# Config File Check

### Check if you are using the correct node.vkey

{% tabs %}
{% tab title="Cold machine" %}

```
cardano-cli stake-pool id --cold-verification-key-file node.vkey
```

{% endtab %}
{% endtabs %}

* The above will return your Pool ID if node.vkey is correct
* If you want to see the Pool ID in BECH32 format, add ”--output-format hex” at the end of the above command

### Check the Kes and Node vkeys inside node.cert

{% tabs %}
{% tab title="Cold machine" %}

```
cardano-cli text-view decode-cbor --in-file node.cert
```

{% endtab %}
{% endtabs %}

* Top bytes show kes.vkey
* Bottom bytes show node.vkey
* The first int is counter, the second int is KES period
* If the above values do not match your config files, then they are probably not the correct files.  Look for the correct files from your backups or recreate the missing files.

### Check if you are using the correct VRF keys

{% tabs %}
{% tab title="Cold machine" %}

```
cardano-cli node key-hash-VRF --verification-key-file vrf.vkey
```

{% endtab %}
{% endtabs %}

* Check if the output of the above command is the same as the VRF Hash found in cardanoscan.io
* If they do not match, you can look for the correct vrf.vkey or recreate the vrf.vkey from the vrf.skey using this command from your block producer:

{% tabs %}
{% tab title="Block producer" %}

```
cardano-cli key verification-key --signing-key-file vrf.skey \
--verification-key-file vrf.vkey
```

{% endtab %}
{% endtabs %}

* Copy the vrf.vkey to your cold machine

### Check if you are using the correct KES keys

{% tabs %}
{% tab title="Block producer" %}

```
cardano-cli key verification-key --signing-key-file kes.skey \
--verification-key-file /dev/stdout
```

{% endtab %}
{% endtabs %}

* The output of the above command should be the same as the contents of kes.vkey except for description which will be blank
* If you have lost kes.vkey, you can recreate kes.vkey by replacing ”/dev/stdout” with ”kes.vkey”

### Check the on-chain version number of node.counter

{% tabs %}
{% tab title="Block producer" %}

```
cardano-cli query protocol-state --mainnet | \
jq ”.csProtocol[0].\”$(cat stakepoolid.txt)\””
```

{% endtab %}
{% endtabs %}

* The above command will output the current on-chain version number of node.counter
* For the above command to work, make sure stakepoolid.txt contains your Pool ID in hex format (Not BECH32 format which has the word ”pool” in front)<br>

> Big thank you to ROOT Pool for sharing the main commands that inspired this section


---

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