Managing your Lightning node

Using a Lightning node manager

Set up Your First Lightning Node

Using a Lightning node manager

Install ThunderHub
Use ThunderHub

In the previous part of this LNP202 training course, we used the basic interface of the Lightning Node application on Umbrel. This interface is sufficient for essential operations (checking balances, viewing cash distribution, opening and closing channels), but it is deliberately very simplified. This simplicity limits the options available and does not give access to many of the advanced features of your LND node. For this reason, we will now use another, more comprehensive Lightning node management software.

This additional software will simply be a complementary management interface for your node. This means you can continue to use the Lightning Node interface in parallel, and even use several different ones if you wish. These are simply different ways of interacting with the same Lightning node.

Among the best-known software programs are:

All three are good solutions. If you wish, you can test all three with your node before choosing the one that suits you best. Personally, I use ThunderHub out of habit and because it seems more complete than the others. This is the tool I'll be presenting in this training course, but you can also choose one of the other two alternatives. We have a dedicated tutorial for each of these programs on Plan ₿ Academy.

ThunderHubInterface Lightning node management web LND

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Install ThunderHub

These programs can all be installed very easily from the Umbrel App Store. As I said, we're going to use ThunderHub here, but if you'd like to test another one later, the procedure will be similar.

Umbrel provides you with a default password to access ThunderHub. Copy it: you'll need it right away. Remember also to save it in your password manager, as you'll be asked for it every time you open the software.

Click on Login, then paste the password supplied by Umbrel to log in.

You will then be taken to the ThunderHub home page, which displays the main information about your Lightning node.

To begin with, I recommend that you activate two-factor authentication (2FA). In the settings, simply click on Enable next to Enable 2FA, then follow the usual process.

Use ThunderHub

ThunderHub is relatively easy to learn. All menus are accessible from the left-hand column of the interface. To summarize, here's what each one does:

home: node overview, balances and quick actions;
dashboard: customizable dashboard with widgets and metrics;
peers: view and manage connections to other Lightning nodes;
channels': complete channel management (liquidity, fees, closure, etc.);
rebalance": a tool for rebalancing channels via circular payments;
transactions: history of Lightning payments sent and received;
forwards`: routing statistics and costs generated by your node;
Chain: Bitcoin onchain wallet (UTXOs and transactions);
gW-201 integration for monitoring and backup;
Tools: advanced tools (backups, reports, macaroons, signatures, etc.);
swap: Lightning/onchain swaps via Boltz;
Stats: overall statistics and performance of your Lightning node.

With this set of functions, you have all the tools you need to manage your Lightning node efficiently. It's not essential to master every option in detail right away: we'll be exploring them progressively throughout this course. However, if you'd like to get to grips with the software in greater depth, take a look at our ThunderHub tutorial:

ThunderHubInterface Lightning node management web LND

The menu we're most interested in here is Channels. It offers a detailed view of all the channels in your node, with their liquidity distribution. In particular, you can see which channels are open in Open, which are waiting to be opened or closed in Pending, and which are already closed in Closed.

For a given channel, you can click on the peer's name or channel ID to open its Amboss page and get more information. You can also click on the pencil icon to modify the channel's parameters, including the fee policy applied to that channel if your node routes payments to your peer's node.

If you're using your Lightning node mainly as a "consumer", you don't need to change these charges: you can keep the default values. On the other hand, if you'd like to better understand how routing charges work on Lightning, I recommend LNP 201 training, and in particular chapter 4.1:

Lightning Network Theory

Intermediate

4.8(152)

Discover the Lightning Network from a technical perspective

4.8(152)

Lightning Network Theory

Discover the Lightning Network from a technical perspective

By clicking on the small cross next to a peer, you can initiate the closing of a channel. If you notice, for example, that a peer is regularly inactive, it may be appropriate to close this channel in order to reallocate your capital to a more reliable peer.

You then have two options. The first, and always preferable, is cooperative closure. By confirming this action, your node asks your peer to close the channel jointly. If he accepts, you can broadcast the onchain closing transaction and recover your share of the funds. The advantages of this method are that you choose the onchain fees for the transaction, thus avoiding unnecessary costs, and that the funds are recovered more quickly, without any timelock.

The second option is forced closure. In this case, you don't ask for the peer's agreement and directly broadcast the last commitment transaction in your possession. I wouldn't recommend this method unless it's a last resort, for example if the peer systematically refuses cooperative closures or no longer responds. Forced closure has two major disadvantages: the fees are often very high, as they have been set in advance to anticipate a rise in onchain fees, and there is a delay in recovering the funds, as they are blocked by a timelock. This timelock gives your peer the time to react in the event of a cheating attempt (which is obviously not the case here, but you still have to wait).

Finally, to open a new channel, go to the Home menu and click on Open a Channel in the Liquidity section. You'll then be able to enter the ID of the chosen node, the channel capacity, the desired Lightning routing fee, and the onchain fee for the opening transaction.

These are the main actions you'll need to perform on ThunderHub. We'll discover other features as we go along in this LNP202 course.

Quiz

lnp2023.2

1/5

What's the main disadvantage of forced closure?