Shoestring Overview⚓︎

Shoestring: A command-line tool used to deploy and manage nodes in the Symbol network.

Using Shoestring, node operators can:

Deploy new nodes.
Migrate existing nodes.
Keep the node software up to date.
Manage node certificates and voting keys.

Shoestring does not run the node itself. Instead, it prepares a Docker environment that contains the required Symbol node components.

Warning

Operating Shoestring and Symbol nodes in general requires familiarity with the terminal and command-line tools of your operating system. These guides assume basic command-line usage.

Why Shoestring Exists⚓︎

Earlier Symbol deployments relied on symbol-bootstrap. That tool depended on Node.js and included complex logic for configuration generation and orchestration.

Shoestring simplifies node deployment by:

using Python instead of Node.js
separating configuration generation from runtime execution
delegating runtime orchestration to Docker

This design reduces dependencies and makes node operations easier to maintain over time.

How Shoestring Works⚓︎

Shoestring prepares the configuration files required to run a Symbol node with the desired roles.

The typical workflow is:

Generate network configuration files.
Customize node settings if required.
Run the Shoestring setup command.
Start the Docker containers that run the node.

The running node consists of several components inside Docker containers, including the Catapult server and the REST Gateway.

Shoestring also provides commands that help maintain a running node, such as upgrading the client, renewing certificates, or checking node health.

Docker Requirement⚓︎

Running a node directly from the Symbol server binaries is technically possible, but this approach requires manual configuration and process management. For this reason, Docker-based deployments are recommended for most operators.

All guides in this section assume Docker is installed and available on the system.