# Lava Full Node

By [GLCstaked](https://paragraph.com/@glcstaked) · 2023-07-06

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**Deploy a full node for Lava chain, this is a non-validating node.** _NOTE: this is for current lava-testnet-2_

_Document Last Update: 14/09/23_

**Lava Protocol**: a crypto-market which powers a decentralized RPC layer for Web3.

[

Lava Network
------------

2.5m+ users, 30+ chains supported, 70b+ RPC calls - you are using Lava without knowing. Lava is the infrastructure that powers access to all blockchains, enabling essential onchain actions such as minting, swapping and transacting.

https://www.lavanet.xyz

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/45b0bf144f30a9a0154de3a3057bdbd50576e6379eea1ff8dc302c14ce19e73a.webp)

](https://lavanet.xyz/)

**Lava Chain:** is a cosmos PoS layer 1 with $LAVA for settlement, validator nodes secure the chain.

**Providers:** Provider nodes, are nodes running atop Lavanet connecting to Lava chain for rewards (do not participate in consensus), these nodes provide RPC endpoints of other chains to any consumer.

**Consumers:** consumers of chain data, paying for access to RPC endpoints to providers

* * *

**Hardware requirements:**

For Full (current Testnet): 8GB RAM /100GB SSD Storage/ CPU 4v x64 2.0 GHz. _These are minimum specs, and I would recommend more._

1.    Initial Setup
===================

**Update and install dependencies**

    sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
    
    sudo apt install git curl wget tar unzip jq build-essential pkg-config clang bsdmainutils make ncdu -y
    

**Install Go**

Use version 1.20.5 for current binary

    wget -q -O - https://git.io/vQhTU | bash -s -- --version 1.20.5
    

Run `source $HOME/.bashrc` to take effect

Confirm install is successful

    go version
    

_This script is made by osmosis-labs and installs_ `PATH` _variables to_ `.bashrc` _and sets up in a way compatible with the rest of the build. Go binary installs to_ `$HOME/.go` and `$HOME/go/bin`

    #to remove installation 
    wget -q -O - https://git.io/vQhTU | bash -s -- --remove
    

2\. Download Lava Binary
------------------------

Note: downloading the latest binary requires snapshot

Check for latest version [here](https://github.com/lavanet/lava/releases): replace version accordingly, always use the version tagged latest

**Select binary type.**

Lava is split into two binaries which handle different functions, `lava-visor` handles consensus for lava, while `lava-protocol` is the process for provider node.

For lava full node `lavad`  
For provider node `lava-provider`

    export LAVA_BINARY=lavad
    

    cd $HOME
    git clone https://github.com/lavanet/lava.git
    cd lava
    git checkout v0.22.0
    make install
    

Confirm installed

    which lavad
    lavad --help
    

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/29171c47cfec3677889ef8717f667bc4a6bba56ff1e12840863096c1ce4ad889.png)

When running the binary 1st time it creates the working folder `.lava` with the following files, `app.toml, client.toml, config.toml`

3\. Lava CLI
------------

**client.toml:** Configuration file for using the lava CLI

If **not setting up as a full node** and syncing the data, you can add a public RPC. This adds to the `client.toml`

Skip this step if using your own (following the rest of this guide), the default is `tcp://localhost:26657`

    lavad config node https://public-rpc.lavanet.xyz:443/rpc/
    

**Set Keyring backend and chain-id**

    lavad config chain-id lava-testnet-2
    lavad config keyring-backend test
    

**Set Variables:**

    LAVA_WALLET="NAME OF WALLET"
    LAVA_MONIKER="NAME OF CHOICE FOR NODE"
    

**Adding Wallet:**

    # create new
    lavad keys add $LAVA_WALLET --keyring-backend test
    # to restore from seed
    lavad keys add $LAVA_WALLET --keyring-backend test --recover
    

4\. Configure Lava Node
-----------------------

Configuration of `lavad` to run as a full node with Snapshot

**Initialize node**

    lavad init $LAVA_MONIKER --chain-id lava-testnet-2
    

**Get Genesis**

    wget -O $HOME/.lava/config/genesis.json "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lavanet/lava-config/main/testnet-2/genesis_json/genesis.json"
    

**Set Min Gas Price**

This needs to be configured to avoid an error

    sed -i -e 's|^minimum-gas-prices = ".*"|minimum-gas-prices = "0ulava"|' $HOME/.lava/config/app.toml
    

