xa-Miner would need approximately 100 SCP per TB for full collateralization. Please keep in mind that you only need to cover collateral for used space, meaning you don't have to collateralize the entire capacity of the Xa-Miner all at once. For more information on collateral, see this document.
Once your Xa-Miner is out of the box, your first steps will be to plug in an ethernet cable to one of the network ports and plug the power adapter in. Depending on which model of Xa-Miner, it could be the left network port or right network port, refer to the models below to find the one which corresponds to the rear port layout of your Xa-Miner and plug in according to the blue arrows.
On this model, the power connector is on the right side as you look at the back of the Xa-Miner (not shown in this picture as it’s a connector on the black backplate of the chassis) and the right hand network port should be connected up.
On this model, the power connector is on the right side as you look at the back of the Xa-Miner (not shown in this picture as it’s a connector on the black backplate of the chassis) and the left hand network port should be connected up.
On this model, the power connector is on the left side as you look at the back of the Xa-Miner and the right hand network port should be connected up.
On this model, the power connector is on the right side as you look at the back of the Xa-Miner (not shown in this picture as it’s a connector on the black backplate of the chassis) and the left hand network port should be connected up.
On this model, the power connector is on the right side as you look at the back of the Xa-Miner (not shown in this picture as it’s a connector on the black backplate of the chassis) and the left hand network port should be connected up.
Once the power supply is connected to the back of the Xa-Miner and it’s powered on, the Xa-Miner will automatically power itself on and you should see the blue power LED next to the power button on the front light up. Additionally the blue LED’s next to each drive sled should power on. If any of the blue LED’s are not lit, power the Xa-Miner off by pressing and holding the power button on the front for a few seconds until the power LED goes out. Then, for the drive which didn’t power up, press the blue button on the drive slide so the black handle pops out, pull the handle and slide the drive sled out part way, then push it back in as far as it will go and push the handle back in so it clicks back in place. Then power the unit back on by pressing the power button on the front. Confirm all 4 LED’s light up. If not please contact Tech Support.
The trickiest part of setting up an Xa-Miner is the Port Forwarding and IP Reservation tasks. After connecting the Xa-Miner to your home network and powering it up, this involves logging into your router and first finding the Xa-Miner in the router's device list. Each router is different so this will be located in different menus but it will show you a list of the devices connected to your home network and their IP addresses. You should see a device called 'xaminer' along with the IP address which the router has allocated to it, for example 192.168.0.2. This will be the IP address used to access the Xa-Miner UI in the next section. You want to set this IP address to be reserved or fixed for the Xa-Miner so the router will always allocated the same address to it.
Once you've completed this step, find the Port Forwarding (or some routers call it Virtual Servers) menu page in the router. First thing to look for is uPnP, often this is enabled by default in routers, it's generally best to disable it. While in some instances it can work to open the required ports without any intervention, it can often cause the port forwarding to randomly stop working so we recommend disabling it. Then you want to create 2 port forwarding rules, if this is your first Xa-Miner then those ports will be 4282 and 4285 by default. Again, all routers are setup slightly differently but these are the settings you will need to use:
Name - "Xa-Miner-4282", can be anything really, just a name of the rule
Protocol - TCP
Global or external port range - 4282 - 4282
Local port range - 4282 - 4282
External IP address - leave this blank or you might need to enter 0.0.0.0
Internal IP address - this will be the IP address of the Xa-Miner, 192.168.0.2 in the example above. Some routers will give you a list of device names to select rather than ask for an IP address in which case select 'xaminer'
Once this rule is created, add a 2nd rule for port 4285. To test the ports forwarding is correctly setup and working, use a Port Scanner site like IPFingerPrints.
Your public IP address should be filled in automatically when you visit this page, enter 4280 to 4285 for the port range you want to scan and hit Scan. Above is the result we want to see with ports 4282 and 4285 showing as open and the rest showing as filtered (meaning the scan got no response on those ports). If the ports are showing as filtered or closed then this means the port forwarding is not correctly setup yet and you should revisit the setup in the router. We also have a Port Forward guide which can help get this part setup.
