# Bootsrapping from an existing IPFS Cluster

### Cluster

#### IPFS-Cluster | [Documentation](https://cluster.ipfs.io/documentation/)

#### Bootsrapping from an existing IPFS Cluster | [Documentation](https://cluster.ipfs.io/documentation/quickstart/#quickstart-starting-enlarging-and-shrinking-a-cluster)

IPFS is designed so that a node only stores files locally that are specifically requested. The following is one way of populating a new IPFS node with all existing files from a pre-existing node.

To do so, first create a secret from `node0`, the original node, then share that secret with `node1`, the node you want to bootstrap from `node0`. Then `node1` runs the bootstrap command specifying the cluster’s address and setting the `CLUSTER_SECRET` as an env variable.

**node0**

* `export CLUSTER_SECRET=$(od -vN 32 -An -tx1 /dev/urandom | tr -d ' \n')`
* `echo $CLUSTER_SECRET`
* `ipfs-cluster-service init`
* `ipfs-cluster-service daemon`

**node1 (bootstrapping from node0)**

* `export CLUSTER_SECRET=<copy from node0>`
* `ipfs-cluster-service init`
* `ipfs-cluster-service daemon --bootstrap /ip4/192.168.1.2/tcp/9096/ipfs/QmZjSoXUQgJ9tutP1rXjjNYwTrRM9QPhmD9GHVjbtgWxEn` // replace with what you see from running node0’s daemon
* `ipfs-cluster-ctl peers ls` check your peers to see you’ve added node0 correctly

**node0**

* if you want to remove a peer after the bootstrapping is complete, the following command will do that and shut down the IPFS cluster
* `ipfs-cluster-ctl peers rm QmYFYwnFUkjFhJcSJJGN72wwedZnpQQ4aNpAtPZt8g5fCd`