**Set Seeds**

    SEEDS="3a445bfdbe2d0c8ee82461633aa3af31bc2b4dc0@testnet2-seed-node.lavanet.xyz:26656,e593c7a9ca61f5616119d6beb5bd8ef5dd28d62d@testnet2-seed-node2.lavanet.xyz:26656,258f523c96efde50d5fe0a9faeea8a3e83be22ca@seed.lava-testnet-2.lava.aviaone.com:20271,3a445bfdbe2d0c8ee82461633aa3af31bc2b4dc0@testnet2-seed-node.lavanet.xyz:26656,e593c7a9ca61f5616119d6beb5bd8ef5dd28d62d@testnet2-seed-node2.lavanet.xyz:26656"
    PEERS=""
    sed -i 's|^seeds *=.*|seeds = "'$SEEDS'"|; s|^persistent_peers *=.*|persistent_peers = "'$PEERS'"|' $HOME/.lava/config/config.toml
    

**Download Address-book**

This can aid in finding peers quicker, many validators host this, example is with [AviaOne](https://aviaone.com/blockchains-service/lava-testnet-1-lava.html)

    wget -O $HOME/.lava/config/addrbook.json "https://services.lava-testnet-2.lava.aviaone.com/addrbook.json"
    

5\. Download Chain data (Snapshot)
----------------------------------

This install method is using snapshot data, this means downloading the blockchain history directly from a trusted source, many community members host this data example: [Kjnodes](https://services.kjnodes.com/testnet/lava/snapshot/), [AviaOne](https://aviaone.com/blockchains-service/lava-testnet-1-lava.html), [Skynodes](https://www.skynodejs.net/testnet/lava), [bccnodes](https://bccnodes.com/t/lava/)

If you have previously started the node and started to sync the chain, you will need to clear the data to use snapshot

    lavad tendermint unsafe-reset-all $HOME/.lava --keep-addr-book
    

**Get Snapshot URL**, from one of the providers above

    SNAPSHOT_URL="COPY URL TO RECENT SNAPSHOT HERE"
    

Depending on Provider, you may have `gz` or `lz4` extension files

**Option 1: Download Snapshot gz extension**

    cp $HOME/.lava/data/priv_validator_state.json $HOME/.lava/priv_validator_state.json.backup
    rm -rf $HOME/.lava/data $HOME/.lava/wasm
    wget -c $SNAPSHOT_URL $ -O - | tar -xz -C $HOME/.lava
    mv $HOME/.lava/priv_validator_state.json.backup $HOME/.lava/data/priv_validator_state.json
    

**Option 2: Download Snapshot lz4 extension**

    # get packages required to unpack data
    sudo apt install snapd -y
    sudo snap install lz4 
    
    # Download Snapshot
    cp $HOME/.lava/data/priv_validator_state.json $HOME/.lava/priv_validator_state.json.backup
    rm -rf $HOME/.lava/data $HOME/.lava/wasm
    curl -L $SNAPSHOT_URL | tar -Ilz4 -xf - -C $HOME/.lava
    mv $HOME/.lava/priv_validator_state.json.backup $HOME/.lava/data/priv_validator_state.json
    

**Adjust Pruning settings for Snapshot**

WARNING: Check with snapshot provider to confirm and adjust the `app.toml` accordingly for `pruning` settings, as these values may be different depending on provider.

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/8a5c783e96fb6f3a977ffa74aa518dcac015d4bf5bd49ccf92f73810b0fb023e.png)

change to `pruning = “custom”`

Adjust the `config.toml` accordingly for `indexer` settings

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/ddd7c3ed615cfd473071a21e96e25d33255aa9dfce713248f947fb73256c92f4.png)

7\. Set up SystemD for Lava Node
--------------------------------

### Option 1: without Cosmovisor

Set up a system service to run the lava node

    sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/lavad.service > /dev/null <<EOF
    [Unit] 
    Description=LAVA\n 
    After=network.target 
    [Service] 
    Type=simple
    User=$USER
    ExecStart=$(which lavad) start 
    Restart=on-failure
    RestartSec=10
    LimitNOFILE=65535
    [Install]
    WantedBy=multi-user.target
    EOF
    

**Enable and Start service**

    sudo systemctl daemon-reload
    sudo systemctl enable lavad
    sudo systemctl start lavad
    

**Check status and logs**

    sudo systemctl status lavad
    

    journalctl -u lavad -f
    

![Synced & working node will look similar](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/37d1ee9469783875797d0acbdaab5311c6b4eba77bd13c454a7c0a5ad4a21fc6.png)

Synced & working node will look similar

Stop service

    sudo systemctl stop lavad
    

Make changes to service file

    sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/lavad.service
    

**Check Node Sync status**

    # Query via the RPC (default port: 26657)
    curl http://localhost:26657/status | jq .result.sync_info.catching_up
    

### Option 2: with Cosmovisor

[Cosmovisor](https://docs.cosmos.network/main/tooling/cosmovisor): is a process management tool to handle cosmos-based chain upgrades seamlessly, it looks for chain upgrades and downloads & installs at the correct block height.

