Provisioning

Starting from a default Ubuntu AMI in AWS:

provisioning_aws

SSH into the machine and run all the necessary updates:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade -y
sudo apt-get upgrade -y

Install build tools:

sudo apt-get install build-essential -y
sudo apt-get install python -y

Install Node.js:

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_8.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

Install Geth:

sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:ethereum/ethereum
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ethereum -y

Fire up Geth and connect to the Ethereum test network.

geth --testnet \
  --datadir "~/.rqc" \
  --syncmode=fast \
  --rpc \
  --rpcapi="db,eth,net,web3,personal"

(note: make sure port 8545 is blocked to the public in your AWS security group)

Geth will start syncing with the blockchain: provisioning_geth_sync

It will take more than an hour, but when you are up-to-date it will sync single blocks at a time: rqc_provision_singleblockatatime

You can also visit https://ropsten.etherscan.io to see what the latest block is.