# Run a Sui Full node By [Grey_Mate](https://paragraph.com/@greymate) ยท 2022-10-23 --- Sui Full nodes validate blockchain activities, including transactions, checkpoints, and epoch changes. Each Full node stores and services the queries for the blockchain state and history. This role enables [validators](https://docs.sui.io/learn/architecture/validators) to focus on servicing and processing transactions. When a validator commits a new set of transactions (or a block of transactions), the validator pushes that block to all connected Full nodes that then service the queries from clients. Features -------- Sui Full nodes: * Track and verify the state of the blockchain, independently and locally. * Serve read requests from clients. State synchronization --------------------- Sui Full nodes sync with validators to receive new transactions on the network. A transaction requires a few round trips to 2f+1 validators to form a transaction certificate (TxCert). This synchronization process includes: 1. Following 2f+1 validators and listening for newly committed transactions. 2. Making sure that 2f+1 validators recognize the transaction and that it reaches finality. 3. Executing the transaction locally and updating the local DB. This synchronization process requires listening to at a minimum 2f+1 validators to ensure that a Full node has properly processed all new transactions. Sui will improve the synchronization process with the introduction of checkpoints and the ability to synchronize with other Full nodes. Architecture ------------ A Sui Full node is essentially a read-only view of the network state. Unlike validator nodes, full nodes cannot sign transactions, although they can validate the integrity of the chain by re-executing transactions that were previously committed by a quorum of validators. Today, a Sui Full node maintains the full history of the chain. Validator nodes store only the latest transactions on the _frontier_ of the object graph (for example, transactions with >0 unspent output objects). Full node setup --------------- Follow the instructions here to run your own Sui Full node. ### Hardware requirements Minimum hardware requirements for running a Sui Full node: * CPUs: 2 * RAM: 8GB * Storage: 50GB ### Software requirements We recommend running Sui Full nodes on Linux. Sui supports the Ubuntu and Debian distributions. You can also run a Sui Full node on macOS. Make sure to update [Rust](https://docs.sui.io/build/install#rust). Use the following command to install additional Linux dependencies. $ apt-get update \ && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \ tzdata \ ca-certificates \ build-essential \ pkg-config \ cmake Configure a Full node --------------------- You can configure a Sui Full node either using Docker or by building from source. ### Using Docker Compose Follow the instructions in the [Full node Docker README](https://github.com/MystenLabs/sui/tree/main/docker/fullnode#readme) to run a Sui Full node using Docker, including [resetting the environment](https://github.com/MystenLabs/sui/tree/main/docker/fullnode#reset-the-environment). ### Building from source 1. Install the required [Prerequisites](https://docs.sui.io/build/install#prerequisites). 2. Set up your fork of the Sui repository: 1. Go to the [Sui repository](https://github.com/MystenLabs/sui) on GitHub and click the _Fork_ button in the top right-hand corner of the screen. 2. Clone your personal fork of the Sui repository to your local machine (ensure that you insert your GitHub username into the URL): $ git clone https://github.com//sui.git 3. `cd` into your `sui` repository: 4. Set up the Sui repository as a git remote: $ git remote add upstream https://github.com/MystenLabs/sui 5. Sync your fork: 6. Check out the `devnet` branch: $ git checkout --track upstream/devnet 7. Make a copy of the [Full node YAML template](https://github.com/MystenLabs/sui/blob/main/crates/sui-config/data/fullnode-template.yaml): $ cp crates/sui-config/data/fullnode-template.yaml fullnode.yaml 8. Download the `genesis` state for Devnet: $ curl -fLJO https://github.com/MystenLabs/sui-genesis/raw/main/devnet/genesis.blob 9. Optional: Skip this step to accept the default paths to resources. Edit the `fullnode.yaml` file to use custom paths. * Update the `db-path` field with the path to the Full node database. db-path: "/db-files/sui-fullnode" * Update the `genesis-file-location` with the path to `genesis.blob`. genesis: genesis-file-location: "/sui-fullnode/genesis.blob" 10. Start your Sui Full node: $ cargo run --release --bin sui-node -- --config-path fullnode.yaml 11. Optional: [Publish / subscribe](https://docs.sui.io/build/pubsub) to notifications using JSON-RPC via websocket. Your Full node will now be serving the read endpoints of the [Sui JSON-RPC API](https://docs.sui.io/build/json-rpc#sui-json-rpc-api) at: `http://127.0.0.1:9000` Sui Explorer with your Full node -------------------------------- [Sui Explorer](https://explorer.devnet.sui.io/) supports connections to custom RPC URLS and local networks. You can point the Explorer to your local Full node and see the transactions it syncs from the network. To make this change: 1. Open a browser and go to: [https://explorer.devnet.sui.io/](https://explorer.devnet.sui.io/) 2. Click the **Devnet** button in the top right-hand corner of Sui Explorer and select **Local** from the drop-down menu. 3. Close the **Choose a Network** menu to see the latest transactions. Sui Explorer now uses your local Full node to explore the state of the chain. Monitoring ---------- Monitor your Full node using the instructions at [Logging, Tracing, Metrics, and Observability](https://docs.sui.io/contribute/observability). Note the default metrics port is 9184. To change the port, edit your `fullnode.yaml` file. Update your Full node --------------------- Whenever Sui releases a new version, Devnet restarts as a new network with no data. You must update your Full node with each Sui release to ensure compatibility with the network. ### Update with Docker Compose Follow the instructions to [reset the environment](https://github.com/MystenLabs/sui/tree/main/docker/fullnode#reset-the-environment), namely by running the command: $ docker-compose down --volumes ### Update from source If you followed the instructions for Building from Source, update your Full node as follows: 1. Shut down your currently running Full node. 2. `cd` into your local Sui repository: 3. Remove the old on-disk database and 'genesis.blob' file: $ rm -r suidb genesis.blob 4. Fetch the source from the latest release: 5. Reset your branch: $ git checkout -B devnet --track upstream/devnet 6. Download the latest `genesis` state for Devnet as described above. 7. Update your `fullnode.yaml` configuration file if needed. 8. Restart your Sui Full node: $ cargo run --release --bin sui-node -- --config-path fullnode.yaml Your Full node starts on: `http://127.0.0.1:9000` Future plans ------------ Today, a Full node relies only on synchronizing with 2f+1 validators in order to ensure it has seen all committed transactions. In the future, we expect Full nodes to fully participate in a peer-to-peer (p2p) environment where the load of disseminating new transactions can be shared with the whole network and not place the burden solely on the validators. We also expect future features, such as checkpoints, to enable improved performance of synchronizing the state of the chain from genesis. Please see our [privacy policy](https://sui.io/policy/) to learn how we handle information about our nodes. --- *Originally published on [Grey_Mate](https://paragraph.com/@greymate/run-a-sui-full-node)*