How to start a mining farm: a beginner's guide

You can get a mining farm running in five steps: prepare wallets and pools, ensure stable power, cooling and internet with a backup connection, set up the miners with a main pool and two backup pools, turn on central monitoring, and only then gradually secure the network. This guide summarises the procedure that has worked for us on farms ranging from a handful to dozens of machines – including firewall setup, miner naming and a maintenance plan.

Summary

• Start with 5–10 machines and test the whole operation before expanding the farm.
• Back up your internet with a second line (e.g. Starlink + mobile data) with automatic failover on the router.
• First get the farm running, then analyse the traffic, and only then introduce firewall restrictions.
• Name each miner by its position in the rack – this makes finding faults easier.
• Service a miner with a faulty chip immediately: the increased voltage on the other chips quickly destroys the whole hashboard.

Step 1: Prepare wallets and pools

Before configuring the miners, have the following ready:

• Cryptocurrency wallets for all the coins you will mine.
• Pool accounts – a main pool and 2–3 backups in case of an outage. The differences in payout methods are explained in our article PPS, PPLNS and FPPS.
• A list of details – wallet addresses, worker names and pool addresses including ports.

At the same time, plan the space: sufficient cooling and ventilation, stable power and placement of the machines with regard to the network layout. How to deal with heat removal is described in our article Mining farm cooling.

Step 2: Sort out internet and networking

Internet connection

Mining doesn't need high speed, but stability and low latency. A combination of Starlink and mobile internet works very well:

• Set up automatic switching to the backup line (failover) on the router – this is key.
• Test switching between lines in advance.
• Monitor latency – outages and high response times mean lost hashrate.

Network security

Important: first get the farm running, and only then gradually introduce security. The procedure:

1. Commissioning – start the miners with a minimal configuration.
2. Monitoring – analyse the data flows on a configurable router (MikroTik, Cisco, Teltonika).
3. Gradual restriction – introduce rules based on the observed traffic.

Follow the principle of least privilege: allow only the communication the miners really need, block everything else and allow administrator access only via VPN.

Step 3: Set up the miners

Find the IP addresses

• Specialised tools: BTC Tools, Foreman, IPReporter (Bitmain).
• General network scanners: Advanced IP Scanner, Angry IP Scanner.
• Command line: nmap -sn 192.168.1.0/24.
• Or the device list in your router's admin panel.

Log in to the miner

Default login credentials vary by manufacturer – for example, Antminers use root / root, other brands often admin / admin. Some models have the password printed on the label. Change the password after your first login.

Enter the pools

1. Main pool – address (e.g. stratum+tcp://pool.example.com:4444), port according to the pool's documentation, username (wallet address or account with worker name) and password (usually x).
2. Backup pools – at least two, ideally from different operators.
3. Naming – name each miner by its position, e.g. rack1-shelf2-position3 or with coordinates A1, B2. When there is a fault, you know straight away which machine to go to.

Step 4: Turn on monitoring and management

Foreman (recommended)

Foreman lets you monitor all miners centrally, sends alerts when problems arise, and handles bulk configuration and reports. You need a dedicated computer or server, stable internet and basic Linux administration skills.

Alternatives

• Awesome Miner – a Windows application with advanced features.
• Hive OS – a specialised mining system.
• minerstat – a cloud solution.
• Simple Mining OS – another specialised system.

Step 5: Set up operation and maintenance

Maintenance plan

Common problems

Security principles

• Only update firmware when solving a problem – leave a stable version alone.
• Change the default passwords.
• Monitor network traffic and back up configurations.
• Have a disaster recovery plan ready.
• Keep spare parts in reserve – especially fans and power supplies.

How to optimise performance and profitability

• Economy modes – use the eco modes the manufacturer has built into the firmware.
• Advanced tweaks – undervolting, overclocking and custom fan curves require modified firmware or specialised tools outside the manufacturer's standard firmware.
• Stability before performance – a lower but steady hashrate is better than frequent outages.
• Profitability – track current difficulty and machine income in our ASIC miner profitability table.
• Faulty chips – service a miner with faulty chips immediately. A faulty chip increases the voltage on the others and very quickly damages the whole hashboard.

What next

• Turnkey farm – if you don't want to build the farm yourself, we will design and prepare it for you.
• ASIC miner hosting – you can place your miners in a data centre where others take care of power, cooling and networking.
• How to look after an ASIC – a more detailed guide to maintaining individual machines.