IMPORTANT - Do not put your Xa-Miner into the router's DMZ, this will open up the Xa-Miner directly to the internet and basically any traffic sent from the internet to your public IP will be forwarded to the Xa-Miner, exposing it to potential attacks. Also do not forward any other ports than the 2 required, 4282 and 4285 by default.
Once you have the local IP and the port forwarding is setup, open a web browser and enter http://<LOCAL_IP>, where LOCAL_IP is the IP address of the Xa-Miner found in the previous steps. This should bring you to the initial Xa-Miner GUI setup page.
Here you can see that the blockchain is currently downloading which will typically take a few minutes depending on your internet speed. If this does not complete within an hour, then reboot the Xa-Miner.
Once downloaded it will extract the blockchain
And then setup the 4 drives as follows
Once this is complete the Please Wait button will change to a Next button and you are ready to continue the setup and registration process.
The next page will contain your wallet recovery seed phrase. This can also be downloaded as a PDF. It is important to save this somewhere safe as you will need the seed to send SCP coins from the wallet to another wallet address. The seed phrase is recoverable with a keyboard and monitor connected up to the Xa-Miner should you need to, please contact Tech Support to assist with this.
After clicking on Next you are taken to the registration page where you should register the Xa-Miner with the SAME e-mail address you used when ordering the unit to ensure you qualify for all bonuses and perks. This will also help with ensuring all of your Xa-Miners and licenses are displayed together in the XNS Console page as they are linked by your e-mail address. If you are registering a 2nd or 3rd Xa-Miner you should use the same e-mail address as the 1st is registered to.
After clicking Register you are taken to the next page where if you want to change the ports the Xa-Miner runs on you can click on Configure Ports. If you already have a provider running on the default ports then you will need to change this Xa-Miner to a different set of ports. We recommend keeping them at least 10 apart, so typically using 4292/4293 or 4272/4273 for example. Note the default ports for hardware Xa-Miners are 4282 and 4285 and if this is your first provider, Xa-Miner or DIY Provider, these ports will likely work fine and you can just click on Goto Dashboard.
Either after changing the ports or clicking on Goto Dashboard you are then taken to the main Xa-Miner GUI and to the Financials page.
You are now on the main Xa-Miner GUI. There are still a few steps to get full setup from here. You will notice the message at the top of the page in the orange banner saying “Your device has not announced itself to the network. We are waiting for initial funds to arrive so we can announce.” The wallet balance will likely be 0 SCP the first time you see this page. Once your Xa-Miner comes online, it will first receive 1SCP which you can see above as the Wallet balance and you will also see it at the bottom of this page under Transactions. This will allow the Xa-Miner to automatically announce itself. The orange banner message then will disappear and you’ll see the Status showing as Active.
At the bottom of the Financials page you will see all the transactions like rebates, incentives payments, collateral being taken out, storage earnings plus any manual wallet transactions you may do.
Once the Xa-Miner has announced itself, you will see a transaction of type Host announcement for around -0.000018 SCP. This means you have successfully announced the Xa-Miner to the network. If you navigate to the Stats page at this point you will see a page like this with little to no information in it, this is normal at this stage.
Once announced, the scanners will pick up the new provider and begin to scan it. After the first scan the Stats page will start to populate with some information as below.
Some values are still showing Pending and you’ll notice the Configuration error showing “HTTP port (4285) error - Check forwarding”. This error is normal after the first scan and will correct itself after the 2nd scan and Grafana updates the page. This typically takes about an hour. After a couple of scans then you’ll see the page fully populated.
While this page is available locally on your home network, you can also click on the Open in Grafana button to open an external page which contains the same stats. This page you can view from anywhere so you don’t have to be on your home network to see how your Xa-Miner is doing.
At this point you need to fund the Xa-Miner provider wallet with some SCP for collateral, more info on what collateral is and how much you need can be found here.
The rebates schedule for Xa-Miners can be found here. Depending on when you purchased your Xa-Miner you may qualify for rebates paid in SCP or SPF-B.
Congratulations, your new Xa-Miner is now fully setup. To learn more about the Xa-Miner UI and all its functions, please visit the Xa-Miner UI Walkthrough page.
Last modified 3mo ago