To mitigate any potential risks or mishandling, I prefer to not mix up the wallet between testnet and mainnet. But I was able to install a Bitcoin Core and run it as testnet on another computer. Although I had to prune the data. I'm assuming, pruning the data to two months out shouldn't affect the ability to mine a block. I did find a guide that shows you how to set up a pool and mine with an S9 or S17. But I will definitely keep it in mind in the event that things don't pan out and maybe it's simpler for me to just use the builtin GPU on a computer to try to solo testnet blocks. Thanks for your help.
Also, any idea on how to configure the rpc server? The UI has an option to check it in the setting. But do I need to configure it maybe via CLI? Probably would need to open a port?
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Why not back up all your mainnet data to the external drive?
Setting up a testnet is not hard you can just edit the bitcoin.conf file and add testnet=1 and then reboot or in Windows edit the shortcut properties under target you can add -testnet after that run the Bitcoin core and let it sync.
Mining on testnet is usually done using CPU or GPU so you can't mine on testnet with s9.
However, if you can set up a pool I think you can able to mine on testnet with an S9 miner.
I couldn't find any comprehensive guide but check the open-source pool below
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https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/ckpool-open-source-poolproxypassthroughredirectorlibrary-in-c-for-linux-790323Or check the Yiimp open source pool you can follow this video guide below.
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https://youtu.be/MKb9YKIAltE?si=BwT-bmMOOdmLQ3lu[/quote]