Validator Requirements
Validators participate in consensus and require higher performance hardware:Hardware
CPU Requirements
- Architecture: x86_64 (AMD64) or ARM64
- Features: AVX2 instruction set recommended for cryptographic operations
- Cores: 24 physical cores minimum (48 virtual cores with hyperthreading)
- Performance: High single-thread performance for consensus operations
Memory Requirements
- Minimum: 128 GB RAM
- Recommended: 256 GB RAM for production validators
- Swap: Not recommended; validators should not swap to disk
Storage Requirements
- Type: NVMe SSD required (SATA SSDs are too slow)
- Capacity: 4 TB minimum, 8 TB+ recommended
- IOPS: 10,000+ random read/write IOPS
- Throughput: 500+ MB/s sequential read/write
- Latency: Less than 1ms average latency
Storage Growth
The blockchain database grows continuously:- Rate: Approximately 50-100 GB per month (network dependent)
- Pruning: Configure
authority-store-pruning-configto manage growth - Planning: Provision at least 12 months of growth capacity
Network Requirements
- Bandwidth: 1 Gbps minimum, 10 Gbps recommended
- Latency: Less than 100ms to other validators (lower is better)
- Reliability: Stable connection with less than 1% packet loss
- IPv4: Required (IPv6 optional)
Required Ports
Fullnode Requirements
Fullnodes store blockchain state and serve RPC requests but do not participate in consensus:Hardware
CPU Requirements
- Architecture: x86_64 (AMD64) or ARM64
- Cores: 8 cores minimum, 16+ cores recommended
- Features: AVX2 support recommended
Memory Requirements
- Minimum: 32 GB RAM
- Recommended: 64 GB RAM for production fullnodes serving RPC traffic
- Swap: Limited swap acceptable (not recommended for performance)
Storage Requirements
- Type: SSD required (NVMe recommended for high-traffic nodes)
- Capacity: 2 TB minimum, 4 TB+ recommended
- IOPS: 5,000+ random read/write IOPS
- Throughput: 200+ MB/s sequential read/write
Network Requirements
- Bandwidth: 500 Mbps minimum, 1 Gbps recommended
- Latency: less than 200ms to validators (lower is better)
- IPv4: Required
Required Ports
Operating System
Supported Operating Systems
- Linux: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, Debian 11+ (recommended)
- macOS: macOS 12+ (development only, not recommended for production)
- Windows: Not officially supported
Linux Distribution Recommendations
- Ubuntu 22.04 LTS: Recommended for most users
- Debian 11+: Good alternative with long-term support
- RHEL 8+/Rocky Linux: Suitable for enterprise environments
Required Software
- Kernel: Linux kernel 5.4+
- libc: glibc 2.31+ or musl libc
- systemd: For service management (recommended)
- Docker: 20.10+ (if using containerized deployment)
Environment Variables
Key environment variables for node operation:Performance Tuning
File Descriptors
Increase the file descriptor limit:TCP/IP Stack
Optimize network settings for high-throughput connections:Disk I/O Scheduler
Use thenone or kyber scheduler for NVMe drives:
Monitoring Requirements
Ensure adequate resources for monitoring infrastructure:- Prometheus: 20 GB disk, 4 GB RAM
- Grafana: 10 GB disk, 2 GB RAM
- Log aggregation: Size based on retention requirements
Backup and Recovery
Plan for backup infrastructure:- Snapshot storage: 2x node database size
- Backup bandwidth: Sufficient for daily snapshots
- Recovery time objective (RTO): less than 4 hours recommended
Cloud Provider Recommendations
AWS Instance Types
Validators:r6i.8xlarge(32 vCPUs, 256 GB RAM)r6i.12xlarge(48 vCPUs, 384 GB RAM)- Storage:
io2volumes with provisioned IOPS
m6i.4xlarge(16 vCPUs, 64 GB RAM)- Storage:
gp3volumes with 3,000+ IOPS
Google Cloud Instance Types
Validators:n2-highmem-32(32 vCPUs, 256 GB RAM)n2-highmem-48(48 vCPUs, 384 GB RAM)- Storage: SSD persistent disks
n2-highmem-16(16 vCPUs, 128 GB RAM)- Storage: Balanced persistent disks
Azure Instance Types
Validators:Standard_E32s_v5(32 vCPUs, 256 GB RAM)- Storage: Premium SSD with P50 or higher
Standard_E16s_v5(16 vCPUs, 128 GB RAM)- Storage: Premium SSD
Cost Estimation
Monthly operating costs (approximate): Validator:- Cloud compute: $2,000-4,000/month
- Storage: $500-1,000/month
- Network: $100-500/month
- Total: $2,600-5,500/month
- Cloud compute: $500-1,000/month
- Storage: $200-400/month
- Network: $50-200/month
- Total: $750-1,600/month
Bare metal hosting typically reduces costs by 40-60% compared to cloud providers.