Previous post, I’ve documented process of mining ETH / Ethereum on GPUs on POWER processor based server (called Barreleye ). Barreleye G2 is a open-source hardware server developed by Rackspace / Google.
In this post I explain, how to mine crypto-currency on CPU and still be profitable:
A. You pick the IBM POWER8 / 9 processors because of vector instructions supported on this CPU, helping the hashing algorithms (Specifically cryptonight algo – basis for Monero). (In your leisure, read this cryptonight standard that explains the basis of the algorithm itself )
B. You mine #MONERO – XMR because of its relative GPU / ASIC resistance. Monero has become one of the most popular cryptocurrencies due to its excellent privacy. Its website describes it as “secure, private, untraceable currency.”
For my guide I tested mining speeds on Rackspace server called : Barreleye G2 .
Example Speeds: Hash-rate on Barreleye server running 2 POWER8 /POWER9 (10 core chip) (~5 KH/s) —- Equivalent to 9 x GeForce 1070 Mining hash-rate (475 H/s)
Currently verified operating systems are :
A. 16.04
B. CentOS 7.x
Here are the steps to follow for mining Monero on Barreleye G2 on Ubuntu 16.04. The only changes for CentOS will be in installing AT10 (look below for what AT10 is) and dependency package names (usually different for debain vs RHEL based repos):
Before starting make sure your SMT level is at 4 and not 8 (4-way multi-threading yields the best results – Discovery through experimentation)
ppc64_cpu –smt=4
1. Clone the xmr-stak-power repository for POWER based on xmr-stack-cpu and cd into source directory
git clone https://github.com/agangidi53/xmr-stak-power
cd xmr-stak-power
2. Building a binary for mining on POWER needs gcc 6.3.1 which is available for public via Advanced toolchain 10. Install AT10.0 (Follow instructions below)
2a. Change Source list to add AT10 path
nano /etc/apt/sources.list
add “deb ftp://ftp.unicamp.br/pub/linuxpatch/toolchain/at/ubuntu xenial at10.0” at the end of the file
apt-get update
2b. Install the 4 AT10.0 packages and add them to the PATH:
apt-get install advance-toolchain-at10.0-runtime \
advance-toolchain-at10.0-devel \
advance-toolchain-at10.0-perf \
advance-toolchain-at10.0-mcore-libs
export PATH=/opt/at10.0/bin:$PATH
3. Install dependencies before building the mining binary:
apt install libmicrohttpd-dev -y
apt install libhwloc-dev -y
apt install libssl-dev -y
4. Configure, Make and Build the XMR-STAK-POWER binary
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=’/usr/lib/powerpc64le-linux-gnu/’
cmake
make
make install
Binary will be built and saved as <source-directory>/bin/xmr-stak/power
5. Create a Monero wallet and make not of wallet address and private keys
6. Replace above the Wallet address and your email in following file <source-directory>/bin/config.txt in below format.
We are using supportxmr pool so use the below template for pool address.
Only replace your email / wallet address. Follow template for everything else.
“pool_address” : “pool.supportxmr.com:5555”,
“wallet_address” : “4945WAJVEC6A3ZM8hwWMrV15VSJeeAvUv3fRbwwMajToCQ2usQa2tefGyx6PFQwXqMfpk7dVdxX6BBqZfYibx3JD3UKzrFk”,
“pool_password” : “MinerName:<email-address>”,
Please note that the default config file assumes you have
8. Start mining by executing the binary you previously built. This binary will refer to config.txt to determine your wallet address, the pool you are joining and number of CPUs in the server etc. ( It assumes you have 2 x 10 core POWER proc. If its different config, you need to change the config file to reflect that )
Use a screen session to run the mining binary so that binary runs in background (and you don’t have to baby sit it)
apt install screen
screen
<hit enter for the message>
<source-director>/bin/xmr-stak/power
7. After mining for 5 minutes, login to supportxmr.com using these default credentials ::
username: <your-wallet-address>
password: <your-email-address provided in above config.txt>
8. Change your password to your choice after getting in to the website.
9. At this point the Top Right Corner on supportxmr.com shows your current hash-rate mined via the pool. Here’s test output using 2 Barreleye G2 servers:
openpower blog 