**Create directories for Cosmovisor**

    cd
    mkdir -p ~/.lava/cosmovisor/genesis/bin
    mkdir -p ~/.lava/cosmovisor/upgrades
    

create directory for corresponding binary version (change v0.22.0 accordingly)

    mkdir -p ~/.lava/cosmovisor/upgrades/v0.22.0/bin
    

**Install Cosmovisor binary**

    go install cosmossdk.io/tools/cosmovisor/cmd/cosmovisor@latest
    

this should install Cosmovisor binary to `$GOPATH/bin/cosmovisor`

**Copy binaries to Cosmovisor**

_Note on versions: if using snapshot (this guide) you are downloading the latest binary, with chain data manually downloaded and placed in the correct location, Cosmovisor will look from the block height the node is currently on and the corresponding binary in the upgrades folder.  The binary_ also _needs to be placed in_ `~/.lava/cosmovisor/genesis/bin` for first start up or an error will occur.

    cp $GOPATH/bin/lavad ~/.lava/cosmovisor/genesis/bin
    cp $GOPATH/bin/lavad ~/.lava/cosmovisor/upgrades/v0.22.0/bin/
    

**Create system service:**

Set up a system service to run the lava node through Cosmovisor

    sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/cosmovisor.service > /dev/null <<EOF
    [Unit]
    Description=lava Daemon (cosmovisor)
    After=network-online.target
    
    [Service]
    User=$USER
    ExecStart=$HOME/go/bin/cosmovisor run start
    Restart=always
    RestartSec=10
    LimitNOFILE=65535
    Environment="DAEMON_NAME=lavad"
    Environment="DAEMON_HOME=$HOME/.lava"
    Environment="DAEMON_ALLOW_DOWNLOAD_BINARIES=true"
    Environment="DAEMON_RESTART_AFTER_UPGRADE=true"
    Environment="DAEMON_LOG_BUFFER_SIZE=512"
    
    [Install]
    WantedBy=multi-user.target
    EOF
    

**Enable and Start service**

    sudo systemctl daemon-reload
    sudo systemctl enable cosmovisor
    sudo systemctl start cosmovisor
    

Additional Settings to Open Node for API calls
----------------------------------------------

**Edit RPC/gRPC server configurations**

Edit Configurations to ensure APIs are open and reachable on all servers, to expose externally change to `0.0.0.0` which will listen for requests from any IP.

If configuring with a sub-domain process (setup locally) then `localhost` should be used, as these API ports would only need to be exposed to the host.

Ports can be changed, if need be but will need to be changed in any other services that connect.

**Open RPC**: in `config.toml`

    # TCP or UNIX socket address for the RPC server to listen on
    laddr = "tcp://0.0.0.0:26657"
    
    # TCP or UNIX socket address for the gRPC server to listen on
    # NOTE: This server only supports /broadcast_tx_commit
    grpc_laddr = ""
    

**Open REST API**: in `app.toml`

    [api]
    
    # Enable defines if the API server should be enabled.
    enable = true
    
    # Swagger defines if swagger documentation should automatically be registered.
    swagger = false
    
    # Address defines the API server to listen on.
    address = "tcp://0.0.0.0:1317"
    

**Open gRPC**: in `app.toml`

    [grpc]
    
    # Enable defines if the gRPC server should be enabled.
    enable = true
    
    # Address defines the gRPC server address to bind to.
    address = "tcp://0.0.0.0:9090"
    

**Open Ports in Firewall settings**

    sudo ufw allow 26657 # RPC
    sudo ufw allow 26656 # P2P Port
    sudo ufw allow 1317 # REST
    sudo ufw allow 9090 # gRPC
    
    # Ensure do not get locked ot if on VPS
    sudo ufw allow shh
    sudo ufw enable
    

_Port forward these ports from router if running local_

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*Originally published on [GLCstaked](https://paragraph.com/@glcstaked/lava-full-node)*